The Almost Empty Tomb - John 20

the image of Jesus. It's in his name we

pray. Amen.

So last year I was preaching through a

sermon and I got to John chapter 20

John 20:7

verse 7 and I started reading verse 7

and I had this really weird thing

happened. I'm talking about one thing

but when I read through uh verse 7 I was

like very confused by another thing I

just read that kind of stuck out to me

which was the fact that Jesus after he

came back from the dead took the time to

fold his burial clothes. And so in my

head I'm like why did he do that? But

I'm trying to preach at the same time.

So, I'm like, "All right, Holy Spirit,

let's put this one on pause for a minute

so I can finish this sermon. Then I'll

come back and I'll deal with this

question that you just stuck into my

mind." So, uh, later is now. Today,

we're going to ask the question, "Why

did Jesus fold his burial clothes before

he left the tomb?" And maybe it's

because you thought Tammy Griffin was

going to come behind him and uh, make

sure he tidied up before he left. I

don't know. Um, wow. Got make fun of her

twice in the same day. This is great.

Uh, yeah. Yeah, this will be my last

week here at Sers Creek. Anyway, all

right, we're going to get there. But

first, I just want to start off by

saying like today is Sunday and today is

the first day of the week. And y'all

look at me funny right now, but I

guarantee there's somebody in this room

that had no idea that Sunday was

actually the first day of the week. So,

you're welcome for that. Um, but

secondly, I want to talk about why we

celebrate and come to worship together

as the church on the first day of the

week. And that's because that is the day

that Jesus rose from the dead. So for

over 2,000 years, the church has

gathered on the first day of the week to

celebrate this simple truth that we are

no longer headed toward destruction

because Jesus came back from the grave.

And so today, we're going to look at the

very first resurrection Sunday. I know,

surprise, Easter. We get to hear a

resurrection sermon. Um, but that's what

we're going to talk about today. Okay.

And I'm going to try to put a little uh

a little new spin on it for some of you

that have been in church for like 80

years and this is like the 80 80th time

you've heard this passage of scripture

read. So um hopefully you'll glean

something new from God's word today. So

let's get started. John chapter 20 verse

John 20 · chapter mention

one. On the first day of the week, Mary

Magdalene came to the tomb early while

it was still dark. She saw the stone had

been removed from the tomb. So she went

running to Simon Peter and to the other

disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. By

the way, that can be your title as well.

You are the one that Jesus loved. And

she said to them, "They've taken the

Lord out of the tomb and we don't know

where they put him." Uh she says, "We"

because Mary Magdalene never went

anywhere by herself. She was a leader.

She had a crew with her everywhere she

went. She was Mary the Magdalene from

Magdala. So, she'd reached a status

where she was just Mary the Magdalene.

Like, she's the the the pillar of what

people from that community look like.

That would be like saying David the

Cambonian. Um, you know, so I'm not

going to tell you which David I'm

talking about. You got about 15 in here

that you can choose from, but um, but

there is a David the Cambonian in my

mind. And so that's kind of who Mary is.

She's just this influential person. Uh,

but she was at one point in her life

possessed by seven demons and then she

met Jesus and he threw out those demons.

He cast them out of her and she vowed to

follow him forever and she does. She was

actually an investor in Jesus ministry

with her riches. She bankrolled a lot of

uh what Jesus was able to accomplish in

his ministry. Mary was the last person

at the cross with Jesus body and she was

the first person to go to the tomb. You

ever wonder why some people are just

kind of like they they seem like they're

a little bit closer to God than than you

are? Well, well, that's probably because

they um just stay with him longer. They

they just spend more time in the

presence of God through worship and

study and and prayer and service. He's

not far from any of us. It's just a

matter of if we're going to seek him and

find him. Well, that's what Mary did.

Mary the Magdalene, the legendary

disciple. She chose to stick with Jesus

no matter what. And it paid off so

handsomely for her. Now, we get to verse

three. So, she tells Peter what had

happened. And at that Peter, the kind of

de facto leader of the disciples, and

the other disciple went out, heading for

the tomb. The two were running together,

but the other disciple outran Peter and

got to the tomb first. Of course, I have

to point this out. Um, John won the

Easter 5K. So, congratulations to John.

We are so impressed with you, sir. Um,

he put this in his gospel, okay? So, um,

it's there for a reason. Um, and he just

wanted to make sure you knew he was

faster than Peter and he won the race.

All right. So stooping down in verse 5,

he saw the linen clothes lying there and

he did not go in. Then following him,

Simon Peter also came. He entered the

tomb and he saw the linen cloths lying

there. The wrapping, this is the one

that kind of broke my brain. The

wrapping that had been on Jesus' head

was not lying with the linen cloths, but

was folded up in a separate place all by

itself. Then the other disciple who had

reached the tomb first. So John doubles

down on that. Got to make sure if they

missed it the first time, they see it

the second time. John, you are a fast

guy. Okay. The the other disciple who

reached the tomb first, then also went

in saw and believed for they did not yet

understand the scripture that he must

rise from the dead. Do you understand

that you can know scripture but not

actually know scripture? Like like Peter

and John had spent their whole lives in

the scripture. They had memorized the

scripture. They had they had studied and

been raised in the law. They they knew

the scripture but on this day everything

changed. They didn't just know the

scripture they got to know the one whom

the scripture was about. They got to

meet the the risen savior Jesus. So you

can know scripture but you can not know

scripture. You you can know about Jesus

but you can actually not know Jesus.

See, Jesus says in John 10:9, "I am the

John 10:9

door, and if anyone enters by me, he or

she will be saved." And so, we have this

this door, right? You could study the

door, you can measure the door, you can

do you can write books about the door,

but if you never walk through the door,

then you are still on the outside. And

that's the danger that Jesus is talking

about. You can know about God and still

not know God. You can have information

but not transformation. It it it's

literally the difference between life

and death. Some people and maybe even

some people in this room are going to

miss an eternity with God by 18 in. And

that's the distance from your head to

your heart. Jesus warned us about this.

He said there's going to be people that

will stand before him and say, "Didn't

we know you? Didn't we testify in your

name? Didn't we do things for you?" And

he's going to say, "Depart from me

because I never knew you." He didn't

say, "It's because you didn't know about

me." He said, "It's because you never

walked with me. You never actually knew

me. You never had a relationship with

me. You never trusted me. You never came

through the door." I love how Matt

Redmond puts this. Says, "Worship

doesn't start with singing. It starts

with seeing." So when you walk through

the door and you place your faith in

Jesus, you begin to see him in a new

light. you begin to see him as holy and

glorious. And that worship that starts

in your mind then spreads to your heart.

So back in verse 9 says they didn't

understand the scripture yet that he

must rise from the dead. And then the

disciples returned to the place where

they were staying. So critics for

thousands of years have tried to deny

the the resurrection. They've come up

with all kinds of theories and actually

Christians have welcomed those theories

because we're like, "Okay, then tell us

what happened then." Now, if Jesus

didn't really come back from the dead,

then you explain to us why the entire

world changed that day in Jerusalem. Um,

Billy Graham said, "If he were an enemy

of Christianity, he said, I would aim

right at the resurrection because that

is the heart of it." If there's no

resurrection, then your faith is in

vain. Your future is nothing. there is

no hope and there's no reunion with

loved ones that have gone on before you.

So there's a lot riding on this and so

the world has come up with lots of

different theories. Uh I'll give you

four of them today. The first one is the

hallucination theory. This is when

people say that the disciples and

everybody else that saw the risen Jesus

just imagined it. They hallucinated it.

But the thing is with hallucinations,

it's never in a mass group. It's always

like one or two people. It's never

hundreds of people because today we're

we're not talking about one follower

that imagined seeing Jesus. We're

talking about hundreds and hundreds of

people who saw the resurrected Jesus and

they claimed to had seen it. And they

didn't get anything out of this claim.

No power, no wealth, no comfort.

Actually, all they got for making a

claim that they saw the resurrected

Jesus was persecution, suffering, and

death. had no motivation whatsoever to

uh say that they saw the resurrected

Jesus. See, people may die for something

they think is true, but they're not

going to die for something that they

know is false. Uh you got the wrong tomb

theory. People say, "Well, they just

went to the wrong tomb. That's why it

was empty. They went to Jesus tomb

instead of Jesus tomb. You know, they

just got confused on the way there and

uh wound up in the wrong place." But if

that's the case, then why didn't the

Romans just produce the body? I mean,

this tomb was known. It was guarded. It

was sealed. They knew where Jesus body

was. And if you want to stop an

uprising, all you have to do is take the

body out of the tomb, present it to the

people, and then Christianity is stamped

out before it ever began. This is one of

my favorites, the the swoon theory.

This is the idea that Jesus didn't

actually die. He just passed out on the

cross. But let's think about that. He

was scourged. He was beaten so bad that

he didn't even look like a human. Then

he was nailed to a cross, crucified, and

then a spear was run up through him and

to his heart so that water and blood

came from his heart. And the centurion,

whose life depended on making sure the

people on the cross were dead, was so

sure that Jesus was dead, he didn't even

take the time to break his legs like

they would um for other people to make

sure that they were actually dead. Then

his body was wrapped in a 100 pounds of

linen, burial cloths, and and put into a

tomb. to the tight, restrictive,

suffocating kind of clothing. And then

he's placed in this tomb with no food,

no water, no medical care for three

days. And somehow this nearly dead man

was able to revive himself, slip out of

those clothes without like messing them

up at all, and then gets to to the the

doorway, rolls away this huge stone, and

then somehow passes through 16 Roman

centurions.

Then he appears to his disciples and

he's not someone who's barely clinging

to life. He's actually someone who is so

victorious that it emboldens them to go

out and share the good news of Jesus

resurrection even at the cost of their

own life. That one just doesn't make

sense either. But here's the one that

goes with our sermon today. The the

stolen body theory. See, some people

claim that the disciples came and stole

the body. And I would say why? What's

what's their motive? They didn't gain

any power or wealth or standing. In

fact, nearly all of them were martyed.

So, so 10 of them were were killed

because of their stance that Jesus came

back from the dead. And then you have

John who was boiled alive and then put

on an island by himself um to to die.

So, all of them lost their lives based

on this this belief, this thing that

they they uh said that they had seen.

So, if you think about it this way also,

why in the world if you stole a body,

would you take the time to tidy up the

crime scene? like like why do you fold

the burial shroud of Jesus on your way

out of the tomb? And that's the thing

that's been bothering me for so long.

Like why did this happen? See, this is

going to be my mom's favorite sermon

because the very first act on the very

first Easter was folding of clothes. So,

so mom, you were right. I should have

been more like Jesus and folded my

clothes. All right. So, verse six of

chapter 20 again. Then following him,

Simon Peter also came. And he entered

the tomb, and he saw the linen clothes

lying there. The wrapping that had been

on his head was not lying with the linen

cloths, but was folded up in a separate

place by itself. [snorts]

This was the burial shroud of Jesus.

This was the the handkerchief that was

placed over the the faith of the face of

Jesus. And this thing was folded and

placed by itself. And I just kept asking

myself like, why? Anybody ever been to

Old Navy on Black Friday?

Nine o'clock service hadn't either.

Okay, y'all don't do any shopping, I

guess. Whatever. It is the most chaotic

scene you will ever see in your life. If

you just want some good oldfashioned

entertainment, go to Old Navy on a Black

Friday. It's insane. You have grown

people that run over to the t-shirts

that are on sale and they pick up a

Snoopy tea and they're like, "Wow." They

unfold it, they look at it, they like

it, but then they see the Hello Kitty

tea and they're like, "I don't want this

one anymore." So instead of putting

Snoopy back on the pile, they just throw

it over their head into the middle of

the store. It's unbelievable. So then

these 18-year-olds have to run around

the store, they find the t-shirts, they

fold them back up, they put them on the

table, and then 10 seconds later, some

other adult comes in and does the exact

same thing. It is chaos. So I was

talking to my friend about it who used

to work at their sister store called The

Gap. And um he was telling me that that

at the gap like corporate would send

these these pictures of uh how the how

the displays should be and you didn't

get to have any variation like you had

to build the display exactly like they

wanted you to build the display. And it

didn't matter if it was a random Tuesday

or if it was Black Friday. Even in the

midst of chaos, get this, there had to

be order. And friends, I think that's

what we're learning here from from

Jesus. Even in the middle of chaos, he

is creating order. Ent wright said,

"Jesus isn't rushing. He isn't fleeing.

Jesus is simply finished with death and

he's calmly moving forward. This is not

a chaotic escape. This is an orderly

departure. Jesus is tidying up because

this has been the plan since the

beginning of time. Since before the

beginning of time, Jesus knew that this

day was coming. He's been prepped for

this day. So, he's not caught off guard

when he is coming back from the dead.

He's not in a rush. So, when Peter and

John entered the tomb, they did not find

chaos. They didn't find a rush to

escape. What did they find? They found

order. Isn't it great to know that there

can be order and chaos when we give our

lives to Jesus?

I'm glad Jonah liked that. Thanks,

Jonah. You're the best, buddy. I'll

double your pay this week. All right.

So, the burial linens are just kind of

lying there, you know, they're they're

they're lying there. And then the cloth

that was covering Jesus's head is nicely

folded up. And I just can picture Jesus

with his nail scarred hands taking the

time to fold this burial shroud so

delicately. It wasn't thrown aside. It

wasn't crumpled. It was folded and

placed there. So when his disciples came

into that tomb, they would not see

chaos. They would see order. and that

would begin to encourage their hearts.

And this small, seemingly insignificant

detail actually really does have a huge

impact on how you live your life. So

there's three things that come out of

this for me um from the the folding of

this cloth. Number one, Jesus rose and

so will I. Jesus rose and so will I.

says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse

1 Corinthians 15:20

20, but as it is Christ has been raised

from the dead, the first fruits of those

who have fallen asleep. And so first

fruits of the resurrection, that's who

Jesus is. What that means is the

resurrection was not this one-time

miracle. This is the beginning of a

harvest. This is a pattern. This is a

prototype. This is a template for what

is to come for every believer.

Philippians 3 21, he will transform the

body of our humble condition into the

likeness of his glorious body by the

power that enables him to subject

everything unto himself. In other words,

what happened to Jesus, get this, is

going to happen to you if you are a

Christian. What happened to Jesus is

going to happen to you. So, one thing

I've learned over my 25 years of being

married is that I don't know how to fold

clothes, apparently, especially when it

comes to my wife's t-shirts. I used to

try to help out with her laundry. And

then she informed me one day that I was

doing uh I was doing it wrong. I wasn't

folding the the shirts the way they

needed to be folded. She was like, "No,

there's a there's a a template here.

There's a a way that I need things

done." See, I would just fold them and

put them in the drawer and walk away

like a normal human. But she uh needs

them folded in a very specific manner.

She needs them to be 10 by 10 by two.

Okay? She needs the graphic to be facing

up and she needs also the tag to be

visible. Don't know why, but that's the

way she likes things. And the first one

needs to be done that way, but guess

what? The second one needs to be done

that way. The third one needs to be done

that way. So there's a nice orderly

pattern that follows. And so when I

think about Christ and in his

resurrected form, he is the pattern that

we will be folded into. He is the

prototype. He's the beginning of what

our resurrected, glorious body life is

going to be like. You see in the Bible

you have two Adams. You have the Adam

from Adam and Eve and he is known as the

man of dust. And then you have Jesus the

second Adam and he is the man of glory.

And when you are born, you are born into

the first Adam. Ashes to ashes, dust to

dust. That's who you are. But if you

become a Christian in your life, if you

give your life to Jesus, then you become

tied to the second Adam. So you get to

actually be folded into his glory. See,

Jesus walked out of that tomb, but he

didn't just do it for himself. He

stepped out of that tomb as the first

domino in a chain of cascading reactions

that would culminate to this brand new

glorious body that we would have one

day. In this body, we are immortal. We

are indestructible.

We are able to pass through walls. We

are able to eat all the tacos we want

without any conversation about

cholesterol or hypertension from your

doctor. Amen.

>> Well, thank you. All right. I knew that

would work.

Had to find something you guys were

passionate about.

Yeah. I apologize. Oh. Anyway, Levi

Lusco said brilliantly. He said this

Jesus resurrection is a preview of

coming attractions.

So, so how does what's the carryover

point? Okay. So, we got this this

glorious body that we'll have one day

and this glorious creation called

heaven. And then we'll have this new

heaven and this new earth to look

forward to. And what this does for us is

when you know, get this, when you know

your future is secure, it changes how

you live in the present. See,

I know I'm going to rise with Jesus so I

don't have to fret. Ask yourself this.

How many nights have you lost where you

wake up at 3 in the morning and all you

can think about is the stress of a

conversation that you had that day or or

this worst case scenario that you start

to imagine or or this burden that you

were never meant to carry. You you you

carried it into this this sacred time

where you're supposed to be sleeping and

resting.

See, the disciples were like that before

the resurrection. They they were

panicked. Peter was cutting off people's

ears and and they were denying they even

knew Jesus and they were hiding behind

locked doors in an upper room. Fear had

completely taken over their life. So So

let's be clear though, not all worry is

the same. Some worry is actually good.

Sometimes you're worried about things

and it keeps you from doing dumb things

that will hurt you. So that that's a

good worry. Um, and sometimes just based

on our our fallen bodies and our our

mental health issues and our

physiological makeup, sometimes that

that there are things that we worry

about that we just can't control because

that's who we who we are genetically.

But that's not the kind of worry that's

being discussed here. The Bible's

actually using the word fretting.

Fretting means sinful, consuming,

faithless worry that takes your eyes off

of God. And then you got to ask, well,

what kind what does that worry

accomplish? Anything good? Well, Psalm

Psalms 37:8

37:8 says, "Do not fret because it only

causes harm." But friends, when you know

your future, you know that your future

is secure, you know heaven is secure,

you know you got this new glorious body

to look like, that you're going to look

like Jesus one day, then anxiety begins

to lose its power over you. So you look

at the disciples after they meet the

resurrected Jesus. Before they're

fearful and they're they're unstable and

they're hiding, but afterwards they're

bold and they're unshakable and they're

going around the world sharing the good

news of Jesus, talking about uh the

resurrection of Christ even in the face

of their impending death. So what

changed? Not their circumstances. Their

circumstances did not change. In fact,

they got worse.

But the thing that changed is that they

saw the reality of what their future

held. They they saw the reality that

overwhelmed their fear. So maybe you've

get a flat tire one day and you're

bummed out. You're having a bad day. You

got a flat tire, but then maybe somebody

knocks on your door and you open the

door and they hand you a million

dollars. That that flat tire doesn't

look so bad, does it? Like it kind of

changes everything. Your circumstances

certainly didn't change, but that that

thing you were worried about certainly

loses weight. It's not that the problem

disappeared. It's that something greater

has reframed your problem. And that's

what the resurrection does. It

acknowledges, yeah, our suffering is

real. Things hurt. We cry. But they no

longer are our ultimate problem. Levi

again, he says, "Now you're free to

enjoy life for what it is and not what

it can never be." Now you're free to

enjoy life for what it is and not what

it can never be. So when you're secure,

when you're secure in your future, it

changes your present. It eliminates your

tempor temporary fears and that allows

you to move forward by folding. See,

Jesus was never going back into that

tomb again. Yet, he still took the time

to fold his burial shroud. Why? Because

Jesus leaves that place better than he

found it. He always leaves places better

than he finds them. And we can do the

same. small acts done with our hands in

Jesus name can bring life into the most

hopeless places. I've seen that over the

past few weeks with with Reese Megs and

how this community and people all over

the world have reached out to that

family. These little small acts of

kindness that just add up one after

another to bring hope into that family's

life. We can do the same. It's called

stewardship. It's called stewardship

which means working with excellence and

purpose in the name of Jesus. Colossians

Colossians 3:23

3:23,

"Whatever you do, do it from the heart

as something done for the Lord and not

for your boss, not for your teammates,

not for your co-workers, not for your

spouse, not for your family, as

something done for the Lord and not for

people, knowing that you will receive a

reward as your inheritance from the

Lord. You serve the Lord Christ." So we

get this beautiful opportunity to be

good stewards to bring beauty and order

into everyday life. We get to serve God

in in very ordinary moments. We get to

do small things with great love from

Christ so we can let Easter Sunday

change how we live on Monday because

that's exactly what Jesus taught us.

It's exactly what he did for us. He

walks into a a tomb, a place of death,

and he brings life. He walks into a

tomb, a place of death, and he brings

resurrection. He walks into this tomb.

He steps into chaos, and he brings about

order. He steps into brokenness, and he

brings beauty. And in just a moment,

that's what we're going to do. We're

going to be able to respond to this

truth in a tangible way by the flowering

of these beautiful crosses. We're going

to go and and look at something that

traditionally uh has been a symbol of

death. and we're going to bring life to

it by placing flowers on these crosses

because that's what Jesus does. He takes

what was dead and he brings it to life.

So for you or maybe a friend, you look

into their hopeless situation, you see

nothing but but but death there. What

you can also see is life because Jesus

has overcome even the most dark places

in our in our lives. But before we get

to that, I do want to give you an

opportunity to respond uh to this gospel

message. So, if you would just bow your

heads for a moment.

Just bow your heads for a moment and

don't focus on anything other than what

God is trying to tell you right now.

So, you got to ask yourself the

question, do you know about Jesus or do

you actually know Jesus?

Do you just know about the door or have

you actually walked through the door?

So, I want to give you an opportunity to

respond to that that question uh this

morning. If you've asked yourself that

question, you wind up saying, "Well,

wow. You know, I've known about Jesus,

but I've never actually entered into a

relationship with Jesus. I've never

walked through the door. How do I do it?

Well, the Bible very clearly tells us in

Romans 10:9 that if we confess with our

Romans 10:9

mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in our

heart that God raised him from the dead,

you will be saved. So, I want to give

you an opportunity to do that. All you

have to do is say a prayer, something

very, very simple. You can say it out

loud or you can just say it internally.

Would you say something like, "Jesus, I

know I'm a sinner

and I need a savior

and I believe you're that savior."

You say something like, "I believe Jesus

is God's son.

I believe he lived a perfect life.

I believe he died on the cross.

And I believe he came back from the

dead.

The Bible says with that belief, all you

have to do now is just ask him to be the

Lord of your life, to be your savior. So

just ask, say, "God,

save me through Jesus. I make him the

Lord of my life."

Then we've learned that if you've if

you've said that prayer and you believed

it in your heart, in your mind, we we

learned that that you are adopted into

the family of God, that you are sealed

in your salvation by the Holy Spirit.

You are encouraged to to draw even

closer to him every day. And I want you

to know this. This is very important.

The Bible says there is nothing there's

nothing that can separate you from the

love of God. There's not one decision

that you can make on this side of heaven

that will separate you from the love of

God once you're a Christian. So, Father,

we pray for those that have given their

lives to you this morning. We ask that

you would just continue to bless them as

they learn more about who you are and

what you want for their lives. And Lord,

I pray that you would just be with the

rest of us. Help us to be encouraged by

the opportunities that you have before

us. We know it's going to be a busy

week, but we also know, Lord, that we're

going to have opportunities to serve you

with our hands. So give us those

opportunities and still small moments to

to bring a little bit of order to chaos

and a little bit of beauty to the

hopelessness. It's in Jesus name we

pray.