The Resurrection

Order of Service

• Announcements
• Hymn — O Worship the King
• Call to Worship — 1 Timothy 6:13-16
• Hymn — O Worship the King
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Sin
• Assurance of Pardon — Exodus 34:6-7
• Scripture Reading — Joshua 10:29-43
• Hymn — Trust and Obey
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer of Dedication
• Hymn — The Day of Resurrection
• Sermon
• Hymn — The Day of Resurrection
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: What the Resurrection Brings

Scripture: John 20:1-18

I. The Resurrection Brings a Spiritual Body

A. Mary Magdalene arrives at the tomb early while it is still dark and finds the stone removed; she runs to Peter and John assuming grave robbery, which was common enough that Emperor Claudius invoked the death penalty for it

B. Peter and John race to the tomb; John arrives first and peers in cautiously, but Peter enters immediately

1. They find the linen grave clothes lying there and the face cloth folded separately
2. The folded, removed cloths indicate the body was not stolen — grave robbers would not have unwrapped and neatly folded the burial linens

C. The grave clothes point to a theological distinction between Lazarus's resurrection and Christ's

1. Lazarus came out of the tomb still wrapped in his burial cloths (John 11) — he was raised as a natural body that would die again
2. Jesus passed through the grave clothes, indicating a transformed, glorified, spiritual body
3. 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 — "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body"

D. Jesus's word to Mary — "Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father" — reflects his Farewell Discourse

1. John 16:7 — "It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away the Helper will not come to you"
2. 1 Corinthians 15:45 — "The last Adam became a life-giving spirit"
3. Mary, like a parent who has just found a lost child, clings to Jesus not wanting to lose him again; but Christ's resurrected body is not like Lazarus's — it ascends and sends life-giving Spirit

II. The Resurrection Brings a Personal Calling

A. Mary remains weeping at the tomb while Peter and John return home; her loud wailing shows she still believes the body has been stolen

B. Mary sees two angels in white — one at the head, one at the foot — seated where Jesus had lain

1. The only other instance of two figures flanking a seat in Scripture is the cherubim on either side of the mercy seat in the Tabernacle — the place where the blood of atonement was applied
2. Here the Lamb has been slain and Resurrection Life is restored for all who claim Christ

C. Jesus appears to Mary; she mistakes him for the gardener

1. Both the angel and Jesus ask the same question: "Woman, why are you weeping?" — implying a mild rebuke: did you not believe I would rise?
2. Jesus calls her by name — "Mary" — and she recognizes him, responding "Rabboni" (Teacher)
3. John 10:3 — "The sheep hear the shepherd's voice and he calls his own sheep by name"; this promise reaches its fullest reality only through and after the resurrection

D. The resurrection is a personal, name-calling event

1. Is Jesus your teacher who knows you by name, or are you sitting in the back taking notes and leaving when the bell rings?
2. Walk with him, talk with him, sit at his feet — he has been raised for such a relationship

E. Jesus declares: "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God"

1. Jesus is Son of God by nature; we are sons by adoption — the distinction is real but does not diminish the fellowship
2. Only through the Ascension can Christ send the Holy Spirit
3. Romans 8:15-17 — "You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!' … and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ"
4. Like a father who must leave his starving family to find food, Christ departs out of love so that he can send the Spirit — the food of the soul — to his people

III. The Resurrection Brings Clarity of Scripture

A. John enters the tomb, sees the evidence, and believes — the word used throughout John's Gospel for saving faith

1. John ties this belief directly to Scripture: "for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead" (John 20:9)
2. Some commentators suggest the specific text is Psalm 16:10, Leviticus 23:11, or Hosea 6:2

B. The Emmaus Road account in Luke 24:27 is the best interpretive guide: "Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself"

1. All of Scripture — explicitly in passages like Psalm 16, Leviticus 23, and Hosea 6 — and implicitly and typologically throughout, points to the resurrection of the Messiah
2. It is the resurrection that brings clarity to Scripture, not the other way around

C. Old Testament type: Elijah and the Widow's son (1 Kings 17)

1. Before the raising, the widow cries out in hopelessness and accusation against God
2. After Elijah raises her son, she declares: "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth"
3. Resurrection life brings clarity to God's word — a pattern pointing forward to Christ

D. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 bases the truthfulness of all of Scripture on a single event — the resurrection of Jesus Christ

1. If Christ is not raised, we make God out to be a liar and Scripture remains clouded by sin and death
2. But because the Father raises the Son, he declares: "See, my Son lives" — and all things are made clear
3. We are to read all of Scripture through the illuminating lens of Resurrection Life: open your eyes and see — the Son of God lives