April 4 2021 Easter - Jesus Ushered in The New Creation

All the troubles will pass in the blinking of an eye! We thank You for that. Through the death of Jesus, You are satisfied with us. You see Jesus when You look at us.

John 20:1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.

Mary plays a key role. All 4 gospels have her as the first to show up at the tomb. That is significant. Rarely do actual details make it into all 4 gospels.

Mark and John both leave out Christmas! There are many stories like that – so it is important she is mentioned several times.

Mary had had seven demons cast out of her according to Luke’s gospel. She would have been an outsider in the religious world. In tradition – she is the one who, in Luke 7, weeps to wash Jesus’ feet.

As we go through this gospel of John, I talk about the importance of reading this as a narrative – the story of God – His creation – the redemption of creation – and

The narrative of the Bible – it all points to Jesus. He is the center of the Bible. Everything should be read looking forward to that – and then from Acts 1 on, it should all be read looking back to Jesus and His death and resurrection.

You will see themes and patterns that will be fulfilled and come to their climax in the death and resurrection. There are a bunch here, but we will only look at a couple.

Jesus fulfilled.

The first day of the week.

What comes to mind – when we see that? Page 1 of the Bible – the creation story! Jesus dies on the 6^th day – rests on the Sabbath – and then, on the first day of the week, Jesus is raised – it is a whole lot more than that – such theological significance – the old creation is being done away with when Jesus walks out of that tomb. Something brand new is being ushered in. The old has passed.

When we started John 1 – the Word was in the beginning – all things created by the Word. In Genesis 1 – the Word created all that – and then, the Word became flesh – and He is the prototype of the new creation – the firstborn of creation.

He is what we will become – radically different. We will be us – but radically different at the resurrection.

The second thing – Using Mary – He elevates the status of women in the Bible.

Genesis 1 – the first thing Eve does is eat the forbidden fruit. She is portrayed in a negative model at points, throughout the Bible.

Then here, we have Mary as the first woman of the new creation – the first to believe the resurrection – the first to be ‘saved’ as we would say.

The first Christian to walk the face of the earth! And she is portrayed positively – exemplary – a great reversal of all things that takes place on Easter Sunday.

This changes everything about humanity – the way we should live and treat others – this unbelievable equality.

² So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"

³ So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. ⁴ Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in.

John’s gospel is written as an apologetic – the people are going through persecution – and john is trying to encourage them to remain faithful to Christ – and the Jewish leaders – (initially, the Jewish Christians were being kicked out of the synagogues) – and so he is bringing in two witnesses – and men, as women’s testimony was considered unreliable – even though Mary had the most reliable testimony.

⁶ Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, ⁷ as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. ⁸ Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.

What did they believe? Mary’s story that the body was gone – as we’ll see from the next verse.

⁹ (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) ¹⁰ Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

The disciples are focused on the physical, natural, temporal…

Wine/spiritual wine

Birth/natural birth – spiritual birth

Woman at the well – natural water – Jesus is talking spiritual.

They are thinking the body is stolen – not thinking about the possibility of the resurrection.

¹¹ Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb ¹² and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. ¹³ They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him."¹⁴ At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

So first – Mary does not understand – and no one understands until Jesus opens their eyes and reveals himself to them. That is how faith works – it is given by God – and then we must receive it.

It is not something we try to ‘work up’ or convince ourselves. And with that – we cannot ‘convince’ someone else – it is given by God and we are to receive it.

¹⁵ He asked her, "Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means "Teacher").

So Jesus opens her eyes by calling her by name! She says her name – “I am the good shepherd – I know my sheep, I call them by name and when they hear, they know my voice”!

We know His voice. There are all kinds of voices that speak into us – we don’t (normally!) hear them audibly (maybe we do!) – but Jesus wants us to know His voice.

As we go through this story, it is a story of intimacy.

Another interesting thing – not an accident – humanity is originally placed in a garden – and Jesus’ tomb was known as a garden tomb. Adam was the ‘gardener’ – Jesus is the second Adam (Paul says). And Mary calls Him the gardener.

This is a reversal of the curse.

After Adam and Eve sinned – the ground was cursed. With the resurrection – this all began to change! The curse has been lifted – and it is just a matter of Him coming back again for us to be able to experience it.

¹⁷ Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "

What Jesus is doing – Mary had lost Him – and Jesus has to explain a few things! There is some theological stuff – Mary is wanting the moment, but something bigger must happen.

There is no time – Jesus says – urgent mission – go to the brethren – tell them! Brothers. Earlier He called them friends. He is making us, in some ways, equal with Him. We have become family with God. The Incarnation, the death, and resurrection – have changed our relationship with God. There is this incredible intimacy being communicated to Mary about His relationship to us.

¹⁸ 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.

Hebrews 2:11 ¹¹ For indeed he who makes holy and those being made holy all have the same origin, and so he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, ¹² saying, "I will proclaim your name to my brothers; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you. "Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he likewise shared in their humanity, so that through death he could destroy the one who holds the power of death (that is, the devil)

Again – He is not ashamed to call us brother and sister. When we enter into God’s presence – we enter as part of this family – as Jesus’ brother – His father and our father – His God and our God.

Romans 8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

John 20: ¹⁹ On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" ²⁰ After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. ²¹ Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." ²² And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.”

He reassures them – they are in fear. If they come after Me, they will come after you! They are in fear – and Jesus says – PEACE! I am here – and I will be with you through everything – and since He sent His Spirit – we know He is with us in the worst situations we face. We need to know His presence in our lives.

When He speaks with Mary – He uses family language –and now He is using language of partnership. Like a partner in a business. We own a piece of this, in one sense. It is not just God up there telling us what to do and how to do it – but the Holy Spirit in us partnering with us. We are, from the beginning, He told the first two humans – care for this creation – it is your responsibility – I give You reign – and God gives us reign over His kingdom. He trusts us to do His work!

If you have a boss who doesn’t trust you – and looks over your back over the time – well, that doesn’t go so well!

But God trusts us to do His work on this earth – that should excite us.

²⁴ Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. ²⁵ So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."

That’s how we all are – so many choose not to believe. We can’t be too harsh – known as doubting Thomas through history! But not one believed until Jesus revealed Himself to them.

²⁶ A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!“ ²⁷ Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."

(And Thomas has got to be like, “How did He know about that one?!”)

From the beginning, Jesus has been trying to answer – WHO IS JESUS – and Thomas is the first to answer:

²⁸ Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!" ²⁹ Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

For the audience John is writing too, few had witnessed anything of this. Most had seen none of it. Your believing – having not seen – and all of us are in that realm – are blessed because we believe and have not seen.

³⁰ Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. ³¹ But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Why is the book written? That you may believe – and by believing – may have life in His name.

What to take away? The word life comes up – eternal life – not just living forever – but a quality of life – and yes, forever – but living forever, unless it is the quality God is speaking about might not be a good thing! Getting back to the garden! Had to be put out, lest they eat of the Tree of Life.

Quality – The true relationship with God – the highest quality – a relationship where what we know is that we are forgiven.

We had our grandson for four days this week – soon to be 5 – you love to see them arrive… and I won’t repeat the other part! But what was so cool – after a 5-year-old episode, it is easy for grandma and grandpa to love! It is so much harder to love your own kids! But for him – there is nothing he could do so bad that we wouldn’t love him! And that is how God is – and He proved it at the cross.

Second: We are no longer under the domain of evil – all defeated at the cross

Third – we have been restored as new creatures

Finally – He has removed from us the fear of death and given us eternal life.

The past year has been a year of fear and death – and in the resurrection – there is no longer any sting or fear in death because we have an eternal hope – and it goes way beyond any kind of life we have here.

Lord, thank You for this Easter morning – You are risen, indeed. As we go off to be with family, and other things – may the hope of the resurrection go with us always – that is why we are Christians – not just to do good stuff on earth – but we have this hope.