August 9, 2015

A hen and a pig saw a church sign announcing the sermon: “What Can We Do to Help the Poor?” The hen suggested that they feed them bacon and eggs. The pig thought about it and replied, “There’s one thing wrong with your idea: for you it requires only a contribution, but for me it requires total commitment!”

When I saw the photos a few months ago of the 21 Egyptian Christians who were beheaded on the beach in Libya or when I read stories about our brothers and sisters who are asked by Muslim extremists on threat of death, “Are you a Christian?” I wonder, “What would I do?” Perhaps we can never know for sure in advance how we would respond if we were faced with martyrdom. God would have to give special grace at that moment. But we all should be concerned about how we can deepen our commitment to Christ now so that we can be faithful to Him in this increasingly hostile world. Two minor characters in John’s Gospel, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, offer a lesson on how to deepen our commitment to Christ.

When I was in college, there was an ad for Clairol hair-coloring that had the tag line, “Only her hairdresser knows for sure.” You couldn’t tell by looking whether she dyed her hair or not. So we used to refer to certain Christians, who were quiet about their faith, as “Clairol Christians,” because only God knew for sure that they were believers.

Up to this point, both Joseph and Nicodemus had been “Clairol Christians.” Nobody except God knew that they were followers of Jesus. John (19:38) says that Joseph was “a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews.” From the other gospels, we learn that he was a prominent member of the Council (the Sanhedrin) who was waiting for the kingdom of God and that he had to gather up courage to ask Pilate for Jesus’ body (Mark 15:42). Luke (23:50-51) adds that he was a good and righteous man who had not consented to their plan and action to crucify Jesus.

We have encountered Nicodemus twice before in John’s gospel. In John 3, he visited Jesus by night, acknowledging that He was a teacher who had come from God as evidenced by His many miracles. Jesus startled Nicodemus, a Pharisee and “the teacher of Israel” (John 3:10), by saying (John 3:3), “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” All of Nicodemus’ religious activities and scrupulous obedience to the Law of Moses would not qualify him for God’s kingdom. Rather, he must be born of the Spirit.

We don’t know how Nicodemus responded to that meeting with Jesus. But in John 7, after the Pharisees were frustrated because their officers had not arrested Jesus, they scornfully ask (John 7:48), “No one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in Him, has he?” Nicodemus weakly defended Jesus by stating (John 7:51), “Our Law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?” His colleagues put him down by replying (John 7:52), “You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.” Both Joseph and Nicodemus may have been among those whom John 12:42-43 negatively refers to: “Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.”

But now, after Jesus has been crucified, Nicodemus joins Joseph in giving Jesus a proper burial. Joseph went to Pilate to ask for the body, while Nicodemus provided about 65-70 pounds of myrrh and aloes to fold in with the linen wrappings to offset the stench of the decomposing corpse. The two men took Jesus’ body from the cross, prepared Him for burial, and laid Him in Joseph’s personal new tomb, a cave near Golgotha hewn out of the rock, where no other bodies had yet been placed (Matt. 27:60; Luke 23:53; John 19:41).

So you have this odd situation where the disciples, who had followed Jesus when He was alive, and had expressed their willingness to die with Him (John 11:16; 13:37), all fled when He was arrested and crucified. It seems that only John dared to come back to the scene at the cross. But Joseph and Nicodemus, who had hesitated to confess Christ publicly when He was alive, now risk their positions on the Sanhedrin and take this bold, open stand for Christ after He has died. Although a few commentators question whether these two men came to saving faith on the grounds that John never directly states this, it seems to me that the fruit of their bold actions here testifies to their underlying faith.

So you have to ask, “Why the change?” Why did these men now come out boldly for Christ when they easily could have reasoned, “He must not have been the Messiah or He would not have been crucified”? Why risk the wrath of Pilate and rejection from their fellow members on the Council now to join what seemed to be a lost cause? Why didn’t they just shrug their shoulders and say, “Oh well, I hope that His disciples give Him a decent burial”?

I believe that the answer lies in the way that John juxtaposes the final scene at the cross (John 19:31-37) with the actions of these two men (John 19:38-42). These men had watched Jesus die and it deeply affected them. Seeing Christ crucified solidified their commitment to Him. Thanks to them, Jesus’ body was not thrown on the ash heap where they burned the bodies of other crucified men. Of course, God could have raised Jesus from the dead even if He had been burned to ashes. But then we wouldn’t have the evidence of the empty tomb, which had been secured by the Roman guard. So God used these two men’s late, but costly, commitment. The application for us is:

Looking on the crucified Christ deepens our commitment to Him.

First, let’s look at the crucified Christ; then we’ll look on the commitment that results from looking to Him.

1. A look at the crucified Christ: He died to provide a full salvation in fulfillment of prophecy.

Note three things:

A. Jesus died.

Maybe you’re thinking, “Well, duh! Of course He died!” But that seemingly obvious fact has been denied down through the centuries. Late in the first century, Docetists denied that Jesus was truly a man. They asserted that He only seemed to be a man. Thus it only seemed that He died. Mohammed, whose knowledge of Christianity came through Docetist sources, wrote in the Quran (Sura 4.156), “They did not kill him, neither did they crucify him; it only seemed to be so.” (D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John [Eerdmans/Apollos], pp. 623-624, footnote 3) Note the devastating impact of false teaching, with over a billion Muslims today believing that fatal error! More recently there have been attempts, such as Hugh Schonfield’s, The Passover Plot, to revive the theory that Jesus didn’t die on the cross; He just swooned and was placed in the tomb, where the cool air revived Him.

But if Jesus didn’t die, then He didn’t atone for our sins. If He didn’t die, then He was not raised from the dead, which means that our faith is worthless and we are still in our sins (1 Cor. 15:17). If Jesus didn’t die, you have to throw out the entire gospel record, which is the only eyewitness testimony that we have about Jesus.

John establishes the fact of Jesus’ death in three ways. First, in John 19:31 he reports: “Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.” It was a “high Sabbath” because it immediately followed the Passover. Deuteronomy 21:22-23 states that if a man was condemned to death and hung upon a tree, his corpse should not hang on the tree overnight so as not to defile the land. So the Jews wanted these crucified men’s bodies removed from the cross so that they would not defile their land at the same time that they had crucified an innocent man who was, in fact, their Messiah!

So, Pilate gave the order to break the crucified men’s legs, which would result in quick death. If you’ve ever hit your shin hard on something, you know how painful it is. Well, after these men had already suffered for hours on the cross, the soldiers would come and shatter their shins with a heavy mallet, disabling them from using their legs to push up for another gasp of air. The shock and pain of the broken legs along with the lack of air would quickly result in death. So the soldiers smashed the legs of the two thieves, who were on either side of Jesus, but when they came to Jesus they saw that He was already dead and so they did not break His legs (John 19:33). They would not have ignored Pilate’s orders unless they were absolutely certain that Jesus was, in fact, dead.

The second way that John shows that Jesus was dead is that he reports how one of the soldiers, presumably to make sure that Jesus was dead, pierced His side with a spear, resulting in blood and water gushing out (John 19:34). Medical experts disagree on exactly what happened (Carson, p. 623, cites the two most common theories), but it’s obvious from the flow of blood and water that Jesus was dead before the spear thrust. But even if He hadn’t already died, this spear thrust would have finished the job. It wasn’t a minor puncture wound—it left a scar large enough to put your hand into (John 20:27)! John (19:35) underscores his eyewitness testimony of the truth of the piercing of Jesus’ side: “And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe.”

The third way that John proves that Jesus was dead is that Joseph and Nicodemus prepared Him for burial by wrapping His body with linen and spices (John 19:40). If there had been the slightest evidence of breath or of a pulse, they would not have continued with the process. So we can be certain that Jesus died and was buried, which are essential to the gospel we believe in and proclaim (1 Cor. 15:3-4).

B. Jesus’ death provided a full salvation.

Jesus’ death was unique among all human deaths that have ever occurred because Jesus was unique. As fully God, His death satisfied God’s righteous requirement. As fully man, His death atoned for human sins. He paid in full the debt for the sins of His people (Matt. 1:21). As He proclaimed just before He expired (John 19:30), “It is finished!” The Greek word means, “Paid in full.”

But also, John wants us to think about the significance of the flow of blood and water from Jesus’ side as it relates to our salvation. Through his eyewitness testimony to the truth of this event he wants us to believe (John 19:35). Beyond the fact that the flow of blood and water certify Jesus’ death, John, who loves symbolism, most likely wants us to think about the symbolic meaning of this. But the problem is, commentators differ on what it means. The most common suggestion from Chrysostom on has been that the water represents baptism and the blood represents the Lord’s table, but most modern commentators view that as reading something foreign into the text (Carson, p. 624).

It is more likely that the blood and water point to the eternal life and cleansing that flow from Jesus’ death (ibid.). J. C. Ryle (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels [Baker], p. 331) believed that John had in mind Zechariah 13:1, “In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.” That verse occurs just five verses after Zechariah 12:10, which John (19:37) quotes with reference to the piercing of Jesus’ side. So the blood refers to the fact that Jesus’ blood cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). The water also pictures cleansing, as well as eternal life and the Holy Spirit (John 4:14; 7:37-39; Carson, p. 624). Several beloved old hymns express this. William Cowper wrote,

“There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.”

Augustus Toplady’s “Rock of Ages” put it:

“Let the water and the blood,
From Thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure;
Cleanse me from its guilt and power.”

Fanny Crosby sings,

“Jesus, keep me near the cross;
There a precious fountain
Free to all, a healing stream,
Flows from Calv’ry’s mountain.”

The important thing is that you don’t just say, “That’s interesting,” and move on without being moved. Jesus’ death on the cross should be real and personal for you! John testifies that he saw the blood and water flow from Jesus’ side, and he reports it “so that you also may believe.” Through the blood of Jesus there is a full pardon for all the sins of everyone who puts his or her trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Before we move on, there is one more thing to note in looking at the crucified Christ:

C. Jesus’ death and burial uniquely fulfilled prophecy.

Although Jesus’ crucifixion must have been a horrifying sight, especially for those who knew Him and loved Him, John wants us to know that God sovereignly ordained it. He uses even the wicked to fulfill His purposes (Acts 4:27-28). John has already shown this in his narration of Jesus’ crucifixion (see my previous message), but he continues to drive home this point.

First, he writes (John 19:36), “For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, ‘Not a bone of Him shall be broken.’” John is probably combining three Old Testament Scriptures: Exodus 12:46 & Numbers 9:12, which prohibit breaking the bones of the Passover lamb; and, Psalm 34:20, which refers to God protecting the righteous man from his enemies breaking his bones (Andreas Kostenberger, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament [Baker Academic], ed. by G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson, p. 503). It’s significant that these soldiers who were under orders to break the legs of the crucified men would skip Jesus, who was in the middle! Even when they saw that He was dead, it would have been normal for them to break His legs, too, so that they didn’t get in trouble. But God sovereignly prevented the soldiers from obeying their orders so that Jesus would fulfill Messianic prophecy!

Also, a soldier thrust his spear into Jesus’ side, probably to make sure that He was dead. He wasn’t under orders to do this; it was just something that he did on a whim. But John (19:37) points out that this fulfilled Zechariah 12:10, “They shall look on Him whom they pierced.” That prophecy will have its final fulfillment when Jesus returns (Rev. 1:7), but it had its initial fulfillment here. It also fulfills Isaiah 53:5, which says that the Suffering Servant “was pierced through for our transgressions.”

The third prophecy that Jesus’ burial fulfilled was Isaiah 53:9, “His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, …” Normally, a crucified man’s body would be left on the cross until the vultures had eaten it and then taken down and thrown on the ash heap called Gehenna. But because God always accomplishes His purpose (Isa. 46:8-11), Jesus was buried in this rich man’s tomb. One writer (cited by J. C. Ryle, p. 344) observes that Jesus was rich twice: once at His birth, when the wise men brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh; and again, at His death, when He was buried in the rich man’s tomb.

So looking at the crucified Christ should lead us to commitment because He died for our sins to provide a full salvation and He is the fulfillment of God’s prophetic promises. God planned every detail of His death and resurrection for our salvation. Let’s look briefly at …

2. The commitment which results: It costs you rejection, your religion, and your riches.

Salvation in Christ is free, but costly!

A. Commitment to Christ costs you rejection.

By burying Jesus, Joseph and Nicodemus would have incurred the wrath and rejection of the other Council members, who would have viewed them as traitors. Their reputation with the influential men of Jerusalem was ruined because they now identified with this despised, crucified Galilean.

Commitment to the crucified Christ will also cost you rejection. People don’t mind if you say that you admire Jesus as a great moral teacher. They’re okay if you say that He is a way to God. But when you say that Jesus was crucified for sinners and that He is the only way to God, you will feel their rejection: “Are you saying that I’m a sinner who needs a Savior?” That’s offensive! Prepare to be rejected.

B. Commitment to Christ costs your religion.

The Jewish leaders wouldn’t set foot in Pilate’s dwelling so as not to incur defilement for the Passover. They wouldn’t dare touch a dead body, especially during the Feast of Unleavened Bread! But Joseph walks into Pilate’s presence to ask for Jesus’ body and then he and Nicodemus defile themselves by preparing that body for burial. In so doing, they lost their religion, but they gained Christ!

By “religion,” I’m referring to those who are scrupulous about outward appearances, but don’t deal with God on the heart level (see Mark 7:1-23). Religious people are fastidious about cleaning the outside of the cup, while inwardly they are full of sinful self-indulgence (Matt. 23:25). Religious people do things to look good before people, but they don’t come to Christ as needy sinners to receive mercy and to live in holiness on the thought level. To be committed to Jesus Christ, you’ve got to give up religion and replace it with reality with God.

C. Commitment to Christ costs your riches.

Both Joseph and Nicodemus were fairly well off. To bury Jesus, Joseph had to give up his personal tomb (remember, he wasn’t expecting the resurrection!). Nicodemus supplied a lot of costly spices for Jesus’ burial. If both men later joined the early church in Jerusalem, they may have been among those who sold their properties to provide for the needy saints (Acts 4:34-35). Jesus made the radical claim (Luke 14:33), “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.” God doesn’t just own a tenth of your income; He owns it all!

So commitment to Christ is costly. But, do you gain anything?

3. The gains of commitment to Christ: What you lose temporally you gain eternally.

Joseph and Nicodemus were rejected by the Jewish leaders, but by confessing Christ on earth they gained eternal acceptance in heaven (Matt. 10:32-33). They lost their rules-keeping religion, but they gained an eternal relationship with the risen Savior. They lost their earthly riches, but they gained treasures in heaven. Remember Jesus’ words (Matt. 16:25-26): “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Conclusion

Of course, there are also temporal benefits that accompany commitment to Christ. Peter said Jesus (Mark 10:28), “Behold, we have left everything and followed You.” Jesus replied (Mark 10:29), “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.” There may be persecutions, but the Lord always takes care of His children!

So to deepen your commitment to Christ, meditate often on His death for you. Isaac Watts captured it well:

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Application Questions

1. What is your biggest hindrance in seeking to be fully committed to Jesus Christ? How can you remove it?
2. Consider the words of missionary C. T. Studd, who gave away a fortune to follow Christ: “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” What does the Lord want you to sacrifice for Him?
3. Missionary martyr Jim Elliot wrote: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” If you haven’t done so, read Elisabeth Elliot’s, Shadow of the Almighty.
4. Some Christians are needlessly abrasive and insensitive towards unbelievers. Where is the balance between tactfulness and boldness in our witness (see Col. 4:2-6)?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2015, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

August 23, 2015

The current “Voice of the Martyrs” magazine tells about a 13-year-old Nigerian boy who was critically wounded during a January 28th attack on his village by the Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram. They slashed his head with a machete, hacked at his left arm, cut out his right eye, and cut off his genitals. Thankfully, he only remembers the first slash of the machete to his head. But although he is permanently disfigured and has to carry around a catheter bag that collects his urine, the boy is full of joy in the Lord. He wants others to know that Christ can get them through any trial if they will embrace God and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

That remarkable boy has the joy and hope in the midst of overwhelming trials that we all need, although few of us experience it. I confess that often I’m prone to complaining even about minor trials. So I need—we all need—joyous hope in the Lord to sustain us through our trials. We need hope that faces reality, not hope in wishful thinking or positive thinking. We need hope that sustains us in the most difficult times.

The news of Jesus’ resurrection brought hope to people who were overwhelmed by despair and grief. You can hear the deep disappointment in the words of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Concerning the crucified Jesus, they said (Luke 24:21), “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.” “We were hoping ….” But their hopes had been dashed.

The disciples were engulfed by gloom. They had left everything to follow Jesus, pinning all of their hopes on Him as the Messiah. But now, He was dead. On top of the shock of watching Jesus’ grisly death on the cross, Peter was wrestling with his own failure in denying the Lord. All of the disciples were guilty of abandoning Him and fleeing in fear.

We also see grief and despair in the tears of Mary Magdalene. The Greek word used to describe her weeping means loud, uncontrollable wailing. She was despondent that not only had Jesus died, but now she thought they had taken away His body so that she could not give Him a proper burial.

It was to people overwhelmed by such a dark cloud of grief that the fact of Jesus’ bodily resurrection broke in with life-changing hope. The fact that Jesus is risen and ascended into heaven, soon to return for His own, can break into your life with genuine hope in the midst of your worst trials, if you will learn the lessons from this true story.

It’s significant that Mary Magdalene was the first person to whom Jesus revealed Himself after His resurrection (Mark 16:9). She was not an especially important person, and she was a woman. In that culture, women were not considered reliable witnesses in court. You would think that the Lord would have picked maybe Peter, James, or John as the first witnesses of His resurrection. Or if it was a woman, I would have thought that He would have picked His mother, Mary, or perhaps Mary of Bethany, who anointed Him just before His death. But Mary Magdalene was first.

That fact is even more arresting when you recall that Mary had a rather seamy past. Jesus had cast seven demons out of her (Luke 8:2). Seven is the biblical number of perfection, so perhaps we are to understand that Mary was under the total domination of satanic power. While there is no biblical evidence for the commonly held notion that she had been a prostitute, we can surmise that a woman under demonic power did not have a squeaky clean past. Jesus had rescued her from a horrible life of sin.

The fact that the Lord revealed Himself first to Mary Magdalene shines a ray of hope for every person struggling with sin and guilt. If the Savior rescued this insignificant, demon-possessed woman from her life of sin and chose her to be the first witness of His resurrection, then He can save you from your sin and use you to serve Him! This story teaches us that…

Sorrows are turned to hope when we seek the risen Savior.

The background of the story is in verses 1-10. Mary had been to the tomb and discovered that the stone was taken away. She ran to Peter and John and excitedly reported (John 20:2), “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” Peter and John immediately ran to the tomb. John got there first, but just looked in. In his usual blustery fashion, Peter entered the tomb and discovered the grave clothes without Jesus’ body. Then John went in, saw, and believed that Jesus was risen (John 20:8). But Peter went away still pondering what had happened (Luke 24:12). But neither man understood yet from the Scriptures that Jesus must rise from the dead (John 20:9). After viewing the empty tomb, both men returned home.

Meanwhile, Mary Magdalene had come back and she remained by the tomb, weeping. She wanted to find Jesus, although at this point she was just trying to find His corpse. In her thinking, someone had added insult to injury by robbing the grave.

In this state of confusion, she stooped and looked into the tomb, where she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet of where Jesus’ body had been lying. They asked Mary (John 20:13), “Woman, why are you weeping?” (Dr. S. Lewis Johnson observed that even angels are puzzled by women’s tears!) Jesus repeats the same question and adds another (John 20:15), “Whom do you seek?” Neither Jesus nor the angels asked those questions to gain information! Rather, they wanted Mary (and us) to think about the implications of those questions, because in doing so we will learn how seeking the risen Savior will turn our sorrows into hope. So let’s explore these questions:

“Why are you weeping?”

1. We weep because of sorrow, but we need to process these sorrows in light of Jesus’ resurrection.

The point of this repeated question was to get Mary to process her sorrow in light of the fact that Jesus was now risen. Yes, watching the crucifixion had been horrific. You have to work through the emotional shock of such an event. But, Mary was now weeping from sorrow because the tomb was empty, whereas that fact should have caused her to weep for joy! Mary’s experience reveals three reasons why we often go through sorrow, which we need to process in light of Jesus’ resurrection.

A. Disappointments and misunderstanding cause sorrow, but we must process them in light of Jesus’ resurrection.

Mary was deeply disappointed, first by the shock of the crucifixion, but now by the fact that she wanted to finish embalming Jesus’ body. She was thinking, “If only I knew where they laid Him, I could finish embalming His body!” But she didn’t understand the big picture, which included Jesus’ resurrection.

So often, we’re just like Mary. We’re disappointed because we don’t understand the big picture of what God is doing. We’re disappointed because God isn’t working as we think He needs to work. It seems that His promises aren’t true! But from God’s perspective, we’re asking the wrong questions and trying to accomplish the wrong tasks! We need to process our disappointments in light of the risen Savior’s love and care for us. We often don’t understand His sovereign perspective.

B. The evil deeds of evil men cause sorrow, but we must process these deeds in light of Jesus’ resurrection.

Mary thought that evil men had triumphed over God’s sovereign purposes. They had killed Jesus and now they had stolen His body. Twice she laments (John 20:2, 13), “they have taken away my Lord….” It’s an ironic complaint. If He is the Lord, no one could take Him anywhere without His consent! If God gives His angels charge to guard His Messiah in all His ways (Ps. 91:11-12; Luke 4:10-11), then surely God would not permit the crucifixion and then allow the body to be stolen against His sovereign will.

We often suffer needless sorrow because we forget that God is sovereign and that evil men can’t do anything to thwart His eternal purpose. I realize that some horrible atrocities take place. I’m not denying the emotional struggle of working through the aftermath of those atrocities if you or your loved ones are the victims. Often, we will not understand in this lifetime why God allowed such suffering to take place. But there is no comfort apart from the facts of God’s sovereignty and Jesus’ resurrection. If those facts are true, then someday God will work it all together for good (Rom. 8:28). Although evil men crucified Jesus, they were only inadvertently fulfilling God’s sovereign purposes (Acts 4:27-28).

C. The death of a loved one causes sorrow, but we must process it in light of Jesus’ resurrection.

Of course we grieve when we lose a loved one. In many cases, we will feel the loss every day for the rest of our lives. It’s not wrong to weep over such losses (John 16:20). But the Bible says that although we grieve, we do not grieve as those who have no hope (1 Thess. 4:13). The hope that Jesus is risen and that He is coming again to take us to be with Him and with our loved ones who have died in Him, comforts us through our tears (1 Thess. 4:14-18). While we may never understand why God allowed a loved one to die, we can know that the risen Savior has a greater purpose and He sympathizes with us (John 11:1-15, 35). Whatever our loss, we must process our sorrow in light of the sure fact that Jesus is risen and thus His promises are true! Those promises give us hope in our sorrow.

Perhaps the risen Lord is asking you the same question that He asked Mary: “Why are you weeping?” Maybe, like Mary, you’re inclined to think, “That’s a dumb question! Lord, don’t You see what they have done? I’m weeping because they….” The Lord gently says, “Wait a minute! The tomb is empty because I have risen. Now, why are you weeping?”

But, there’s a second important question that the risen Lord asks Mary (John 20:15): “Whom are you seeking?”  He asks it even before she has a chance to answer the first question, because the answer to why she is weeping is found in the answer of whom she is seeking.

2. If we will seek the crucified, risen, and ascended Savior, He turns our sorrows into hope.

Clearly, Mary was seeking a dead Lord (John 20:13, 15). Her love for Jesus is commendable, but really, what good would it have done for Mary to haul off Jesus’ dead body and add a few more embalming spices? A dead religion that dresses up the corpse of a dead prophet is worthless! Only a living Savior who has triumphed over the grave offers hope for our sorrows.

A. We seek the crucified Savior.

Mary knew that, of course. But she had forgotten that Messiah’s death was prophesied in the Scripture hundreds of years before He came. Isaiah 53 predicted in miraculous detail Jesus’ death as a lamb led to the slaughter. It says (Isa. 53:5-6), “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”

David is equally explicit in Psalm 22, which begins with the haunting words that Jesus cried from the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” It goes on to describe in detail death by crucifixion, hundreds of years before that was a known means of execution.

Jesus Himself said that He came to this world to lay down His life for His sheep (John 10:11-18). If you do not know Jesus Christ, crucified for your sins, you do not know Him at all. You must come to God as a guilty sinner and trust in Jesus as the only perfect sacrifice. If you trust in His shed blood, God will forgive your sins because of what Jesus did on the cross.

B. We seek the risen Savior.

Just as the Scriptures predicted that Jesus would die, so they predicted His resurrection. In Isaiah 53, the prophet goes on to tell of how the One who was pierced through for our transgressions would also divide the booty with the strong. A dead Messiah who stayed in the grave could not do that! Only a risen Savior could.

In Psalm 22:22, after describing death by crucifixion and talking of God’s deliverance, Messiah proclaims, “I will tell of Your name to my brethren.” Only a risen Savior could do that! Note Jesus’ words (John 20:17), “go to My brethren ….” It is significant that this is the first time Jesus refers to the disciples as His brethren. Why did He do that? Clearly, He said this to fulfill Psalm 22! He is telling Mary to proclaim to His brethren that God has not left Him in the tomb. He is risen and He will ascend to His Father!

C. We seek the ascended Savior.

Jesus told Mary (John 20:17), “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” This verse raises difficult questions that I can only touch on here: Why does Jesus ask Mary to stop clinging to Him, when He accepted the touch of the other women on resurrection morning (Matt. 28:9) and He invited Thomas to touch Him a week later (John 20:27)? Why does He mention His ascension? Merrill Tenney explains (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. by Frank Gaebelein [Zondervan], 9:191),

He was not refusing to be touched but was making clear that she did not need to detain him, for he had not yet ascended to the Father. He planned to remain with the disciples for a little while; she need not fear that he would vanish immediately. Ultimately he would return to God, and he urged her to tell the disciples that he would do so.

So He was signaling a new relationship with Mary and with His disciples: “After I ascend, you will have My presence spiritually, but not physically.” He didn’t leave the grave to stay with them on earth, but so that He could ascend to the Father where He would intercede for them and ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit. But the fact that Mary was clinging to Jesus shows that He was not a phantom. He was raised bodily from the dead and He ascended bodily into heaven, and He will return bodily in power and glory.

Note also that Jesus both links and yet distinguishes His relationship with the Father and theirs. Jesus by nature is eternally the Son of God, whereas we are only sons of God by adoption. By His incarnation as the Son of Man, Jesus could call the Father, “My God.” We can only do so by grace through faith in Christ as our Mediator. But, in our deepest sorrows, it is a great comfort that we have access to the Father through our risen Lord Jesus Christ!

These two questions, “Why are you weeping?” and “Whom are you seeking?” raise two further questions. First, “What results from seeking the risen Savior?” The answer to this question is stated in my second main heading, and so I include it here:

D. When we seek the risen Savior, He turns our sorrows into hope.

At first, Mary didn’t recognize Jesus, but mistook Him for the gardener. We aren’t told why she didn’t recognize Him. Perhaps, like the two on the Emmaus Road, God prevented her. Or, perhaps it was because she wasn’t expecting to see the risen Lord. But Mary’s gloom was turned to joy when the Lord spoke one word: “Mary!” Her eyes may not yet have recognized Jesus, but her ears knew that voice speaking her name! Jesus said that He is the good Shepherd, who calls His sheep by name. He knows each one and they know Him (John 10:3-5, 14, 27). He still seeks individuals. He still calls His sheep by name. You can take your sorrows to Him and have a private audience with the good Shepherd who knows your name. He can sympathize with all of your sorrow and pain!

And, He calls us His brethren! As I said, this is the first time Jesus has called the disciples His brethren (fulfilling Ps. 22:22). But it’s helpful to note that when He sent this word to them, they were still reeling from their failure and guilt. Peter had failed most prominently, but all the disciples had abandoned Jesus and fled in fear. Although Thomas is the most well-known for his doubting, all the disciples ridiculed the early reports from the women about the resurrection (Luke 24:11). Yet it was these men that had failed and sinned that Jesus calls brethren. When they heard that word from Mary, I can imagine them asking, “What did He call us?” When she affirmed it, their sorrow would have been turned to hope.

Perhaps in your sorrow, you have doubted or even denied the Lord. If you will seek Him as Mary did, you will hear Him call your name and your sorrow will turn to hope.

Finally, “How shall we seek the risen Savior?”

3. Seek the risen Savior honestly, diligently, personally, and obediently.

A. Seek the risen Savior honestly.

Don’t try to cover your tears or get yourself together first. Mary didn’t. Jesus knows your every struggle. Come to Him just as you are: misunderstanding, tears and all.

B. Seek the risen Savior diligently.

Mary was the first at the tomb and she stayed after everyone else had gone home. She diligently sought Jesus because she loved Him. The Savior rewarded her desire to find Him. Later, Thomas was not with the other disciples when Jesus appeared, so he had to wait a week. Probably, he was too depressed to be around others, but he missed seeing the Savior. Maybe you’re depressed, but don’t let that keep you from showing up where you might find the Savior. Seek Him diligently and you will find Him.

C. Seek the risen Savior personally.

Note verse 13, “my Lord.” The closeness of Mary’s fellowship with Jesus comes through in the way she recognized Him the instant He spoke her name. The only way you will ever find hope in your sorrows is to seek Jesus personally. There is no group plan. Your mate’s seeking Him won’t do for you. You must seek Him yourself. You don’t have to be anyone special—maybe just a demon-possessed girl from an insignificant town—for Him to save you and turn your sorrow into hope.

D. Seek the risen Savior obediently.

He isn’t an Aladdin’s genie, to meet your every wish. He won’t necessarily solve all your problems the way that you think He should. He is the Lord. He commands and His servants must obey. When Jesus told Mary to stop clinging to Him and go to His brethren, I’m sure that she would rather have stayed right there with Jesus. We don’t know whether He vanished before she left, but if He didn’t, it would have been difficult to obey His command. Leave this encounter with the risen Savior to go to a bunch of depressed men who wouldn’t believe her anyway? But, Mary obeyed.

Often, when you seek the Lord, He will not grant your request directly. Instead, He will command you to do something you may not want to do at first. But as you obey Him, He will turn your sorrow into hope.

Conclusion

During World War II, a secret message got through to some American prisoners in a German concentration camp that the war was over. But it would be three more days before that word got to their German captors. During those three days, nothing changed in terms of their hardships in the prison. But their attitude changed from despair to hope. They knew that soon they would be released because the Allies had won the war.

Whatever your sorrows or trials today, you can have hope because Jesus won the victory over death. He has risen and He asks you the same questions that He asked Mary: “Why are you weeping?” “Whom are you seeking?” If through your tears, you will seek the risen Savior honestly, diligently, personally, and obediently, He will turn your sorrows into hope.

Application Questions

1. How can we know whether our grieving is proper or excessive? Where are the limits (biblically)?
2. Some attempt to comfort the grieving by saying that God was not sovereign over the tragedy. Why does this false teaching rob us of comfort, rather than give us comfort?
3. Why does everything in the Christian faith rest on the bodily resurrection of Jesus (1 Cor. 15:12-19)?
4. When we have failed the Lord badly, how can we be assured of His forgiveness and restoration?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2015, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

In this second look at 1 John 5:10-12, Pastor Daniel continues to relay the great importance of a person deciding what they will do with the revelation about Jesus. He states, “Your entire life—present and future—is shaped by how you respond to the testimony of God concerning Jesus Christ.” With a look at two “characters,” Christian and Doubter, he illustrates the two journeys people can be on as they consider who Jesus is. Christian believes with an ongoing faith that affects all of his life into eternity. Doubter does not believe in Christ and makes God out to be a liar, and the negative consequences of this doubt are just as consequential as that of Christian. There is a call in this passage to escape death and judgment through faith in the One the Father has sent to be the Savior of the world.

Summary by Seth Kempf, Bethany Community Church Staff

Does God answer prayer? What happens if we are/are not faithful in prayer? This subject is one of the most challenging for believers to understand. For many, it is also one of the Christian disciplines that is hardest to practice. Perhaps that is because we don’t know how to answer the question, “Will it matter in any way if I do or don’t pray?” Pastor Daniel acknowledges the challenges surrounding the doctrine of prayer, but also puts forth a charge that followers of Jesus need to hear. Agreeing with John, he states, “We must pray with confidence that God will answer your prayers. Praying with confidence is the only way to live as you are called by God to live.”

Summary by Seth Kempf, Bethany Community Church Staff