gospel of john
The day that changed the world, and it can change us, can’t it? I hope that’s your testimony this morning. Well, there’s no other place I would rather be this morning than right here, and I’m so glad you’re here. Although a close second, I watched early this morning a service from the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem.
And Phil Tuttle, who’s the president of Walk Through the Bible, and we’ve gotten to know Phil as an acquaintance because he’s been at Maranatha many times. Phil Tuttle gave a great message, and how cool to celebrate the resurrection at the empty tomb. And as I listened to Phil, he did peek into the tomb, and he said it is still empty.
So that is good news. The tomb is empty. Well, we’re going to spend maybe 35 minutes.
I’m going to try to land the plane at about 11:20. If you get a little weary, start waving white hankies, and I’ll shorten it. But we’re going to think about the resurrection, obviously, and it’s the cornerstone truth of Christianity.
Because without the resurrection, Christianity collapses like a house of cards. Without Christianity, there’s no truth of the resurrection. Without the resurrection of Jesus, we might as well stop meeting on Sundays, or maybe we’ll just meet and talk about current events.
Maybe we’ll talk about the latest political scenery. That’d be a great way to have a church split, wouldn’t it? Next Sunday, we might as well just plan breakfast with the Easter Bunny, if Christ hasn’t risen. There’s always been doubters of the resurrection.
There were doubters in Paul’s day. There was a religious Jewish sect called the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. And as somebody said, that’s why they are sad, you see, because they have no hope.
When Paul preached on the resurrection in Acts chapter 17 at Mars Hill, the response of some of the religious elite and the higher-up echelon of the day was they mocked Paul when he spoke of the resurrection. And so, Paul addressed that in 1st Corinthians 15, and he says, how do some of you say there is no resurrection? He goes on to say, if there’s no resurrection, our preaching is useless, we’re liars because we’ve gone around telling everybody the tomb is empty, Christ has risen, our faith is futile, we’re still in our sins, we have no hope, and we’re lost. But in 1st Corinthians 15:20, Paul writes, that Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
So, this morning we’re going to think about some proclamations of Jesus from John, the Gospel of John, and look at four statements that Jesus made as we trace through the Gospel of John this morning. And let me just start by sharing a little background of the Gospel of John, because the Gospel of John is unique. We obviously have four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the synoptic Gospels. The word synoptic, that word optic, means to see, syn, the prefix s-y-n means to see with. And so, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic Gospel because much of their material is repetitive.
In fact, they cover the same events. For instance, 90 percent of Mark’s Gospel is found in the book of Matthew. And 50 percent of Mark’s Gospel is found in Luke.
But John is unique. 92 percent of John is not found elsewhere in the other three Gospels. And so, this morning we’re going to think about the proclamations of Jesus from the Gospel of John, and we’re going to look at four of them.
And really the key thought is, who is Jesus? Jesus asked his disciples that question in Mark, Matthew chapter 16. They were up in Caesarea Philippi, and he asked the question, who do people say that I am? And so, the apostles and the disciples started to answer, some say you’re John the Baptist, some say you’re Elijah, some say you’re Jeremiah, some say you’re another prophet. And then he said, who do you say that I am? And of course, we know Peter’s answer.
He says, you’re the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And so, everything centers on who Jesus is. And Jesus claimed to be God.
And in C.S. Lewis writings, and it’s quoted in Evidence That Demands a Verdict, I think it’s chapter 7, it’s entitled, The Trilemma, Lord, Lunatic, or Liar. This is when you examine the claims of Jesus. You have to choose one of three categories.
Either he is who he claimed to be, the Messiah, the Son of God, who did miracles and overcame death. Or he’s a liar because he claimed to be God. Or he’s a crazy man.
There’s no other in between. You can’t just say, well, he was a good person or he was a good moral teacher. And so, everything hinges on who Christ claimed to be.
And so, Tim Keller writes, if Jesus rose from the dead, then he’d have to accept all that he said. If he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about anything that he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching, but whether or not he rose from the dead. And so very quickly, we’re going to run through four statements from the Gospel of John, statements that Jesus proclaimed.
i. the prediction of Jesus resurrection
And here’s the first one, if you want to follow in your outline. It’s the personal prediction of Jesus’ resurrection from John chapter 2. John chapter 2. Let me give you a little background to John chapter 2. Jesus is at the beginning of his three-year ministry. And in the first part of the chapter, he works his first miracles.
There are seven miracles recorded in the Gospel of John. He turns water into wine at the wedding of King of Galilee. And then later on in John chapter 2, it’s the Passover.
And people are coming to the temple from all over Israel to offer their sacrifices and observe the Passover. And Jesus is in the temple courts. And he’s seeing people who are selling lambs, because you need a lamb, or you need a couple turtle doves to offer as a sacrifice.
And they are price gouging people. They are making profit on religion. And this is not the picture that we usually have of Jesus.
But let me read it to you from John chapter 2. And it says, in the temple courts, he found people selling cattle, sheep, doves, and other setting at tables, exchanging money for an exorbitant price, by the way. So, he made a whip out of cords and drove all the temple courts, drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle. He scattered the coins to the money changers.
He overturned the tables to those who sold doves. He said, get them out of here. Stop turning my father’s house into a market.
The Jews then responded to him and said, what sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this? Who are you to come here into our temple and overturn all these tables and kick all these people out? Jesus answered them, here it is, destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days. Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days. It had taken the Jews 46 years to build the temple.
And so, these Jews are like laughing at Jesus. They replied, verse 20, it’s taken 46 years to build this temple and you’re going to raise it in three days? But the temple that he spoke of was what? His body. He’s predicting what? The resurrection.
And he prophesied about that in other places in the gospel of Matthew as Jonah was three days in the belly of the fish, great fish, so the son of man will be three days in the center of the earth. And so, Jesus time and time and time again, what? Predicted and prophesied that he would be raised from the dead. The disciples were slow to understand that, but they finally did.
He made a second bold prediction, and it’s the precursor of his resurrection. And the word precursor simply means the foreshadowing of something to come. Now we’re in John chapter 11, and you know the story that Jesus had some close friends in the town of Bethany.
It was just outside of Jerusalem a couple miles. He spent a lot of time there for some R&R. It was Mary Martha and her brother Lazarus.
Jesus gets word that Lazarus is sick and he doesn’t come right away, but he waits because he’s got a greater plan. And so here we are in John chapter 2 or John chapter 11, and we know that finally Jesus gets there and quite frankly the family’s disappointed. Lord, if you had been here earlier, my brother would not have died.
And when God doesn’t operate on our timetable, which he usually doesn’t, it’s because he has something far greater in mind to accomplish. And he tells Mary and Martha, your brother will rise again. And now here’s proclamation number two, bold statement number two.
ii. the promise of our future resurrection
He says to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even though they die. And whoever lives by believing in me will never die.
Do you believe this? That the person who puts their faith and trust in me will never die. Their body will die. Their soul will not.
They’ll never ever die. And then what does Jesus do? He goes to the graveside. He weeps and cries over the loss of his good friend Lazarus and they roll away the stone and they’re like, wait a second.
He’s been dead for four days. That’s not going to smell very good. And Jesus says three words, Lazarus, come out.
Lazarus comes walking out of that grave bound in those grave clothes. It was good news for everybody. Except for poor Lazarus.
He had to die again, didn’t he? Bad enough to die once. Lazarus had to die twice. But Jesus said whoever lives by believing in me will never die.
Do you believe this? The great evangelist D.L. Moody passed away a number of years ago, but he used to say this, someday you will read that D.L. Moody is dead. Don’t you believe it? Because at that moment I will be more alive than I have ever been. And if you have loved ones that have gone on before you, that’s true for them today.
iii. the proclamation of victory
That they are more alive than they have ever been. Well, the third bold statement or proclamation that Jesus makes in the gospel of John is found in John chapter 19. And I’m going to call this the victory proclamation, the victory proclamation, the proclamation of victory.
John 19 verse 30. Now here we are at the end of the gospel of John. Jesus made seven statements from the cross and we have three of those statements here in John chapter 19.
And so let me begin reading in verse 25. Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, that’s Mary, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. So that’s a lot of Mary’s.
So, there’s four women there. Mary the mother of Jesus, his mother’s sister. Most scholars think that was Salome.
And Salome being the mother of John. Most scholars think that Jesus and John were cousins. Do you ever wonder why he said to John, you know, take care of my mom? Because they were family.
And so here are these three Mary’s and Salome. There they are at the grave site. Someone has said the women were the first to leave the cross by the cross and the first at the grave the next day.
And we read in verse 28, later knowing that everything had now been finished and so that the scriptures would be fulfilled, Jesus said, I am thirsty. A jar of wine vinegar was there. So, they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of a hyssop plant and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.
When he had received the drink, Jesus said, here’s his third proclamation, statement. And he spoke it in Aramaic and the other gospels say he said it in a loud voice. It is finished.
In the Aramaic, it’s one word, Tetelestai. It was a proclamation of victory. What’s he saying? The sacrifice of sin has been made.
Jesus who in John the Baptist psalm said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus’ mission paid for a sin debt was finished and he makes the victory cry. You know what happened at that moment? The Bible tells us in Mark chapter 15 that the temple curtain that separated the holy place and the temple from the holy of holies tore in two.
Symbolizing that now we have what? Direct access to God. Previous to that the only person that could go into the holy of holies was the high priest and he did it once a year and he had to offer a sacrifice of sin for himself and then a sacrifice of sin for all the people. And now that curtain tore in two.
It was not a coincidence. It was not an accident because it was 60 feet tall and four feet wide. Jesus said there’s a new way.
iv. the proof of His resurrection
You can come directly into my presence. Well, there’s a fourth and last proclamation that we’re going to look at and it’s from John chapter 20 and it’s the prediction of Jesus’ resurrection, the promise of our future resurrection, the proclamation of victory, but here it is the proof of his resurrection. John chapter 20 records this very very familiar story of Jesus’ encounter with Mary Magdalene.
You’re familiar with it that while it was still dark Mary and the woman come to the tomb. They want to finish the burial of Jesus and they’re coming expecting a dead body, a corpse. And when they get there the stone’s rolled away and it’s empty.
And so, the first thought is what? Someone has stolen the body of Jesus. Peter and John show up and they race to the tomb and John lets it be known that he out runs Peter and he gets there first. John doesn’t go in.
Peter and his impetuous personality goes right in. He says the tomb is empty. They go back home and Mary Magdalene is still hanging around the garden and says in John chapter 20 verse 11, now Mary stood outside the tomb crying.
As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels seated where Jesus’ body had been. They asked her, Woman why are you crying? They’ve taken my lord away and I don’t know where they put him. At this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize it was Jesus.
I don’t know if you when you have tear-filled eyes and that happens to me quite frankly. I can cry very easily and it kind of blurs your vision and she doesn’t know who this person is. She thinks he’s the gardener.
Woman, why are you crying? Jesus asked. Who is it you’re looking for? Thinking he was the gardener. She said, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you’ll put him and I will get him.
And then Jesus said to her one word, Mary. Now you need to know the background of Mary Magdalene. It’s really Mary of Magdalas was her hometown.
Because there’s so many Marys, that’s how they distinguish her from the other Marys. Jesus had delivered her from what? Demon oppression. Mary had seven demons in her life and Jesus had freed Mary from that demonic oppression.
And so, Mary is very very devoted to Jesus and when Jesus calls her name Mary, she turns around and cried out in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher. Jesus said, do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to my father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them I am sending to my father and your father to my God and your God.
The proof of his resurrection was that Jesus made for six weeks post-resurrection appearances. In fact, 1st Corinthians 15 verses 3 through 8 lists the other, some of the other post-resurrection appearances that Jesus made. He appeared to Peter, he appeared to the twelve, he appeared to more than 500 people at one time.
Paul writes, some of them or rather he says most of them are still living though some have died. He says you can go; you can go visit these people and ask them. Later on, that night, Jesus appears to all twelve of the disciples and he shows up there in a room, upper room, with the doors locked and he shows up and he says what, peace be still.
When John writes, 1st John, the apostle John, one of his last epistles, he begins by writing these words, that which was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and had our hands have touched, we proclaim to you, we’ve seen Jesus, we’ve seen the resurrected Christ. You know what, if the religious leaders and the skeptics wanted to prove that that Jesus was still dead, all they had to do was produce his body. Could have been very easily disproved, but they couldn’t produce his corpse rather because he was alive.
And so, Jesus makes four bold proclamations that change the world and change us. It’s the prediction of his resurrection, the promise of our future resurrection, a victory cry, it is finished, and then he proved that the tomb was empty by making his post-resurrection appearances. Well, this morning, just in our last 10 minutes, I want to just share some applications from what we’ve just talked about this morning.
1. the resurrection is the answer to the universal need for forgiveness and reconciliation to God
What does the resurrection mean for you and for me? And there are three of them, and then we’ll close our time together on this Easter morning. Here’s the first one. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead addresses our universal need for forgiveness and reconciliation.
The resurrection of Jesus from the dead addresses our universal need for forgiveness and reconciliation to God. In Ephesians chapter one, when Paul writes about what we have when we have Christ and put our faith in him, he makes a long list of things, but he says, number one, we have the forgiveness of sins to be forgiven. And that’s a need that we all have in our lives, because as we know, sin, what has separated us from God, because God is holy.
And it’s only the cross that bridges that, that brings us back to God. So, there is a universal need for forgiveness. Ernest Hemingway wrote a short story entitled, The Capital of the World.
And in it, there’s a story of a young man by the name of Paco. Let me read this story because it talks to our need for forgiveness. Says no one can really say why Paco ran away, or perhaps he didn’t.
Perhaps he was kicked out of his home by his father for something foolish that he said or did. Either way, Paco found himself wandering the streets of Madrid, Spain, with hopes of entering into a profession that would most likely get him killed. Bullfighting.
Those who train under a mentor have a good chance of surviving this profession. But Paco’s memory of his mistakes and guilt over what happened blindly drove him to this one-way street to suicide. But that was the last thing that his father wanted, which is why he tried something desperately, which he desperately hoped would work.
There was little to no chance that he would be able to find Paco by wandering the streets of Madrid. So instead, he put an advertisement in the local paper, El Liberal. The advertisement read, Paco, meet me at the Hotel Montana at noon on Tuesday.
All is forgiven. Love, Papa. Paco is such a common name in Spain, that when the father went to the Hotel Montana the next day at noon, there were 800 young men named Paco, Paco, Paco, Taco, take your pick, waiting for their fathers, all waiting for the forgiveness they never thought was possible.
And Jesus himself offers us an invitation to come to the foot of the cross and find what? Forgiveness and freedom in who Jesus is. And the resurrection of Jesus is the answer to our need for forgiveness and reconciliation. Now, some people think, well, if Jesus died for all our sins, then everyone’s going to make it to heaven, right? And I wish that were true, but here’s what the Bible says, that this is what my theology professor used to say, that Christ’s death on the cross is sufficient for all, but it’s efficient for those that believe.
In other words, we have to personally receive that gift. And when we do, our sins are forgiven. As far as the east is from the west.
They’re buried in the depths of the sea. And God says, I will remember them no more. Not that God forgets them.
2. the resurrection gives us hope for the future!
It means he will not hold them against us anymore. We are forgiven. There’s a second application truth and it’s this, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead gives us hope for the future.
The resurrection of Jesus from the dead gives us hope for the future. That’s what Jesus said in John chapter 11, that if you believe in me, you will never die. This is what Paul writes to the, the last Thessalonian believers who had lost loved ones.
And they thought, oh, they’re going to miss Jesus coming and they’re doomed and they’re lost. And so, Paul writes to them and explains the order of things. He says in 1st Thessalonians 4:13, brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, those who have died so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind who have no hope without Jesus and the resurrection and believe in him.
There’s no hope. But then Paul goes on to talk about the resurrection or we believe that Jesus died and rose again. And we believe that God will bring with Jesus.
Those who have fallen asleep in him, it’s called the blessed hope. That’s what gives us assurance. At this point in my life, I’ve been by hundreds of gravesides.
And just this last Thursday in the cemetery in Napoleon, we laid our dear friend, Frank “Bud” Lane, in the ground. But you know, we did not do that without hope. And we know that, yes, this is a separation time, but there’s a day coming when Christ is going to come back and the dead in Christ are going to rise and there will be a resurrection and there’ll be a great reunion someday.
And so, as Christians, we never have to say a final goodbye. It’s always going to be until we meet again. And that’s where true hope is found.
3. the resurrection should motivate us to labor faithfully for the kingdom
There’s a third one and a last one. Application truth number three is this, that the resurrection of Jesus Christ motivates us to advance God’s kingdom and live a life of purpose. That the resurrection of Jesus Christ should motivate us to labor faithfully for the kingdom.
And that’s how Paul concludes that great resurrection chapter in 1st Corinthians 15. It’s a long chapter and he talks about the truth of the resurrection. But then here’s how he concludes.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Know what you believe.
Hold on to those doctrinal truths that are in the scripture. Then it sounds like a paradox. Always giving yourself fully to the work of the Lord.
Because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. So, what’s Paul saying here? Because of the resurrection, because of the gospel, he wants us to live a life of purpose. He wants us to be motivated, what? To give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord.
Because whenever you do that, whether you’re investing your time, your talent, your treasure, your labor is not in vain. It will pay what? Eternal dividends someday. There’s an awards assembly someday in heaven.
It’s called the Bema Seat Judgment. God’s going to evaluate us and we’ll suffer either loss of reward or reward depending on our faithfulness to him. So, the resurrection of Jesus should motivate us to make an impact for Christ. In this work, our association with Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference goes back over 40 years. I first started spending a week’s vacation there when our boys were young and went back for many many years in a row and just developed relationships there and we’ve continued that relationship and ministry and we’ve met people from all over the Midwest over these 40 years that have come there year after year and gotten to know them. One of those family names is the Riepma family and although we’ve not gotten to know them well, Pat Riepma used to be the head football coach at Northwood University for many many years.
Pat developed cancer and went home to be with the Lord a few years ago, maybe five years ago. His saying that he used to tell his football players and everybody he ever met, he would use the acronym, he said, Go MAD, go make a difference. This was his challenge to his football players.
His brother Mike Riepma and his wife Cher have been missionaries, missionaries with New Tribes Mission, now Ethnos 360 and they’ve spent their lives serving the Lord on the mission field and now this letter that some of us received from Mike about three weeks ago is his final communication. This is my last letter. This is what he writes.
This will be my final communication with you so there are many emotions flying around as I write this letter. Paul wrote in 2nd Timothy 4:7, I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I’ve kept the faith. He knew his promotion day was coming shortly and he was ready to meet his creator and savior Jesus Christ.
I believe my promotion day into heaven is also coming quickly from all the symptoms the cancer has spread. This week has been the hardest for me as I can no longer eat and keep food down and I’m barely able to drink. While the outward body is wasting away, my heart has been renewed day by day by the promises of God.
I’m just going to fast forward here to the end of the letter. He writes, my prayer has been to finish well and to be an inspiration to many. I can see my finish line approaching quickly.
I’ve been so blessed and amazed by the grace of God to use my life in a small way to encourage a small tribal group of people in the Amazon rainforest for his glory. The word challenges us to store up treasures in heaven and I am happy to know that I will have many friends in heaven. Sleep is hard to come by these days and the time is late so I will wrap this last letter up.
Jim Elliot famously said, he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. The scriptures say if you lose your life for his sake, you will really find the true meaning of your life. May we all experience the joy of serving our loving father, your brother in Christ forever, Mike Riepma.
My knowledge, Mike hasn’t reached that final destination yet but is very very close and he’s looking back on his life and he’s saying I’m so glad I gave my life to Christ. I’m so glad I invested my life in trying to reach a small group of tribal people in the Amazon rainforest. I’m so glad I gave my life to Christ.
When I lost my life in Christ, I found my true purpose in me. What makes that possible? It’s the resurrection of Jesus. So, the resurrection of Jesus is the answer for everything, for forgiveness, for reconciliation, for hope, meaning, and purpose.
And this morning I trust that you know him, and I trust that you will make his name known. I trust that you will exalt in the fact that the tomb is empty and that someday we’ll all be together in heaven, and we’ll sing the glories of God forever and ever in worshiping and serving and praising Him.