You are in: Sermon Transcripts » All Sermons » 11/04/2004 (9.30am / 11.15am)

Triumph Over Death - John 20
A sermon preached by David Holloway

Printer Friendly Version | Download the MP3 of this sermon

Our subject this morning is Triumph Over Death. It is estimated that 3 people die every second, 180 every minute, almost 11,000 every hour, about 260,000 every day and 95 million a year. If that is true, while I was giving you those statistics, nearly 60 people passed from here to eternity.

Death is a reality. And the fear of death is a reality. Some people try to cover their fears by making light of death. So Woody Allen once said:

"It's not that I'm afraid to die; I just don't want to be around when it happens."

But the good news of Easter is that death has been overcome; and Jesus Christ has triumphed over death. Listen to what the Bible says:

"we see Jesus ... now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone ... so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death" (Heb 2.9-11).

We live at a cross roads in history. There is a battle for the soul of the world. In the wings are terrifying and evil fanatics - like the so called "Lord's Resistance Army" in Africa, or Muslim extremists all over the world. In the West, and in Europe in particular, there is a spiritual vacuum. It cannot last for ever. Something will fill it. Will there be a return to faith in Jesus Christ, the risen and reigning Saviour and Lord of all? Or will something false, fanatical and fascist fill that vacuum? It is vital that it is filled only by what is true. But Christianity, Islam, Pluralism (as in Eastern religion) and secular humanism - the main contenders - can't all be true. They all contradict each other. So which is true? Islam denies the Cross of Christ and that Christ died to bear our guilt. Pluralism denies Christ's uniqueness. And post modern secular humanism denies ultimate truth itself. They could all be false, or one of them could be true. But they cannot all be true.

"Surely," some will say, "religion and especially the Resurrection of Jesus is a matter of faith, not a matter of factual truth." Listen to the new Bishop of Durham, a former Oxford New Testament scholar:

"the best historical explanation for the origin of Christianity is that the stories [of Christ's resurrection] are basically true. The shrill, relentless modernism that opposes this conclusion needs to be confronted head on."

You see, the Christian faith is nothing if not historical. It revolves around what Almighty God, the maker of heaven and earth, did in the person of Jesus Christ. And that was at a specific point in time and in a specific place. Christ was not just a great prophet, as the Muslims say Mohammed was. No! He was God incarnate, God in the flesh, the second person of the divine Trinity, God the son. And what he did in history - in real space time history - and the meaning of that is the good news - or gospel. The essence of Christianity lies in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Factual history is at its heart. But you say, "how do we know what really happened?" To answer that I want us to look at the passage we read as our New Testament lesson this morning, John 20.1-18; and I want to have as my headings this morning, first, THE EVIDENCE; secondly, ITS MEANING; and, thirdly, OUR RESPONSE.

First, THE EVIDENCE

What, then, is the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus? The answer is that we have amazing evidence. In addition to the evidence from the epistles of Peter and Paul, and the existence of the Christian Church, we have four remarkable historical documents - the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They are unprecedented in the ancient world. And having four Gospels is so important. It is all too easy to assume that doubt and scepticism is modern and that New Testament people believed the first thing they were told. They didn't. The Jews had courts of law where they were used to weighing evidence. And they had a special principle that no testimony was accepted unless there were two or three witnesses. That principle is several times referred to in the Bible. But what we have in the Gospels is not two or three but four witnesses. Nor are they exactly the same. There are differences in emphasis and detail. But this is to their credit. If they all told exactly the same story in exactly the same words, you would have only one witness.

Listen to Professor George Caird, another Oxford New Testament scholar:

"Ask any schoolmaster whether he is more inclined to trust small boys when they all tell the same story in exactly the same words or when there is a decent discrepancy."

With regard to the New Testament accounts on the Resurrection in general, I written something in the Vicar's Note in the Newsletter for this month. Also you can buy on the bookstall a little booklet entitled The Evidence for the Resurrection, by J.N.D.Anderson. But let me say something more about John's Gospel and our reading for this morning. The source, it seems, for this Gospel is John the son of Zebedee, "the other disciple, the one Jesus loved" of verse 2 of chapter 20. So you have here an eyewitness account of that first Easter morning. What you read is that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb where Jesus had been recently buried. She saw the stone had been moved away. Assuming someone had stolen the body, she then rushed back to the disciples and told them what had happened and said ...

"we [plural - for there were other women with her] don't know where they have put him!" (verse 2).

Peter and John then ran to the tomb with John running faster than Peter. But Peter eventually reached the tomb and he was the first to go right inside (the tomb was, of course, dug out of the rock horizontally; so you could walk in). He found it was empty apart from Jesus' grave clothes. But these were arranged in a very significant fashion. The strips of linen that had been wound around his dead body were in one place. The covering around his head was in another. Do you see what that means? It means the grave clothes were undisturbed. They hadn't been unwound as in the case of Lazarus (John 11.44). But the body was gone - as though it had passed through the clothes. It was that that convinced John (verse 8):

"Finally the other disciple [that is John], who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed."

It is what he saw when he had a careful look at the graves clothes that convinced him that Christ had risen from the dead. And note verse 9:

"They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead."

It wasn't that they expected a resurrection. The Jews never associated the Messiah with a resurrection. That was why they were either so hostile to his role as a "suffering Messiah" and his talk of death, as Jesus' enemies were; or they were so sad, as his followers were. Resurrection was not in their minds. But you say, "I can't believe that a human person could go through grave clothes like that." Always beware of confusing the unimaginable with the unbelievable. What is to be believed depends on the evidence. And what you have here is eyewitness evidence. Dorothy Sayers was quite convinced of the "eyewitness" nature of John's Gospel. Writing as a novelist and knowing all about fiction, she said:

"It must be remembered that, of the four Evangelists, St John's is the only one that claims to be the direct report of an eyewitness. And to anyone accustomed to the imaginative handling of documents, the internal evidence bears out the claim."

And the claim is further confirmed by the appearances of Jesus. These appearances to the disciples showed that his resurrection body was a glorified or recreated body. It was both real but transformed. He ate with the disciples; he could be recognized by them; and he could be touched by them (as we see Mary touching him in our passage). But he was more than physical. He could pass through doors; he was not always recognized at first; and eventually he ascended into heaven. You say, "might not these appearances have been a visionary wish-fulfilment?" No!

First, note that the New Testament distinguishes "visions" from the Resurrection appearances of Jesus. Luke was a medical doctor and in no way naïve. He writes of the women at the tomb as seeing a "vision of angels" (Luke 24.23). However, he records the risen Jesus as saying to the disciples in a fully personal way (Luke 24.39):

"Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."

Secondly, note that none of these occasions were cases where you see something else and mistake it for what you are looking for. Mary (in John 20 verse 14) did not see the gardener and think he was Jesus. She saw Jesus and thought he was the gardener (verse 15). Similarly the two on the road to Emmaus, as recorded in Luke 24, did not see a stranger and think he was Jesus. They saw Jesus and thought he was a stranger. And the apostles later did not see a ghost and think it was Jesus. They saw Jesus and thought it was a ghost. The evidence points to the Resurrection as real fact and real history. So that brings us to our second heading

Secondly, ITS MEANING

First, the meaning of the Resurrection, in simple terms is that the claims of Christ are true. It means that there is a God - the Trinitarian God of the Bible. It means that Jesus is the divine Son and Saviour of the world. It means that on the Cross, as the Bible says,

"God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sin against them" (2 Cor 5.19).

And it means that death has been defeated. As the Bible says:

"our Saviour, Christ Jesus ... has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (2 Tim 1.10).

Secondly, the Resurrection means you need to take stock. You must realize that a new age has truly dawned, with much more to follow. The Resurrection is like the first flower of spring. Christ's resurrection is like that first crocus. But one day when Christ returns there will be myriads of flowers at the general resurrection when history will end and there will be "new heavens and a new earth". There will also be judgment. The Bible says:

"man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" (Heb 9.27).

There is one thing worse than fearing that death is the end. It is hoping that death is the end. The Bible teaches that the fundamental problem with this world is not economic or political. The problem is a matter of the human heart. It is the rejection of the God of the Bible and going your way and going after false gods and false religions and false philosophies. And sin - the name for this rejection - will be judged. The Bible teaches that there is a hell as well as a heaven. And you are free to reject God and be separate from him. That is why followers of Christ must never spread their beliefs by force or violence. If God respects human freedom, so must we. So at the last judgment there will be eternal separation from God as well as eternal life with God. C.S.Lewis puts it like this:

"there are only two kinds of people in the end. Those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'"

What would God say to you, if you died tonight? Are you ready to meet your maker? Those first disciples were. Peter was a transformed man after meeting the risen Christ and after Pentecost and the giving of the Holy Spirit. Listen to how he then preached to the crowds:

"You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the death. We are witnesses of this ... Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out" (Acts 3.15 & 19).

If you trust Christ, your sins will be "wiped out". And don't think that you are too bad to be forgiven. John 20 underlines the great truth that no one is too bad for Christ. We are told that Mary Magdalene had been demon possessed. But she was, clearly, now a forgiven woman. And don't think that you have to come to Christ in the same way as everyone else. Yes, Christ is the only way to God. Jesus said (John 14.6):

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

But there are many ways to Christ. You don't have to be a clone of other believers. These three disciples here in John 20 are all so different. John is a reflective person; Peter is an impetuous man's man, if ever; and Mary is a women of both initiative and devotion.

So, finally, what should be OUR RESPONSE this Easter? Can I suggest three responses.

First, if you have never done so, look at the evidence. It is amazing what happens when you examine the evidence. Frank Morrison wrote the famous book, Who moved the Stone? (it is also on the bookstall). In the preface he makes a confession:

"this [he says] is the inner story of a man who originally set out to write one kind of book and found himself compelled ... to write quite another."

He intended writing a book that would have shown Christ as a remarkable man but not as the divine Saviour who left a tomb empty. But he ended up, after looking at the evidence, a convinced believer. You need, though, to be honest. It is possible to be always asking for evidence but never open to conviction. The Pharisees in Jesus' time were like that. The Bible teaches that some sceptics ...

"will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead" (Luke 16.31).

It is possible to "see and not believe". Most people are unbelievers not because they can't believe but because they won't believe. Paul says in Romans 1 that people "suppress the truth of God by their wickedness." Aldous Huxley once wrote:

"I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning ... For myself, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation, sexual and political."

Secondly, when you have looked at the evidence and accepted it, you must then take action. You need positively to trust Christ, for the first time if necessary - or to ink in a very feint commitment. When the early apostles preached about the Resurrection (and you can read this in Acts 2), they called on people to repent (to admit their sin and need). And they called on people to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins (to do something public and definite about their commitment). They would then receive the gift of the Holy Spirit: they would receive new spiritual life - they would be "born again" as Jesus calls it.

Who needs to respond like that this morning? (One way you can respond is by joining our new Christianity Explored course that starts on Thursday, April 22 in 3 Osborne Road.)

Then, thirdly, when you have done that, you need to be like Mary. Look at verses 17-18:

"Jesus said, 'Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, "I am returning 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."

All Christian believers need to be like that and to respond by telling others the good news that Jesus Christ is risen and reigning. You don't have to be an expert theologian. All you have to do is (like Mary) tell others, in a sane and sensible way, what you have experienced of Jesus Christ. And as you are able (like Mary) tell others what Christ teaches - and for us today that is in the Bible.

I must conclude.

The evidence for the Resurrection is strong.

Its meaning is that Jesus Christ's divine nature is proved; his saving work is confirmed; and there is triumph over death.

Your response, therefore, should be, first, to examine the evidence. Secondly, you should openly trust Christ. One of the earliest credal statements says:

"if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Rom 10.9).

Printer Friendly Version

TOP OF PAGE