I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the Gospel of John, chapter
20. John, chapter 20. Let's ask our Lord's blessing
upon this service today. Father, we thank you this morning
for this privilege to be able to come and to hear your Word. Lord, would you bless it to our
hearts. Let us hear. Give us hearing
ears, seeing eyes. For Christ's sake. Amen. I was speaking to Brother Walter
Groover three or four days ago, and he told me this statement
that he makes to the preachers there in Mérida. He tells the
men, he said, preach to my heart. Preach to my heart, not to my
head, preach to my heart. You know, that's, that's scriptural.
You know, Isaiah 40 verse 1, comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith the Lord. You know, you look in your margin,
if you have a marginal mind, mind says, speak to the heart,
speak to the heart. I can't do that. But I pray that
the Spirit of God bless the words as we're truthful. The only way
a man can speak to a man's heart is be truthful to what God has
to say and pray the Lord bless it. I pray the Lord bless the
services today. John chapter 20 relates the glorious truth concerning
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Now, of the resurrection,
the Old Testament proclaimed it. You know, how Jesus died,
I'm going to read that in a second. According to the Scriptures. Listen to this. 1 Corinthians
15, 3 and 4. For I delivered unto you, first
of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, that
he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Now, it is,
how did he die? How was he raised? Well, the
Scripture says, according to the Scriptures, it proclaimed
the death, the burial, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Scriptures bore out the Lord dying and on the third day raised
from the tomb. But how? Now, I'm not going to
even remotely try to go through all of the scriptures that bore
out this truth, but what I'm going to try to do is I'm going
to just look at a couple of them. Abraham was told by God. Now
listen, I'll just read this to you, Genesis 22. This is what
the Lord said to Abraham, Take now thy son, thine only son. We didn't have Ishmael. The Lord
said, you take your boy, your only boy, one I'll bless, not
the one produced by your works, by grace. Thy only son, Isaac,
whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah and offer
him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which
I will tell thee of. You know this story. This is
the story of Abraham and Isaac. From the moment that God told
Abraham, I want you to take your son, your only son, the one you
love, and you take him where I show you, and I want you to
offer him there for a burnt sacrifice unto me. From that moment, that
boy was dead. In the eyes of Abraham, this
boy is dead. In Isaac, It was prophesied that
the Lord Jesus Christ would come. He'd come through Isaac. And
Isaac. The world is going to be blessed
through Isaac. Nobody else. That's going to be through the
lineage. Now I want you to take that boy, and I want you to go
up where I show you, and you sacrifice him unto me. Scripture says that Abraham staggered
not, at the promise of God. I'm going to go up and sacrifice
that boy. God's able to raise him from the dead, but God told
me to sacrifice that boy. That boy was dead. Just as sure
as that knife was already in his heart. From that moment Well,
Scripture says, Abraham rose up early in the morning, saddled
his ass, took two of his young men with him. Isaac, his son,
claimed the wood for the burnt offering, rose up, went unto
the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham
lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. God said, this
is it. This is it. Told the two servants with him,
say, you stay with the ass. Lad and I are going to go up
there. We're going to worship God. On that day, the third day, from
the time that God told Abraham, I want you to offer that boy.
And as I said, that boy was dead. That boy went up with his dad
on the third day, on the third day. And Almighty God allowed
Abraham to put that boy upon an altar, and before that knife
was plunged into his heart, we saw two glorious pictures right
here. Number one, we do see deliverance, as Isaac is a type of God's elect. who were delivered. What happened?
Abraham turned, saw a ram, caught in a thicket. You take that ram
right there, you put the ram there, there's the ram now, a
picture of the sacrifice, there's substitution. You get that boy
off there. But I'll tell you this, the greater
picture was the deliverance of Isaac as a type of Christ, raised
from the dead. That boy, three days. Three days. In Abraham's mind, that boy is
dead. And on the third day, he was
delivered. The Scriptures declared the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jonah. Three days, three nights. in the belly of the whale. Lord
Jesus Christ said, Matthew 12, 40, For as Jonas was three days
and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man
be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Now,
let me just tell you this right now. According to the Scriptures,
The day before the Sabbath, the Passover, the Lord was crucified
on the day before. He was there Friday night, all
day Saturday, Saturday night, and Sunday morning He rose from
the dead, early Sunday morning. You said, I can't make all that
fit. I can't get three days and three
nights out of that. That doesn't matter. The Lord
said it was three days and three nights. I'm not going to sit
here and try to calculate. I'm going to take what God has
to say, and I'm going to say, this is what the Lord said. You
can figure it any way you want to. That's okay with me. But
this morning, instead of trying to debate, what I want us to
do is to consider the account of the glorious resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And may we see the gospel, if
it's just history. I can read these verses, but
if we don't see the glory of Christ in it, then we've missed
it. All right, verse 1. The first
day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark unto
the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher. Sunday morning. It's the day
after the Sabbath. is on the seventh day. We looked
at that last week. God sanctified the seventh day
and declared it from the beginning. That's the Sabbath. But now here
we are. It's the first day of the week.
It's Sunday morning and Mary Magdalene comes early in the
morning Now John here mentions Mary Magdalene, but the other
gospels, and for sake of time, I won't read them. You can go
back and just read the accounts of the other, but I can tell
you this. According to the other scriptures, there was more than
just Mary Magdalene. There was Mary, the mother of
James, and a woman named Salome. That's out of Luke 16, verse
1. And Luke's account of this event right here tells us that
these ladies had brought some spices which they had prepared,
and I looked up the reasoning for that, and it was to embalm
the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it had already been embalmed
by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. They brought them, but Joseph
and Nicodemus had done it. And as these ladies were coming,
I can just imagine how much wonder and anxiety must have been in
the hearts of these women as they came to the tomb. I know there were some things
they wondered. Mark's account, Mark 16, 3 declares that they
said among themselves, who shall roll us away the stone from the
door of the sepulcher? Is not a believer always concerned
about anything that would hinder him as he seeks the Lord? I mean, a believer is concerned
about that. I don't want anything to come
between me seeking the Lord and wonder who's going to roll the
stone away. But according to John 20 verse
1, When the women, right here, when they got here, they seeth
the stone taken away from the sepulcher. How? How was it taken
away? Again, for the sake of time.
I'll tell you where this is. You can jot it down, go back
and read it later. In Matthew 28, the scripture
says there was a great earthquake. For the angel of the Lord descended
from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door
and sat upon it. An angel from heaven came down
and rolled the stone, moved the stone, was sitting. Listen, if
the Lord has given a sinner, a regenerated sinner, a heart
for Christ, And that's what we are. We're sinners saved by the
grace of God. If the Lord has given one a heart,
I can tell you this, the Lord will remove the obstacles that
would hinder his worship. Oh, I know, I know, there's,
you know, there's all kinds of things, there's mess, there's
stuff, there's everything, you know. I can only imagine the
anxiety I mean, these women just a few days before had seen all
the wagging of the heads and the mocking and, you know, the
laughing hat. He saved others, he can't save
himself. They knew that on the Lord's
crucifixion they'd seen such hatred and such disrespect, ridicule. And what about those guards?
Who's going to roll the stone away? Well, what about the guards?
What about those that are posted there to prevent anybody from
taking his body? Their hearts, you know, what
are we going to do? Don't we feel the fiery darts
of Satan as he causes us, tries to cause us to doubt, to fear? But the Scripture declares concerning
the angel of the Lord that sat upon the stone, his countenance
was like lightning. What did he look like? Lightning. Flashing. And his raiment white
as snow. And for fear of him, the keepers
did shake and became as dead men. Maybe they fainted. I don't know. But I can tell
you this, they weren't a threat. All the obstacles that would
prevent these women from coming to the tomb had been removed
by the Lord. And here's what the scripture
says, the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene Hurley. According to the other scriptures,
Mary and the women that were with her, They cometh. They had a heart to come and
they were just coming. They just kept wanting to come. They're
going to come. And I know this. The Lord's sheep
come to Him. I hate to have to qualify this
every time, but this is what I'm getting at. They come to
Christ. They don't come to the waters
of baptism. They don't come to the front.
They don't come to the altar. They don't come to the priest. They come to Him. They don't
even come to themselves, looking to themselves for faith. They come to Him. Early in the
morning, Mary Magdalene, they cometh. How many are going to
come? all that the Father giveth me.
That's who's coming. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. No hindrances, no obstructions,
they're coming. Now you think about the struggles
that these women had. Scripture says when it was yet
dark, What if I stumble? What if I
get lost? What if I can't see? What if
I walk into something? What if there's an animal out
there? It was dark. But then cometh
Mary Magdalene. The stone might be too heavy
to move. I'm coming. The guards might hurt me. I'm
coming. It's been this way since the
beginning. Genesis 7 verse 1, and the Lord said unto Noah,
Come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I found
righteous before me in this generation. You come. Noah came. How many others besides his household?
None. None. It had never rained. Noah said it's gonna rain. Never
seen rain. That day, the Lord put him in
that ark and shut the door. That was it. How many perished
outside of the ark? All of them. Everybody. Everybody. Isaiah 55.1. Ho, everyone that
thirsteth, come. Come ye to the waters, ye that
hath no money, come ye buy, eat, come buy wine, buy with milk,
without money, without price. Come unto me, all ye that labor,
are heavy laden, I will give you rest." Here was a woman that
the Lord had given a heart for Himself. An earthquake, that's
what Scripture says, there was an earthquake. It didn't stop
her. Nothing else did. Verse 2, she
had come to that, verse 1, she seeth the stone rolled away from
the sepulchre. And they walk up, scripture says
it was dark, obviously she could see something. Because she saw
that the stone was taken away from the sepulchre. And as soon
as she saw that stone, moved aside. She bolted and ran, and
then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter, the other disciples
whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the
Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not whence and where
they have laid him." Didn't say anything to anybody. She saw
the stone rolled away and she took off. Obviously. Great confusion, disappointment. I know that there were other
women with her because she says in that verse, and we know not
where they've laid him. So I know that there was somebody
with her. But she's the one that took off.
She runneth. It doesn't say they ran, she
runneth. Now, in Matthew's account, It
says something that was said to the other women that were
there. Matthew's account read that the
angel that was at the tomb said unto the women, said something to more than one,
said to the women, all right? Fear not ye, for I know that
ye seek Jesus which was crucified. He's not here. He's risen, as
he said. So this angel said something
to the other women, but Mary Magdalene had bolted and ran
and found Peter and John. I believe it's John, the apostle
that the Lord loved. And then that angel in Matthew
28, 5-7 told those women, go quickly and tell his disciples
that he's risen from the dead. That angel would have them bear
witness to Peter and John. You tell them that the Lord's
risen. That's going to be a confirmation.
Mary Magdalene's going to run up there and she's going to tell
them Stones gone. Stones rolled away. We don't know where they put
him. We don't know where he is. You go tell Peter and John that
he's risen from the dead. Mary Magdalene wasted no time
to report to the disciples. She was walking in as much light
as she had. That's what she knew. The stones
rolled away. And she was zealous concerning
the Lord. That's the tomb that they laid
him in. So she went quickly. The others,
you know, then the angel told the other women what had happened
and she, she runneth. She spent, I looked it up, she
exerted strength. strove hard. That's what it meant. I mean, the wording is that she
was getting it. She was running just as hard
as she could go. Why? She had a report. I'm going
to get to the disciples. I'm going to go talk to Peter.
I'm going to talk to John. Why? This is concerning her master. The stones rolled away. Mary's heart of love for the
Lord was exhibited in these two words, she runneth. I mean this time is of the essence. She didn't take her time, she
wasn't strolling, there was a message, a report that had to be given.
She didn't stop until she came to these apostles and told them. We learn. Let's learn from her
actions. Listen to this scripture. Let
us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is set down on the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews
12.2. Time is of the essence. The older I get, the more I realize
it's appointed unto man once to die. I'm going to die. I'm
going to die. And Lord help me to not look
back and think, I wish I'd have taken this more seriously. I
wish I would have been more diligent. I don't want to say, you know,
that this was just haphazard to me. This is life and death. I want to be faithful. She runneth. Then the Scripture says 3, 4,
Peter therefore went forth and that other disciple and came
to the sepulchre. So they ran both together and
the other disciple did outrun Peter and came first to the sepulchre. Now there's going to be two witnesses.
That was the Old Testament according to the law, you know. In the
mouth of two or three witnesses let a thing be established. It
wasn't just going to be Peter or that disciple that the Lord
loved. Both of them is going to come
to verify this story that Mary Magdalene had given them. And another thing, when she came
and told them, Here's what it says, verse 2, Mary told him,
they've taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher. That's an assumption.
They have. And we know not where they have
laid him. Peter therefore went forth, right
there. As soon as he heard that, Peter
and John took off. They were going to find out for
themselves. I'm going to find out if what
she's saying is so. Why did they go? They loved the
Lord too. They loved the Lord that Mary
Magdalene loved. You know, whenever you hear me
or some other preacher faithful to these scriptures preach something,
do you know what you want? You want confirmation out of
this Word. If I can show you out of the Scriptures that it's
so, I just, that's good. I'm done. I'm with you. If I
can't show you out of the Scriptures, if I just say something and it's
inconsistent, you're thinking, well, hmm. It better be according
to these scriptures because if it's not, I'm telling you, these
scriptures are going to be the very basis by which we're going
to all be judged. We're going to be judged by this
word right here. So if I tell you something, I'll tell you
where to go find it if you want to go look it up. But Lord, help
me. And I stand in this pulpit. If
I make a statement, you can bet by the grace of God, I've looked
it up. I'm not just saying something off the top of my head, but let
me tell you what these two men wanted. They wanted some confirmation
of what this woman had said. Mary had come in here and made
that sudden announcement. She was overwhelmed, they were
overwhelmed, and they didn't know what to think. I can only
imagine what was going through their minds, you know, when they
came to the temple and, you know, But can we not enter in to the
way they were thinking? The stones rolled away. They've
taken him. We don't know where he is. How much light did they
have? That was it. That was all they
had. Mary Magdalene said that they've
taken the Lord. She knows the stones rolled away.
1 Corinthians 13, 12. For now we see through a glass
darkly. But then, face to face, now I know in part, but then
shall I know even, as also I am known." I know that we see through
a glass darkly. But we see. They were walking
in as much light as they had. In verse 4, it says, they ran
both together, and the other disciple did outrun Peter and
came first to the sepulcher. Does that mean that John the
one that the Lord loved, I believe. Does that mean that he loved
the Lord more? He outran Peter. No. He ran his race and Peter ran
his. I don't doubt for one second
that Peter was doing the best he could. I'm sure he was giving
it all he got. The Lord calls His people and
He gifts them. He makes some To be part of the
body, some's an ear, some's an eye, some's a foot. Can the foot say, well, because
I'm not a hand, I'm not part of the body? No. Peter and John ran together and
John got there quicker than Peter. But let's not pass judgment on
Peter. because he didn't run as fast as John, unto whom much
given, much is required. Maybe the Lord gave John the
ability to run a little bit faster as far as that, but Peter got
there. He got there. We don't judge another man's
servant. Peter and John got there. John got there faster, but Peter
got there. Listen to this scripture, 2 Timothy
4.7, the Apostle Paul says, I have fought a good fight. I have finished
my course. I've kept the faith. I've finished
my course. The Lord, I'm convinced, has
called me to pastor this church. This is what the Lord's called
me to do. Do you know what my course is? Pastor this church. Be in that study. Seek the Lord. Be praying for the congregation.
Be seeking God's message for the hour. Whatever the Lord's
called you to do. That's your course. Be faithful
to it. You say, well, He just called
me to be a member here. No, He hasn't. You're a member
here, but you have a calling. Be faithful to it. Pray for us.
Pray for one another. Be an encouragement. Be a peacemaker. John got there before Peter,
but Peter got there. Look at verse 5. And he, that
is John, because the disciples did outrun Peter, came first,
and he, that was John, I believe, stooping down and looking in,
saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in. Now, up to this point right here,
we have no explanation as to the reason why the disciple that
Jesus loved didn't go into the tomb. Was it fear? I don't know. Was it doubt? I
don't know. This is, you know, did he reverence
the place? Now verse 8 says, we'll look
at this in the next service, he did go in, in verse 8, I know
he did. Was he just waiting for Peter,
the elder brother, to take the lead? I don't know, I don't know.
But he stopped. The stones moved away, and he
just looks in. And all that we know is that
John wrote of himself, the one that wrote this scripture, looking
in, saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in. He looked in and was a witness
to the fact that the linen clothes were lying there. I'm going to be dealing, I'll
maybe start here, I'll deal in this next survey. Because these
two messages have got to go together. You've got to listen to them
both. But, there's some wording here that is very, very specific. And we're dealing with a couple
of different words here. One of them is lie, or lying,
talking about the linen clothes. And the other is seeing, looking,
beholding. He looked in, he saw the linen
clothes lying, yet he went not in. Verse 6 and 7 says, Then
cometh Simon Peter, following him, and went into the sepulcher,
and seeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about
his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together
in a place by itself. Now here's what happened. John
gets there, and he looks in, and he sees the linen clothes
lying. Peter gets there and goes in
and Peter seeth the linen clothes lie. Same word, lie, lying, that
was in verse 5. But the wording, that word lie
or lying indicates And here's the, I'm going to give you the
meaning. Now, you go back and you get
strong concordance. You can go on to get you a Greek
lexicon. I'm going to tell you what the
words mean. And the meaning of these words
give everything to the explanation of what they were looking at.
The word lie or lying, it's the same word. John got there and
he says he looked in and he saw the linen clothes lying. Verse
6, Then cometh Peter, following him, went to the sepulcher, and
seeth the linen clothes lying. Lie. In the napkin, verse 7,
it was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped
together in a place by itself. All those words, there's the
same word, and this is what it means. It is a word that indicates
that the linen clothes were lying outstretched where they had been
set. Okay, I'm giving you words in
the definition of what that word means. They were where they had
been set. They were lying or lie. where they were appointed. That's
another word in the definition. You're saying, well, you're making
a lot of something over the definition. I'm thankful for that. Because
I want to know exactly what that word means. I want to know exactly
what that word means. They looked in. What were they
looking at? They were looking at the linen
clothes lie exactly where they were appointed. That's another
word. Appointed. Set. To lie. It means of things put or set
in any place. Here's another word, Carl. Destined. They were exactly where they
had been placed. I looked up a few scriptures
that uses these words to give us a little, you know, Matthew
5, 14. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on
a hill cannot be hid. How many different places do
you think that city is going to be in? Pretty well, set a city on a
hill, pretty much assume it's going to be right there. It's
set. That's the word. Same word. John 2, 6. And there
were set there six water pots of stone after the manner of
the purifying of the Jews containing two or three firkins apiece.
Set. Established. Appointed. Listen to this one. 1 Corinthians
3.11, For other foundation can no man lay than is laid, there's
the word right there, which is Christ Jesus. How many different
places do you think that foundation is going to be found? None. Right there. No foundation. So the word lie or lying speaks
of something that is where it was originally placed. They looked in, John came and
he looked in, and the scripture says, he saw the linen clothes
lying where they were established, where they were appointed, where
they were set, where they were outstretched. That's another
word, outstretched. Peter looks in there, sees the
same thing. But there was something different
when they got in there. The scripture sets forth verse 7. They went in and the
napkin that was about his head, not lined with the linen clothes,
but wrapped together in a place by itself. They walked in and
they saw that this napkin It was like a handkerchief. I looked up the word and it means
something like to use to wipe the sweat or to tie about the
face of a corpse. That napkin was not lying with
the linen clothes. It was where it says wrapped
together, it was rolled up. That's what that word means.
It was rolled up in a place by itself. The napkin that was over
the face of the Lord Jesus Christ was not where it had originally
been placed. That's the truth of what it's
saying. The linen clothes were. They
were set. They were where they were appointed. But the napkin was moved. It
was rolled up And here was the glorious evidence of the Lord's
victory over death, hell, and the grave. The linen clothes
in one place and the napkin that was about his face, his head,
in another. What are you getting at? There
was nothing of an upheaval. Nothing out of order. Everything was done with respect
and quietness. Now, we're given no explanation
for the separation of these two articles, but I want us to recognize
this. There was no struggle that went
on. Nobody came in here and stole
the body. I read something concerning the
spice myrrh. It said that when myrrh was used
in the wrapping of the bodies by the Jews, that myrrh caused
it to get, it was hard, it was hard. I just, you know, it's
something that I just never did realize. But here's the point. There was nothing to indicate
that something had been done in violence or hastily. Here's what happened. The Lord
was raised from the dead and the articles concerning his death
were left where they were in part, but the napkin about his
face, the Lord, obviously. took the napkin, rolled it up,
and put it somewhere else. Oh, the preciousness of the resurrection
of our Lord. God Almighty raised Him from
the dead. I pray as we continue this second
message and consider the marvels that are going to take place
in this account, in these next three verses, that the Lord would
bless these words to our heart for Christ's sake. Amen.