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John 20:11-18
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic,1 “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to John chapter 20. John chapter 20. It's also there in your worship guide. And I'm actually gonna begin reading at verse 11, not verse 1. John 20 verse 11.
Joel Brooks:But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, And as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb, and she saw 2 angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain. One at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, they have taken away my lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher.
Joel Brooks:Jesus said to her, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to the father, but go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her. This is the word of the Lord. And it would not return void, but it would accomplish the very thing that you have appointed it to do. Spirit of God, you're welcome in this place to open up hearts and open up minds, so that we might see Jesus clearly, and we might hear his voice calling to us.
Joel Brooks:I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. I loved Matt Francisco's illustration last week about the Disney movies, and how every Disney movie is essentially the same.
Joel Brooks:In which parents are never anywhere around. And so there's just apparently children running around, and usually there's one child that something terrible happens, they find themselves in some horrible situation, and there seems to be no way out unless they look deep within. The answer lies within themselves. If they are true to who they are, then they can get through this. And it was a great illustration, and I appreciated his point, but if I may, I'd like to make one just minor correction to that.
Joel Brooks:That's true of all modern Disney movies, but to those of us who have a few gray hairs, that's not true of the older Disney movies. What I would call the Disney classics. The Disney classics, they follow an entirely different plot line. Now, it's the same plot line that they all have, but it's just different than the modern Disney films. And that plot line is something like this.
Joel Brooks:There is a beautiful good person that somehow finds themself in this evil situation. A curse, if you will, comes upon the land, or falls on the person, and they are under some evil spell. And they can't look within for help. They can't get themselves out of this situation. Whether it's Cinderella, or Sleeping Beauty, or Rapunzel, or Snow White.
Joel Brooks:I mean, they're all the same. It's not looking within, they need someone to rescue them. They need a prince charming to come, or some fairy godmother, or whatever it is, but somebody has got to come and to free them, or to break the spell. And when that person comes and rescues them, they then they go off to the palace, and they reign in righteousness, and they live happily ever after. And that's pretty much every classic Disney film.
Joel Brooks:And these were the films that, you know, they resonated with me, and resonated with so many people, and the reason is I think that there's something in us in which we hear that it already sounds familiar. Even though that story is fantasy and it's not true, we recognize it's actually speaking to a truth that resonates deep in our hearts. And that truth is the gospel, that this world was created good and it was created beautiful, and through sin it has come under a evil spell or evil curse. And we can't make it better. We can't work our way out of this.
Joel Brooks:Being true to our self doesn't help, because we're part of the problem. We can't even fix ourselves, let alone fix the world. Our only hope is that a rescuer would come and save us. That's our only hope of living happily ever after. And I think the reason those stories resonate so much with us is because we have this underlying remembrance from Eden within every heart that when we hear something like that, we know something in that is true.
Joel Brooks:This is what we began to see last week actually when we began to celebrate Palm Sunday. We were celebrating when our rescuer came, mounting on a horse, coming to save his people. At least that's what the Israelites, they were hoping for at that time. They were they were hoping for a rescuer. Now, they weren't hoping for a rescuer to come and lift a curse, and to break them from an evil spell, they wanted a real kind of concrete deliverance from Rome.
Joel Brooks:But that's what they were looking for when Jesus was coming down and people were waving the palm branches, and they were shouting, Hosanna, Hosanna to the son of David. Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. That word, Hosanna, it simply means save us.
Joel Brooks:Save us. Save us. Come rescue us. They were hoping that Jesus would be their deliverer. And we also know they were hoping that He would be their deliverer, not just from the word Hosanna, but from that phrase, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:That phrase, to come in the name of the Lord had been uttered 1000 years earlier by a young boy when he went to go face a warrior. When Israel was was scared and defenseless, and they knew that they were gonna perish before the Philistines, a young boy went out to be their champion, and he raced towards the giant, Goliath. And if you remember these words, David raced forward and he said, you come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord. It's the first time that phrase was ever uttered. To come in the name of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:And now you have these Israelites at Palm Sunday outside of Jerusalem gathering together, and they're crying out once again, save us son of David. Here's one of David's descendants. Blessed are you who's now gonna come in the name of the Lord, and who's gonna fight off our enemies. Come deliver us from Rome. Just like David delivered his people from the Philistines.
Joel Brooks:That was their hope. Can I say that was just such a small hope? Such a small hope. In the grand scheme of things, who would have really cared if Jesus Jesus had come and delivered them from Rome? If Jesus had marched into Jerusalem, maybe removed Herod from power, overthrown Pilate, maybe even overthrown Caesar himself.
Joel Brooks:Who would have really cared? I mean, if if he did that, I mean sure, we would be reading about Jesus in a few pages of history today. He would be like a William Wallace, or maybe a George Washington. You know, a successful revolutionary. But there is no way we would be gathering together in a room 2 1000 years after that event and singing His praises.
Joel Brooks:And there is no way that we would even mark our years by the date of His birth. So who would have cared and who really cares if He had come and just conquered another enemy in a long line of enemies that Israel has had. I mean, every time one enemy is removed, another one pops up. And at this point in history, God had already delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians, from the Canaanites, from the Ammonites, from the Philistines, from the Amalekites, from the Moabites, from the Edomites, from the Babylonians, from the Assyrians, from the Persians. The list goes on and on and on.
Joel Brooks:And every time another enemy comes forward. So if Jesus had just delivered them from Rome, another enemy would have certainly popped up. And if I could get just real honest here with you, real honest. Let me ask you, ultimately, what does it matter? What does it matter if God just rescues rescued from an enemy of anxiety, or depression?
Joel Brooks:Or if you're rescued from your financial crisis, or your joblessness or from the job that you hate. Rescued from your infertility or rescued from your challenging children. Rescued from your desire for a spouse or rescued from your desire to get away from your unkind spouse. Rescued from your sickness, or your cancer. Rescued from that neighbor, or that coworker, or that family member, or that deadline, or that test, or that trial, or this really hard season that you are in.
Joel Brooks:Do you think that if you're not rescued from this season, there won't be another hard season waiting? There is always another enemy waiting, and that's because underneath all of these enemies is the enemy, death and the sin that has brought it. Sin and death are the ultimate enemies. No matter how great you are, you cannot hope to ever conquer sin and death. But Jesus did not come to Jerusalem just to take on another one of the endless string strings of enemies.
Joel Brooks:He came to conquer the enemy. He came to take on death itself. Now, there's been many great deliverers and rescuers throughout Israel's history, but how have they fared when they have gone against that great enemy? Well, we read in Genesis 25 that Abraham breathed his last. You read in Genesis 35, Isaac gave up his ghost and died.
Joel Brooks:In Genesis 39, you read, Jacob breathe his last. In Genesis 40, you read how Joseph died. Deuteronomy 34, you read Moses the servant of God died. Joshua 24, Joshua the servant of God died. First Kings 1:1, David, who reigned over Israel for 40 years, died.
Joel Brooks:Over and over again, as you read through the pages of scripture, you find that a great leader comes, but yet when he meets the enemy, he dies. It doesn't matter if God used a person to part a sea, or could go up to an entire city and have the walls of Jericho come crumbling down, or could face a giant with a mere sling and a stone. They were defenseless when it came to the ultimate enemy, death itself. And they succumbed. So why is it that Jesus could come and do this?
Joel Brooks:Why is it Jesus that he thinks, that he could come and he can do what no other man in history could do? And it's simply this, Jesus is not like any other man in history. He's fully God, fully man. I love what Mary says after she meets the risen Jesus and she rushes back to the disciples and she simply says this, I have seen the Lord. The Lord.
Joel Brooks:Jesus is not like other men, Jesus is the Lord. Let me ask you, have you seen Him? Have you seen Jesus the Lord? Because there's no one else like Him. There has never been anyone like Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Where Jesus went, he'd give free food to the 1,000. He would take a small boy's lunch and with a few fish and few biscuits, and he would use it to feed the masses. When Jesus entered a town, he eliminated every need for a doctor. If people could just touch the fringe of his his cloak, they would be healed. Paraplegics in the presence of Jesus danced.
Joel Brooks:The deaf and the mute sang. The blind, they could become artists. Funeral processions will become parades when Jesus was there. The ocean waves will become sidewalks. Jesus could speak to the storm and treat it like a child.
Joel Brooks:Be quiet and stay quiet, And the storm would obey. The wind and the waves would obey him. The demons obeyed him. The trees, the fish obeyed him. All the creation responding to its creator.
Joel Brooks:Jesus could walk into a temple like He owned the place and begin throwing around furniture. He would go to a wedding and he could turn water into wine to make an okay party into a great party. Pharisees feared Him, yet children flocked to Him. There has never been anyone in human history like Jesus. There's been no one in human history who could be given the scroll of Isaiah and open it up and read these words, the spirit of the Lord is upon me.
Joel Brooks:He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, and to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the recovering of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to declare the year of the Lord's favor, and then roll up that scroll, look people in the eye and say, today this has been fulfilled in your hearing. That's one of my, I wish I could have been there moments. To hear those words uttered by Jesus. No one said the things that Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life, or I am the resurrection and the life, or come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. I mean, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Gandhi, they've all said some pretty impressive and wise words, but none of them has ever said anything remotely like come to me for rest for your souls.
Joel Brooks:No one spoke like Jesus and no one had authority like Jesus. This is what is actually meant by by the title Lord. It's the one who has authority over you. Jesus had absolute authority, even authority over death itself. Read through your Bibles and see what happens when Jesus and death meet.
Joel Brooks:You'll find that every time death must flee from the presence of Jesus. So Jesus, he can confront a funeral procession from the widow of Nain, and he would go to her dead son and raise him. Jesus would go to Jarius daughter who had died, and He would talk to her like she was asleep. Hey, little girl, it's time to get up. And breath would enter back into her body, Or Jesus could go to the tomb of Lazarus and speak in a commanding voice, Lazarus, come forth.
Joel Brooks:And Lazarus would come forth whenever death was in the presence of Jesus, death had to flee. And death would have never come to Jesus. Death could never come to Jesus. So Jesus decided to go meet death. Don't ever ever make the mistake of thinking that people killed Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Jesus was not killed by others. He laid down his life. Death could not come to him, so he went to death. In John 10, Jesus says, I lay down my life that I may take it up again. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it back, And I'm gonna lay it down that I might take it back again.
Joel Brooks:And I love it when Jesus is standing before Pilate and and the trial is going on, and Pilate is getting increasingly frustrated. He's he's exasperated with Jesus because Jesus won't answer him any questions anymore. And finally, this frustrated Pilate, he looks at Jesus and he says, don't you know that I have authority over you? I have authority as to whether you live or die, and Jesus finally looks up and he says, no. No.
Joel Brooks:You would have no authority unless my father gave it to you. And you read from that point on, Pilate sought to release Jesus. Jesus had absolute authority over his life. When on the cross, the people would look up at Him and they would mock. They would say, Jesus, if you really had authority, if you really were the Son of God and who you said you were, then why don't you come down from that cross?
Joel Brooks:Jesus says, I'll show you authority in 3 days. More authority will be shown, not from coming down from a cross, but from rising from a tomb. And they misunderstood why Jesus was there. Jesus wasn't being defeated by death. He wasn't succumbing to the enemy.
Joel Brooks:Jesus was taking the fight to the enemy. He was taking on sin sin and death itself and he won. Jesus was resurrected 3 days later. I love Mary's simple statement. I have seen the Lord.
Joel Brooks:She's simply stating a fact. Jesus is risen, and Jesus is Lord. It's a fact. Deal with it. I love, you know, it's Easter, and so there's pastors all over the city that been declaring the resurrection, all morning, people all over the world declaring this truth.
Joel Brooks:And many pastors, what they do is they'll preach sermons on proofs of the resurrection. And I've done that. Those are certainly helpful to hear about different proofs of the resurrection. But the bottom line is this, it's just a fact. Jesus is alive and Jesus is Lord.
Joel Brooks:Amen. Amen. And when Paul says that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, he doesn't say that I may know Him and more proofs of His resurrection. He realizes that when Jesus rose from the dead, power was unleashed into this world, and that is what He wants to know and to live in light of. And the way that the power of the resurrection goes forth into this world is when we submit to His lordship.
Joel Brooks:The word Lord means one who has authority. He means our owner. He has total ownership of us and we walk in the power of His resurrection when people begin to look at us and they are thinking, who told you to start spending your money like that and giving it all away? Whose authority is over you who's telling you to go and live in this neighborhood? Whose authority is telling you that you need to go and be loving to that kind of person?
Joel Brooks:Whose authority is over you telling you to serve like that? That's what the power of the resurrection begins to look like in our life is when we actually begin to believe and act as if Jesus is lord and the one who has total ownership over our life. But hear me church, Jesus is lord and he's not waiting for you to make him Lord. Amen. I mean, just just picture the scene.
Joel Brooks:This is this is such an American Christianity scene, but picture Jesus coming out. I mean, He's risen from the dead, He's in the tomb, and I love it, He folds His face cloth. He's just taking time savoring the moment. Folding that face cloth, I think he's putting death to death. And then he walks out, and you see him.
Joel Brooks:And the modern Christian just asked him for advice. The modern Christian just kinda asked him for maybe help and how they can live a slightly better life. No. We fall down on our knees and we submit to his lordship. He is the risen Lord.
Joel Brooks:He is the King of kings and he is the Lord of lords. Whether we believe it or not, we do not make him Lord. He simply is. But make no mistake, there is a day coming when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. Every American knee, European knee, Asian knee, African knee will bow.
Joel Brooks:Every white knee, every black knee, every wealthy knee, every poor knee, every knee will bow before Jesus our Lord. And I invite you to bow in joyful submission before the presence of the risen king because joy flows from his presence, and he has defeated the enemy that you were powerless against, death itself. And we read that if you were to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and if you're to believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. Eternal life is yours for the taking. If you would, pray with me.
Joel Brooks:We want to see you, Lord, the risen Lord. And I pray that resurrection power would come and invade our lives, and we would, in joyful submission, recognize your lordship over us. It's the only way we'll truly be free. Truly have joy. Truly have life that endures for eternity.
Joel Brooks:So Spirit, now come and work your truth into our hearts. Jesus, may we hear you calling, and you do call us because you are alive. And we pray this in your strong name. Amen.