Sermons – Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN

John 20:30-31 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

I thought for quite a while about how to handle this passage. One option was to lump it in with either the previous or subsequent passages. It’s only a small handful of words and it covers topics that I’ve hit on many, many times throughout our time in John’s Gospel. I’ve come back to this purpose statement over and over. Another option was to simply mention it and then come back to it when we get to its twin (21:25).

The more I thought about it, however, the more I became convinced that I needed to preach on it, by itself, now. I became convinced for two main reasons. First, we’ve been in a heavier/weightier portion of John’s Gospel for a long time. Week after week, the tone of the text was dark, treacherous, frustrating, somber, urgent, grievous. Even in John’s description of Jesus’ resurrection, there wasn’t much joy. It was mostly filled with confusion, doubt, and sadness. Relatedly, the second reason I became convinced it is a good idea to preach these two verses now is because they are absolutely bursting with glory; subtle glory, embedded glory, but awesome, divine glory nonetheless.

Combined, we’ll get a significant change of tone and a chance to drink deeply of the glory of Jesus and rejoice in its implications for us. In this, my prayer is that the weary saints among us will gain strength, unbelievers will see that Jesus is the greatest treasure, bored kids will be amazed, fearful believers will find courage, and the joy of the joyful will be amplified and released into the world.

With that, if you have ever felt like you were drinking out of a wide-open firehose during my preaching, today might make that feel like a trickle. We’ve spent most of our time in John going a mile deep and an inch wide. This morning we’re going to go an inch deep and a mile wide. Grab a sermon outline and buckle up.

The big idea of this passage is that John explicitly states the reason he wrote his Gospel: To describe Jesus’ signs, in order to convince his readers of Jesus’ nature, in order that we might receive life by believing in Jesus. Let me say that one more time in a more accurate way. John wrote his Gospel to describe Jesus’ (miraculous, never-before-seen, from-God) signs, in order to convince his readers of Jesus’ (awesome, unequaled, infinitely glorious, incalculably gracious) nature, in order that we might receive (abundant, eternal, full, resurrection) life by believing (in His name as an act of God’s sovereign grace). The main takeaways are to consider Jesus’ signs, believe in Him and have life, and share all of that with others that they too might believe and have life.

Our passage opens with a curious line. John wrote, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book…”. Several questions immediately came to mind when I first read this. Why leave out most of the signs? What kind of signs did John record and what kind did he leave out? If there were many others that he didn’t even bother writing down, what does that say about the ones he chose to include?

As I pointed out in the beginning of our time in John’s Gospel, in the most basic sense, there are two main sections to John. They’ve often been referred to as “The Book of Signs” (1-11) and “The Book of Glory” (12-21). The first section got its name from the prominent way in which John recorded seven of Jesus’ (many) signs.

The key to this is that when John wrote, “Now Jesus did many other signs…which are not written in this book…” that’s in contrast to the seven he did record. We’ve already considered them all in detail as we came to them in the Gospel, but there’s something powerful about reconsidering them all at once. As I mentioned, there’s strengthening, treasuring, amazing, courage-building, joy-amplifying glory in them.

Jesus first sign, which John makes sure to explicitly name as His first sign (2:11), was in miraculously turning the water in a half dozen stone water jars into the best wine (2:10) at a friend’s wedding. John concludes his retelling with these words, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him” (2:11).

Be amazed, Grace, the disciples were still figuring this out. They were still pretty confused. Their belief was still tenuous. But we have the benefit of the indwelling Spirit, John’s inspiration and insight, and the rest of the Bible to help us see what this means: Jesus is uniquely and awesomely glorious and we ought to believe in Him because of that.

Jesus’ second sign is found in chapter 4. There he heals the terminally ill son of an official in Capernaum. All by itself that is, of course, miraculous. But the fact that Jesus healed him with only a word, without even going to the boy is more glorious still.

Again, John concludes by noting that the official, “believed, and all his household” (4:53).

The third sign is recorded just a few verses later in chapter 5. Jesus traveled from Galilee (the place where he met with the official) to Jerusalem (about 80 miles). While there He found a “multitude of invalids” (5:2) who were waiting around a pool, superstitiously believed to possess healing powers. The desperate belief was that the first person to get into the pool after it was “stirred up” (probably some kind of bubbling spring) would be healed (5:7).

One of the men by the pool, John wrote, had been an invalid for thirty-eight years (5:5). Jesus walked right up to him and asked him if he wanted to be healed. In essence, the man said, “Of course, but everyone else always beats me to the pool, so what hope do I have?”

At this, Jesus simply said, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk,” and the man did so immediately (5:11). Thirty-eight years of false hope overcome with eight monosyllabic words. What glory—strengthening, treasuring, amazing, courage-building, joy-amplifying glory!

Just one chapter later we find the fourth sign. Because large crowds had witnessed Jesus’ earlier signs, they were eager to be near to Jesus. Because of this, Jesus went up on the mountain on the side of the sea of Tiberias and looked down at the “large crowd [that] was coming toward Him” (6:5).

Curiously, He “tested” Philip by asking him, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” (6:5). Philip was understandably confused. And in his confusion, all he could think to do was to mention a boy with five loaves of bread and two fish. How ridiculous, right? Why even bother reporting such a thing considering the fact that there were possibly upwards of 15,000 people there (6:10)?

Undeterred, Jesus commanded His disciples to “Have the people sit down” (6:9). In Gideon-like fashion, Jesus drew attention to the fact that He was about to do the impossible. In a way that would leave no doubt, He took the five loaves and two fish, gave thanks for them, and then fed the entire crowd with them until every single person “had eaten their fill” (6:12) with twelve baskets of leftovers to spare (6:13).

And again, John concluded by commenting on the response of the people, “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’” (6:14). What glory!

In the very next passage John wrote of Jesus’ fifth sign, walking on water. Amazed and tired, Jesus disciples went down the mountain to the Sea of Tiberias, and “started across the sea to Capernaum” (6:16-16), in the dark (6:17), without Jesus (6:17), into strong wind and rough water (6:18), and rowed several miles (6:19), before becoming frightened (6:19), not at the dark or the storm, but at Jesus walking on the water toward them (6:19)!

Who is this Man? What is this sign? What does it mean? What is this glory?!

As he’s done with each sign, John again described the reaction of those who witnessed it. After Jesus spoke words of comfort to them, “Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going [which sounds an awful lot like another sign]” (6:21).

Sixth, in chapter nine, John wrote of Jesus healing a man who had been blind from birth. In typical fashion, Jesus healed the man in the least likely way imaginable. He did so yet again in order to leave no doubt about the miraculous nature of the healing and to magnify His glory. How did He do it? With spit-made mud, of course! “He spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’…So he went and washed and came back seeing” (9:6-7).

What’s more, even more mysteriously and miraculously is the fact that in some way, the man’s lifetime of blindness was ordained by God so “that the works of God might be displayed in him” (9:3). John reports that the man’s neighbors were confused (9:8-12), his parents were defensive and afraid (9:18-23), the Pharisees were obstinate and angry (9:13-34), and he was converted and filled with worship (9:38). Glorious signs!

Finally, and most miraculously yet, Jesus’ seventh sign is found in chapter 11, at the end of The Book of Signs.

In a city called Bethany, Jesus had three dear, beloved friends; two sisters and a brother, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Lazarus became deathly ill and his sisters sent word to Jesus who believed He could help.

Again, in order to leave no doubt as to the miraculous, glorious, never-before-seen glory of Jesus’ work, Jesus did two things. First, He waited two extra days before going to visit Lazarus, so that Lazarus would have been dead four days by the time He got there (11:6, 17). And second, of Lazarus’s sickness and death, Jesus explicitly said to His disciples, “It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it” (11:4) and “For your sake I am glad that I was not there [before Lazarus died], so that you may believe” (11:15).

When Jesus did, finally arrive at Lazarus’s tomb, He commanded it to be opened (11:39) and “lifted up his eyes [, prayed to the Father,] and said, “Lazarus, come out” (11:41-43). And the dead man obeyed!

As a result, “Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him” (11:45), but the chief priests and Pharisees “made plans to put him to death.” (11:52).

My uncle had a saying that he’d use regularly when I was growing up. When he was impressed with a guy, he’d say something like, “Bill has forgotten more about cars (or construction or hunting or engines or whatever) than I’ll ever know. His point was that what made a man praiseworthy was not only that what you knew about him was beyond your ability, but more significantly that he knew a lot more than you even knew he knew.

This is that. Jesus’ “seven signs” are beyond anything any of us have ever seen (individually, and all-the-more collectively). The thought of Him having done many others that John didn’t even have space to write down ought to take our breath away.

Weary saints, find strength. Unbelievers, tremble at this glory. Bored kids, be amazed. Fearful believers, find courage. Joyful Christian, get turbo charged.

But why did John record the few signs he did? We find the answer in the next clause.

30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe…

You may remember that there are two main categories of “belief” in John’s Gospel. Distinguishing between the two is absolutely critical. Everything is at stake in the chasm between believing and BELIEVING. Or, as we’ve come to describe it, between “unbelieving belief” and “true belief”.

Unbelieving believers absolutely believe things about God. Some are true and some are not. Unbelieving believers believe they believe. Unbelieving believers are almost always genuinely unaware of any disbelief in themselves. The defining characteristic of unbelieving believers, though, is that there is at least some aspect of God’s nature or will that they would reject if they understood it. At its core, then, unbelieving believers don’t actually believe in the One True God as God commands, but in a god of their own making and on their own terms.

Unbelieving believers are all over John’s Gospel. Perhaps, the clearest example is found at the end of chapter 6. After describing the nature of true belief in some of His most explicit terms yet, “When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?’” (6:60).

In reply, Jesus acknowledged that “there are some of you [His “disciples” who until that moment certainly believed they believed] who do not believe” (6:64). And as a result, “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him” (6:66).

The key for us to see here is that unbelieving belief is useless. In fact, it’s worse than useless, because the unbelieving believer, believes they believe, so they don’t know that they don’t believe, so they can’t truly believe. It’s like the person with a terminal disease who refuses to go to the doctor because they believe they are healthy. Not only are they sick, but they believe a lie that prevents them from getting the help they need to get well.

John did not record the glorious, miraculous signs of Jesus in order that his readers might become unbelieving believers. He recorded them so that they might truly believe.

Just as there is a defining characteristic of unbelieving belief, there is also a defining characteristic of true belief (two, actually). True belief is a gift from God and it is all-of-life defining. Again, we can look to the end of John six for a straight-forward explanation of what we see taught and modeled throughout the entire Gospel.

When Jesus clarified the nature of what it meant to follow Him, to believe in Him, the unbelieving believers “turned back,” but the true believers remained. Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God’” (6:68-69).

In that, Peter, on behalf of the rest of Jesus’ true followers, described the heart of true belief: Belief that knows Jesus is life, all of life, eternal life. He is the Holy One of God. There is no aspect of a person’s being, thoughts, feelings or actions untouched or unsurrendered with that kind of belief, with true belief in Jesus. True believers are always learning more about God’s nature and will. Likewise, true believers will struggle to love and live out some aspects of their belief. And yet, at every new revelation and in every struggle, the true believer cries out, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life!”

The question becomes, then, where does that kind of belief come from? Jesus answered plainly, “It is the Spirit who gives life [true belief]; the flesh is no help at all.” True belief is not something we can muster on our own. It is a gift of the Spirit of God. But who can receive such a gift. This too Jesus answered plainly, “…no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” True belief is a gift of the Spirit for those granted to Jesus by the Father.

That’s a lot to take in, of course, but the Word of God is plain. John wrote his Gospel, recording the miraculous signs of Jesus so that we might truly believe in Jesus according to the sovereign grace of God. And in that is glory in the highest!

All of that leaves us with yet another question. What, specifically, were Jesus’ signs supposed to help John’s readers believe? Again, answering that question was the point of John’s next clause.

30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God…

John wrote his Gospel so that his readers might hear of Jesus’ miraculous signs and from them believe the good news that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Almost certainly, in this context, John was using those two titles (“Christ” and “Son of God”) synonymously. His aim was that his readers would believe in Jesus for who He really is.

The Christ is the Greek (NT) word for the (OT) Messiah. In the OT, it was used to describe prophets, priests, and kings. Various men were anointed by God to fill those roles. In the NT, it is revealed that Jesus is The Prophet, The Priest, and The King. He is The Anointed one of God that all others pointed to. Jesus was uniquely able to fil this role because He is the eternally begotten Son of God.

To accomplish all that God determined the Christ would accomplish, the Christ must be truly God and truly man. John recorded Jesus’ signs in order that with God’s help, the world might see and believe that Jesus is the Christ, the only Son of God, that God promised to send. That is what true believers believe.

And by believing this, weary saints find strength, unbelievers tremble at this glory, bored kids are amazed, fearful believers find courage, and joyful Christian get turbo charged.

And that leaves the thoughtful reader with one final question: How does truly believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, because of the many miraculous signs He performed, help weary saints find strength, unbelievers tremble at this glory, bored kids be amazed, fearful believers find courage, and joyful Christians get turbo charged? Let’s look to the final clause of our passage for John’s answer.

30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God…

This key passage in John’s Gospel comes together in the simple phrase, “life in his name.” But what kind of life is found in Jesus’ name that would accomplish the things I suggested it can accomplish? For our final and largest dose of glory, consider with me the many ways in which John’s Gospel describes the nature of the life that comes by believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, as a result of considering His miraculous signs.

Grace, the life offered to those who believe in Jesus has not one, or two, or three, or five, or even ten, but fifteen facets named by John. Each one highlights some unique aspect of God’s grace in Christ. Be amazed.

In the very beginning of John’s Gospel we find that Jesus’ life is light life, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (1:4).

We see the same thing in chapter 8(:12), “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’”

The life that comes to us through believing is never in the darkness, but always in the light.

Curiously, the life that is in Jesus’ name is also drinkable life. We see this kind of life in 4:14.

4:14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

And again in 6:53, “So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.’”

As the last verse indicates, life in Jesus is not only drinkable, it is also edible. This idea is all over John 6 and is a part of Jesus’ teaching that cause many unbelieving believers to turn away and reveal their lack of true belief.

6:27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.

6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.

The life that belongs to true believers is death-passing life. That is, one of the sweetest aspects of life in Christ is that it comes to those who are currently dead in sin.

5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Jesus’ life is resurrection life.

5:28-29 …an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life…

11:25 Jesus said…“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live…”

Life in Jesus’ name is a gift from the Father and given by Jesus.

5:21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.

Similarly, it is life that is given by Jesus and that comes through Jesus. He alone was able to win this life for those who would believe in Him.

5:40 you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

And in our passage for this morning we read, “by believing you may have life in his name” (20:31).

The kind of life John wrote about is a gift from the Father, it is through the Son, and it is from the Sprit.

6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

It is life that comes by believing a message, the good news, that comes to us in words.

6:68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life…

It is no small amount of life. It is abundant life.

10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

It is a life won through sacrifice. It was not free or cheap. Jesus gave His life to win this life for all who would believe.

10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Truly, as Jesus proved, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (15:13).

It is secure life. It cannot be taken from those who truly believe.

10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

It is a life that flows from and into obedience to the commandments of God.

12:50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life.

At its heart, the life that comes to those who believe is knowing, fellowshipping with, delighting in God.

17:3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

More than anything else, though, John describes the kind of life promised in v.31 as eternal life. It is everlasting. It never ends.

3:16 God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life…

5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

6:47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish…

12:25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Grace, once again, the life Jesus came to bring is so awesome that John can only explain it by describing its many facets. No one (or ten) descriptions are sufficient. It is life of the purest and highest and richest and deepest and most significant kind. It is the fullest life.

To understand the life Jesus came to bring is to be willing to give everything to get it. And yet, it is not something we deserve, can earn, or can purchase on our own. As John makes plain in our passage, it is ours to be received as a gift of God, by believing in Jesus. And the rightness of and evidence for such belief is found in the many signs Jesus performed in the presence of many witnesses.

At the same time, to understand the life Jesus came to bring is to receive it in gladness and to share it with the world. It is too good to keep to ourselves. Share this good news, Grace. Do not keep it to yourself. Doing so is the surest sign that you do not have it yourself.

I mentioned early on in the sermon that John is divided into two main sections, The Book of Signs (1-11) and

The Book of Glory (12-21). As awesome as the things I’ve already shared are, I saved one of the most remarkable aspects of this passage for now. In 20:30-31, our passage, John merges the two sections by drawing our attention to the fact that the greatest sign of all is also the greatest glory of all. The Books of Signs and Glory are brought together in the fact that Jesus’ resurrection is His greatest sign and His greatest glory. Above all, we ought to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and be confident in the life He promised, because everything Jesus said and did was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt by His resurrection.

Consider Jesus’ signs, therefore, Grace Church. Consider all of them, but especially the sign of the empty tomb. See this strengthening, treasuring, amazing, courage-building, joy-producing glory in Jesus, believe in Him, and gain life in Him. And then run to share all of that with others that they too might believe and have life.

John 20:24-29 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although 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, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Last Sunday, in vs.19-23, we saw that Jesus’ disciples were huddled together, behind locked doors, afraid the Jews would do to them what they did to Jesus. But we also saw Jesus appear before them, commend peace to them, and commission them to continue on in His ministry.

We learn from the opening lines of our passage for this morning that Thomas was not with them at the time. John doesn’t tell us why Thomas wasn’t there, only that he wasn’t. The significance of that is quickly revealed—eight days later, the disciples were still afraid and Thomas still didn’t believe that Jesus had raised from the dead. That was about to change, however, as Jesus appeared yet again to the disciples who were huddled together behind locked doors yet again. This time, Thomas was there.

In this exchange, we’ll catch another glimpse of Jesus’ unmatched power and determination for His followers to know His unparalleled peace. In addition, we’ll catch a new glimpse of Jesus’ kindness and the kind of faith that sees it.

The big ideas of this passage are that the risen Lord is patient with His people and faith is His gift to us. The main takeaway is to identify the promises of God and fight in the Spirit’s power to believe them because Jesus has risen from the dead.

One more thing before I pray… As I mentioned in the beginning of the service, this is Orphan Sunday and our prayer is that Grace Church would continue to be a place that champions the cause of the fatherless. Therefore, although this sermon isn’t explicitly about Orphan Sunday, I’ll conclude by (1) talking about what obedience to God’s charge to care for orphans looks like and (2) rooting it in belief that has not seen. That is, I’ll wrap up this sermon by helping you to see that the kind of orphan care we’re advocating for on Orphan Sunday is rooted in the kind of faith Jesus commends in v.29.

Here’s an uncomfortable question: What’s the most obnoxious you’ve ever been? Looking back, what have you done that you can now see was absolutely insufferable? I’m fairly confident my family would tell you that a few of my top ten would involve watching MSU sports. Before DVR was a thing (and probably before a decent amount of sanctification—with a decent amount still to go), I was often hard to be around in anything other than an absolute blowout.

What we usually need most when we’re acting like that is for someone to tell us the truth and then be patient with us. I’m not sure that “obnoxious” or “insufferable” are the right words for Thomas’s behavior, but I am sure that he was not acting rightly and that truth and patience were what He needed most. Graciously, those things are exactly what Jesus extended to him and the rest of the disciples. The disciples were still afraid and Thomas still doubted, but Jesus patiently revealed the truth to them all.

As I said earlier, for reasons we’re not told, Thomas was not with the other ten disciples when Jesus first appeared to them after His resurrection. That much is made explicit in v.24.

24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came [the first time, vs.19–23].

Can you imagine going out to pick up some milk and bread and coming back to find out that you’d missed Jesus?

“Hey guys, I’m back. Did I miss anything while I was out?”

“Well…”

That’s a funny way to say it, but it is the gist of what happened to Thomas. So, when he came back…

25 …the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord…”

We probably expect Thomas to be a bit bummed that he’d missed Jesus, but ecstatic overall that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead. We have to assume that between John and Mary there was at least some discussion concerning His resurrection. Jesus’ appearance to the whole group must have been more than enough to convince Thomas that Jesus had in fact risen from the dead, right?

Well, as you know, that’s not what happened. Thomas still refused to believe. In fact, he was adamant—maybe even obstinate—in his unbelief.

25 … he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

Just as we don’t know why Thomas wasn’t with the other disciples when Jesus first appeared, we don’t know why he was so skeptical or why he didn’t believe the testimony of his friends. There is no evidence of doubt or skepticism from Thomas prior to this this (11:16; 14:5). There’s no textual explanation for why he was so committed to resurrection agnosticism.

Before moving on, let me ask… where are you like this, Grace? Are any of you saying to God, “I will never believe in you at all unless _____”? Unless you heal my mom or cure my cancer or stop my spouse from hurting me or save my child or, like Thomas, let me see you in person.

More than likely, for most of the people in this room, I imagine the skepticism is a bit more subtle. I’m guessing it’s more of a silent, implicit, I will never believe your word in this area unless _____. I will never trust you with all of my money unless I have enough of it or I will never trust you with sending my kids as missionaries unless you assure me that they will not get hurt or I will never trust you with foster care or adoption unless you guarantee that it won’t mess up my plan for comfort.

Seeds of Thomas’s doubt are in all of us. It is right, therefore, for all of us to use his skepticism as a magnifying glass into our own hearts; to look through Thomas into the pockets of unbelief in our own lives—in order that we might weed out every remaining pocket of unbelief.

The disciples’ fear and Thomas’s skepticism were palpable, but the heart of this passage is that rather than turn His back on any of them or simply leave Thomas in his unwarranted doubt, Jesus was graciously patient with them. In fact, Jesus appeared to the disciples again, seemingly, primarily for “Doubting Thomas’s” benefit. Look at v.26.

26 Eight days later…

That is, eight days after Jesus originally met with the disciples in the locked room; eight days after Jesus had commended peace to them and commissioned them; eight days after the ten had revealed these things to Thomas who missed it…

… [Jesus’] disciples were inside again…

They were not out, on their mission as they ought to have been. They were, once again, in spite of Jesus’ miraculous appearing, reassurance, and charge, huddled together.

…[This time, however,] Thomas was with them…

John doesn’t tell us what they were doing “inside”, but He does let us know that this time Thomas was gathered with the others.

…Although the doors were locked [again]…

Not only were they not yet heeding Jesus’ commission to them, to go out as the Father had sent Him out, but they also had not yet received Jesus’ peace. It seems that the fear of the Jews was still the dominant driver of their actions.

As I’ve said a few times already Grace Church, reading this passage rightly means being simultaneously convicted by the fact that the same obstinance and fear lives in us, and encouraged by the fact that Jesus has been lovingly extending this exact same grace to His fearful followers from the beginning.

I can’t help but wonder how different our lives would be if we could learn the lesson the disciples were struggling to learn here. That is, I can’t help but wonder how different things would be if we were not driven by any fear outside of God alone. What would our lives look like if we really walked in the peace that true belief in Jesus brings? And on this Sunday, I wonder how many more families would participate in foster care and how many orphans would be adopted through the people of Grace Church if we truly believed God’s promises.

I know it’s good to wonder those things because Jesus, once again in parallel with Jesus’ previous encounter with the huddled, afraid disciples…

…came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

Jesus’ resurrection meant that peace was theirs to be received. Nothing more needed to be done for Jesus’ followers to know it in the deepest recesses of their being.

It is like the poor person who has been told they have inherited a fortune, but does not yet really believe it. All of the money is already theirs and immediately available for them to use as they see fit, but they haven’t quite gotten their minds around it yet.

If the disciples were to simply believe what was already true, they would have been able to instantly let go of their fear and walk in the spiritual tranquility that Jesus purchased for them. Jesus knew this and commended it to them once again.

In case it isn’t already clear to you, Grace, that’s the case for every one of us, right now, as well. If you are a Christian, the exact same, perfect, understanding-surpassing peace () that Jesus called on the disciples to walk in is just as available and effective for us today as it was for them back then; maybe even more so since we already have the Spirit dwelling in us. Nothing more needs to be done for it to be ours. Jesus accomplished everything for us. We need simply to believe what’s already true.

But what about Thomas’s demands? He made it clear that he would not believe in Jesus’ resurrection if Jesus wouldn’t allow him to see and touch His crucifixion scars. Would Thomas relent in Jesus’ glorified presence? Would Jesus indulge Thomas’s faithless demands?

To be clear, as Paul stated explicitly in his letter to the Romans, God did not owe Thomas, nor does He owe any of us anything more than we’ve already been given.

Romans 1:19-20 …what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse…

God has revealed to everyone, everywhere, everything we need to see that He is God, that we have sinned against Him, and that we need, but don’t deserve His mercy.

Often times, therefore, God in His justice, does not give us what we demand. He is does not respond to our threats or our stubbornness. He is not moved by our ultimatums. And yet, as long as we draw breath, for both those who struggle to believe in Jesus at all, as well as those who struggle to believe in certain promises of Jesus, He is always patient with us. And sometimes, sometimes, that patience does take the form of honoring our “demands.”

This was one of those sometimes.

27 [Jesus] 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.”

It would have been entirely right for Jesus to rebuke Thomas for his pride and doubt. Instead, however, it was grace, upon grace, upon grace. Mercy, upon mercy, upon mercy. Kindness, upon kindness, upon kindness. Love, upon love, upon love. Humility, upon humility, upon humility. Patience, upon patience, upon patience.

As I said, Jesus does not always respond to our demands like this. But sometimes He does. And best of all, either way, our confidence is in the fact that it is universally for His greatest glory and our greatest good.

Grace, God’s kindness is always upon you if your hope is in Jesus. The particular form of His kindness changes continually, but the fact of it doesn’t. Believe that and know the unique and perfect peace Jesus purchased completely in His death and resurrection.

I mentioned at the outset that there are two big ideas in the text and sermon. The first big idea is that Jesus is patient. We just saw that in the way He responded to Thomas. The second big idea addresses the question of what we do with His patience. Jesus was patient with Thomas. How would Thomas respond to His patience?

Many years ago, I saw a Christian comedy sketch. In it the comedian talked about a time in his life in which he was convicted for not sharing his faith. He was afraid to evangelize. And so he prayed and asked God to put an unmistakable opportunity right in front of him.

In that way, he was like Thomas. Thomas said, “I will not believe in the resurrection unless…”. The Christian comedian said, “I will not share my faith with someone unless…”

Just like Thomas, God was under no obligation to meet this man’s demands. He already had all that he needed to evangelize and demanding more of God was not right.

Nevertheless, just like with Thomas, although under no obligation, God obliged.

The man sat down on a bus, still thinking about his prayer and how God might answer it and a bit afraid that He would, when a disheveled man sat right next to him when the bus wasn’t crowded at all. After a few moments of the comedian trying to figure out how to get away from the guy, the guy turned to the comedian and said, “My life is a mess. I need God. Can you tell me about God?”

Again like Thomas, God did exactly what the comedian said he needed. So what would he do? The punchline is that the comedian, recognizing his own faithlessness and folly, acknowledged that his first and deepest impulse was not to be amazed by God’s clear answer to his prayer, but to ask God, “If this is really from you, please turn this man into an armadillo so I can know for sure.”

The point I want to drive home as you consider that story, is one I’ve already made: Whatever we think we need in addition to what we already have is a lie. The commedian got exactly what he asked for and his response was to ask for just one more thing. Our problem is never what we don’t have, it’s always failing to believe what we’ve already got in Jesus.

The Israelites did that in the wilderness. They wanted food, so God gave them manna. No sooner did He give them that, than they decided what they really needed was meat to go with it.

If Jesus is not enough—His person and promises—then nothing will be. Unless we settle on this, apart from the Spirit’s conviction, every act of obedience we require something of God to perform will only lead to another demand for God to perform something more.

So again, what would Thomas do? Jesus gave him exactly what he asked for, how would he respond? Would he do what the comedian did (and we often do) and ask for something else, or would that truly be enough?

28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

Thomas believed! Jesus was patient and kind and Thomas believed. Indeed, in this he is a model for what true conversion and belief looks like. In that moment Thomas had eyes to see and what he saw was that which has always been true: Jesus is Lord and God. He was echoing the first words of John’s Gospel and the words of everyone who truly believes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.”

There’s just one more thing I want to highlight from this passage. It concerns the nature of Thomas’s belief. What was it and where did it come from? Jesus addresses that in v.29.

Thomas made a demand of Jesus before he would believe. Jesus graciously obliged. And true to his word, Thomas believed. But again, what kind of belief did Thomas have and where did it come from?

29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

In these few words Jesus made a subtle but important distinction that helps answer our question. Jesus spoke of (1) a kind of faith that honors Him and blesses the one who has it more and (2) a kind of faith that honors Him and blesses the one who has it less.

The kind that honors and blesses less is the kind that demands to see. And the kind that honors and blesses more is the kind that makes no such demands.

In Thomas we see the kinds that honors and blesses less. In Matthew 8 we see the kind that honors and blesses more.

Matthew 8:5-10 When [Jesus] had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, 6 “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed… 10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.

I hope the distinction between the two “kinds of belief” is easy to see in our passage and in Matthew 8. The kind of belief the centurion had simply trusted Jesus. He believed in Jesus such that he needed no further evidence or proof. That kind of faith caused Jesus to “marvel”. Jesus praised that kind of faith.

Thomas believed, and that was good, but in a way that revealed the self-attesting truthfulness of fact that God is most glorified in us when our hope is most fully in Him.

In all of this, the key is that the kind of belief that comes from sight and the kind that believes without seeing alike are always a gift from Jesus. We are commanded to work at it (Philippians 2:12), strive for it (Philippians 1:27), press on in it (Philippians 3:12), but any and every measure of genuine faith is always a gift from Jesus.

It is a gift when we first hear the gospel and believe. And every subsequent decision we make in faith is a gift as well. Again, the Apostle Paul says it well, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

The big ideas of this passage are that the risen Lord is patient with His people and faith is His gift to us. The main takeaway is to identify the promises of God and fight in the Spirit’s power to believe them because Jesus has risen from the dead.

To help you put all of this into action, we’ve done two things. First, we’ve put together a list of God’s promises (thanks to Michael) for you to fight in the Spirit’s power to believe in light of the resurrection. They’re on the back table. Please take a copy home. Please consider them carefully, pray over them, memorize them, and fight continually to live in light of them in everything and always.

And second, as I promised at the beginning, I want to close with a more explicitly Orphan Sunday application. In conclusion, then, let me say three quick things connecting the kind of faith Jesus marveled at and a right response to orphan care.

To help you put all of this into action, we’ve done two things. First, we’ve put together a list of God’s promises (thanks to Michael) for you to fight in the Spirit’s power to believe in light of the resurrection. They’re on the back table. Please take a copy home. Please consider them carefully, pray over them, memorize them, and fight continually to live in light of them in everything and always.

And second, as I promised at the beginning, I want to close with a more explicitly Orphan Sunday application. In conclusion, then, let me say three quick things connecting the kind of faith Jesus marveled at and a right response to orphan care.

God’s heart for the orphan.

Deuteronomy 10:18 [God] executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.

Deuteronomy 27:19 “‘Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

Psalm 10:14, 17-18 [God has] been the helper of the fatherless… O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear 18 to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed…

Psalm 68:4-5 Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts; his name is the LORD; exult before him! 5 Father of the fatherless … in his holy habitation.

God’s commands for His people concerning the orphan.

Deuteronomy 22:3 Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.

Isaiah 1:17 … learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless…

The relationship between orphan care and the good news accomplished in Jesus’ resurrection.

Ephesians 1:5-6 In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Orphan care is near the pinnacle of the kind of faith that has not seen. Almost every aspect of caring for the fatherless involves living by faith and not sight. How do I find a child to care for? Will they receive my love? Will they bring challenging behaviors into our home that wouldn’t otherwise be there? How will it effect my other kids? Will there be interaction with biological family? Is our family at the right place for foster care? Will this end in adoption? Will we have the resources we need?

We simply cannot know the answers to those questions on the front end, so if we are to engage in orphan care as God does and commands, it will be because we are blessed with the kind of faith that has not seen, yet believes.

Finally, then, here are a few ways to develop the kind of belief that has not seen and yet believes, and to live it out for the cause of the fatherless.

John 20:19-23 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

Good morning, Grace. Happy November and happy end of daylight savings time day. There’s no better day to consider John 20:19-23.

What we have here is yet another remarkable passage describing the immediate aftermath of Jesus’ resurrection. From it, I want to highlight seven “realities” presented in these five verses. That is, in this passage we find John describing real historical events, real fear in the disciples, real power in Jesus, real responsibility, peace, and a real Helper for the disciples, and real forgiveness for the world. As I said…remarkable!

In all these things we’ll see that our charge from Jesus is great and costly, but our help and reward are greater still. And as a result, the main takeaway is to boldly share the good news of Jesus with the world in the power of the Holy Spirit.

You may have noticed that, for undisclosed reasons, John has made it a point of emphasis to help his readers keep track of the timeline of events since just before Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. For instance, John tells his readers that…

12:1 Jesus entered Bethany “six days before the Passover”.

12:12 Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem took place, “the next day” (Sunday) after entering Bethany.

13:2 Jesus predicted Judas’s betrayal on Thursday, “during [the Passover] Supper”.

18:28 Jesus was led before Pilate in the “early morning” on Friday.

19:14 Jesus was delivered over to be crucified on the “day of Preparation of the Passover… [at] about the sixth hour” (Friday at around noon).

20:1 The tomb was empty “on the first day” (Sunday morning) “while it was still dark.”

And our passage for this morning opens with yet another time-marked event. Jesus visited His disciples “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week” (19). That is, John explicitly tells his readers that the events of vs.19-23 took place on the Sunday night of His resurrection day.

At the very least, John’s attention to chronological detail tells us that John knew he was writing about events that really happened, at real times, in real places, and among real people.

That might seem to you and me to go without saying, it might not seem like a big deal to us, but John knew, and wanted his readers to know, that he was not writing about things that were merely allegorical or symbolic or spiritual. He knew and wanted his readers to know that he was writing in genuinely historical terms about the most profound physical and spiritual truths the world has ever known.

This is critical because our sin and separation from God are such that they require more than an allegorical, symbolic, or spiritual solution. They require an actual, physical, offspring of Eve to fulfill the requirements of God that every other offspring of Eve was unable to do.

It is true that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Joel 2:32; Romans 10:13). But there is no saving grace through faith in a mythological Jesus. “Calling on the name of the Lord” means something specific.

It means believing in the God-man who really did willingly go to Jerusalem on the Sunday of Passover week, in order to offer Himself as the One True and Final Passover Lamb on Friday, to rise from the dead in victory, once for all, on Sunday morning before light, and go to visit His followers in His resurrected, glorified state on Sunday evening.

I don’t mean to suggest that people need to know the specific days and times mentioned by John to be saved by Jesus. But I do mean to say that no one is saved apart from believing that Jesus is who the Bible says He is and did what the Bible said He did.

The specific details of the opening words of our passage serve as a reminder of the reality that John was writing about real people and real events, connected to a real salvation accomplished by a really resurrected Christ.

The second reality I want to help you see is that the disciples were really afraid.

I’ve shared this before, but on the very first mission trip I ever went on, I was detained in a police station in a Middle Eastern country for handing out Bibles on a college campus. I was there for over an hour, but as far as I can tell, I was never in any real danger. No one was formally arrested. They didn’t even take our Bibles. And certainly no one was murdered. Nevertheless, after a short while, I found that fear was creeping in; a fear that lasted on some level for some days even after the event.

I relay that only to highlight the fact that with even the most benign experience of persecution, or even the most basic imagination, it shouldn’t be hard for any of us to understand the fear of the disciples.

But what, specifically, were they afraid of? John tells us that they were afraid “of the Jews” (19). In fact, he tells us that they were so afraid of the Jews that they had huddled together behind locked doors.

For John, “the Jews” (as you know if you’ve been with us throughout our time in the Gospel) usually (as in this case) refers to the Jewish leaders. They were in charge of the Temple and the synagogues and by implication, many aspects of the ordinary lives of ordinary Jewish people. They had significant religious, political, economic, and social power. As such, they could greatly influence the families, jobs, standing, and overall wellbeing of virtually every fellow Jew.

Their authority was designed by God to be a blessing to His people. They were supposed to be shepherd-guides to their countryman. They were to explain God’s laws, model obedience, and help everyone to obey. They were meant to be a critical cog in Israel’s flourishing and a key component to Israel’s witness to the nations of the unique and sovereign grace of God.

Instead, however, “the Jews” often lorded their authority over the people. Instead of using their power to bless others, they used it to bless themselves; to make themselves feel significant and comfortable. They did so by heaping additional, oppressive laws on others and by focusing on the letter of the law over and above its spirit.

The pinnacle of their misuse of their God-given power and authority had just occurred three days earlier in their orchestration of Jesus’ crucifixion. They had conspired together with the Roman authorities to unjustly put Jesus to death; the very man they claimed to be preparing the people of Israel for (the Christ God promised to send).

In other words, the disciples were afraid because they’d just seen the full weight of the wrath of “the Jews” come down on Jesus. If they could do that to the same man who had healed the sick, walked on water, fed 5000, turned water into wine, and raised people from the dead, how much easier could they do that to them?

From every human perspective, their fear was justified and so they huddled together behind locked doors in fear.

I want to go a bit out of order in order to help you feel the full weight of what the disciples in the locked room felt, and with it the full weight of what Jesus promised them. That is, I’d like to take a look at v.21 before coming back to where we left off in v.19.

As we just saw, the disciples were scared of the Jews on account of what they did to Jesus. In v.21 Jesus raised the stakes even higher, saying to them, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

There are two parts to that charge. Let’s quickly look at each.

The first part concerned the manner in which Jesus was sent. So, how did the Father send Jesus?

Jesus was sent into the world by His Father (3:17) to “do His will (6:38-39; 8:29), to speak His words (3:34; 8:28; 12:49; 14:24; 17:8), to perform His works (4:34; 5:36; 9:4), and to win salvation for all who believe (3:16-17)” (Kruse, TNTC, 375). Jesus did this in perfect obedience to the Father (5:19-30; 8:29) and in His obedience He did accomplish the salvation of the world. But, as we’ve seen, His obedience was accompanied by nearly continual, severe persecution, culminating in His public and horrific murder.

If this was all Jesus said, if this were the only part of His message to His followers, we would have an awesome picture of obedience and the costly, but efficacious grace of God. We would have a praiseworthy description of our Savior’s perfect surrender to His Father’s will in the Spirit’s power, bringing about the salvation of the world. Far from adding to the disciples’ fear, it would remind them of the rightness of their faith in Him.

It is all those things for sure, but that’s not the only part. There’s more. There’s another part to what Jesus said. “As the Father has sent me…even so I am sending you.”

The second part is the scary, the intimidating part. Jesus was sending His disciples as He had been sent.

If Jesus was sending them incognito, or to an entirely new region away from the murderous Jews, or in some other manner than the one which got Jesus persecuted, arrested, mocked, tortured, and killed, then it would be different. But Jesus didn’t send the disciples in some other way. He sent them “as the Father sent [Him].”

In other words, Jesus charged His followers to do the will of the Father, to speak His words, to perform His works, and (as we’ll see even more clearly in v.23), to offer salvation to the world, in the power of the Spirit. They were to obey God and proclaim the good news of Jesus, no matter the cost. Even if it cost them their comfort and lives, as it did Jesus, they were being sent as the Father sent Jesus.

The disciples were afraid that the Jews would come after them just because they’d been associated with Jesus in His life. And now Jesus was charging them to go out and preach the same good news of the Kingdom of God that got Him alienated, threatened, rejected, betrayed, and killed.

If they were afraid already, being sent out among the wolves by themselves would only add to their fear, right?

Grace, as I said in the beginning, our charge from Jesus is great indeed. But the thing I hope to help you see throughout the rest of this sermon is that the real fear of the Jews in light of Jesus’ charge was for the disciples in our passage just like Mary’s weeping at the death of Jesus.

As we saw last week, if what Mary believed about Jesus had been true, her tears would have been right. But Mary was wrong, which meant that her tears were misguided as well.

In the same way, if what the disciples believed to be true about their circumstances was true (that “the Jews” had defeated Jesus and would soon, easily defeat them as well), then their fear and cowering would have made sense. But, just like Mary, the disciples were wrong and, therefore, so was their fear.

The Jews had not defeated Jesus. Jesus willingly handed Himself over to them. Far from securing His defeat, their treachery was merely a tool in Jesus’ redeeming hand. He was not crushed by their putting Him to death, He gained perfect and eternal victory over death through it.

In other words, as Jesus was about to reveal to those huddled in the locked room, Jesus’ power was infinitely greater than anything “the Jews” could even imagine, let alone anything they actually possessed. To be among Jesus’ sheep, therefore, was to always be in the most secure place possible. Not even death could defeat Jesus and He promised the same for His followers.

That’s a part I left out. As the Father sent Jesus meant not only persecution and death for obedience. It also meant resurrection life. Jesus was sending His followers out in a way that would be dangerous, but also in a way that would certainly end in eternal life!

This is a critical lesson for us. Trusting Jesus means heeding His words to the “ruler of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe’” (Mark 5:36). It is true, as we sing, that Jesus’ promises to all who believe are such that we ought to always “Be still and remember the worst that can come, but shortens our journey and hastens us home…Though trouble and anguish increase all the more, they cannot compare to the glory in store. Come joy or come sorrow, whatever befalls, the light of the Savior will outshine them all.”

And so, we too are sent as the Father sent Jesus, to do the will of the Father, to speak His words, to perform His works, and to offer salvation to the world, in the power of the Spirit. We too are to obey God and proclaim the good news of Jesus, no matter the cost. Even if it costs us our lives, as it did Jesus.

May we live in faith, in the Spirit’s power, in increasing measure because of what we see here in these real events.

Real events in history, real fear in the disciples, and real responsibility for the disciples. That’s a lot. They knew that they had hope of a resurrection, and that’s a really big deal, but what about in this life? How would they—and how will we—possibly remain faithful in such a high calling in the face of such opposition?

In answer to those questions, we find the final four “realities” in our passage: The real power, peace, and Helper of Jesus, along with the offer of real forgiveness for the world. That’s a lot of help on the way to sharing in Jesus’ resurrection.

The first and main reason the disciples need not have feared, and the reason we need not fear today, is because Jesus’ power surpasses all the rest.

The greatest example of all, of course, was Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. And yet we have an example of the same power that raised Jesus at work in our passage.

John made sure to note the detail that the disciples were hiding out in a room with “the doors being locked” (we’ll see the same thing in v.26). In addition to testifying to the fear of the disciples, it also testified to the power of Jesus. Locked doors might have been able to keep “the Jews” out, but they couldn’t even slow Jesus down.

…the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them…

The disciples were going to be hunted by the Jews as they obeyed Jesus’ commission, but their mission, their lives, and their eternal lives alike were all in the hands of the One who had real, total power over death and… door locks.

You need to play in a best ball golf tournament, but your partner is Scottie Scheffler.

You need to build a house, but Norm Abram is your contractor.

You need to write a symphony, but Bach will help the entire time.

You need to paint a beautiful painting, but Rembrandt will be holding your brush.

You need to fight a war, but the world’s greatest generals are on your side.

You need to share the gospel with a hostile world, but the resurrection power of Jesus is with you always.

Our charge from Jesus is great and costly, but our help is greater still.

The first help we saw was the reality of Jesus’ unmatched power. The second help is the reality of the peace Jesus gives.

Again, our passage opens by noting that the disciples were in hiding because they were afraid of facing the wrath of the Jews. Jesus knew that, of course, and so the first words He spoke to them were, “Peace be with you” (19).

Do you remember Isaiah 53:5? “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”

Of all the words Jesus could have said, “Peace be with you,” must have had a special kind of sweetness. When combined with the very marks of peace promised by the prophet, the scars on His hands and side, “Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.” Jesus’ first peace blessing for His disciples was received as they saw the cost of His obedience.

But that wasn’t all. We also need to remember that Jesus immediately upped the cost. He gave them peace and then immediately “threatened” that peace by charging them to go out among those who would seek their harm.

The disciples were afraid as they imagined the Jews’ animosity toward them. And then they found genuine relief as Jesus presented Himself and His wounds of faithfulness to them. And then there must have been a renewed sense of fear as He commissioned them to go back out into the world.

Therefore, for a second time, in anticipation of a rekindled fear, Jesus reiterated His blessing, “peace be with you” (21).

He knew what they were feeling and why. He knew what awaited them. And He knew they were afraid and confused and restless because of it. But He also knew what they needed most in that moment—the peace of God. And so He blessed them with it.

The third help Jesus offered to his fearful disciples was another promise of the Holy Spirit.

They were afraid, they would be more afraid. It was hard and it would get harder. But Jesus real power, peace, and Spirit would be with them as they took the gospel into the world. We see this in v.22.

22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

There are a few things to note from this verse. First, it’s received a lot of attention from biblical scholars over the years (along with the next verse). Many interpretations have been offered. I’ll share with you in a minute the one that I think is by far the most likely.

A second thing to note is that the words, “on them,” are not in the original. Literally, John wrote, “And when He had said this, He breathed [no ‘on them’] and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.” In other words, the nature of Jesus’ breathing is probably more explicitly symbolic that it sounds in our ESV.

And a third thing to note is that the disciples’ actions from this point until the day of Pentecost look nothing like their actions after Pentecost. That’s significant because one of the most common interpretations of this passage is that this is John’s version of Pentecost. This fact alone seems to me to eliminate that possibility.

These things combined help us to see that in this gesture (“He beathed”) and charge (“Receive the Holy Spirit”), Jesus was almost certainly reminding His disciples of the promise He’d already made to send the Helper, the Holy Spirit (John 14:26; 16:8-14).

In v.22, Jesus charged His followers to receive the Spirit gladly when He came (at Pentecost). For the Spirit’s work was to give Jesus’ fearful followers all the wisdom, remembrance, strength, conviction, glory, and peace they needed to obey as Jesus commanded.

In this interesting exchange, Jesus was acknowledging the fear of the disciples and promising even more help for their time of need. And so it is for us, Grace. We too have the Holy Spirit in us if our hope is in Jesus. And the Holy Spirit’s work in us is the same—wisdom, remembrance, strength, conviction, glory, and peace—for all who obey Jesus’ commission. Share the gospel! But as you do, do not rely on your own wisdom or strength, but on the Spirit who gives truth and power.

Finally, let’s consider v.23.

23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

On the surface, it sounds like Jesus was giving His disciples the ability to forgive the sins of others and to keep others from having their sins forgiven. That is, of course, not what this means.

It is similar to what Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 16:19, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

In both Matthew 16 and v.23 of our passage, Jesus’ promise was to work (binding and loosing, forgiving and withholding) through the work of His followers. There are three textual clues that help us know this.

First, the context (of v.23) is Jesus’ sending of His disciples as He’d been sent by the Father (to do the will of the Father, to speak His words, to perform His works, and to offer salvation to the world, in the power of the Spirit). In other words, the promise of v.23 is connected to the Spirit’s help of v.22 and Jesus’ commissioning of v.21.

Second, while, interestingly, this is the only time the forgiveness of sins is explicitly mentioned in John’s Gospel, there are a number of other examples of sins being unforgiven (8:24; 9:41; 15:22, 24; 16:8-9; 19:11). The key is that each time unforgiveness is mentioned, it is in connection to unbelief in Jesus. Unforgiveness always flows from unbelief (and forgiveness from belief).

Third, to get a little technical, the verb tense in the two key clauses (“they are forgiven” and “it is withheld”) is a “divine” perfect, passive. That indicates that it is God working (to forgive or withhold forgiveness) through the work of the disciples. Again, this is the same in the church discipline passages of Matthew 16 (and 18).

In light of these three things, one commentator concludes, “This supports the view that the way in which the disciples forgive sins and retain sins is by preaching the good news and declaring the effects of believing it (forgiveness) and rejecting it (no forgiveness)” (Kruse, TNTC, 377).

In other words, Jesus taught in v.23 that when the disciples preach the gospel, they offer God’s forgiveness. And when they withhold the gospel (refuse to proclaim it), they withhold God’s forgiveness.

All of this means that the fourth and final help, and the seventh and final reality of this passage is the promise of an effective ministry. As Jesus’ followers obeyed His commission, in light of Jesus’ power, in Jesus’ peace, and with Jesus’ promised Spirit, God would rescue His elect out of the world through their ministry.

And again, this is the case for you and me today. We give ourselves to proclaiming the good news of Jesus to the world. We do it. We share the truth in love. We take risks. We press on and persevere. We take courage. And God uses all of that to forgive His people; even as He uses our silence to withhold forgiveness.

God is sovereign over all things and He has sovereignly chosen to use our obedience (or disobedience) to our commission to forgive (or withhold forgiveness) the world of sin. What a promise. What responsibility. What grace. What help.

In this passage we find John describing real historical events, real fear in the disciples, real power in Jesus, real responsibility, peace, and a real Helper for His followers, and real forgiveness for the world through our ministry.

In all these things we see that our charge is great and costly, but our help and reward are greater still. And as a result, the main takeaway is to boldly share the good news of Jesus with the world in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Interestingly, one of the ways we do this is by taking Communion together, for when we do, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He returns (1 Corinthians 11:26).

John 20:11-18 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, “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.

There are two things that continue to stand out to me in John’s account of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The first is the lack of doctrine in it. The Gospel of John as a whole contains a good deal of doctrine, but that faucet short of shuts off during the most doctrinally significant part of the whole story. More than once, John pointed out that certain events surrounding Jesus’ death and resurrection were the fulfillment of the Scripture, but he does not explain why any of this matters; he doesn’t tell us what any of this means. For the most part, John just tells us what happened with very little commentary on its significance.

The second thing that continues to stand out is the confusion and uncertainty of Jesus’ followers. No one seems to understand what happened or what to do. They seem continually confounded and a bit chaotic. In our passage, Mary talks to angels unaware. She even talks to the resurrected Jesus and confuses Him for a gardener.

Combined, these two things might conspire to keep us from seeing the unparalleled glory and grace bursting forth into all creation at Jesus’ resurrection. If this is all we had, we’d probably be left with our eyes wide in amazement, but also scratching our heads in confusion at its significance instead of being filled with awe and wonder and conviction and repentance and worship as we ought. In other words, without even more help from God, we’d almost certainly look a lot like Mary at the beginning of this passage.

But once again, Grace, let us thank God that we do have more help from God. We do have the rest of John and the rest of the Bible to interpret and explain the doctrinal significance of these things for us. We do have the Spirit of God dwelling in us as Jesus’ promised.

As we continue to make our way through to the end of John, then, let us do so carefully (making sure to understand John’s Gospel as he wrote it), biblically (making sure to understand how John fits into the rest of the Bible), practically (making sure to live in light of the truths John taught), and prayerfully (making sure to lean not on our own understanding and strength, but on that which God so richly provides in His Son and Spirit).

This sermon has three main parts. We’ll consider what Mary expected, what she found, and what she did. In so doing, we’ll see that there are three big ideas in this passage. First, because God’s ways are higher than our ways, what we expect from God and what we get are not always connected. Second, the ability to see things (especially spiritual things) as they truly are is always a gift from God. And third, Jesus is risen from the dead! The main takeaways for us are to pray and trust—pray for spiritual eyes and trust God’s invisible promises.

Mary returned to Jesus’ empty tomb (after being the one to first find it empty and then going to get Peter and John). She still had no idea why Jesus’ body was missing. But she still loved and trusted in Jesus and so she “stood weeping outside the tomb” (11).

All she could imagine was tragedy. All she could imagine was that someone had added to her already overwhelming burden (of seeing Jesus crucified) by stealing the body of Jesus with bad intentions.

I said this last week, but I believe it’s worth repeating: We must learn from the fact that Mary was weeping unnecessarily. Her grief was real and it would have been appropriate if what she believed to be true were true. But what she believed to be true, as she was about to find out in spectacular fashion, was not true.

Godliness means being on guard for this at all times on two levels. First, it means constantly reminding ourselves that we rarely know as much as we think we do. On our very, very best days our perspective is staggeringly limited, but we are constantly tempted to think and act otherwise. And second, it means knowing that the promises of God stand above every trial, no matter how bitter. Even if we are right in our perspective on a hardship, Jesus’ resurrection means that we need never despair.

Stuck in the midst of misguided expectations, resulting from a misguided perspective, Mary cried outside of Jesus’ tomb. The way John reports the story, it seems that for the first time, in the midst of her weeping, it occurred to Mary that she had never actually looked into the tomb. The impression we’re given is that when she first got there, she was so surprised to see the stone removed that she ran away before giving the grave an even cursory inspection. Naturally, then, “as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb” (11).

Keep in mind what we were just told about the contents of the tomb. Remember that John and Peter had just inspected it and found it empty of everything but Jesus’ burial clothes and face covering. Of course, therefore, we expect Mary to find the same thing when she looked in. How could it be otherwise?

I don’t want to push what I’m about to say too far, but I do think there’s something worth mentioning here, before considering what Mary actually found. It is a dangerous thing to presume to know God’s grace-distribution schedule. It is pure hubris to believe God’s ways are our ways or that we know the mind of God.

The grace God had for Peter and John on Sunday morning was not (as we’re about to find out) what God had for Peter and John later that day. The grace God had for Mary during her first visit to the tomb was not (as we’re about to find out) what He had for her on her second. Likewise, the grace God had Peter and John was not (again, as we’re about to find out) what He had for Mary.

There was no earthly reason for Mary to expect anything other than what John and Peter saw or what she found the first time she was there, but God is not bound by earthly reasoning.

Practically, this is what I mean: Obey God expectantly, Grace. Obey God expecting amazing grace in your quiet times even if you’ve received ordinary grace in the previous one hundred quiet times. Evangelize expecting God to save your friend even if you’ve had a hard time discerning God’s grace at all the previous ten times. Come to Sunday morning worship expecting God to stir your heart and convict you of sin even if you were distracted and things were ordinary last week. Come to DG expecting God to unify and grant sweet fellowship even if that hasn’t been your experience lately. Expect God to unite your family and establish generational faithfulness through family worship even if it has seemed like none of your kids hear a word.

As we’re about to see in Mary’s experience, our perspective on God’s past grace is not a reliable indicator of God’s future grace. We are called to obey in simple, childlike faith, not because we know what the specific outcome will be from our obedience, but because we trust God’s Word and God’s promises no matter what things look like from our limited perspective.

It’s not clear exactly what Mary expected, but it is clear that it was only more bad news.

What, then, did Mary find when she looked into the tomb through tear-filled eyes? She found angels and then she found the resurrected Jesus Himself! Be amazed, Grace.

Instead of seeing Jesus’ folded grave clothes and nothing else like Peter and John did…

12 … she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.

We don’t know for sure the amount of time between when John and Peter went into the tomb and when Mary looked in, but even if we did, the presence of the angels cannot be explained by anything other than the sovereign, miraculous grace of God. God intended Mary to have this unique encounter in a way that was reserved for her at this specific moment in time.

What Mary expected and what she found were two very different things. Once again, don’t miss the significance of this, Grace. Be humble and obey expectantly.

So what did the angels do?

13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”

The angels, messengers from God, knew why Mary was weeping. They had been sent precisely because she was weeping at a time in which she ought to have been rejoicing. Why, then, did they ask a question that they already knew the answer to? They asked her in order to help her see what they saw; to learn what they knew. They asked her in order to help her recalibrate her expectations to better line up with reality.

We might expect Mary to be shocked or amazed or even scared. Instead, seemingly without any awareness that she was in the presence of heavenly beings…

She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”

Mary just couldn’t get off the track she was on. And in that is a critical lesson that I hope will become even clearer if I end up preaching through Ecclesiastes next: It is the default human tendency to process reality as if everything were “under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). That is, we’re all prone to what the Puritans called “functional atheism.” We often act as if the “laws of nature” alone govern our universe rather than the God from whose nature all reality proceeds.

That’s what Mary was doing here. Angels in white, sent from God, were talking to her and Jesus (as we’ll see in the next verse) was standing behind her, but she was still thinking only in terms of under-the-sun, earthly explanations for Jesus’ missing body. Despite the unparalleled glory surrounding her, nothing but what could be explained with worldly logic crossed her mind.

It is easy for us to scoff at Mary, isn’t it…or at least to raise an eyebrow at her cluelessness? It is easy for us to marvel at her thick-headedness and lack of spiritual perspective. It’s easy to wonder how she could possibly have missed seeing what was right in front of her. But we’re missing a significant measure of grace in this passage if we don’t quickly recognize that we are every bit as scoff-worthy, thick-headed, and spiritually blind.

How many times have you prayed for some hardship to end only to find out later that God was using the hardship to do a far greater work than whatever you asked for or imagined? How many times have you missed the mighty work of God in your life? How many times have you thought only in terms of what you could understand? How many times have you acted as if God were not with you in a time of need?

Grace, God is real and always, always, always working in a billion invisible ways at all times for His glory and our good. That’s why we pray. That’s why we place our trust in God’s promises. That’s why we live by faith and not sight. Believing that is what makes us fundamentally different from agnostics, atheists, and unbelieving believers. Living by faith in God’s Word and His invisible promises is infinitely safer and better than living by trust in our senses and interpretations.

Angels asked Mary why she was crying and, oblivious to the reality around her, she explained that it was because Jesus’ body was missing and she had no idea who took it or where they put it or why they did it.

All by itself, that’s a pretty big whiff. All by itself, it’s easy to see that Mary missed something astounding. But, as you know, Mary wasn’t only missing the presence of angels in her midst. The angels weren’t all by themselves.

For reasons we aren’t told, having finished answering the angels’ question, Mary decided to turn around. And when she did, she…

14 saw Jesus standing…

Woah! She’d missed the angels, but there’s no ways she could miss Jesus, right?! He was the very reason she was there. She was weeping at the tomb because she was mourning for Jesus, the very man standing in front of her. Nothing but joy and wonder and gratitude and amazement could be her response, right?

14 … but she did not know that it was Jesus.

She did not know it was Jesus?! How can that be? How is that possible? It’s one thing to miss an angel, but it’s something entirely different to miss Jesus, isn’t it?

Unphased by her failure to recognize Him…

15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? …

Did you notice that Jesus initially addressed her just as the angels did? He addressed her in with the generic term, “woman.” And did you notice that He also repeated the angels’ question, “Why are you weeping?” Also like the angels, Jesus knew full well who she was and why she was crying.

Jesus, however, added a new line of questioning …

15 Jesus said to her…”Whom are you seeking?” …

With this question, Jesus got even more to the point. The question, “Why are you weeping,” was simply meant to get Mary to acknowledge the true source of her sorrow—her mistaken belief that Jesus was dead and His body stolen. The question, “Whom are you seeking,” was meant to correct the mistake.

Mary was sad because of Jesus’ “absence,” but this question from Jesus was meant to reveal His presence. If His absence was the cause of her tears, His presence ought to have been the cause of her laughter, if only she had eyes to see.

Angels asked her why she was crying and she missed it. Now Jesus asked her why she was crying. Would she fare any better? She would not at, at least not at first.

15 … 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.”

Do you see, once again, what Mary’s spiritual blindness meant? Her Lord, the object of her affection and devotion, her greatest treasure, was right there. The very thing she most wanted, without even imagining it to be a possibility, was hers already. And yet, her highest hope in that moment was that someone would tell her where Jesus’ dead body was so she could properly tend to it. She couldn’t even think to ask for more than a corpse.

If ever the famous C.S. Lewis quote has an incarnation, it’s here.

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

That is us continually, Grace. Learn from Mary.

Again, Mary completely missed it, but Jesus’ next words changed everything though…

16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

A few moments ago, I asked you to consider how it was that Mary could have failed to recognize angels as angels and now Jesus as Jesus. I’ll come back that in a minute. For now, however, I want to highlight the simple fact that the only difference John reveals is that in this instance Jesus called Mary by name. No longer was she “woman.” Now she was “Mary.”

Jesus’ words from chapter 10(:27) must ring in our ears, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” John doesn’t tell us why hearing her name from Jesus enabled Mary to recognize Jesus, but it’s clear that it did.

As has been the case over and over and over, reading John well means seeing two things at the same time. It means seeing the crazy blindness of even Jesus’ closest followers. Mary had spent most of the past three years of her life following Jesus and yet she could not recognize Him standing in front of her and talking to her. That’s a startling kind of spiritual far-sightedness.

But the second thing a careful reader of John will see is that the difference between those who see and those who don’t is not merit or courage or righteousness or strength or even devotion. It is the grace of God. Jesus’ grace called Mary in the first place. Jesus’ grace enabled Mary to trust Him in His life. And it is now Jesus’ grace that allowed Mary to recognize Him in His resurrected, glorified state.

This is one of the most important biblical principles you can grasp in relation to evangelism and spiritual growth. We are all born spiritually blind and, therefore, to be converted, to initially come to faith in Jesus, requires God to give you sight. The reason the entire world does not honor God as God is because of the blinding effect of sin. Just like countless men and women throughout John’s Gospel could stand in front of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, and completely miss it, to the point that instead of surrendering themselves to Him as Lord and Savior, they crucified Him, so too do countless men and women today. If you want to see a non-Christian family member or friend trust in Jesus, pray for them to be given eyes to see what’s already right in front of them; God’s holiness, their sinfulness, Jesus’ loving sacrifice, and gracious faith offered—the gospel.

Similarly, just like Mary, who believed in and loved Jesus, but lacked eyes to see in this moment, every ounce of spiritual growth in Christians is tied to our ability to see things as they truly are. To be saved is to be given spiritual eyes to see for the first time. To be sanctified is to be given clarified vision.

The Apostle Paul says it like this in his prayer for the Ephesian Christians (1:16-19), “I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe…”.

We see a physical example of this spiritual truth in Mark 8(:22-25), “22 And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. 23 And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, ‘Do you see anything?’ 24 And he looked up and said, ‘I see people, but they look like trees, walking.’ 25 Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.”

If you want to grow in your faith, to mature in Jesus, to be sanctified, your greatest need is to see with spiritual clarity, and so we ask God for greater spiritual vision. Jesus granted this to Mary. He will grant it to you. He has promised to grant it in increasing measure to all who trust in Jesus.

More than anything else, Grace, pray for grace. Pray for ever-widening eyes and ever-clarifying vision to see that which is entirely invisible to fallen mankind apart from God’s grace. Pray for spiritual eyes to see for yourself and your brothers and sisters in Christ that we might grow in love, worship, and obedience. Pray for the eyes of the hearts of your unbelieving family, friends, and neighbors to be enlightened that they might turn to Jesus in faith. Every time Christians see more clearly or unbelievers see at all, it is because the Spirit of God is pleased to work through the Word of God; every. single. time.

Mary expected to find an empty tomb and a missing body. Instead, she found a pair of angels and the resurrected Jesus Himself. Initially, she didn’t have eyes to see any of that, but the seeing-grace of God came upon her as Jesus spoke her name. What, then, did she do? She did two things. She tried to cling to Jesus and then she obeyed Him.

Now that her eyes were opened, Mary, relieved, must have run towards Jesus in joy and relief. That’s what anyone with eyes to see does. To see Jesus is to treasure and trust Jesus. One of the most significant marks of genuine salvation is sight that leads to the desire to cling to Jesus.

And yet, for reasons that are not clear (even though Jesus sort of explained it), Jesus stopped her short, saying…

17 … “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father…”

As I said, it’s not obvious why Jesus’ future ascension would prevent Mary from clinging to Him now. Others would touch Him soon. One possible explanation is that Jesus was warning Mary not to cling to Him as if His physical presence was her greatest need. He was about to leave again permanently (in Mary’s lifetime anyway), but it was going to be better for her since the Spirit would always be with/in her (). Regardless of Jesus’ specific meaning, the main point stands that Jesus held Mary back from clinging to Him in a way she desired.

Grace, know two things here. First, your greatest longing ought to cling to Jesus. The defining characteristic of the eternal life Jesus came to bring is that in it, He will be our greatest treasure. And second, once again, like Mary, we will not experience it in fullness until God’s sanctifying work on us is complete. In the meantime, we long to long for Jesus and give thanks to God for every inch He is pleased to move us in that direction through ever-clearing spiritual vision.

Jesus stopped Mary from clinging to Him, but that is not to say that He had nothing for her. He told her instead to go and announce the good news of His resurrection and coming ascension into glory.

17 … 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 did Mary do in response to her recently clarified sight? She did the two things that everyone who can see clearly does. She tried to cling to Jesus and she obeyed Jesus.

18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.

As we’ve seen many times in this Gospel, irony is one of the most significant tools John used to highlight the unmatched glory of the events he wrote about. We have another example here. It was in the most significant symbol of death—a tomb—that Jesus revealed His resurrected life. In the grave Jesus defeated the grave. Oh death, where is your sting?!

And in that, more clearly than ever, we can see the three big ideas of this passage: What we expect from God and what we get are not always connected, the ability to see things as they truly are is always a gift from God, and Jesus is risen from the dead! Therefore, let us be a people who are marked by ever—growing trust and prayer. Trust in God’s invisible promises and prayer for the grace of God to give us eyes to see.

John 20:1-11 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. 2 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.” 3 So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. 4 Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples went back to their homes. 11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb.

John 19 covered the beating, interrogation, crucifixion, death, and burial of Jesus. All of that took place on Friday. None of the Gospels say a word about Saturday. John 20 picks up on Sunday morning, before dawn. On the third day that Jesus had been in the grave His followers were faced with the same question as they were on the first: What does it look like to live by faith in Jesus when He is dead? And even more specifically, what does it look like to live by faith in Jesus now that He’s been “dead” for three days and His body is missing? In this passage, we get to see Mary Magdalene’s answer to the first part of that question before everything gets turned upside down yet again for the second.

In other words, John 20 opens with the reader wondering along with the disciples, what’s next? Quickly, the question becomes, where is Jesus?! And in all of it we see great confusion, excitement, sadness, and wonder. It is a passage filled with emotion. It is a passage that forces us to consider carefully the empty tomb and all that it means.

The big idea of this passage is that in spite of all the OT promises and all of Jesus’ teaching, none of Jesus’ followers imagined Jesus’ resurrection as the explanation for the empty tomb. The main takeaways for us are to study the Word of God carefully and be humble.

There are five main parts to this sermon. First, we’ll revisit the main question confronting Jesus’ followers, this time through Mary Magdaline. Second, we’ll consider the confusion of Jesus’ followers when they encountered the empty tomb. Third, we’ll, briefly address the nature of John’s new belief. Fourth, we’ll look at some of the key OT passages on the resurrection. And fifth, we’ll consider the final response of Peter, John, and Mary Magdaline to the empty tomb.

First, the main question…The last time we were in John’s Gospel, we were confronted with the question of what faithfulness looks like in a time of significant trial and mystery. We saw one expression of simple devotion in the response of two of Jesus’ formerly secret disciples, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Apart from any specific command, these two men determined to express their continued trust in Jesus by giving Him a royal burial.

At the start of our passage Jesus’ disciples were still faced with that same, inevitable question, this time with two more days added. It was now Mary Magdalene’s turn to answer it.

We don’t know a lot about Mary Magdalene. We know that she was one of Jesus’ earliest followers (Luke 8), that she believed in and followed Jesus after He cast seven demons from her (Luke 8:1-2), and that she was with Jesus at His death (Matthew 27:56) and at His burial (Matthew 27:61). There’s no evidence in the Bible that she ever waivered in her devotion to Jesus. On the contrary, every indication is that she was one of Jesus’ most faithful followers.

And yet, like the rest of the disciples, she was left wondering what it meant to have faith in Jesus now that He had been crucified, died, and was buried. Like the rest, she too was without any direct command to obey. Nevertheless, in another act of simple devotion, on the third day, before dawn, Mary Magdalene decided to go to the tomb in which Jesus was buried (v.1).

John doesn’t tell us why she went there, but Mark does.

Mark 16:1 When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.

We learn from the other Gospels that Mary wasn’t sure exactly how she was going to accomplish her aim with the stone and Roman guards blocking the entrance to the tomb. All we know is that she too wanted to honor Jesus even in His death and that burden led her to His grave to anoint Jesus very early on Sunday morning.

Again, just like last time, that puts the same question before each of us? What do you do when you don’t know what to do to honor God?

What do you do when you’ve prayed all the prayers but your spouse or kids just won’t walk in godliness? What do you say to the neighbor you’ve shared the gospel with many times, but still doesn’t believe? How do you honor God when you’ve done everything prescribed by God’s Word and the person you love is still suffers from some debilitating ailment? What does it mean to walk in faith when a child who once professed faith in Jesus, now lives a life of animosity toward God despite your prayers and pleas? What does godliness look like when you want to be married but no spouse has yet come your way?

What does it look like to live by faith when you want to believe in Jesus but don’t, when you don’t know how to decide what to do after graduation, when you’ve tried everything you can to bring healing to a broken relationship, when can’t get pregnant, when your house won’t sell or can’t find one to buy, when the appetite for a sickening sin won’t die, or when you lost your job and there are no prospects in sight?

The answer is that you set your hope on God, turn your eyes to the Scriptures, and act in simple devotion. You consider God’s Word and pray the next prayer or have the next conversation or remind yourself of the next promise of God. That’s what Mary Magdaline did in seeking to anoint Jesus’ body as an act of simple devotion.

Second, while Mary wasn’t sure what to expect when she got there, she definitely didn’t expect what she found.

1 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.

She found, in the dark of the early morning hours, the entrance to Jesus’ tomb wide open. This was entirely out of place. The tomb was guarded (Matthew 27:62-66 tells us) and it would have come unsealed by Pilate himself or at the pain of death.

What could this mean?! Had Pilate authorized this? Was there a conspiracy among the guards? Had someone slipped past the guards unnoticed? There could be no other explanations, could there?!

Rather than investigate herself, Mary went running back to the other disciples, to Simon Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved (John, the Gospel writer). She said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him” (2). Mary didn’t know who “they” were, but the only thing she could conceive was that someone (whether lawfully or otherwise) had taken Jesus’ body against every custom.

On the one hand, Mary Magdalene’s confusion was understandable. Everything was moving and swirling and overwhelming. And yet, more than simply misjudging between two possibilities (Jesus body had been taken and He had risen from the dead), only one option even occurred to Mary. She never even considered the possibility of resurrection.

We are right to wonder where this level of confusion came from? How was it possible that she was so misguided, so confused, so far from even considering the thing that actually happened?

John doesn’t tell us what he and Peter were thinking when Mary Magdalene first told them of the empty tomb, but neither does he tell us that either of them corrected Mary, pointing her to the resurrection.

Again, how could they, Jesus’ closest followers, the ones who had seen and heard Him more than anyone else, have so completely misread the situation? John tells us that it came from the fact that “as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead” (v.9).

We’ll come back to that in a few moments, but it’s right to let that sink in a bit. John’s basic claim is that “the Scripture” taught Jesus’ resurrection and Mary, Peter, and John all missed it.

The big idea of this passage is that in spite of all the OT promises and all of Jesus’ teaching, none of Jesus’ followers imagined Jesus’ resurrection as the explanation for the empty tomb. And, therefore, the main takeaways for us are to study the Word of God carefully and be humble.

I don’t believe that it’s even a slight exaggeration to say that there’s a way in which virtually all our non-physical struggles in life (and even many physical ones) come from a failure to properly understand God’s Word and live it out in humility.

What I mean is that, given God’s promises, particularly the promise to be at work for good in every single circumstance for those who love Him, truly understanding God’s Word really does allow us to count every hardship as “pure joy” (James 1:2).

When we understand and believe God’s promises for us in Jesus, we really will have our hearts and minds guarded in such a way that allows us to live in a kind of fearless and unending peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7).

In the simplest terms, consider Mary’s great grief in v.11. Had she properly understood the Scripture in that moment, far from crying tears of lament, she would have been rejoicing (which she would soon do). Our lives are constantly like that as well.

That is not to say, of course, that there is no place for sadness or grief or anger. It is to say, however, that those things, properly rooted in the Scripture, will never compare to the eternal weight of glory promised by God for all who believe (2 Corinthians 4:17).

There’s one more thing I want to point out here. There is a danger in finding too much comfort in the fact that others share the same shortcomings as we do (that we suffer needlessly at times because we do not yet understand the Scripture), but there is also grace to be found there. It is significant that we are still dealing with many of the same struggles that Jesus’ followers have struggled with since the beginning. Sin does what sin does. Even in Christians, it blinds, deceives, corrupts, confuses, and misleads.

God’s sanctifying work in our souls will continue until we die or Jesus returns. Therefore, humbly, we study God’s Word, asking God’s Spirit to guide us into all truth according to the promise of God (16:13).

Third, clearly, Jesus’ closest followers were still figuring things out. With no evidence that they suspected Jesus had risen from the dead…

3 …Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. 4 Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

John, the author of this Gospel, as you know, was almost certainly “the other disciple,” “the one whom Jesus loved”. Not only was he the one whom Jesus loved, but he was also the one who beat Peter in the only NT footrace. And not only was he loved by Jesus and faster than Peter, but both of those things are forever preserved in the Word of God.

I have no idea what that means if it means anything beyond the obvious, and you probably wouldn’t believe some of the attempts serious scholars have made at interpreting the “spiritual meaning” of v.4, but I laugh every time I read it. I doubt that there’s supposed to be humor here, but I can’t help imagining myself telling the story exactly like this—Dave, Jesus’ favorite disciple, and Jack were running to meet Jesus and Dave won.

Whatever else all of this might mean, the main point is that John and Peter were able to confirm the empty tomb that Mary Magdalene reported.

Once there, John…

5 …stooping to look in, saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.

Quick on John’s heels, but with less restraint,

6 …Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself.

Once again, many elaborate but (to me at least) unconvincing suggestions have been made concerning the meaning of the description of the state of Jesus’ burial clothes. What all agree on, however, is that rightly interpreted, they leave absolutely no doubt about the fact that Jesus left death behind entirely. Jesus not only rose from the dead, He gained complete victory over death. One who can never die again has no need of burial clothes.

John (“the other disciple”) eventually entered the tomb as well and, curiously,

8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed

This is strange, isn’t it? (Not that John repeated the fact that he beat Peter in the race, but that) the passage says that John “saw and believed.” John already believed in Jesus, didn’t he? Isn’t that why he followed Him for years? Isn’t that why he was at the tomb in that moment? If so, what did it mean that “he saw and believed”.

The answer is that in that moment John saw the empty tomb and the burial clothes and gained some measure of understanding and belief that Jesus had risen from the dead. We know from the very next verse (“for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.”), from what he did in response (v.10), and even more from Luke 24 (more in the final point) that there was a much greater level of understanding yet to come. Nevertheless, John tells us that he believed in Jesus’ resurrection on some level at this moment.

That too ought to be a tempered encouragement to us, Grace Church. The Christian life, no matter how humbly we seek to understand and live out God’s Word, is always marked by growing belief. Often our belief grows imperceptibly and sometimes, as with John here, it grows in a significant leap. Sometimes, as one pastor says it, the Holy Spirit can cause our belief to grow so much that it almost feels like we weren’t even saved before.

When I first got married and got into ministry and became a parent, I certainly believed that there would be significant highs and lows. Twenty-five years into those things, having experienced previously unimaginable highs and lows, I really believe that. More than likely, by fifty years, should the Lord allow Gerri and I to live that long, I will believe in an entirely greater way. That’s just how God has determined to work belief in His people. It’s curious, but it’s inevitable. It’s “inefficient,” but it’s glorious. And so, we believe and we continue to humbly pray that God would help us with our unbelief (Mark 9:24).

All of that brings us to the fourth part of the sermon and to a point I said I’d come back to. In v.9, John wrote, “for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.”

In other words, whatever John came to believe concerning the resurrection in v.8, it was still not rooted in the OT Scripture. Perhaps he simply remembered some of what Jesus said about His resurrection and began putting pieces together. Whatever it was, there was still a veil over his eyes concerning the OT promises.

What Scripture was John referring to when he wrote this (with the benefit of hindsight)?

Before I get there, I want to further drive home the point that the NT authors understood the OT to promise a resurrection for believers in general and for the Christ/Messiah in particular.

In Matthew 22 Jesus confronted a group of Sadducees concerning the resurrection. They didn’t believe in it, but knowing that Jesus did, they tried to trap Him with a hypothetical/theological resurrection dilemma. Jesus explained that their entire understanding of the resurrection was “mistaken, because you know neither the Scriptures [the OT] nor the power of God” (22:29).

Jesus corrected the Sadducees misunderstanding of the reality and nature of the resurrection by pointing them back to the OT. In other words, Jesus taught that the OT taught the resurrection.

The Apostle Paul taught the same thing in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…”.

And that was John’s point in our passage for today as well. The disciples didn’t understand the empty tomb, because they didn’t understand the resurrection, because they didn’t understand the OT (v.9).

But again, where do the Scriptures speak of resurrection or a resurrected Messiah? In many places. Consider quickly the following small handful of examples…

Isaiah 25:8 He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

Isaiah 26:19 Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.

Psalm 49:15 But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.

Psalm 71:20 You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.

Daniel 12:1-2 …your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. 2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Psalm 16:10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.

Isaiah 53:10-11 …it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

There are a number of other passages that speak of a resurrection from the dead for God’s people (Job 19:25–27; Psalm 73:23–28; Isaiah 25:8; 26:19; Ezekiel 37:1–14; Hosea 13:14; etc.), but the simple point that John was making is that the disciples whiffed on the meaning of the empty tomb because they hadn’t read their Bibles very well. Eventually, however, with Jesus’ help (Luke 24), His followers would come to recognize these things for what they were, promises of and proof that Jesus was indeed the resurrected Christ.

Finally, fifth, the tomb was empty, John believed in some greater way, and so the disciples…what? What did they do in light of the empty grave and some measure of increased belief? What was their response to this unexpected twist?

Whatever you imagined the answer to be, it probably wasn’t what we find in vs.10-11.

10 Then the disciples went back to their homes. 11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb.

John and Peter went home and Mary stayed and cried. That’s it?!

Our natural tendency is to scratch our heads and wonder at their obtuseness. How could that be their response? Just about anything else makes more sense, doesn’t it? John explains what he had just come to understand and believe. The three send out a search party, talk to Pilate or the Jews, proclaim the good news with reckless abandon, or call the other disciples together to pray and come up with a plan. Again, just about anything makes more sense than go home or stay and cry, right?

One more time we find a picture of ourselves in this. How many times have you experienced the unmistakable hand of God in your life, been moved by it to worship, and then gone home to take a nap or fallen back into your routine within days if not hours if not minutes?

How many of you spent how much time praying for our pastor of discipleship? How many of you rejoiced with us at the first-time unanimous decision to call Collin (remember singing the doxology together)? How many of you then went home and fell asleep on the couch to a football game you didn’t care about or got to some project around the house?

Andrew and I talked about this a bit. He prayed for so long for Lilly to be born healthy and happy. She was. He praised God. And now he marvels at how quickly she became “normal”.

I think of praying together for Alice Saari, the building purchase, the salvation of our kids, etc., seeing God’s miraculous faithfulness in those things, praising Him, and then going to get pizza.

I think of God miraculously leading Israel out of Egypt through devastating plagues and the parting of a sea. Abraham’s offspring praised God and then in a matter of days were grumbling again. I think of Moses on the mountain, covered in clouds and glory, shaking with the voice of God and the Israelites impatiently forging a golden calf.

And on and on.

This is how we are and this is how we will be until we die or Jesus returns. By God’s grace, this quick forgetfulness will decrease, but traces of it will always remain in this life.

We are John, Peter, and Mary. We are forgetful and confused and inconsistent.

And all of that is exactly why Jesus had to die and rise again. He is our only, but certain hope. The whole point of John 20 is that Jesus’ followers could not act faithfully on their own and so Jesus had to act faithfully in their place. The tomb was empty precisely because His followers were too dense to know why the tomb was empty.

More than just human nature, though, Luke explains that there was a deeper need that kept Jesus’ followers from responding as they ought. They needed Jesus’ help, not just to redeem them from their unbelief, but to even see it in the first place.

Interestingly, as I’ve mentioned a few times already (with a promised explanation), Luke reports that it wasn’t until the resurrected Jesus opened the eyes of His followers that they actually understood.

Luke 24:25-27 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Luke 24:31-34 And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. … 32 They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” 33 And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord has risen indeed…

Just as Jesus’ followers were confused concerning the nature of His Christness, they were confused about the nature of His death and resurrection. But Jesus did not leave them in that state of confusion. He explained it all to them and then they believed, “The Lord has risen indeed!”.

Again, in this short passage we see that although John had some kind of understanding of Jesus’ resurrection, it was limited and apparently unique (none of the rest of Jesus’ followers understood). And that in spite of the facts that the OT promised resurrection generally and the resurrection of the Messiah specifically and Jesus Himself promised His resurrection. Altogether, this helps us see the need to study God’s Word, with God’s help, and walk humbly before Him, often in simple devotion in times of mystery and suffering. The gospel is such good news that as we do so in faith in Jesus, God will receive our simple devotion as the righteousness of Christ. Glory to God alone!

So where is Jesus? You’ll have to come back next week to find out.

Psalm 116 I love the Lord, because he has heard
        my voice and my pleas for mercy.
2 Because he inclined his ear to me,
        therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
3 The snares of death encompassed me;
        the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
        I suffered distress and anguish.
4 Then I called on the name of the Lord:
        “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”
5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
        our God is merciful.
6 The Lord preserves the simple;
        when I was brought low, he saved me.
7 Return, O my soul, to your rest;
        for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
8 For you have delivered my soul from death,
        my eyes from tears,
        my feet from stumbling;
9 I will walk before the Lord
        in the land of the living.
10 I believed, even when I spoke:
        “I am greatly afflicted”;
11 I said in my alarm,
        “All mankind are liars.”
12 What shall I render to the Lord
        for all his benefits to me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation
        and call on the name of the Lord,
14 I will pay my vows to the Lord
        in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in the sight of the Lord
        is the death of his saints.
16 O Lord, I am your servant;
        I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.
        You have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving
        and call on the name of the Lord.
18 I will pay my vows to the Lord
        in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courts of the house of the Lord,
        in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” You are going to die. You don’t know when. Will it be in the early morning or late at night? You don’t know how. Will it be peacefully in your sleep? Will it be at the end of a long and painful bout with cancer? At some point in time, that 15 ounce muscle that is steadily pumping life-giving blood throughout your body 100,000 times a day and 35 million times a year will beat one last time. Your skin will turn cold. Your body will become rigid. It will return to the dust from which it came.

How about your funeral? Have you considered what you would want that to look like? I think about it fairly often especially when we gather in this room on Sunday mornings to worship. The tongue that I sing with and the hands that lift up in praise to God will one day be in a casket in the front of this room. I have thought about what Scripture will be read and what songs will be sung. When Johanna and I were married, we sang In Christ Alone at our service. It seems fitting to have that sung at my funeral. No guilt in life, no fear in death/ This is the power of Christ in me/ From life’s first cry to final breath/ Jesus commands my destiny/ no power of hell, no scheme of man/ Can ever pluck me from His hand/ Till he returns or calls me home/ Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand. I picture Pastor Dave preaching, if he isn’t dead before me. I picture my two favorite chapters of the Bible being read; Romans 8 and Hebrews 11. And I picture the song Beautiful Eulogy being played as my casket is rolled out of the room. So this is my hope and my prayer/ The air that I’ll breathe in eternity with lungs that never fail me/ It if pleases my Lord, and only by your grace/ Use my life ’til its poured out for Your sake/ Until then I’ll remain where You have me/ With joy when I feel unhappy/ And a peace that surpasses all my understanding/ My life is in the hands of your love everlasting/ And when it is my time to go/ Go ahead and take me home/ I know I’ll be with you/ I know I’ll be with you

The reality of your death is not new information to you this morning. Although it may be uncomfortable or awkward information that you choose not to bring to the forefront of your thinking very often. Here in America, we live in a world where we have the luxury of not having to consider death very often. Modern medicine can be quick to heal things that would have killed us 150 years ago. We don’t have bombs raining down on us. How many actual dead bodies have you seen in your lifetime? We live in a relatively sanitized and sterile country compared to other countries or at other points of history. I had 3 days on the job as a brand new cop when I did CPR for the first time on a man. The heart attack had come upon him suddenly and unexpectedly, as he was in the bathroom, getting ready to start his day, just like any other day. I can remember his wife’s screams and tears. I can remember having death staring me down in a way I had never seen before. Just a few minutes ago this man was brushing his teeth and now his soul was in eternity.

Psalm 116 is here to help you face the reality of the deep sorrows in life and your imminent rendezvous with death. Psalm 116 is here to help remind God’s servants and saints that their sufferings are known to Him, and that their death is held as precious to Him. In times of distress and moments of death, God’s servants and saints cry out to him in prayer, find rest in his benefits, trust in his words, and praise him for his salvation. What depths of splendid glory and sweet comfort and practical help are waiting for your discovery in this psalm, if God will grant you eyes to see and ears to hear it.

The point of this psalm, and the other 149 psalms in this book is to help you have proper, God-exalting feelings that have their roots in powerful, God-revealed truths, for walking in the path of God-glorifying obedience. Your feelings (emotions, affections) are powerful motivators to obey God, if they are grounded in the rock-solid foundation of God’s truth that we find in the Bible. Emotions and affections are scattered throughout the book of Psalms and this whole book is here to help you know what good emotions you should have and identify what wrong emotions you shouldn’t have…and what your response should be with those good or bad emotions.

Our disposition and bent at Grace Church is to be thinkers. We like to think. Our bent is towards thinking, reading and discussing. That is good and right, but it should not stop there. Our right thinking should be the stove top of which our emotions come to a boil. Right thinking ought to fuel right affections. “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you (Psalm 73:25).” “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11).” In Psalm 116 we see the emotions of love and anguish, distress and praise, thanksgiving and desperation. God-exalting feelings have their roots in powerful, God-revealed truths. That’s our aim as God’s servants and saints. All the sermons preached here, all the books we read, every Berea; is meant to help you think rightly, feel deeply, and obey more consistently, until your last breath, for the glory of God.

Psalm 116 is a psalm of thanksgiving. The writer is not merely saying thank you to God as an act of words coming out his mouth, but is expressing a deep thankfulness from the heart that flows from grateful praise for what God has done. There are various categories of songs in the book of Psalms (songs of praise, royal songs about the king, communal complaint songs, individual complaint songs), but this is one of thanksgiving. This type of song can also be found also in Psalm 18, 30, 32, 34, 92, 118 and 138.

Verse 3 lays out the situation the writer of this psalm is in. “The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.” We see two descriptions of the situation he is in. First, it is like a snare. He is caught in a near death experience like an animal caught in a trap that can’t escape. If you’ve ever seen some kind of animal caught in a trap, you know the frantic desperation they have. Death will close in on them if they do not escape, yet they don’t have the ability to escape. Secondly, the pain of Sheol has a tightening grip on him. Sheol is the poetic name for death. Depending on the context of the verse and chapter, it can either refer to eternal separation from the presence of God, or it can refer to experiencing death and going to the grave (which is the use of it in this verse). This is not a light trial he is going through. He is on the brink of death, the situation is consuming him completely, and it has a strangle hold on his soul, to the point that he is suffering great distress and anguish.

Having served as an elder in this church for a decade, I know from experience that usually at least one person or one family is in a situation like this. Sometimes many are in this kind of a situation. I have been in situations like this. A situation where the distress and anguish feel so heavy, that life is squeezed out of you and death feels like it is wrapping its cold grip tighter and tighter. On any given Sunday, as you stand here and sing, look around you and take that reality in. The life of the godly is not one of looking put together on a Sunday morning and having all your spiritual ducks in a row. If you are experiencing distress and anguish, know that many others in this church are as well. You are not alone. Your suffering may be unique or look different from others, yet the feelings of distress and anguish are still there.

That’s the situation, but how does this Psalm start? Look at verse 1. “I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.” He starts with expressing his love for the Lord (the personal name for God almighty). This is the starting point. This is the home page, the orientation, the disposition of his heart. Love for his Lord. His affection, his desire is stirred up within him because he knows the Lord has heard his pleading for mercy.

This is the mark of a desperate man, caught in the trap of death, pleading with almighty God for mercy and deliverance. His love (an affection, a desire) for God is rooted in the truth that God hears him. Just as you enjoy the shade of a tree on a blistering hot, humid day; or embrace the soothing warmth of a crackling fire on a cold, winter night; or quench the thirst of your dry, sticky throat with ice cold water; so is this man desiring God through his prayers for deliverance.

What specifically is the root of his love for the Lord in the act of prayer? It is the fact that God really hears him. God listens to him. If you are in an emergency situation, and you need help, what good is the cell phone to call 911 if you don’t have any signal or have a dead battery? The dispatcher can’t hear your emergency. Help won’t be able to come. Take comfort in the reality that God hears your prayers! Right now you are one of nearly 8 billion people on this planet, and God can hear you. God who heard this man’s desperate prayer thousands of years ago in the middle east somewhere is the same God who hears our prayers this very morning in Minnesota. He hears his people’s cry for help. God’s servants have his ear. He always hears them. Whatever time in history they have been in and wherever in the world they were, God hears them.

So call on Him. Call on Him as long as there is breath in your lungs. Call on Him when times are good and when times are bad. Children just starting out in life- call on Him. Seniors who will be nearing death soon- call on Him. Call on Him as long as you live. Call on Him even as he takes the last breaths of air from your lungs. The storehouse of his graciousness and righteousness and mercy await for your cry.

Notice in verse 4 that he asks the Lord to deliver his soul. “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!” In your suffering and anguish, there is more going on than just physical pain. You are more than merely a physical body. You have something eternal and immaterial. He wants his soul to be delivered. He recognizes that there is more going on in his situation than just physical suffering or mental suffering. He knows that his soul may be tempted to find rest in something other than God because of his suffering. He may be tempted to forget God.

God may choose to deliver you from your trials in this life or he may choose to deliver you from the trial in your death. We can see in Hebrews 11 that some saints in Scripture were delivered from the sword and some were delivered into eternity by the sword. God may choose to heal you from the cancer in this life or he may choose to heal you by taking your life through the cancer. Go to God in your trials with desperate, dependent prayer that cries out, “I love you Lord, because you hear me!” The greatest need for your soul is not to be delivered from your trial but to have your soul desperately dependent on Him and trusting in him no matter what happens to you.

Look at verse 7. “Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.” A couple of weeks ago Johanna and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary by going to Duluth and staying at the same bed and breakfast we had stayed at on our honeymoon. This old, beautiful house was built in 1903, and has a large banister staircase that stares right at you as you enter the front door. We recreated a picture of us sitting on that banister, exactly like the one we took back in 2006. I looked at these two pictures side-by-side. In the one picture, there were two, 24 year-olds that had just said their wedding vows, happy to start a new life together. In the other picture, there are now two, 42 year-olds, with some new wrinkles showing on their faces, having lived through the joys and sorrows of life together. I saw these two pictures as book ends to 18 years of life lived. I wondered what I would say to that 24 year-old Kyle, if I could somehow go back in time. What wisdom would I share about how to walk along the path when the snares of death and pangs of Sheol try to wrap their cords around him? I would say verses 5 through 9 to the 24 year-old Kyle Puelston.

First, notice carefully two things that are happening in verse 7. The psalmist is reminding himself (his soul) of what is true. He has climbed up into the pulpit of his own soul and is preaching to himself. He is telling his soul to find rest in God. This was just revolutionary to me when I understood it for the first time years ago. Do not passively listen to your brain telling you that life is too hard, or that God doesn’t care about you and what is happening to you, or that your life is unfair. Don’t do that. Instead talk to yourself like the psalmists do! Say, “Soul! Yes, life is hard. Yes, I feel like my trials have me on the brink of death. But God is holding out rest for my soul. He has dealt bountifully with me even as I am suffering here.” Take the sermons you hear preached here on Sunday mornings and preach them again to your souls on Monday night or Thursday afternoon or Saturday night. Memorize a chapter of the Bible that you can anchor your soul too. I have preached Hebrews 11 and Romans 8 to my soul thousands of times. Take the lyrics of the songs we sing, put them on a playlist and let them preach to your soul. Songs like Christ our Glory can ring the bell of truth in your soul when the pain of Sheol takes hold. Our rest is in heaven, our rest is not here/ Then why should we tremble when trials draw near?/ Be still and remember the worst that can come/ But shortens our journey and hastens us home.

What we learn from verse 7 is that we can find rest for our soul in the bounty of how God has dealt with us in distress and in moments of death. The next question is, how has God done this? Please, tell me specifically song writer, how does God give rest to the soul and bountifully deal with his servants and saints when they are going through Sheol. The psalmist doesn’t leave this answer vague. He gets specific. I hope what is about to be unpacked quickly here in verses 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 washes over you with profound thankfulness and praise to God. I hope it stirs surging love in you, towards God for who he is for his people.

First, look at verse 5. He says that God is three things. “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful.” He is gracious, He is righteous and He is merciful. God’s graciousness is the kindness of his stooping down from heaven and showing favor to His inferior people. Righteousness is the right conduct and character which God has and shows in dispensing justice. He is reliably faithful. Mercy is the display of his tender affection. When the psalmist calls on the name of God in prayer, this is a description of what God will be for Him. Who God is and what he does is all that we need in life and in death. His grace and righteousness and mercy are there for His people to meditate on, to pray for, and to delight in.

Next, look at verse 6. “The Lord preserves the simple.” This word means naive and untrained. That is what I think of when I look at 24 year-old Kyle Puelston sitting on that staircase in 2006. Very naive. Very untrained. Needing to learn to discern wisdom from foolishness. God does not look to preserve those who have a certain amount of intellect. Kids, you do not need to have straight A’s on your report card for God to hear your prayers. In your foolishness and at the lowest and hardest times in your life, when you are completely undone, God will still keep you if you belong to Him. The whole Bible is filled with stories of men and women like this. As Hebrews 11 says, time would fail us to hear all the stories of Noah and Abraham and Sarah and Moses and Gideon and Barak and Sampson and Jepthah and the list could go on. A list of simple and low people that God dealt bountifully with.

Next, look at verse 8. “For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.” While God can and does deliver from death, this verse doesn’t necessarily mean deliverance from physical death. We will see in verse 15 that death is on the table as an option, and we know that we will all die. The death in this verse could also be the death of dreams and plans you had for your life. When I sat on those steps for that picture in 2006, there were ideas and goals I had for how I wanted the path of my life to go. Since that time, tears have accumulated and my feet have stumbled on unexpected circumstances. I have seen dreams die and plans fail. I am sure that many of you could say the same thing. Yet God delivers. He brings us through these deaths with his grace and mercy, working righteousness on our behalf.

Finally, because of God’s bountiful dealing with the psalmist, look at his resolve in verse 9. “I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.” What is this land of the living? It is the arena of life. It is the life you are living and the lives we are living together. He is saying, “As long as I have breath, I’m walking with God.” There is no alternative route. There is nowhere else I’m walking to. Death and Sheol seek to wrap their icy grip around his soul. He stumbles and cries. Yet…yet the eyes of his soul are fixed on God’s graciousness, mercy and righteousness.

He could give in to simplistic, foolish thinking at this point. Life is too hard. Death and Sheol have too tight a grip on me. I’m done with trying to walk with God. This is too much. This is too painful. Instead, he is preaching to himself with resolve saying that as long as he has breath, he will walk in the grace and mercy and righteousness of God. He is choosing the opposite of death. He is choosing life in the midst of deathly circumstances. Like a mountain climber who has his eyes set on summiting a mountain. Maybe the climber took the wrong route up and now the climb is harder than he expected. Maybe his backpack strap broke and now he’s feeling extra weight tug at his shoulders. Maybe biting, bitter wind has kicked up and is stinging his face. Yet, his eyes are fixed on that summit, where he can see brilliant gleams of light reflecting off the snow-capped peak. He continues to take the next step, drawing strength and vigor and action from the glory of what his eyes are fixed on and where he wants to eventually be.

We will come back and end at verses 10 and 11. For now, skip to verse 12 and see what the writer asks in light of what he has said. “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?” What do we do in response to all that God has done for us? How should we think about paying back God for all his grace, mercy and righteousness that he’s bountifully poured out on us? Can we even pay him back for hearing our cry for help?

In verses 14 and 18 he says that he will pay his vows to the Lord, and in verse 17 he says he will offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. As Christians today, in our church gatherings under the new covenant brought in through Jesus, we practice singing, prayer, preaching, communion and baptism as expressions of obedience and worship to God. In the Old Testament, God’s people would have understood this psalm under the system of offering animals upon the altar in the temple. When verse 17 refers to the sacrifice of thanksgiving, this could be a reference to Leviticus 7:11-12. That passage explains how the peace offering was to be performed. The peace offering would be offered as an expression of thanksgiving to God, after the completion of a vow made to God, or out freewill. It was a voluntary sacrifice. This was the only sacrifice where the Israelite making the offering could directly participate in the offering, and the only one in which they would eat some of the animal offered to God. This offering was an expression of thanksgiving to God for all his benefits shown to his people.

However, in the Hebrew language, the word thanksgiving does not exist. While we think of thanksgiving as a way to express gratitude, the word has a deeper meaning as it is used in verse 17. It is used to express gratitude, but it goes deeper than that. It also means to confess or declare or to proclaim. It isn’t just expressing gratitude. It is declaring praise and worship to God. You can’t repay God for all his benefits. He’s not like a mortgage payment where you slowly pay him back. When the psalmist says that he’s paying his vows to the Lord and offering a sacrifice of thanksgiving, these are expressions of love and praise and worship for God. This is the overflow of a heart satisfied in the grace and mercy and righteousness of God.

What shall we render to the Lord for all his benefits? We lift up the cup of our salvation, calling on Him, (verse 13) asking God to fill it with more of his bounty. More of his grace and mercy and righteousness.

The Jewish people used to sing this psalm after their Passover meal. Picture Jesus, at the passover meal with his disciples, on the verge of his crucifixion, singing Psalm 116. He had just held up the cup of wine, telling them that this is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. He was about to be the sacrifice for the eternal deliverance of his people over death, sin and hell. The Israelites could partake in the sacrifice of thanksgiving by eating a part of the animal, as way to thank and praise God for all his benefits, and this was a pointer to the greater sacrifice that was to be made by Jesus. Today, we drink the cup at communion as an expression of thanks and praise to Jesus for pouring out his blood for us. What shall we render to the Lord for all his benefits? We lift up the cup of our salvation purchased through Jesus Christ who poured out his blood for us. His death is our life.

This is the type of life set before us in Psalm 116. This song writer calls himself a servant of God in verse 16 and a saint of God in verse 15. That is how he views himself and sees his life. A servant (obedient to the master) and saint (faithful to the master). The life of the servant and saint that pours his life out in love and praise to God, and cries out in prayer to God, and takes joy in the grace and mercy and righteousness of God; that life, and that death, is what is precious to God. God finds value in that life and prizes that type of life. The trials may kill you. You may never find complete relief from the sorrow of this life, yet God has provided something better for you. That which is better is the reward of him saying that your life is of value to Him, and he is not wasting one second of it.

There is one final thing I want you to see in this section. Verses 18 and 19 show that your life and death as servant and saint is not to be done in isolation. This is a community project and not lone ranger Christianity. This type of life is done in the presence of all his people and in the courts of the house of the Lord. That is why Sunday morning worship and midweek Discipleship Groups should not be optional for you as people of Grace Church! We draw strength from one another and share in one another’s suffering and rejoicing and learn from one another as we grow in our love for God.

Now, let’s return to verses 10 and 11 and end here. “I believed, even when I spoke: ‘I am greatly afflicted’; I said in my alarm, ‘All mankind are liars.’” The psalmist is saying here, “God, I’m really in a bad spot in my life right now. I’m struggling to believe that you are good and that you are doing something good right now. Yet, I will believe. Where else can I go? Nothing mankind can promise me will ever be able to fully satisfy. It is all a lie. Only you hold the truth, and I will hold on to you in faith.”

Paul quotes Psalm 116:10 in 2 Corinthians 4:13. “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.”

Christians are people who believe what has been written in this book. Faith is the way in which we hold on to the truths of Psalm 116 and 2 Corinthians 4. The heart that trusts in this book is the heart that says, even though I am afflicted, I’m not crushed. Even though I am perplexed at what God is doing, I will not be driven to despair. Even if I am persecuted, I know I am not forsaken. Even if am struck down, I am not destroyed. Why? Because Jesus bought me through his sacrificial death. The cup of his blood was poured out at the cross, so the cup of my salvation can be lifted up in love and worship. Oh, I hope that shoots through your soul with utter amazement and joy and worship to Jesus Christ. I hope that helps you sing your guts out in a few moments when we sing again.

Christians are people that do not have to lose heart. This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. Each day that our bodies are wasting away from the decay of living in a sin-stained, sin-soaked world, our souls are being renewed day by day. The best is yet to come.

Unbeliever, my question to you is, would have you this Jesus who was poured out for your sake? Would you have this Jesus who offered himself freely and completely at the cross, so that you could be totally and thoroughly his. Would you have this Jesus who offers you a way for your sin and rebellion against a holy, righteous God to be forgiven. Receive him as your Savior. Repent. Trust. Plead with him to give you the gift of faith in Him. Believe in Him.

We all are going to die should Christ not return first. Your heart will pump one last time. Your lungs will fill with air one last time. The hope for the life of the woman and the man, whose faith is in Jesus, who love and worship God, who live and die as servants and saints; the guaranteed hope that you have is that because Jesus rose from the dead, you too will be raised from the dead. And you will be brought into the presence of Jesus forever in the new heavens and the new earth. Tears will be wiped away. All the plans that you had for your life which have fallen into pieces, will be restored to you in ways you can’t even begin to imagine now. And together, people from every tribe, tongue and nation will join in worship together at the marriage supper of the Lamb. We will eat. We will drink. We will sing. We will be filled with perfect joy, basking in the glory of God which will take an eternity for us to fully grasp.

I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Praise the Lord!

John 19:38-42 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. 39 Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. 40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. 41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. 42 So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

For all kinds of reasons, we (which might just be a charitable way of saying “I”) tend to struggle with reading the Bible, and the Gospels in particular, through a kind of detached, hypothetical lens. What I mean is, we often fail to really put ourselves in the place of those in the biblical stories; to work hard to understand their context, culture, struggles, joys, perspective, etc. I heard a pastor this past weekend refer to this idea as “getting into the skin of” the people at the center of whatever passage we’re reading. Doing so is important if we are to really understand and apply the Bible to our lives as God intends.

Doing so in our passage would mean “getting into the skin of” Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. I’m going to try to help with that. And as I do, you’ll see an example of what faithfulness looks like in times of confusing hardship.

The big idea of this passage is that faithfulness to Jesus in times of suffering and mystery is often a matter of simple devotion. And the main takeaway is to consistently make use of the ordinary means of grace so that when times of suffering and mystery come, simple devotion flows freely out of us.

Once again, to get the most out of this passage we need to get ourselves into the passage. And to do that, first we need to imagine being a follower of Jesus at the time of John 19:38-42. That is, we need to imagine what it would mean to have come to believe that Jesus is truly the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and to have His dead body in front of you. How do you make sense of that? What do you do about it?

To answer that question, we need to back up a bit. We need to back up to the time before Jesus was crucified.

It was quickly easy see that there was something absolutely unique about Jesus. His power, His claims, His miracles all pointed to the truthfulness of His teaching. Over time you became increasingly convinced that Jesus was the Christ God promised to send. You’d been taught a great deal of what that meant from the Scriptures; of what the Christ would be like and what He would accomplish. You were filled with thoughts about how that would most likely play out; not sure of the details, but confident in a spectacularly victorious outcome. Jesus said a few things to make you question your assumptions, things that didn’t quite fit with your ideas, but you had no concept of a defeated Christ.

The sentiment around Jesus was a mixed bag at best. Most people were either indifferent to Jesus or outwardly hostile to Him. After three years, there was very little remaining sympathy for Jesus or His cause. Indeed, the threats had only increased in boldness and severity.

And yet, you believed. But far from endearing you to others, aside from a few other faithful men and women, the hostility that had primarily been directed mostly at Jesus was starting to extend to His sympathizers, including you, in increasing measure.

The tension built and built until the two main powers of the day, the Jews and the Romans, in cahoots with one of Jesus’ twelve closest followers, had successfully conspired to arrest, beat, and crucify Jesus just a few hours earlier.

Again, you weren’t sure what to expect, Jesus was always anything but predictable, but this wasn’t even on your radar. Of all the possible outcomes that ran through your brain, Jesus handing Himself over to a betrayer, to the Jewish leaders, and the Roman authorities to be murdered was not among them.

So, again, now that Jesus is dead, what do you do? Where do you go? Does it even make sense to continue to believing in Jesus? If so, what does it look like to believe in a dead guy; a guy whose corpse is literally right in front of you?

That’s the situation that all of Jesus’ followers faced in the immediate wake of His crucifixion.

Again, this passage will never hit the way it’s supposed to hit if you don’t put yourself “in the skin” of Jesus’ followers at this time. This passage will never land the way it’s meant to land if you don’t seriously ask yourself what you would do, how you would respond, and what you think faithfulness would look like in that moment.

Should you “storm the castle?” Should you yell of the hypocrisy and tyranny afoot? Should you hide, pray, and wait for the dust to settle? Should you go back and reexamine the Scriptures to see if there’s something you missed? Should you call the remaining followers of Jesus together for a worship service? Seriously, what do you imagine faithfulness looking like in this situation?

Graciously, the Spirit inspired John to give us a glimpse of what it looked like in the lives of two men, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Once again, to truly appreciate their faithfulness, in order to best apply it to our lives, we need to get into their skin as well. To that end, let’s consider what we know about each of these men.

Jospeh of Arimathea is mentioned in all four Gospels, and each in the same context as our passage. He is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible outside of this one scene whereby he seeks and is granted stewardship of Jesus’ dead body.

From John’s account (v.38 in our passage) we see that Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple of Jesus, but also afraid of the other Jewish leaders on account of being a disciple of Jesus.

In addition, from Matthew (27:57-60) we learn that Joesph was rich and that the tomb in which Jesus was buried was new (never used) and belonged to Joesph himself. Mark (15:43-46) adds that he was a “respected member of the [Jewish] council” (probably the Sanhedrin) and was a man “looking for the kingdom of God”. And Luke (23:50-53) describes Joseph as “a good and righteous man, who had not consented to [the Jewish council’s] decision and action” regarding Jesus’ guilt and crucifixion.

The basic picture we have of Joseph of Arimathea is that he was a wealthy, God-fearing Jew; one of importance and influence among his people; but also as one who waivered back and forth between fear and courage. He did not consent to the Jews’ treatment of Jesus, but it doesn’t seem like he fought against it either.

Unlike Joseph of Arimathea, the second man mentioned in our passage, Nicodemus, is only mentioned in John’s Gospel. Also unlike Joseph of Arimathea, instead of appearing in just one scene, Nicodemus comes on the scene three separate times.

The first time we encountered him was way back in chapter three (3:1-15), in the famous “born again” passage. There we see that Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a teacher and ruler among the Jews (probably also a member of the Sanhedrin). He went to Jesus, acknowledging that Jesus had unique power and authority that could only have come from God. At the same time, however, we also see that Nicodemus went to Jesus at night, where he was least likely to be spotted and thereby associated with Jesus. In that encounter he was utterly confused by the things Jesus said to him. He is initially portrayed as curious and, perhaps, as a budding unbelieving believer.

We don’t hear anything more about Nicodemus until chapter seven (7:37-52). There he simply reappears in the midst of a commotion Jesus was causing during the Feast of Booths. Publicly claiming to know the Father, to be of the Father, to teach only on the Father’s authority, and to offer living water to all who would come to Him, Jesus enticed the crowds and angered the Pharisees to the point that they sought to arrest Him.

As a Pharisee among the accusing Pharisees, Nicodemus spoke up and asked, “51 “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” John doesn’t tell us if Nicodemus said this as someone concerned with the faithful interpretation of the Jewish law, in an attempt to protect Jesus, or both. Regardless, the end result was that he was mocked and dismissed by the rest of his fellow Pharisees (7:52).

Again, it’s unclear at this point exactly what Nicodemus believed about Jesus, but it is clear that he stood out among the Pharisees in his response to Jesus.

And, of course, we see him a third time in our passage. In John 19, Nicodemus functions in a way that is public and extravagant. In order to prepare Jesus’ body for burial, he brough seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes. That was enough (one commentator notes, Kruse, TNTC, 368) for a royal, a kingly, burial. John explicitly notes that Nicodemus was the one who had previously come at night. This was, certainly, to highlight the fact that he had now come in the light of day. It is clear that by this point Nicodemus had truly come to believe in Jesus and was willing to pay the cost of being associated with Him.

The basic picture of Nicodemus that we’re given is that he was a faithful Jewish leader, a man of power, who gradually moved from curiosity to unbelieving belief to belief.

In orchestrating Jesus’ crucifixion, the rest of the Jewish people and leaders made it clear that they were done tolerating Jesus. Certainly, both Joseph and Nicodemus had witnessed the continual fear, hostility, and persecution heaped on Jesus and (increasingly) His followers. They’d sat in on the council meetings where Jesus was cursed and His execution planned. They’d felt the rage of those who believed Jesus to be a demon-possessed blasphemer.

Likewise, they’d undoubtedly watched the Romans grow increasingly tired of the bickering and in-fighting of the Jews concerning Jesus. They understood that Pilate couldn’t allow Jesus to undercut his authority or Jesus’ angry followers to revolt in light of His execution.

It should be clear that both Joesph and Nicodemus had a lot to lose by associating in any sympathetic way with Jesus, even in His death. Their faith, their family, their livelihood, and their reputations were all tied being teachers of teachers and leaders of leaders among the Jews. To publicly identify as followers of Jesus immediately after He was crucified would certainly have put all of that in jeopardy.

In other words, getting into the skin of Joseph and Nicodemus means feeling the immense pressure they were under as they contemplated what to do with Jesus’ body. They had every earthly thing to lose and no earthly thing to gain.

What would they do? What should they do? What would it look like to respond in faith?

What the two men did was to act in simple devotion. What they did was to properly honor and care for Jesus’ body after His death. And they did so in a way that required courage before Pilate and before the Jews.

When someone was sentenced to crucifixion, once they died, the Romans would take their bodies down and leave them on the ground to be eaten by birds and animals. That was an intentional way to further highlight their guilt, further shame them, and further dissuade others from even contemplating similar crimes.

Because Joseph and Nicodemus loved Jesus, and because they knew He was innocent, they could not stand the thought of that.

The problem, however, was that Pilate was in charge and doing anything out of the ordinary with Jesus’ body would require his permission.

Remember, Jesus was crucified as a seditionist, one of the highest crimes in Rome and one of the most serious forms of treason. This was no small ask.

What’s more, very few Jews would even have access to Pilate. It would have taken someone as prominent, wealthy, and powerful as Joseph to even have the opportunity to ask. At the same time, once again, someone with that kind of prominence, wealth, and power had much to lose. Nevertheless, Joseph went to Pilate.

38 After these things Joseph of Arimathea… asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus.

Mark (15:43) tells us explicitly that it took courage for Joesph to go to Pilate and seek Jesus’ body, “Joseph of Arimathea…took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.”

John describes Nicodemus as coming on the scene after Joseph had gone to Pilate, but it’s clear that the two were in league. John portrays Nicodemus as being there to help as soon as Pilate granted permission to Joseph. Additionally, it would have taken a good deal of planning for him to gather and transport 75 pounds of burial materials. And what’s more, this really was the light of day and Nicodemus’s participation would have been immediately visible to all. In other words, even though it was Joseph who went to Pilate, Nicodemus was on the hook with Pilate every bit as much.

What does faithfulness look like in the midst of suffering and mystery? It looks like two men who were more concerned with honoring Jesus, even in His death, than they were in holding on to their earthly blessings. It looks like a simple act of devotion.

Perhaps surprisingly, at the end of v.38 we’re told that “Pilate gave [Joseph] permission.” Quite probably this was because he didn’t believe Jesus was actually guilty and because he wanted to take one more shot at the Jews. Regardless of his motivation, the end result was that Pilate let Joseph and Nicodemus have Jesus’ body and allowed Him to avoid the extra indignity ordinarily reserved for the crucified.

Again, we read in Mark 15 that going before Pilate required courage for Joseph. But it also required courage to do so on the Jewish side as well. Do you remember John 12?

John 12:42-43 …many even of the authorities believed in him [maybe Joseph and Nicodemus], but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

The threat to Joseph and Nicodemus was about as serious as it gets from Rome (who had the power to imprison and put to death as these men had just witnessed). The threat to these men from Israel was just as serious, and in some ways more serious still. Rome could crush these men physically, but Israel could crush them financially (by taking away their livelihood), relationally (by making them pariahs among their people), familially (by pitting their own parents, siblings, even wives and kids—against them), and spiritually (by not allowing them to worship in the synagogue).

Ordinarily, unlike the Romans, Jews would burry criminals who had died. But they would do it in a criminals grave so as not to defile the innocent dead by forcing them to share a tomb with a sinner. It required a great deal of courage for Joseph and Nicodemus to show love and allegiance to Jesus in any form and especially by not burying him in a criminal’s grave.

Most of all, though, it took courage before the Jews to burry Jesus consistent with what Jesus claimed about Himself and these two men believed about Him.

39 Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. 40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. 41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.

There were no explicit commands that Joseph and Nicodemus were following. They loved Jesus and His death grieved them. They didn’t want Him to experience the normal Roman response (leave His dead body for the animals) or Jewish response (burry Him in a criminal tomb). They knew that he was anything but a common criminal. They knew He was the innocent Son of God. Therefore, they acted in simple, courageous, devotional faith and buried Him like the King He is.

And Joseph (Matthew 27:60) rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away.

All of this brings us back to the questions I asked earlier. What does it look like to act faithfully in moments of suffering or mystery? What should you do when life is hard and there are no specific commands to follow in response?

Or, more specifically, if you were in Joseph and Nicodemus’s shoes, what would you have done? How would you have responded? What do you think it would have looked like for you to be faithful in that moment?

Would you, should you take care of His burial? Would you, should you “storm the castle?” Would you, should you yell of the hypocrisy and tyranny afoot? Would you, should you hide, pray, and wait for the dust to settle? Would you, should you give yourself to studying the Scriptures concerning the Christ? Would you, should you call the remaining followers of Jesus together for a worship service?

Joseph and Nicodemus responded by courageously and affectionately caring for the body of Jesus. They seemed uniquely positioned for this simple act of devotion. And yet, there were probably many different things they could have done in the immediate wake of Jesus’ death that would have been equally honoring to God.

You may have noticed that Joseph and Nicodemus were the only followers of Jesus who responded in this way. This act of faith wasn’t so obvious that all the other disciples showed up as well. Instead, each sought to honor God in their own ways.

There’s an important lesson in that for us, Grace. Rarely, is there a single way to honor God in any given situation; especially one like this where there were no explicit commands to follow. What Joseph and Nicodemus did was one way to act in faith, not the way.

Often God will burden His people to honor Him in different ways even in the same situation. We are to judge one another, not by our own consciences/convictions (as Paul tells us in passages like Romans 14). We are, rather to make room for God’s people to use their God-given gifts and act according to their God given-convictions, not try to compel them to use and share ours.

In other words, practically, some of Jesus’ followers probably should have sounded the alarm on the hypocrisy of the Jews and the tyranny of the Romans. Some should have laid low and prayed. Some should have studied. Some should have tried to gather the saints to sing and praise God. And some should have done other things.

Faithfulness to Jesus in times of suffering or mystery is often a matter of simple devotion and that simple devotion often looks different in different people.

But there’s another key to keep in mind. While simple devotion often looks different in different people, it doesn’t mean doing whatever we feel like in the moment. For our simple devotion to be pleasing to God, it must flow from the Sprit working through the Word. That is, it must flow out of a heart that has been sanctified by God. If we want living water to flow out of our cups when our cups are shaken, we need to take great care to make sure our cups have living water in them to begin with.

That’s why the main takeaway for us is to consistently make use of the ordinary means of grace, for they are God’s primary means of delivering living water to us. Far more often than not, our cups are filled with the living water of Jesus by the steady, grace-infused practice of the spiritual disciplines.

What do I mean by that? Different people have articulated the disciplines differently, but the gist is this—there are certain practices that God has determined to use to bring grace to His people. And when we consistently practice these disciplines, our hearts are filled with God’s grace such that when suffering and mystery come and shake us, simple devotion will come out. What are these means of Grace? I’d like to close by naming a handful.

God has determined to use these things (along with others like scripture memory and meditation, acts of service, and generosity) to fill us with faithful devotion. Most often He does so imperceptibly, one drop at a time rather than through large doses all at once. In this way, the change in our hearts is often seen over the course of months and years, not days and weeks. Nevertheless, God is faithful to give His grace through these means.

Therefore, when they are a consistent part of our lives, when suffering or mystery comes and shakes us, simple, faithful devotion is what will come out of us. It will take different forms at different times among different people according to the Spirit’s work, but when we fill ourselves with God’s grace according to His means, God’s pleasure will flow out of us even when we aren’t sure what form it should take.

What a simple passage. What a profound gift.

We turn now to one such simple means of ordinary grace in the Lord’s Table.

Preached by pastoral candidate Colin Rueter.

Psalm 145 I will extol you, my God and King,
    and bless your name forever and ever.
2 Every day I will bless you
    and praise your name forever and ever.
3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
    and his greatness is unsearchable.
4 One generation shall commend your works to another,
    and shall declare your mighty acts.
5 On the glorious splendor of your majesty,
    and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
6 They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds,
    and I will declare your greatness.
7 They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness
    and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
8 The Lord is gracious and merciful,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 The Lord is good to all,
    and his mercy is over all that he has made.
10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
    and all your saints shall bless you!
11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom
    and tell of your power,
12 to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds,
    and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
    and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
    [The Lord is faithful in all his words
    and kind in all his works.]
14 The Lord upholds all who are falling
    and raises up all who are bowed down.
15 The eyes of all look to you,
    and you give them their food in due season.
16 You open your hand;
    you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways
    and kind in all his works.
18 The Lord is near to all who call on him,
    to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
    he also hears their cry and saves them.
20 The Lord preserves all who love him,
    but all the wicked he will destroy.
21 My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,
    and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

Good morning! My name is Colin Rueter, most of you know that. My sermon this morning is in a Psalm that has continued to become a favorite and a growing desire to make my life’s aim: Psalm 145.

I want to acknowledge the proverbial elephant in the room. I am not just filling the pulpit for Pastor David this morning, there is some evaluating and thinking about whether God is calling me to join this church as one of the pastors. All good, but my prayer is that God would make clear His word this morning for His people, for our good, and the building of His kingdom. Since I am on that subject, I would like to thank Pastor Dave and the Elders for their time, prayers, and the grace that they have shown my family and I throughout this process. I would also like to thank the Search Committee members for their prayers, love toward my wife and boys. Through this whole process, I have seen that there is grace at Grace. Truly thankful.

The Psalm today is the only one titled as a song of praise from David. Others are listed as Maskils, many prayers, but this one is a song of praise. To praise God – speak of His person and works – was a normal action of David.

David’s life was a life of praise – though he was sinner, he never turned to idols and was called a man after God’s own heart. He looked to God, was humbled by God, and was used by God for God’s own glory and David rejoices in this. In another Psalm (Psalm 16) David says, “The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. 6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. 7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. 8 I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” God is David’s treasure; His counsel and presence is one of great joy. His life was aimed at God alone. One thing he longed for – to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Grace Church, my fellow brothers and sisters, what is your aim in life? Not just purpose, but also trajectory? Maybe you think of: To glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever. OR the modern adjusted version: To glorify God by enjoying Him forever. Maybe it is simple: To treasure Jesus. Is your aim and trajectory like David’s – to have a life praising God, making much of Him? Are you praying for and bringing your spouse with you on the aim of making much of the LORD? Are you raising your children to see the glory and beauty of Christ? May it be so for each of us today.

Main Point: Meditating and proclaiming the greatness of God and His works increases our love, awe, and worship of Him for our good and His glory in this life and the life to come.

This morning, I would like to look at this passage in three parts:

Before David speaks about what God has done… he worships God as LORD (Yahweh) and King. David is direct in his praise – ‘I will extol YOU… ,’ personal in his praise – ‘My God,’ and with a surrendered, humbled heart – ‘my King.’ All of this was without an end – forever and ever. The name, ‘God’ is only used once in this Psalm, the rest of the Psalm God is addressed as LORD (all caps).

Yahweh: In our translations, we see LORD [all caps], but this name of God is Yahweh, the Great I Am. God is the Self-Existent, Eternal God. He does not need us, nor anything. God is. Yet, this name of God is also personal – it is used when the people of God are speaking about their God, Hebrews 11 says that God, when sought in true faith, is pleased to be called my God. So amazing is this when we think that God does not need us, but ‘in love’ he predestined us for adoption as sons and daughters… He wants to save a people for Himself that know Him and that He knows, intimately. This name also says that God is present. He is here, now. God is holy, set apart, yet He is also interacting with our world, among us. And He does that out of love and grace and to make Himself known that He would be worshiped. God is under no obligation to remain close to us, working in our lives and writing us into His story, yet, He chooses to do so. In fact, He has used His people to build His kingdom. The visible Church, the gathering of God’s people is a sign of His greatness in which the world watches, angels observe, and God delights. Lastly, this name proclaims that God does not change. Our world is constantly shifting; everything is subjective, and lots of things seem to change day to day. But our God does not conform to any of this. He remains constant through it all. He doesn’t change His nature based on what is new and popular at the moment. Yahweh has always been who He is, from the before the beginning of time. He has always been the standard for absolute perfection and holiness, goodness and beauty.

God is who God is, in the past, present, and into eternity… Hallelujah!

King: From the king of Israel comes this profound and humble statement. David is saying, “I was a king, but my God is King forever, the King above all kings.”

I’ll touch on this a little more in the next point of WHAT God does, but we must see God as the only true, good, righteous ruler of the world, the Sovereign. God can do whatever He sees fit according to His purposes, will, and glory. Psalm 115: “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness! Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” 3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.” This should be a great joy for us as His people. In fact, it is profound that Jesus, the Son of God is seated at the Father’s right hand, ruling over all, the earth His footstool. We have a good King, friends. His name is Jesus.

In looking at the LORD, David is in awe of who He is and that He had made Himself known to David. David piled praise upon praise, declaring God’s greatness and great worthiness to be praised. We get the feeling that David felt it would be dishonorable to withhold his praise to God or to give Him half-hearted praise.

Great is Yahweh and greatly to be praised – “I can’t get enough of lifting high the name of God, nor grow weary of proclaiming Him… for He is GREAT!” David, just thinking about the LORD, is in awe. From who God is, David reflects on what God does.

Verses 4-7 is a transition of sorts from who God is to what He does. David says that every generation praises God and commends His works to one another. There is a pattern that God’s word speaks of often – households of faith, parents teaching children, the communities of God’s people praising and sharing the works of God with one another. All the generations are chapters within the greatest story of God. My exhortation on this to each of you is simple – keep track of and share with your spouse, your children, your grandchildren, your friend’s all that God has done. Be specific and honoring to God for what He has done. Commend generations to His greatness AND His mighty works. Such a good way to stir worship and stir our faith to keep seeking the LORD.

David says that we should declare His mighty works. In this Psalm, David has no specifics about the work of God, like other Psalms that proclaim the exodus, or work of creating, or the salvation of God, but this Psalm allows us to ponder ALL of the works of God.

God is working. In fact, a wise pastor once said, “God is doing a million things and we are maybe aware of two of them.” The bible proclaims that God is sovereign over all things. He is King, as David says. This Psalm says that He rules with awesome deeds, greatness, grace, mercy, and steadfast love, righteousness and kindness, and His rule is everlasting. This reality is a comfort for His people, not a complex doctrine to reject or use as a cold statement to those in trial, but a blanket of peace and warmth, endurance for the day.

Here, David is ensuring that we seek to know God and then think about what we know. Praise comes not only from emotion, but from careful thought – from careful meditation. David meditated not only on the great things God did, His wondrous works, but he also focused on God’s glorious splendor. The idea is the glory and wonder of who God is – we focus on the truth of God, not how we would like Him to be. We go to the word of God to know God.

When we think of God’s wondrous works – His works of planning before time began, His works of creation, His works of providence from Genesis into today, His works of rescue from slavery/prisons/caves/fires, His works of salvation now and in the age to come – all this should stir up praise within us. There are too many works of God. Regarding the works of Christ, the Apostle John said, “many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” Marvel at God’s work for how much more could be written about His wonderous works?!

When we think of the aspects of God’s glorious splendor – His majesty, His wisdom, His constant presence, His complete knowledge, His unlimited power, His loving and wise plan and purpose – this, also, should stir up praise within us. Look at the Holy Lord who has revealed Himself to us – Behold your God, Grace!

David praises God for His mighty acts and splendor in repetition in vs 3-7 with different words, but still the same aim – look at God’s greatness and look at His mighty, righteous works! David says: “I will declare Your greatness.” David is saying that he will speak it often and to others.

So, after mediating on God and His character, David speaks about God’s goodness to all. The LORD is good to all: David expressed the idea sometimes called common grace – that God spreads some of His goodness to all humanity. Jesus said, “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). David saw the beautiful care of God in all that He did. All parts of creation are demonstrations of the greatness and goodness of God.

In verse 10: All Your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD: Creation itself praises God, and does so out of grateful duty. Yes, the heavens declare the glory of God, but God’s people (His saints) should gratefully praise and bless the LORD more so and more often!

How do we praise God? These saints shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom. This is a wonderful subject for the conversations of God’s people. There are many things we talk about, but all too little do we speak of the glory of God’s kingdom. This is a year-round endeavor, but I can’t help to think about the election coming, what a great opportunity to show a peace and resolve that we are a part of the Kingdom everlasting and there’s room at the table of the King.

As God’s people, we should also “tell of the LORD’s power.” This power is good, true, and righteous. It is a power that pours out grace on the lowly. As we have received His grace and power, we should be the messengers of His grace to others.

Why? To make known to the children of man His mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of His kingdom. David again sensed the responsibility of God’s people to tell the wider world the greatness of what God has done (His mighty deeds) and who our King is (the glorious splendor of His kingdom). One theologian (Spurgeon) said this: “As the State cannot teach these holy histories the people of God must take care to do it themselves. The work must be done for every age, for men have short memories in reference to their God, and the doings of his power.” So many of the Psalms revisit creation, the exodus, and God’s character above all. We would do well to know this, remember it, and share it. A part of remembering and sharing is showing others the fullness of who the true God is.

In verse 14, The LORD upholds all who are falling. God’s compassion is especially evident toward those who fall and fail. He does not despise or reject them; there is a sense in which He specially draws near them to hold them up. If they allow their fall to rightly humble them, God will draw near and uphold them. He lifts them up and out of despondency – because their eyes look to Him (vs 15) The last portion of the psalm is marked by a frequent repetition of ‘all,’ which occurs eleven times in these verses. David seems to delight in the very sound of the word, which stirs his own heart infinite visions of the wide sweep of God’s universal mercy, and of the numberless crowd of dependents who wait on and are satisfied by Him.

He gives them food and satisfies the desire of every living thing – yet righteously and kind. As knowledge leads our worship, we must understand that God does not give us everything that we desire – that is not what David is saying – for this would neither be kind nor righteous of God. The humble put their expectation on God, looking to Him for their needs. We pray, “give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11), and God answers their prayer in due season. As we pray as a family at dinner in the evening, we thank my wife for cooking our meals, but we also thank God for providing the food and delicious flavors that He has created. Again: this is normal and occurs even when we have guests at the house (whether they are Christian or not).

David goes beyond mankind here. God’s care for creation extends beyond His provision for men and women. As Jesus would later say, God also cares for the birds and the grass of the field (Matthew 6:26-30). In verse 16, God does this with a wonderfully open hand to His creation. As we take in David’s description of God, we see how different Yahweh, LORD, the true and living God is compared to the idols of other nations throughout history. Those supposed ‘gods’ were often angry and grumpy, often reflected sinful humans, caring little for either humanity or creation. We should be pleasantly surprised and grateful for the love and care from the True God who is truly there for us daily.

Friends, when was the last time you slowed yourself down, sat and meditated on the character of God, His kindness to you in your life? Today, on the Sabbath, take some time with your family, or a friend, and reflect on God’s kindness to you… for He has been kind today.***

We praise God because He is God and increasingly for what He has done. And now our last point.

Before we look at this verse, David has alluded of this idea that we praise God always and forever. In verse 1, David calls God, King. In the middle of this Psalm in verse 13, David says, “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.” One reason why praise should continue forever is because God’s kingdom will last forever. His dominion is unending, lasting throughout all generations. In Revelation 5, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”; and in Revelation 7, “”To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!… Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Now, David ends this song by saying: “My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD and let all flesh bless (praise) his holy name forever and ever.”

The “forever and ever” has appeared in vs 2 and now in vs 21, bookending this passage. Another way to translate forever and ever is: “From infinity to infinity… ” Just hits differently. From the day we have breath until we enter our Master’s joy in glory – we praise and we keep praising. Notice in this Psalm there is not a category of when we don’t speak grateful praise, we do so always. Trials or triumph, weariness or strength, prospering or lacking… . God is great and greatly to be praised. We praise Him in the morning for the breath in our lungs, new mercies for the day, and coffee in our mugs. We praise Him in middle of day for the grace to continue to teach our children, work alongside a difficult co-worker, and the ability to read His word, even if for a moment. We praise Him in the evening for His guidance, provision, grace sufficient, and watchful eye as we look back on the day and as we think about tomorrow. We lay down on the pillow of His sovereignty knowing that God is for us, therefore, no one can be against us. I love David. I love that he is righteously stubborn and he will do nothing else in this life except boast in God. Let’s we join him and other brothers and sisters in the faith to make that our aim into glory – for our praising of God will continue there in perfection and glorious awe forever.

So what? This Psalm calls us to worship in every circumstance. It calls us to remind one another of God’s character and works in the world and in our lives… to make much of Him.

I want to circle back to a couple verses in this Psalm to close. In verses 17-20, David speaks of God’s ways and works. Vs 17, “The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. 18 The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. 19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them. 20 The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.”

In all of who God is and what He has done – majestic and mighty as He is and all His works are – these verses speak to the greatest work of God – redemption of sinners through His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the gospel. Yahweh is near to all who call on Him in truth (knowledge). For those who fear Him, he fulfills their desires – fear is the beginning of wisdom. Our desires, when we are grounded in truth and reverent awe of Him, should align with His desires. God hears our cries and saves us. Lastly, God will preserve all who love Him (for we love Him only because He has loved us first), so He will bring us home. Think back to Pastor Dave’s sermon last week, God keeps us faithful to Himself (perseverance). There is a warning in the same verse that God will destroy the wicked, those who rebel against Him and reject the gospel. If you are in Christ – praise Him today, tomorrow, and into eternity. If you are not sure where you are with Jesus, today is the day of salvation – all that you long for is in Him… humbly come to Him by faith, repent (cry for mercy) and find life in Jesus.

God’s grace abounds through our hearts to praise Him. Not just for what He has done is our lives, but simply because He is God, there is none other like Him, and He is worthy of all praise. The life of the child of God is one of grateful praise to Him and proclaiming His mighty works. We gathered today to praise God – oh, do we have much to praise Him for. Works that He has done for our good and for His utmost glory! Let’s keep proclaiming Him and His mighty works to one another and the watching world until He comes! Amen.

John 19:31-37 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. 35 He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. 36 For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” 37 And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”

Once again, I want to welcome the Rueters. I’m glad you are here and I’m glad you’re here on a “normal Sunday.” This is who we are. This is how we study God’s Word together. This is how we gather and greet one another. This is how we pray. This is how we sing. This is how we preach. Afterward, you’ll see that this is how we laugh and eat. Other than you being here, this is ordinary Grace Church. I hope you all find it as encouraging and honoring to God as we do.

At the same time, Grace, I’m eager for you all to get to know this family so you can see the things we (the search committee) have been seeing for some time. They love God and one another well. And we’re confident they will love us well too. Welcome them. Get to know them. Encourage them. Pray for them.

With that, let’s consider Jesus’ death yet again (with one more sermon coming).

The big idea of this passage is that Jesus was knowingly, willingly, lovingly, and graciously crucified for the sins of the world, so that by believing in Him we will be saved. John explained this through irony and defended it through prophecy. The main takeaway is to believe in Jesus and live in light of the full measure of the salvation He brings.

There are two main parts to this sermon. In the first, we will look directly at our text to see that we are saved through the death of Jesus. In the second part, we will look to the whole of John’s Gospel to see the nature of the salvation that Jesus purchased with His death.

In case you’ve missed it, or in case I haven’t done a good enough job pointing it out, for the last several chapters John has followed a consistent pattern. He has stated facts about Jesus, explained them through irony, and defended them through prophecy. He keeps that pattern in our passage. Let’s consider each, starting with the facts about Jesus.

John is explicit about the fact that he’s dealing in facts about Jesus. He wasn’t making up stories or speaking in parables or allegory. He was telling the truth about real, historical events. Look at v.35.

35 He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth…

For reasons that are never made clear, John often refers to himself in the third person. He was doing that here. John is “He who saw it” and the one whose “testimony is true” and the “he” who “is telling the truth.”

In other words, the author of this Gospel was an eye witness to the events described in our passage and he was adamant about the truthfulness of the things he was writing. He wasn’t fabricating, exaggerating, or mischaracterizing any of it. Every legitimate fact-checker would confirm his reports.

We’ll come back to the content of John’s report shortly, but for now we must recognize that John was stating facts about Jesus’ death and the events surrounding it.

What’s more, in addition to being explicit about the veracity of his reports, he was also explicit about his motivation for dealing in facts about Jesus. In other words, he doesn’t leave his readers wondering why he took all this time to write down these true stories.

He did so (again in v.35), “that you also may believe.” He accurately wrote what he wrote, so that his readers would believe what he wrote.

There are two keys to this. First, in using the word “also,” John was making clear that he was not indifferent to these facts. He wanted his readers to believe too. That is, John believed. He wasn’t an outside observer or an unbiased historian. He was a believing believer himself.

That’s a significant lesson for all of us Grace, and maybe especially the kids of parents who believe. Knowing true things about Jesus is not the same thing as truly believing them. You need to know them in order to truly believe them, but knowledge by itself means very little.

The second key concerns the content of the belief John was after. John wrote that his readers might believe. But what, exactly did he want them to believe? Ultimately, as he tells us in chapter 20, he wanted his readers to believe that Jesus is the Christ and that His death was a part of the saving plan of God. John was not merely accurately recording the tragic death of someone he cared for. Instead, he wanted his readers to believe that Jesus was knowingly, willingly, lovingly, and graciously crucified for the sins of the world.

Even on the most basic level, that’s a lot to take in. We’re right to wonder what all of that really means and why we should believe it. Again, to explain his meaning, John chose to use the tool of irony. And to help convince his readers that it’s true, he used the tool of fulfilled prophecy. Let’s look at each of those now.

Irony, in the sense that I mean it here, is “Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs” (American Heritage Dictionary). John has consistently made use of irony throughout his Gospel. He did so primarily in highlighting the vast chasm between what the religious leaders of that time claimed to believe and how they functioned.

We would expect those most studied in, charged by God to teach and lead out of, and claiming to be zealous for the Scriptures to be filled with awe, wonder, gratitude, worship, and obedience to Jesus. For He is the fulfillment of the Scriptures. Instead, however, they constantly acted in ways that were the exact opposite of that.

We have another example of that in v.31.

31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.

Deuteronomy 21:22-23 says, “22 “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.”

As was the case when the Jews wouldn’t go into Caiaphas’s house so as not to defile themselves before the Sabbath, there was a rightness to their thinking here. It was right to obey the law of God. Added to that is the fact that the next day was the Passover Sabbath, which meant that if the bodies remained overnight, they would either need to leave the bodies up even longer or not be able to celebrate on the special day. Again, there is a significant measure of legitimacy to their thinking.

However, the thick irony here is that in their effort to avoid the defilement of the land and participate in the Passover Sabbath, they were, ironically, heaping defilement upon themselves by seeking to break the bones of the Passover Lamb (which was prohibited in Exodus 12:46; Jesus is the true Lamb) and murdering the Sabbath (Jesus is our true rest).

Once again, John’s point in making use of irony was to help his readers understand how they ought to understand and respond to the facts concerning Jesus. By consistently highlighting the ridiculousness of the Jews’ response, John made it crystal clear what was at stake and how they should have responded. By painting such a clear picture of what Jesus’ death didn’t mean, we’re given a clear picture of what it did mean: Jesus was knowingly, willingly, lovingly, and graciously crucified for the sins of the world and so they should have believed in Jesus.

Grace, we are right to be appalled by the sinful irony that marked the lives of the Jews. But we are also right to ask what areas of our lives are similarly ironic in light of our profession of faith in Jesus?

In the incongruity of the Jews response to Jesus we can see more clearly what John meant and that there’s a lot at stake in it. But big claims require big evidence. What evidence is there for the truthfulness of John’s claims? Again, that’s where John turned to the familiar tool of fulfilled prophecy.

Interestingly, you remember, Jesus is now dead. It makes sense that while He was alive He could fulfill prophecy, but how in the world does a dead guy do so? The answer to that question is yet another display of the awesome grace of the King of the upside-down kingdom. God is not bound by ordinary means or conventional wisdom. His plan of redemption even went so far as to include Jesus fulfilling prophecy from the grave. For me, part of the believability of the gospel has always been its audacity. A story this bizarre has to be true, right? No one can make up something so unusual.

What, then, is the prophecy that Jesus fulfilled from the dead and which serves as evidence that John’s facts, explained in irony, are true? Look at v.32.

32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.

Here’s where (v.35) John interjects by emphasizing that he’s simply recounting the facts that we must believe to be saved. He continues…

36 For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” 37 And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”

The fact that Jesus’ bones weren’t broken in death (even when the bones of the two others crucified with Him were), is the fulfillment of Psalm 34:20, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. 20 He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.”

And the fact that Jesus was pierced is a fulfillment of Zechariah 12:10, “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him…”.

As we’ve repeatedly seen in John’s Gospel, throughout history God had hidden pieces of evidence concerning the true nature of the Christ and the means by which He would save the world. He did so knowing that the Christ and His salvation would come in a thoroughly unexpected manner. He did it so those with eyes to see and ears to hear might praise Him for the fulfillment and all the more for the unexpected way He went about it.

Imagine playing golf with someone. You’re on a par three surrounded by water. He steps up, takes a normal swing, and skips the ball across the water, only to have it end up three feet from the hole. Your first though, of course, is to be amazed by his luck. You’d probably even start teasing him. Now imagine that he turns to you and tells you he planned it. There’s no way you’d believe him, right? But what if he were to pull a note out of his pocket calling the shot? That changes things. This is a cosmic version of that. God called His shot over and over and over and John is helping us see that as a means of helping us believe.

Again, John was explaining facts about Jesus’ death in order that his readers would believe and be saved. He then used the twin tools of irony and prophecy to help his readers understand and believe. With the Spirit’s help, that will strengthen the faith of those who believe and serve as a powerful invitation to those who do not.

Having considered the fact that we are saved through believing in the sacrificial death of Jesus, we’ll now turn our attention to the nature of the salvation that comes through belief in Jesus’ death.

Grace, let me ask you, what does it really mean to be saved? What is included in Jesus’ saving work?

I’ve found that most people, whether consciously or not, understand salvation to refer merely to an initial decision to trust in Jesus and then a future, heavenly destination. You get saved in the sense that you punch your ticket to heaven when you first believe and then wait for it to come to pass.

The salvation purchased by Jesus’ death definitely involves those two things, but John’s Gospel, as well as the Bible as a whole, paints a much bigger picture of salvation than just conversion and heaven. In fact, there are ten, not two, aspects of salvation.

Back to our question, then, what did Jesus accomplish for us in His death? Or, what does it mean to be saved?

The first aspect of the salvation that Jesus accomplished for us on the cross is the most controversial and also the clearest in all of Scripture. It is the idea that God has chosen a people to save.

The main hangup, or the source of the controversy, is found in the idea that the doctrine of election seems to suggest that we don’t really have a choice. If God chooses people to be saved, then some people cannot choose God, and that isn’t fair, the argument goes.

Let me quickly say a few things about that. First, the way things seem to us cannot be our final standard for anything. God’s Word must be. It is a central truth of the Christian faith that we must calibrate our sensibilities to God’s Word, not the other way around. Either the Bible teaches the doctrine of election or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, we should reject it. If it does, and I think you’ll see clearly that it does, then we need to accept it and rethink everything in us that pushes back on it.

Second, the Bible repeatedly puts the doctrine of election right next to the reality of real human choices without blushing. In other words, the biblical writers, under the Spirit’s inspiration, don’t see a problem with God’s sovereign choices and our real choices coexisting. Therefore, neither should we.

Third, without God’s help, no one would choose God. We’ll come back to this passage in a bit, but in John 6:44 we read Jesus’ words, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” Sin is so sinful that it makes us unwilling and unable to choose God apart from the electing grace of God.

And forth, the Bible never presents the doctrine of election as something to be embarrassed about or frustrated with or in need of philosophical propping-up. Instead, it presents the doctrine as a matter of fact and the source of great hope. It is because of God’s sovereign choice that He always keeps His promises and our choice to believe in Him will always end in our salvation.

We see God’s sovereign choice, his election of a people in passages like John 6:37, “All that the Father gives me will come to me…”.

In 10:26-28 Jesus said of those who are among the elect, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life…”.

One more clear example is John 17:12, in Jesus’ prayer to the Father, “While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me…”.

The salvation Jesus purchased on the cross begins with God’s sovereign, electing grace.

The fact that election is a part of God’s saving plan, does not bypass the need to hear and believe the gospel; the good news of Jesus’ perfect life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection bringing salvation to all who believe. The next aspect of our salvation is that the gospel will come to all of God’s people. Salvation never comes apart from hearing the gospel, but the gospel always comes to God’s elect. This is the main point of John’s whole Gospel, “these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

John wrote his Gospel in order to share the gospel, explain it, and call all people everywhere to believe it. Because of that, this second aspect of salvation is everywhere in John’s Gospel. In fact, I hope you’re already imagining the many times Jesus presented the good news of Himself to those He encountered and called them to believe in Him.

At the same time, not everyone who hears the gospel believes it. John describes far more people rejecting the good news of Jesus than those who believe. How is it that some believe and some don’t. Or, what is it that allows God’s elect to believe?

The answer, again found everywhere in John, is the third aspect of the salvation won by Jesus on the cross: Regeneration. The good news of Jesus is a spiritual truth. However, since Adam’s sin, all mankind is born physically alive and spiritually dead. In other words, one of the effects of the Fall is that we are born unwilling and unable to believe in God because the mechanism we need to do so is dead within us. Therefore, we need to be born again. Our spirits need to be made alive in order that we might hear and believe the gospel when it comes.

John 3:3 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 1:12-13 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.

Why do some hear the gospel and respond with indifference or even anger while some are cut to the heart by it? Or, why do some hear the gospel dozens of times before they believe it? The answer is regeneration. Until this aspect of the salvation, won on the cross comes to us, until we receive this particular saving grace of God, we will not and cannot believe.

But once it does come to us we are able to see things as they truly are. We are able to feel the holiness of God in our bones, we will be overwhelmed by our sin, and we will know that there is no other way to be saved than to throw ourselves upon Jesus. This is not because God makes us believe, but because regeneration allows us to truly see, and with our new spiritual sight, the choice couldn’t be more obvious.

The fourth aspect of salvation is the one most people are most familiar with: Conversion. This is when we choose to believe the gospel that’s been shared with us. At some point the elect will hear the gospel and through it our spirits are made alive that we might see things as they are, but we must still choose to believe. We must decide. We must make a real decision to trust in Jesus.

Two clear examples of this are found in John 1:11-12 and John 3:16.

John 1:11-12 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

John 3:16 God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Let me give one quick pastoral encouragement. Too many people spend too much time worrying about whether or not they are among the elect or if they’ve been truly born again. The Bible never really talks like that. The charge is simply to believe the gospel when it comes to us. In John’s Gospel and throughout the NT, we find examples of those who hear for the first time and instantly believe. But we also find examples of long delays between hearing and believing and of those who hear many times before believing. We simply don’t find language like, “Here’s the gospel…you’d better hope you are among the elect so you can believe it.” Instead, the gospel is shared, the offer is made, and the expectation is that the person hearing should choose to believe.

The fifth aspect of our salvation is justification. Justification is God’s declaration that sinners have been made right before Him. It is a one-time, final decree that because we have been united to Jesus (in His suffering, His death, and His resurrection) through faith, we have also been united to Him in His perfect righteousness. And because of that, because of Jesus’ righteousness given to us, we are declared by God to be not guilty; justified.

Justification is the only aspect of salvation not explicitly taught in John’s Gospel. But that is not to say it isn’t taught in John’s Gospel. One theologian (Thomas Schriner, Justification: An Introduction) says it like this, “John in his Gospel doesn’t use the language of justification. The idiom, the metaphors, the images differ, but the reality is the same.”

The primary way that justification shows up implicitly in John’s Gospel, is in the constant connection John makes between believing and life. When anyone believes in Jesus, he or she is immediately given life. That is, he or she is immediately justified before God. For John, to have life through belief in Jesus is to have God’s condemnation lifted and to be declared righteous.

Our biggest problem in life is that we are guilty of sin before God. That makes justification one of the sweetest aspects of our salvation, for in it we are filled with Jesus’ righteousness and on that basis, declared innocent.

The sixth aspect of our salvation is that we are not merely freed from condemnation, declared innocent and then dismissed. We are also brought into the family of God. God does not merely expunge our record and then leave us to ourselves. He adopts us as His beloved sons and daughters.

John 1:11-12 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

What a gift it is in our salvation to be given the name of God.

Our salvation means that we are justified according to Jesus’ righteousness, not our own. However, to be saved also means that from the moment of our conversion, God is making us righteous. The process by which God makes His people righteous is called sanctification. A literal translation would be “holification.” Part of being saved means being made holy. By God’s saving grace, our appetite for sin will shrivels and die.

The clearest example of this in John is found in 17:17 where Jesus prays that the Father would, “Sanctify [His followers] in the truth…” He went on in v.19 to state, “…for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth…”. Jesus died on the cross in order that we would be sanctified.

This same idea is found in John 15 where Jesus explains that His people will bear good fruit if they remain in Him.

Grace, Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins. And part of being saved means being brought into the gracious process of being made holy by God; sometimes slowly and gently and other times rapidly and violently, sometimes it’s two steps forward and one step back, but to be saved always means that we are being sanctified.

As remarkable as all of this is, Jesus’ salvation gets better still. God elects, calls, regenerates, converts, justifies, adopts, sanctifies, and perseveres. God will not let us go. He will not let us ultimately fall away. Those who truly believe in Jesus, will be preserved in Jesus.

John 6:39 …this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

John 10:27-28 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

God doesn’t just call us to Jesus. He also keeps us in Jesus. Awesome!

As strange as it sounds, the ninth aspect of the salvation accomplished by Jesus in His death is our death. For at our death our souls are finally sanctified and go immediately into God’s presence, fully cleansed. Grace, the good news of our salvation is that the moment our bodies die, we will never again have a single ungodly desire.

John 14:1-3 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

Jesus, through death, rose from the dead to the Father’s house and to make a place for us to join Him there. When we die, once again, the God’s final sanctifying work is done on our souls and we join Him in His house.

Finally, at death, our souls are fully and finally sanctified, but our bodies go into the ground to decay. This might not sound like a big deal, but it is. We were made to be whole persons—body and soul. Therefore, it is good news indeed that the salvation accomplished by Jesus on the cross includes not only the sanctification of our souls, but our bodies as well.

When Jesus returns, our bodies will be raised from the dead, sanctified entirely (no more weakness, tears, disease, deformities, fatigue, or imperfection) and reunited with our souls. This is the final aspect of our salvation. Once this happens, we will be fully saved. This is called glorification.

John 5:25-29 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live… 28 … for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life…

John 6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Oh, what a glorious day! What a glorious salvation! What a glorious sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf.

All ten of these are part of the salvation God works in everyone who trusts in Him. If any of them are true of a person, all of them will be, forever! And that’s the key to really understanding what Jesus accomplished on the cross, what John means by life through believing that Jesus is the Christ, and what it means to be saved.

Jesus was knowingly, willingly, lovingly, and graciously crucified for the sins of the world so that by believing in Him we will be saved. Believe in Jesus, therefore, Grace Church and live in light of the full measure of the salvation He brings.

John 19:28-30 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

All by itself, the headline, “Man killed in the Middle East,” is sad, but not particularly newsworthy. If you were to add the word “Innocent” to it (Innocent man killed in the Middle East), that certainly ups the interest level. Now if we add another clarifying clause, “Innocent man killed in the Middle East, saving a school full of children,” we’re on another level entirely. In the first case, the headline is tragic and tragically common. In the last case, the headline is tragic, rare, and exceedingly honorable.

But what if we were to take it to another level still? What if the headline was, “Perfectly innocent, eternal, God-man killed in the Middle East, saving a school full of children from their sins and reconciling them to God, and all according to the plan of God, revealed to the world in many ways over many centuries.

As I mentioned last Sunday, there is a great deal of theology wrapped up in the crucifixion of Jesus. What does that mean? It means that Jesus’ death on the cross is not like the first example, but the fourth. It means that Jesus’ death on the cross was anything but a simple story of another in a very long line of men killed by the Roman empire. It means that our passage is more than a mere historical event. It is jam packed with spiritual significance.

In order to help you see the spiritual significance and rich theology of the crucifixion, in order to help you to see a fuller measure of the amazing grace of God in it, in order to fuel greater obedience and worship, I mean to zoom out quite a bit from this passage before focusing back in on it.

Practically speaking, we’re going to begin by briefly considering the four interpretive (hopefully somewhat familiar) questions we need to ask every time we come to a passage in the Bible. Then, second, we’re going to look more closely at the third interpretive question. And finally, third, we’re going to examine our passage in light of each of those things.

In all of that we’ll see that the big idea of this passage is that Jesus died to accomplish the centerpiece of God’s eternal plan of redemption.. And the main takeaway is to be amazed by the magnitude of the sovereign grace of God such that obedience and worship flow with increasing freeness.

For years, we’ve tried to help you all understand that there are four questions we need to ask every time we read a passage in the Bible. Grace, it’s critical for all of us to understand that our confidence in our understanding of the passage ought to be directly related to the fullness with which we are able to answer those questions of the passage. This is always the case, but it is especially the case for passages as significant as ours.

The first question we need to ask of any passage is what the author’s original intent was when he wrote it? Or, in other words, we need to ask what the author was trying to communicate to his first readers? What did he want them to understand from his words?

This shouldn’t be controversial. When you write a letter to someone, it means what you meant it to mean. Of course, it is a good idea to give thought to how they might interpret it, but the key to the letter is what you intended when you wrote it. That should be the main focus of whoever reads it.

In the most basic terms, John’s primary intent in our passage for today is to communicate the facts that (1) Jesus was crucified, (2) It was the fulfillment of prophecy, and (3) It brought to completion something of great significance. If we don’t start here, we will inevitably end up understanding and applying it wrongly.

The second question we need to ask is how the author’s intent in any given passage fits into his larger purpose of the book it is in. Every biblical author wrote to accomplish a particular aim and we need to know what that is, so that we can understand how each passage helps accomplish that.

As we’ve seen many times already, John explicitly tells us the larger purpose of his Gospel, “these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (20:31). In other words, John was very intentional in selecting which aspects of Jesus’ life and ministry he recorded in his Gospel; namely, those which were most likely to cause his readers to believe that Jesus is the long-promised Christ, so that his readers might have fullness of eternal life.

Again, in the most straight-forward terms, our passage for this morning fits within the larger story of John in that it is one of the two primary pieces of evidence John has to offer concerning the Christness of Jesus (the other being the resurrection). In that way, our passage is at the very center of the larger story of John’s Gospel.

The third question we need to ask every time we read a passage is how it fits into the whole story of the Bible. I’m exceedingly glad to tell any of you who don’t already know it: The Bible is made up of a bunch of individual books, all written for particular purposes, by particular authors, and to particular people (last question), but by God’s design, they collectively tell one grand story (the biggest story, as one author calls it).

There are many story lines in the Bible, but only one main story. If we are to truly understand any individual passage in the Bible, we must be careful to not only focus on the author’s original meaning and its place in the book that contains it, but also where it fits in—how it contributes to—that one main story of the whole Bible.

Answering that question is a key component of what we call biblical theology. That’s where we’re going to turn to next (after looking at the fourth interpretive question), so we’ll come back to what it means for our passage later.

Finally, and only finally, can we answer the question of what the passage we’re studying has to do with the Church today. Another way to phrase the question is: How do Christians rightly apply this passage in our present context? Sometimes we do so in exactly the same way as the first readers and sometimes we need to apply it differently, but we always need to apply it, and we always need to be careful to apply it as God would have us.

For instance, my favorite, Deuteronomy 14:21 says, “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.” Throughout the time of the Mosaic covenant, it meant exactly that. God’s people were literally prohibited from boiling baby goats in the milk produced by their mothers. That was a pagan fertility ritual and God forbade His people from practicing it.

I’ve never known anyone who was even mildly tempted to do that today, and I can’t think of any legitimate alternative reason someone would want to, but the principle still stands. God alone is the one who opens and closes wombs, and His people must not believe or act in ways that deny that. More broadly speaking, an important application of this passage for the church today is that we should never put our ultimate trust in anyone or anything else to do what God alone can do—give life, heal, forgive, restore, protect, etc.

This too we’ll come back to at the end for our passage in relation to John 19:28-30.

What was the author’s original intent? How does that help accomplish his larger purpose in writing what he wrote? How does that contribute to the big storyline of the whole Bible? And how, then, should we apply the passage today? We need to answer all four question and in that order.

With that, as I mentioned at the beginning, let’s zoom way out and consider the third question more closely.

The first and second interpretive questions are based on the fact that there is genuine diversity in every book of the Bible. That is, once again, each book of the Bible was written by a particular author, at a particular time, to a particular people, and for a particular purpose. At the same time, the third interpretive question is based on the fact that there is genuine unity in all of the books of the Bible. That is, all of the diverse biblical books combined tell one grand story. Broadly speaking, studying the diversity of each passage is called exegesis. Studying the unity of all the passages is called biblical theology.

A danger in carefully studying the diversity of scripture, is that it can swallow up our sense of the unity of scripture. The more we focus on the genuine uniqueness of each author, context, purpose, book, paragraph, sentence, and word, the harder it can be to see the unifying whole. Likewise, a danger in carefully studying the unity of scripture, is that it can swallow up our sense of scripture’s diversity. The more we focus on the big story, the less the author’s original intent in any passage seems to matter.

Good students of the Bible accept both the glory of the unity and diversity of God’s Word and refuse to allow either to swallow or overwhelm the other. To rightly understand any individual passage, we need to see it in light of the whole, and a right understanding of the whole story can only come from proper interpretation of individual books and passages.

In order to help you grasp the fullness of the significance of Jesus’ final words, “It is finished,” we need to get our heads around when it started, how it got there, and where it’s going. In other words, to make the most sense of our passage, we need to answer the third interpretative question for it. That is, we need to do a bit of biblical theology. But in order to answer the question of how John 19:28-30 fits into the overall storyline of the Bible, we need to know the overall storyline of the Bible.

There are other ways to explain it, but broadly speaking, the Bible’s story consists of four main scenes: Creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. Let’s consider each before returning to our text, as a part of the means of best understanding and applying our text.

The first scene in the overall story of the Bible begins at the very beginning, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). A bit later we are told that all that God made was “very good” (1:31). The beginning of the big story told by the 66 books of the Bible collectively is God’s creation of the universe and all that is in it.

We will never be able to make real sense of any passage in the Bible or any aspect of our lives apart from this. The fact that God is the holy creator, sustainer, and king of all that exists is the foundation of all reality. It is the sypher that unlocks the mystery of every big question in life.

It is because God is uniquely these things that He has the unique authority to assign meaning and purpose to all things, including all mankind. It is only because God is uniquely these things that gender, marriage, and justice are real, unalterable things. It’s the only reason that lying, stealing, and murder are objectively wrong. And it’s the only reason that we have real meaning, purpose, and value as human beings.

At the same time, it is because God alone is these things that He alone determines the rewards for living consistently with them and consequences for failing to do so. No matter how confidently we proclaim otherwise, the opening scene of the story of the Bible tells us that God is God and we are not.

In the beginning God dwelt with man and man with God in perfect order, harmony, provision, and fellowship.

The Genesis/creation story was clearly ringing in John’s ears as he wrote his Gospel. As you probably recall, John purposefully began his Gospel with the words of Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

Making sense of our passage for this morning includes the understanding that the Jesus who was being crucified in John 19:28-30 was with God at creation, because He is God, and that creation was made through Him and exists for Him.

In other words, a huge part of the significance of our passage concerns the fact that Jesus was no ordinary man. His was allowing His own creation to murder Him with His own creation. But why? That leads to the next scene.

Tragically, the state of perfect order, harmony, provision, and fellowship didn’t last long. In the Garden, there was one rule and one consequence for breaking that rule, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17).

The second scene of the Bible’s story begins in the third chapter of the first book of the Bible. By that point, the first people broke the only command. Succumbing to the temptation of the devil, Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and suffered its consequences (immediate spiritual death and eventual physical death). This has been called “The Fall”. In addition to the death promised, they were filled with shame and blame and their corruption spread to all creation (Genesis 3:16-19).

We see the effects of the fall throughout the entire Bible. Mankind is simply unable, in his fallen state, to obey or enjoy God as he ought to. This plays itself out over and over and over, sometimes in small, hard-to-notice ways and sometimes in shocking, horrific ways.

This is why life is hard and tornados happen and people lie, cheat, steal, and kill. We are born into corruption and, left to ourselves, we will remain corrupted.

Another key to fitting our passage into its proper place in the grand story, then, is in recognizing that this is the most shocking and horrific expressions of the Fall throughout all human history. It is the pinnacle of the sinfulness of sin and the evilness of evil. It doesn’t get worse than this and its roots trace all the way back to Genesis 3.

The simple fact of the matter is that the biggest story moves quickly from the creation of the world to the fall of the world. And the greatest significance in the fall is that it left the world in a helpless state. Without some kind of intervention, without some kind of redemption, all was left in condemnation, disorder, disharmony, and death. Worse still, there was nothing in all of creation that could provide sufficient intervention or redemption.

Interestingly, the third scene of the greatest story begins even more quickly than the second. What’s more, as we’ll see shortly, the fourth and final scene occupies very little space in the Bible as well.

More concretely, the first scene, creation, gets the first two chapters in the Bible (Genesis 1-2). As we just saw, the effects of the fall are everywhere in the Bible, and yet the second scene, gets a mere half a chapter (Genesis 3:1-14) before the first promise of redemption comes. And while there are hints of the fourth scene scattered throughout the Bible as well, it is only covered directly in the two chapters of the Bible (Revelation 21-22).

The significance of this is in the fact that the vast majority of the Bible describes the third scene: God’s gradually unfolding plan of redemption.

Just moments after the Fall, God promised not to leave mankind in his state of helpless condemnation. God promised intervention and redemption. To the devil and the sin he brought, God said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15).

From that moment on, God’s plan of redemption was increasingly promised, clarified and carried out. A fuller look at the biblical theology of redemption would examine the sacrifices and the temple, the prophets, priests, and kings, the law and the covenants, and the Church—for all of those things point to a greater redemption that was to come.

Jesus is the offspring God promised to send to crush the devil, sin, and death. He is the one sacrifice for all and the dwelling place of God. He is the one true Prophet, Priest, and King. He is the fulfillment of God’s law and covenant promises. He is the head of the Church. And He is the greater redemption that was to come.

Access to Jesus’ redemption came not through obedience—which is really good news in light of the fact that non-fallen Adam and Eve couldn’t keep one command—but through trust.

By the time he wrote his Gospel, John understood, believed, and was trusting in all of that and was writing to help his readers do the same. And all of that is at the very heart of why John wrote 19:28-30. He was explaining that contrary to what everyone expected, Jesus would accomplish the promised redemption not by conquering as a military leader, but by dying on a cross. He would crush His enemies not by killing them, but by letting them kill Him. He would execute justice, not by squeezing the price of sin out of sinful man, but by offering His life as a ransom for the sin of mankind.

All of that was happening in the events described in John 19:28-30 and understanding that is key to appreciating the facts that God planned it and Jesus finished it.

More significantly still, we learn from Ephesians 1:4 that God’s plan of redemption was established even before creation. That’s what makes John’s repeated emphasis on Jesus fulfilling God’s promises so significant. They were eternal promises, revealed gradually to mankind over time.

Can you see why understanding the whole story of the Bible is critical if we are to even begin to plumb the depths of the significance of our passage? Without it, at best, we have a man willing to endure injustice for the sake of others. It wouldn’t be clear at all how anyone would benefit from His death. And it certainly wouldn’t be clear what form any benefit would take or that it was a part of God’s eternal plan to save the world.

But when we see it within it’s proper place in the greatest story, our passage bursts with significance, glory, blessing, hope, and love.

The final scene in God’s Greatest Story is the restoration of all things. If the first three scenes focus primarily on where we’ve been, the final scene focuses primarily on where we’re going.

We see in awesome detail in Revelation 21-22 that Jesus not only died to take away the sins of the world, but also to undo all of the effects of sin forever. He came to restore all that sin has broken for all who trust in Him.

We will be brought back to a perfect Garden in which we will once again dwell with God and man in perfect order, harmony, provision, and fellowship. But this time, with the added blessing of doing so in a way that is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” (1 Peter 1:4); in a way that unlike the first Garden, will never end!

Again, John knew that. He wrote the book of Revelation as well as this Gospel. Restoration is part of what John meant by “by believing you may have life in His name.” It is part of what Jesus mean when He said that He came that His followers might “have life and have it to the full” (10:10). And John wrote our passage for this morning in order to describe the means by which God would accomplish all of this—the crucifixion of Jesus, paying the penalty of sin, and defeating death, for all who would believe.

There are few passages more directly tied to each aspect of the Bible’s grand story than John 19:28-30. I hope that by seeing all of that, you are in a better position to understand the significance of our passage and be amazed by the magnitude of the sovereign grace of God such that obedience and worship flow with increasing freeness.

All of that brings us back to our text and allows us to properly fit it into its proper biblical-theological place.

The big idea of this passage is that Jesus died to accomplish the centerpiece of God’s plan to save the world from the curse of sin and death that had reigned since the very first human beings.

To help you see that, I’ve tried to answer the four interpretative questions for the passage and fit it into its proper place in the larger story of the Bible as we’ve made our way through already. Here, I want to quickly and explicitly highlight the two biggest keys of this passage: the fulfillment and completion of God’s promises.

We spent some time last week looking back at all the ways John pointed out how Jesus’ suffering and death were the fulfillment of God’s promises. You may remember that the main point of this is to help his readers see in no uncertain terms, that nothing happening to Jesus was a surprise or defeat. All of it took place according to God’s perfect knowledge and plan of victory. We find yet another in our passage this morning.

28 After this, Jesus, … said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.

The fact that Jesus was thirsty and that He was given a drink, as simple as those things were, were also promised by God. Most likely, it is the fulfillment of Psalm 22:15, “my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws…” This would be a fairly obscure reference, of course, but John 19 is filled with references to Psalm 22. Last week we saw the fulfillment of 22:18 in the dividing up of Jesus’ clothing. The Psalm begins with the very language Jesus used on the cross according to Matthew and Mark, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

It’s possible that it refers instead to Psalm 69:21, “for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.” There’s clearly a tighter connection to the details of the text.

Perhaps John had both in mind or another one entirely. The main point, however, is that Jesus drinking sour wine on the cross was part of God’s plan of redemption. Rightly understood, then, it ought to be another source of hope and gratitude in the midst of an otherwise terrible scene.

The first key to grasping this passage in light of the whole is see that it is the fulfillment of another of God’s promises. The other key to this passage is that it is also the completion of God’s promises.

28 … Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, … 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Jesus knew that “all was now finished” and said as much before giving up His spirit. But what did that mean? What was finished? Didn’t Jesus have to die to “finish” it all?

I love the simple way the simplest commentary I read (TNTC, 365, Kruse) answers this. I just can’t improve on it. What had Jesus finished at that point?

“In 10:18 Jesus insisted that no-one would take his life from him and that he would lay it down of his own accord, and here he did just that bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. He had finished the work he came to do. He had given his flesh for the life of the world (6:51), as the good shepherd he had laid down his life for the sheep (10:11, 14), he became the one man who died for the nation (11:50), he was the seed that had fallen into the ground, and would now produce many seeds (12:24), and he had shown the love greater than any other – he had laid down his life for his friends (15:13).”

Most significantly of all, though, is something Matthew and Mark make clearer than John. They record, as we just saw, Jesus’ words,

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” (Matthew 27:46)?

This was the moment in which Jesus finished drinking the last of the cup of the Father’s wrath. Every ounce of the Father’s fury was poured out on Jesus while He was still alive on the cross and that was now finished. Everything required to secure the complete and eternal redemption and restoration of mankind had been accomplished. Jesus had to be entirely forsaken by His Father and He finished that in our passage. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound!

That’s a lot! But for all who have eyes to see and ears to hear, it is the best lot of all.

Once again, in all of that we’ll see that the big idea of this passage is that Jesus died to accomplish the centerpiece of God’s eternal plan of redemption. And the main takeaway for you and me now, for the Church today, is to be amazed by the magnitude of the sovereign grace of God, such that obedience and worship flow with increasing freeness. May it be so, Grace.

For those who did not know the big story of God, this looked like nothing but defeat. But for those who see it for what it really is, we are filled with wonder at the eternal and infinite glory of God revealed here. And in that we worship. And in that we gladly give ourselves to following the One who accomplished it all on our behalf. Again, by the grace of God, may it be so, Grace.