The Empty Tomb Invitation

A moved stone, folded grave clothes, and a woman who refuses to go home. John 20:1–18 is more than a resurrection account, it is a turning point that forces a decision: will we treat Easter as interesting information, or as an invitation into a new reality opened by the risen Jesus?

We start with an unexpected story from modern history, the Berlin Wall, where one announcement cracked open a way through what seemed permanent. That sets the stage for the greater announcement: Jesus Christ is risen. From Mary Magdalene’s tears outside the tomb to the moment she hears Jesus call her by name, we explore why the people who seek the risen Christ most earnestly often experience Him most personally. If your faith has cooled into something occasional or “hobby-level,” this message offers a direct challenge and a real promise: seek Him with more of your heart, and you will find Him.

Then we get practical about how faith holds up over time. Experiences, inspiring leaders, and even evidence can be real “temporary supports,” but they cannot bear the full weight of a lifetime. The only sure foundation is Scripture. We talk Bible reading, Bible study, and letting the Word of Christ dwell richly so your faith stays steady when feelings fade and memories fail.

Finally, we turn to union with Christ, the Holy Spirit, and what the resurrection means for courage. If God is truly your Father in Christ, your status changes, and so does the way you face money stress, hardship, risk, and pressure. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review with the line that challenged you most.

Transcript

John 20 Read Aloud

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The reading is John twenty, verses one through eighteen, and beginning in verse one, the word of God reads this way. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other dec the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed, for as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb, and she saw two 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. 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. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Aramaic, Rabani, which means teacher. 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 God's word. Thanks be to God, you may be seated, and may God bless this reading and preaching of his word. After World War II, Germany was divided into two countries. West Germany was democratic, it was allied with the United States, it was a capitalist country, and East Germany, which was communistic, uh, it was authoritarian, it was under the control of the Soviet Union. And even the city of Berlin itself was split in half. The dividing line between the two nations went right through the city of Berlin. Over time, life in East Germany became so difficult for its citizens that millions of people fled to the West. So in 1961, the government of East Germany built a wall. And it wasn't to keep people out or to keep enemies out, but they built it in order to keep their own people in and to prevent them from fleeing the country. The Berlin Wall ran through the city of Berlin, and it was guarded by soldiers and watchtowers and barbed wire, and anyone caught trying to escape could be arrested or even could be killed. And for decades, that's how life was in East Germany. There was and in West Germany as well, this big wall running through the city. But by the late 80s, things had begun, everything was beginning to crack, protests were rising in West Germany, the Soviet Union was weakening, pressure was building. One night, a government, a government official in West Germany held a press conference to announce a new travel policy. East Germans would be allowed to leave the country more freely. And a reporter asked in that press conference, when does this take effect? And he wasn't prepared to answer that question. He shuffled his notes and he hesitated and he said, as far as I know, immediately, well that wasn't the plan, but that's what the people heard. And within hours, thousands began gathering at the wall. And uh they didn't know what to do, but the people did not hesitate to capitalize on this opportunity. And eventually the guards had no choice but to open the gates, and crowds flooded through, families that had been divided for years were reunited, people wept and embraced and celebrated, and in the days that followed, they began to tear the wall down. And in less than a year, Germany was one, it was one country again. That press conference was an announcement that became this great invitation, that then the people rose up and rushed to the wall and tore the wall down and liberated the country. On Easter Sunday, we celebrate another great announcement. Two thousand years ago, outside the gates of Jerusalem, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and died. But three days later the tomb was empty, and his followers began to claim that he is alive. And they didn't keep that to themselves. They went into all the world with that announcement, and we read one of their testimonies just a moment ago. John is the beloved disciple who wrote that testimony. And the announcement still stands today, and we hear it today. And it's not just interesting information, it's not just a quaint story with morals that we can learn, but it's an invitation. It's an invitation for us to step into a new reality that Jesus has opened through the resurrection. The resurrection is not just something to believe, but it is something to lay claim to and to take hold of and to step into. So, how can we make the most of it? What we learn in our passage this morning is that the resurrection of Jesus invites us to seek him like never before, to know him like never before, and to live for him like never before. So, first, to seek him like never before. Those who seek the risen Christ are the ones who experience him most profoundly, and we are invited to seek him, knowing that we will find and experience him. After Jesus' resurrection, Jesus first appeared to women. And this is very surprising, and this has been pointed out by commentators and pastors for two thousand years since the account was written. In a world where women's testimony carried little weight, Jesus chose women as the first witnesses of the resurrection. Only Mary is mentioned here, but the other gospel writers tell us that there were other women with her. You know, we might expect Jesus in his first appearance. If we were writing this, we would probably have had him first appear to Peter, uh, or maybe to the other apostles. They are the apostles, they're the ordained leaders in the church, after all. But instead, he appears first to Mary and the other women. And why is that? Well, verses 10 through 11, I think, say it all. Mary had gotten Peter and John after she discovered the empty tomb, and they ran to the tomb to see for themselves, and they also discover the tomb just as she describes it. But after they've seen everything, and after they go in and take a look around, what this is what we read in verse 10, then the disciples went back to their homes. They just went back home. But verse 11, but Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. Everyone's perplexed, no one has any answers, everyone's confused about what's happened, but the disciples just give up and go home. But it appears that Mary will not be satisfied until she has found her Lord. She is she remains, she's weeping, she looks again, and it's because of that that she's given this great privilege. Because Mary will not give up so easily, she receives a special honor. Weeping, she looks a second time into the tomb. I'm not sure what she hopes to discover, but she sees something new. She discovers to her surprise two young men in white, and she may not know it immediately, but they're angels, the scripture tells us. Why are you weeping? They ask. Whom are you seeking? They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. And then Jesus himself appears, but she doesn't recognize him at first, maybe because her eyes are full of tears, but also very famously in his resurrection appearances, he was not always immediately identifiable, but she doesn't recognize him at first until he calls her by name. Verse 16, it says, Jesus said to her, Mary. And she turns to him in an Aramaic. She says, Reboni, and the scripture says, which means teacher. Reboni does not just mean teacher, it means my teacher. It's a very personal thing to say. This is my teacher, my instructor, my master, my Lord. Very personal and meaningful encounter with the risen Christ. And Mary will forever be honored as the first to see our Lord. So why Mary and not Peter? Well, I think that we can only conclude that Mary was given this special honor because she sought the Lord most desperately. She would not be satisfied until she had found her Lord, as it is promised many times in Scripture, Jeremiah 29, 13, you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. And this is what Mary was doing. Peter and John gave up, but but Mary sought him desperately. And so she has the honor of being the first to see our Lord. The resurrection invites us to seek the Lord wholeheartedly, knowing that he's not in the grave, but he is risen. And so if we will seek him with all of our heart in every area of life, we will be sure to find him and encounter him in a personal and powerful way as well, if we do not give up, and if we seek him in every part of our life. None of that happened overnight, but it's slowly and incrementally. And over the years, I've seen all kinds of people in our gym. Some of them are more committed than I am. They're there every day and more often than me. But there are many who drop in and drop out, who will appear for a few weeks and then I won't see them for a long time, or they'll come once or twice and then won't see them for a few months. For them, it's more it's more of a hobby. Um, and there's nothing wrong with that. But we all understand something simple that you should not expect in anything to see deep results from a shallow commitment. So just thinking about working out, if you only work out twice a month, for example, that's certainly better than nothing. And if that's what you're doing, keep doing it. Do it more. I'm glad. It's certainly better than nothing. But we would be foolish to expect profound results from such inconsistency. Now, the resurrection of Jesus is not a hobby-level invitation, it's not an invitation to dabble or to add just a little bit of Jesus to your already busy life. Um, it's not an invitation to pray sometimes or to come to church sometimes or to share your faith sometimes. It's an invitation to powerfully and profoundly experience the risen Christ who reorganizes our entire life around him. Some of us cannot relate to Mary. We've never sensed Jesus personally call our name, where we can say to him, not just that he is the teacher or that he is the savior, but that he is my teacher, that he is my savior, that that I have met him, that I have encountered him. It's not because he's hard to find, but it's because that we are only half-heartedly seeking him. And it's an invitation to seek him more. So this morning I want to encourage you, wherever you're at, that there is more, that Jesus has more that he wants to give to you. There's more of himself that he wants to reveal to you. And he wants you to see more of him and experience more of him and depend upon him more and encounter him more and delight in him more. You have only just begun to glimpse all of the riches that you have in Christ. And all of these things are already yours. We don't have to earn them. This isn't about earning God's blessings. God is eager to give them to us. We must simply lay hold of them by seeking the Lord with all of our heart. Or if you can't give them all of your heart, because all of us are weak in faith and frail, just to give him more of our heart this morning, to seek him more. Mary teaches us that the most profound encounters with Jesus are available to all of us. They're not limited to men, they're not limited just to leaders, they're not limited just to people in the spotlight or in the pulpit, but all who would call upon him, who would seek him diligently, he is available to all of us, and all of us can have these encounters with him. So where has your passion for the Lord grown cold and your faith grown weak? This morning on Resurrection Sunday, Jesus invites us not to give up, but to continue to seek him with everything that we have. Point two, know him like never before. The resurrection invites us to know him like we have never before. The only sure foundation of our faith is the word of God. The disciples are notoriously slow to believe. All throughout the Gospels, Jesus says things like, Ye of little faith, why did you doubt? Have I been with you all this time, and still you do not know me? When the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on the earth? All of these things, the disciples are notoriously slow to believe. And Jesus taught them about all that would happen to him when he came to Jerusalem, that he would be rejected, that he would be crucified and killed, but that he would be raised three days later. This plain message, delivered in plain speech, was so incompatible with their worldview and with their expectations that it simply did not compute. They simply could not accept it. They reasoned that he must be speaking in some mysterious parable. But John, now in this story on Resurrection Sunday, as he has seen the tomb, now he is beginning to believe. After seeing the empty tomb for himself and seeing the grave clothes folded up nice and neat intentionally, we read in verse 8, then the other disciple who reached the tomb first also went in and he saw and he believed. John heard the testimony of Mary. He heard what she saw, and so he went and he saw and he experienced the tomb for himself. And now he is beginning to believe that maybe Jesus is alive. And maybe what he said, he meant it, and maybe he meant it literally. But I say that he's only beginning to believe because of what we read in verse 9, the next verse. It says, For as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. John heard a testimony, he heard Mary's testimony, and he had an experience. And all of those things ignited a little faith in him. But that faith is not yet established because it is not yet rooted in Scripture, for as yet they did not understand the Scripture. And Jesus says something very similar to Thomas later in the same chapter, Thomas who insisted that he would never believe unless he saw Jesus for himself and put his hands in Jesus' wounds. Just a few verses later in John 20, it says, Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here and see my hands, and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. What this is teaching us is that experience is good, evidence is good, a following a persuasive leader can be good. All of these things are good, but a faith based on those things alone, a faith based on experience alone, is weak and fragile. If our faith is to survive, it must ultimately rest on the word of God, on the scriptures. The illustration that comes to my mind is this. Last year we built a deck under an existing roof. And in order to do that, we had to remove the posts that were holding the roof up. They don't make uh Wi-Fi supports, so uh before we could do that, we had to install these temporary supports, which are these metal jacks, these long metal poles that held the roof in place while we removed the permanent posts. And for a few days, the entire roof structure was resting on those temporary supports. And I'll be honest, I was pretty nervous. Uh every time the wind picked up or it started to rain, I thought, oh man, what if this thing comes down? This is the end for me. Um it didn't happen, thankfully, but but those supports were never meant to hold that structure forever. They're important. They were there for a short season holding the roof in place until we could establish its permanent supports. There are many temporary supports for our faith, things that can get us started down the path of faith, but they are not meant to bear the full weight of a lifetime of faith. It could be a profound personal experience, maybe at a retreat or at a summer camp or at a worship service or anywhere else. Um, it could be a leader or a parent, someone who has a very vibrant faith that has taught you and inspired you, and you are inspired by their faith, and they help you to believe. It could be a profound testimony that you hear, a profound story. Hearing someone's story who was delivered from great trouble can inspire us to ourselves trust in God. It could even be encountering some kind of evidence of God. This is John in Easter morning, the empty tomb and the folded graveclothes. This is certainly physical evidence of the resurrection. All of these things are good, and all of these things are helpful for a short time, but they are only temporary supports. They cannot bear the weight of a lifetime of faith. The mountaintop experiences in our faith journey, all of them will fade, but the word of God remains forever. In order to grow strong in faith and to be established as a mature Christian, our faith must ultimately rest in a personal knowledge of the scriptures, because the experiences will fail us, the testimonies that once were so inspiring will be forgotten, the evidence will grow stale and unconvincing, the leaders that we follow will come and go. In the end, the word of God is the only thing that remains. And there are for some people, for many people, who follow Jesus and they grow very old and even uh end up in a situation where they're toward the end of their life, their mental condition is deteriorating. They don't remember the experiences, they don't remember the testimonies, but you know what they do remember? They remember the word of God. They remember God's word, which they have read and memorized and hidden in their heart. That remains, it is the only sure foundation for our faith. So the resurrection is an invitation to lay hold of the scriptures. Your faith cannot survive on experiences alone. A foundation of God's word must be Be poured into your life. And some of you here are beginning to believe, like John. Good. I'm glad you're here. Lay hold of that work that God is doing in your heart by learning the scriptures. Read the Bible, study the Bible, memorize the scriptures, read the Bible to your children, pray the Psalms. This summer, Lord willing, we're going to be offering classes over the summer when our community groups go on breaks that will help you to dig more into the Bible and to learn it better. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Listen to what Henry Thoreau said about the power of the written word. He's not talking about the Bible, he's just talking about the power of the written word. And he said this: A written word is the most precious of treasures, something more intimate and universal than any other work of art. It's the work of art nearest to life itself. It can be translated into every language, not just to be read, but actually breathed from all human lips, carved out of the breath of life itself. Books are the treasured wealth of the world and a suitable inheritance for generations and nations. The oldest and the best books rightfully stand on the shelves of every cottage. Their authors are a natural nobility in every society, and more than kings or politicians, they exert an influence on mankind. Thoreau was speaking about the great books of human history, and he's absolutely right. But how much more important is the book, or rather the library of books, that God has given to us to learn and to study and to walk in the light of. Take up the invitation this morning to devote yourself to becoming a man or woman of the Word and know Him like never before. And finally, the resurrection invites us to live for Him like never before. The resurrection is an invitation to live in the world with courage. Mary is overjoyed to see the risen Christ, but Jesus tells her this in verse 17. He says, 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. What's going on here? It's a little confusing. Jesus says, Don't cling to me, not yet, because I am ascending to the Father. The resurrection is not the final step. That's what Jesus is saying. Jesus was raised not simply to continue his earthly ministry and to continue doing what he was doing on earth, but he was raised to ultimately to ascend back to the Father and to pour out his Holy Spirit from heaven. Elsewhere in John, Jesus taught his disciples, another confusing passage, that it is to their advantage that he goes so that the Holy Spirit might be poured out. And that can be hard to understand. Jesus says, it is better that he ascends to heaven than for him to remain on earth. Why would that be? Intuitively we think, wouldn't it be better if you didn't have to listen to Pastor Billy every Sunday if Jesus himself were here and could teach you? But he says, no, it is better for you that I go so that the Spirit might be poured out. Why is that? Well, the simple answer is union with Christ. And it gets to the very heart of why Jesus came. He saves us not by being a good teacher, though Jesus is the best teacher. There's no teacher better than Jesus. But that's not how he saves us. He doesn't save us by just giving us the information or the wisdom that we need. He saves us not by being a good example, though he is the best example. There's no one more worthy of your imitation than Jesus Christ. But he does not save us simply by showing us how to live a good life. He saves us by joining us and uniting himself with us and uniting us to him. And the best analogy that Scripture gives to this is the analogy of marriage. To be a Christian means to be united with Christ as if in marriage. And we share in his status as the beloved children of God. And that's why Jesus now says to Mary here, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. The resurrection teaches believers that we are united with Christ, and it invites us to live in all the boldness and courage of the status that we share with Him. Imagine that you invite me to your home, and I accept that invitation, and the first thing that I do when I arrive is I walk in and I open up your fridge and I get some of your leftover pizza from last night, and I get one of your beers, and I sit down in your favorite chair, and I kick up my feet and I turn on the TV. That would be bold. That would be rather bold behavior. Some might even consider it to be rude or arrogant, totally inappropriate. Why? Because this is your house, these are your things, and I am simply your guest. But if I go to Columbus to visit my parents, uh it's totally different. I return to the house that I grew up in, and I uh the first thing that I do is I open their fridge and I and I look for their leftovers, and I and I say, Dad, where's all the beer? And I sit in their chair and I turn on their TV. It's all free game for me, and I act like that I own the place and it's totally appropriate. What's the difference? Well, the difference is my status. In your house, I have the status of guest, and so I will politely accept whatever you choose to give me. But in my father's house, I have the status of son. And as such, as such, I have access to all that he has, and I don't have to ask permission for anything. The resurrection of Christ is announcing that Jesus has changed your status. In him, we are no longer servants, but sons. In him we are given a spirit of sonship. In him we have the status of the Son of God. In him we have access to the Father and all the blessings in the heavenly places. And the resurrection invites us to lay claim to the status that we have in Christ and to live with all boldness and courage in the world. So this means that when we're struggling to make ends meet, and we don't know where the money's gonna come from or how we're gonna make it work this month, we are perplexed, but we are not driven to despair, because we know that our Father will not fail to provide for our needs if we will only trust in Him. This means that when we hit turbulence in life and when it feels like we are under God's discipline and things are falling apart instead of coming together, we can take courage because we know that God disciplines every son whom he receives, that we might share in his holiness, and that this will result in our good in the end. This means that when we have a vision to devote ourselves to a greater cause, whether it be a ministry endeavor or a business endeavor or a political endeavor or whatever it might be, but we don't know how it's going to happen. It's risky, it's bold, it's it's uh it's bringing something into the world that wasn't there before, even starting a family, we can take risks with bold faith and pray bold and big prayers before our Father. And this means that when we're being interrogated because of our association with Christ, that we need not fear, but we can trust that God will provide the words that we need in the very hour of our trial. The resurrection is an invitation. It's an invitation to seek Jesus more, because he is risen, and if you seek him, and if you seek him with all of your heart, you will find him. It's an invitation. It's an invitation to know Jesus more, knowing that as we in as we open up the Word of God, that He is speaking, and that He will teach us, and that He will establish our faith through His Word. So when all of the other things aren't there and they fail us and they fall away and we forget them, the Word of God remains forever. And it's it's an invitation to live for Jesus more with greater courage and boldness, knowing that Christ has died, that Christ is risen, and that Christ will come again. Won't you lay hold of the resurrection life that you have in him? And to this end, let us pray. Our Father, we are so grateful that the tomb is empty and that he is not here, but he has risen. And we thank you for that. And because he has risen, Lord, he is with us and closer to us than we could ever imagine. That he has poured out the Holy Spirit from heaven who now dwells within us and shapes us into the image of Christ and gives us the mind of Christ and unites us with Christ. He is in us and we are in him, united with him. And we thank you for that, God. We thank you for our Savior Jesus. Help us today to begin to grasp more all of the riches that we have in Christ and in his resurrection, and help us to press into these things, to seek him more earnestly, to know him more diligently, and to live for him more courageously. All of this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let us stand and worship together.