Resurrection Faith, John 20:1-18

The goal of the gospel is not just to provide us with an escape from hell.  But to provide us with a new way of living, a new life.  Jesus said, I came that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.  Before we can have the life that Christ wants for us, we must be first justified, our sins atoned for, made acceptable to God, and that is only possible through faith in the cross of Christ.  But the ultimate purpose of that atonement is that we become sons of God. As Jesus said in vs.17 of our text; “I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’”  That we might have new life in Christ, as sons of God, doing the works of God.  That we might be a testimony to the world of the power of salvation. 

So in the gospel, the cross speaks to our atonement, our justification.  And the resurrection speaks of our sanctification, our new life whereby we are given power over sin and over death, which we now live by faith to the glory of God.

As we look this week at the resurrection, I don’t want to focus merely on the chronology of the events and try to reconcile the various gospel accounts into one.  But what I want to do is emphasize the new life that the resurrection promises.  I would point out that on Saturday evening, as all the disciples went to bed, undoubtedly remembering the horrors of Christ’s crucifixion, undoubtedly despondent and without hope due to their Savior having succumbed to death, yet even in this darkest hour God was at work.  God had a plan and in the deliberate sovereignty of God this plan was inevitably coming to it’s conclusion.  As Jesus said in John 5:17 regards to the law of the Sabbath, “My Father is working until now, and I myself am working.”  So even though His body was in the grave, even though it was the Sabbath, the plan of God was at work and succeeding.

Though in the minds of His disciples, and in the minds of His enemies, Christ was dead and buried on Saturday, little did they know that He was at that very moment taking captivity captive, that He had descended into the lower parts of the earth, triumphed over the very gates of Hell, and had taken the very keys of Hell and Death, “that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

The power of death and hell had to be broken, so that man might be able to truly live as God designed them to live. And for that freedom that was won at so great a cost, we celebrate the resurrection on the first day of the week.  We celebrate the first day of being a new creation in Christ Jesus.

So it is with that sense of divine purpose we may view the resurrection.  John says it was early on the first day of the week, that is Sunday morning, but while it was still dark.  Jesus had said two days earlier on the night of His betrayal that the hour belonged to the power of darkness.  And that darkness still covered the earth early on Sunday morning.  Men were without hope, unaware that the Spirit of God was moving across that darkness, unaware of the great victory that had been won in the bowels of the earth as Christ took the keys of death and Hades.  And since death could not hold Him, because sin had nothing on Him, in the first hours of a still dark Sunday morning, the Light dawned, Christ rose from Hades, and His Spirit returned once again to the lifeless body within the tomb.  The wrappings of the grave clothes  could not hold Him down.  The heavy stone across the tomb could not hold Him in. According to Matthew 28 the earth trembled violently in a severe earthquake and an angel of God rolled away the stone and sat upon it.

Maybe Mary, having been shaken awake by the violent quake,  comes early that Sunday  morning while it was still dark to anoint His dead body with spices.  She comes out of sorrow, without any hope, only despair.  The early darkness reflects the despondency that gripped her soul. Christ had delivered her from seven demons.  She had known the power of His life.  But yet in the early morning darkness, doubt darkened her soul. She had believed on Christ for so much more than this. Her love for Christ had devolved to a sense of despair when she considered His body lain in the grave.

Finding the stone rolled away and the body of Christ not there caused her alarm and confusion. Her thoughts were that Jesus’s body had been taken.  Mary’s thoughts focused on that which could be seen, verified.  Someone must have taken His body, and so she ran and told Peter and John.

Mary’s faith, or lack of it, is so much like our faith.  When the darkness pervades our lives, and our hopes are not quickly realized, we tend to look at what is visible. We tend to focus on the external circumstances and often misinterpret what is going on. We don’t see Christ working, we can’t see His power, or understand His plan.  And in the darkness of our lack of faith we run to conclusions that are contrary to the promises of God.  Christ had prophesied that He would die on the cross and after three days He would rise again, but Mary believed what she saw wth her eyes.  She thought she made a rational conclusion from the circumstances which she witnessed, but she was in error.  

Often events happen in our lives in a similar fashion.  When darkness pervades our lives, God’s presence seems missing, God’s promises are forgotten, and we become confused, alarmed.  We run away from the very place where God has brought us to show us His glory.  We believe what our senses tell us, rather than have faith in that which is not seen. But Heb. 11:1 says, ”Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  Mary’s faith was founded on what she could see, what she could touch.  Her faith was founded on her 5 senses, on her feelings.

Peter and John’s faith was in turmoil as well.  Though John had been with Jesus at the cross, he must have been hit particularly hard by the graphic torture of the cross, having witnessed first hand the death of Christ.  He would have seen the life leave Jesus’s body as He gave up His Spirit, as the evidence of death was revealed in  blood and water flowing out of His side.  Though he would have been moved as others were at the way Christ died, yet he would have known with undeniable certainty that Christ was indeed dead.  He too had forgotten that this same Jesus who gave up His Spirit, had said He had the power not only  to lay down His life, but to take it back up again.  Such promise had been forgotten in his grief which overwhelmed him.  John, who loved Jesus much,  would have been  most forlorn and disconsolate at His death.

Peter on the other hand was also undoubtedly crushed, not only because of the death of His Lord, but because of his own failure in Jesus’s final hours.  His grief over the death of Christ was made even more bitter knowing that he had deserted Him and even disowned the Lord in the hour of His greatest suffering.  So the news from Mary at such an early hour must have startled them both.  Here was something that they could do, some action that they could take.  To what purpose, I think neither gave much thought, but at the report of Mary they began to run towards the tomb.

One cannot help but wonder why John reveals the outcome of the  footrace that occurred between him and Peter.  Many commentators have speculated about his purpose in recording it.  John outruns Peter to the tomb, then peeking in, stays outside, while Peter comes huffing and puffing up and barges straight inside.  

Perhaps John is not so concerned with the physical accomplishment of the race as we might think.  Maybe John is revealing the character or nature of the individuals.  Even perhaps the character of their faith. Peter’s faith is passionate, impulsive, bold. John’s faith is eager to believe, but not quite as courageous, needing the stimulus of Peter.

However, perhaps more can be discerned regarding the true nature of each person’s faith by examining John’s use of the word interpreted “saw.”  John uses three Greek words in this passage for “saw.”  When Mary looked at the tomb and saw the stone rolled away, he said she looked, using the Greek word “blepo,” which means to clearly see a material or physical object.  Mary was focused on the physical.  And what she saw in the physical determined her faith.

John as well, when he first comes to the tomb is said to see the linen wrappings, and John uses the same word, “blepo.”  At that point, the physical is evident to him as well, but he doesn’t yet go in.  He doesn’t act on what he sees.

Peter however, barges straight inside the tomb and he sees the linen grave clothes and also the head scarf rolled up by itself.  And John uses a different word for Peter seeing.  He uses “theoreo” which means to contemplate, to observe, scrutinize.  Peter senses that there is more than meets the eye, but he is puzzled and he isn’t able to come to a conclusion at this point. Maybe the eyes of his faith are clouded by his conscience.

But after Peter has gone inside, perhaps having said something to John, John goes in to the tomb.  He sees the same things that Peter has seen.  But now John uses another word to describe how he sees.  It’s not “theoreo,” as Peter was contemplating, but it is “horaō”, to know, to perceive, to discern. He sees the same things that Peter saw, and the same things that Mary had seen, but while they went away unbelieving, the text says that John believed.  He believed in that moment that Jesus had risen from the dead.  He believed in faith.

What difference does their conclusions mean though?  Should we make so much out of their responses?  I would suggest that it makes a difference to Christ.  Next week we will look at the next passage as Jesus comes to the disciples and Thomas isn’t there with the others.  And because he didn’t personally see Jesus with his own eyes, he will not believe the testimony of the other disciples.  So 8 days later, Jesus shows up again and specifically appears to Thomas and invites him to put his fingers in the holes in His hands, and the wound in HIs side.  And of course, at that point Thomas believes and says “My Lord and My God.”  A great confession, no doubt, but one that in Christ’s opinion was lacking in faith.  And so Jesus says in vs.29, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” And in that statement Christ reveals the nature of faith needed for future generations who will believe not on the basis of physical evidence, but on the basis of faithful testimony.

Mary, John and Peter all had the same experience at the empty tomb.  They all saw the same things, but only John believes with the faith that God desires.  John reveals the basis for that kind of faith in vs.9, which says, “For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.”  The point being that our faith is founded upon the Scriptures.  This is the faith that God desires.  And this is the faith which we are tasked with today.  We don’t have the physical presence of God to bolster our faith.  I would suggest that it is a failure of faith to seek after material manifestations of God.  This desire to “experience God” while understandable from a human point of view, is not in accordance with the plan of God. 

As we are told in  2Tim. 3:16, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”  The Scriptures are the complete revelation of God, and it is able to thoroughly, completely equip you for every good work.  The Word of God is more than adequate for our faith.  Our new life is lived by faith in the Scripture, not by sight. 2Cor. 5:7, “for we walk by faith, not by sight.”

Now though Mary has not risen to that degree of faith, Jesus will reveal Himself to her to increase her faith.  But we should not be too emboldened by His special appearance, nor deprecating towards Mary who needs it.  Because Mary did not have the completed Scriptures as we have.  None of the New Testament had been written at that point.  And so Christ, the living Word, provides for her  what the written Word provides for us.

So in vs.11, we see Mary, back once again at the tomb, probably after John and Peter have already left, and she is weeping.  She is still mourning Christ’s death, weeping over the loss of His body.  And when she looked again in the tomb this time she sees two angels in white sitting.  This “seeing” is the same as Peter’s “theoreo”, scrutinizing, observing the two angels in white.  It’s doubtful that she recognizes them as angels, perhaps just seeing two men in white apparel and doesn’t know what they are doing there.  She is trying to understand, but not clearly discerning what is going on.  

And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” At that point, she becomes aware of Jesus behind her, but she thinks He is the gardener.  That’s a pretty good indication she didn’t recognize the men as angels. She hasn’t discerned anything abnormal.

Someone the other night at Bible study brought up the verse in Hebrews 13:2 about angels which says, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”  And the point I made in explaining it, was the phrase, “unawares.”  The verse teaches that most of the time when we might encounter angels, we’re unaware that they are angels.  So many people running around today claiming visitations from angels.  But if you count up the number of times recorded in the Scriptures you will find only a few accounts of them in 6000 years.  So beware of those claiming angelic visitations. 

In fact, Paul warns against giving angels more credence than preachers of the gospel, in  Gal 1:8, saying, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”  

So Mary didn’t recognize the angels, nor did she even recognize Jesus.  “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.’”  It’s interesting that after the resurrection, Jesus is seen on numerous occasions (one commentator counted 17 times) and yet  in every case He is not recognized initially.  That should be a warning for those who suppose that they have seen some sort of apparition of Jesus.  Unless He reveals Himself, we would not recognize Him in the flesh. Even those who had known Jesus in the flesh did not recognize Him after His resurrection unless He showed them His wounds, or in some other way manifested His identity to them.

How then does Mary come to recognize Him? When He calls her by her name. This is a direct correlation to what Jesus said in  John 10:2, “But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.”  

Last Wednesday night we looked at Christ’s letter to  the church of Pergamum in Revelation 2.  And at the end of the letter, Jesus says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.”  The hidden manna refers to the word of God, and those who believe it receive a new name from God.

Some commentators say that Jesus uses the Aramaic version of Mary, i.e., Miriam, to address her, and she responds in Aramaic, “Rabboni,” which means Teacher.  She recognizes Him when He calls her by her name.   Rom 8:30 says, “and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”  No one comes to Me, Jesus said, unless the Father calls him.  The election of God is specific. He calls us by name.

But though the calling of God is effectual, there is still the problem of Mary’s ineffective faith.  It is the faith of feeling, of physical presence.  There is almost an obsession with Mary over the physical presence of Christ’s body.  Even when He was dead, she is focused on the body of Christ.  She wants to anoint the body.  She is alarmed when there is no body in the tomb.  She is confused, concerned.  

So now when she recognizes she is in the presence of Christ, she immediately grabs hold of Him, as if to say I will never let go of His physical presence.  And in our humanness, that is understandable.  Who among us does not crave the physical closeness, physical presence of the Lord?  How many have not thought, “Oh, if God would just reveal Himself to me, every thing would be ok. I could take what I am going through. I could deal with things, if I could just see the Lord in some manifestation of power or presence.”  

But Christ rebukes Mary for that sort of thing, calling it clinging.  He says, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’”  Jesus indicates the faith that is required in this new life will be a faith in Him who will not be visible, but invisible. Not a faith founded on a clinging, emotional, physical presence of God, but a faith founded on the inviolable promises of the Word of God.

Now much debate is given to this statement by Christ.  First of all, the obvious meaning is that at that point He had just risen from three days in  the grave, even from the depths of Hades, and He had not ascended to the Father. But it also means that the purpose of God was not that He would remain here in bodily form, but would ascend into heaven to stand as Mediator between God and man, our Great High Priest.  He could not do that from earth, but His place was in heaven, far above all rule and authority on Earth.

But it also means that He would not be a physical presence here on Earth that we can see and hold onto, but rather our faith in what is not seen would be required in a life of faith.  Thus, the just shall live by faith.  And that which is seen is not faith, but that which is unseen.  This will be the acceptable pattern of faith in this new resurrection life, that we might believe the testimony of faithful men, even the apostles, who would record their testimony in the gospels and epistles and that having believed the scriptures, we might receive the knowledge of God which leads to the full measure of salvation; not only justification, but a life of sanctification, culminating in our future glorification when we will be made completely like Christ at His coming.

So the testimony of faith is illustrated by Mary Magdalene, who comes afterwards to the disciples and says, “I have seen the Lord.”  This is the basis for our faith.  The testimony of faithful witnesses, who were willing to die for that testimony.  And their testimony was accompanied by the signs of the apostles, with all miracles and signs and wonders, so that we might believe their word.  So that by the testimony of the Scriptures, the nations of the world might come to know the knowledge of God that leads to salvation, that we might go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them to believe and observe all that Christ taught, as evidenced by the Word of God.

The resurrection teaches us that when we die to this world, we can live a new life in Christ.  That new life begins at our justification, where we are declared righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ, and it continues through a life of sanctification, where we live righteously by the power of the Spirit of Christ,  whereby we become conformed to the image of Christ, and ambassadors of the gospel to the world.  But that new life is not automatic, it’s not being put into autopilot mode.  It is a possible, though.  When the just shall live by faith.  And our faith is founded on the Scriptures, by which we may know God, and know the will of God.  Don’t look for the physical to confirm your faith, look for that which is spiritual to inform your faith. The Bible says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.  That living, powerful source of faith is described in  Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Let us hold fast the Word of God, that our faith may be founded on the true and faithful promises of God.  

Secret Disciples, John 19:38-42

We live in a society today when death is portrayed in movies and television with all sorts of blood and gore and people are unmoved by it.  But on the other hand, in reality, in our day to day lives, we go to great lengths to avoid seeing death.  If the average person even saw a steer killed and butchered they would probably be so sickened that they would swear off meat forever.  

We have an unrealistic perception of death, and perhaps because of that, we have an unrealistic perception of life.  Even in the death of a loved one, it is rare that we really see much of the person as they die, or after they are dead, but rather doctors and nurses and morticians whisk the body away as soon as possible and what we end up seeing eventually at the funeral doesn’t even look real anymore. 

It must have been a tremendously shocking thing to witness the crucifixion of Jesus.  The savagery of it is something that is hard for us to fathom.  The suffering is something that would not be tolerated today even in the execution of the worst criminals.  The Romans view of a merciful hurrying of the death of the victims was to break their legs so that they ended up suffocating due to the pain required to push their chest up enough to breath.

Christ, as we saw last week, gave up His life before the suffering or the soldiers finally took it from Him.  But that doesn’t mean He didn’t suffer immensely. Not only did He suffer in His flesh, but He suffered shame that only a righteous God could suffer.  To be holy and innocent of all sin and yet be stripped naked and condemned by your countrymen to death, and then have your mother and a few friends watch you in your agony is beyond our comprehension.  But to have the wrath of God upon you as you take on the weight of the sins of the world is even more incomprehensible for our finite minds.

We are not given all the details of Christ’s crucifixion.  Even if we piece together the four gospels there are still gaps in what God has given us.  John says that there were many other things that he could have included, but that these were given that we might believe that Jesus was the Son of God and that believing we might have life in His name.

So as we come to this last section, the burial of Christ, it is important that we understand the full significance which John intends for us to gather from  this passage.  And I think that one of the main things that John wants to illustrate for us in the end of this chapter and the next chapter is the various responses of the disciples to the crucifixion and the resurrection.  There are many different responses that are presented in chapter 19 and 20. And I think that John illustrates these various responses in order to show that salvation is an individual response to the gospel.  Salvation did not come to all men simply through the cross of Christ, but salvation comes through man’s faith in what Christ did on the cross.  Salvation requires more than a head knowledge, or an intellectual assent to the facts, but it requires a response of faith to the cross for it to be efficacious.

To become saved is to not only be justified by faith in what Christ has done for us, but to be saved is to become a disciple.  To follow Christ, to follow His teachings, to be led by Him in all walks of our life.  Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, “Go into the world and make disciples of all the nations…teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.”  Discipleship then is the goal of evangelism. Not just to make converts, but disciples. Not just to have people raise their hand or repeat a prayer and then they have been saved from hell, but to have people become transformed into the image of Christ. 

Now in this last section of chapter 19, we see two men, who are called secret disciples.  I think that is somewhat of an oxymoron.  But if we give them the benefit of the doubt, let’s say that they had come to a saving knowledge of Christ, but that faith had not become public, and therefore not transformative.  I’m not sure such a thing is possible, but God knows the heart, not I, and He knows what are the intentions of the heart even before we act on them.  So if John, under the influence of the Holy Spirit calls them disciples, then maybe they have been saved prior to the cross.  However, I will remind you that in John 6, after Jesus said “my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink,” it goes on to say in vs66 that after this “many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.”  So there is a sense in which you could be considered a disciple of Christ but not be saved and turn and walk away from the Lord.  Not that you can lose your salvation, but that you never had it.  You were considered a disciple because you were in the group, but you never truly believed unto salvation.

And I think that this is indicative of many in the church today.  They have a head knowledge of Christ, they are following to a degree, holding on loosely so to speak to the things of God, but in times of difficulty they will expose their true nature; they will turn away and stop following.  They will turn to something more palatable to their mind.  Something not as demanding.  And so we have churches filled with people who move from group to group, from church to church, always avoiding the rigors and demands of true discipleship.

So Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were secret disciples up to this point.  Whether they had truly been saved or not we don’t know, but we do know that as they came face to face with the crucifixion of Christ they came all the way into discipleship. At the cross of Christ they faced the true nature of Christianity, and they choose to identify and  suffer with Christ.

Now who were Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus?  Well, I’m sure most of you are familiar with Nicodemus.  We met him in the third chapter, he came to see Jesus at night. And we are told there that he was a ruler, that means a member of the Sanhedrin.  Jesus calls him a teacher.  John also calls him a Pharisee.  That means that he believed in the afterlife, and he practiced the law to the nth degree. In that famous discourse in chapter 3, Jesus told him that he needed to be born again of the Spirit. And so we can assume that message resonated with Nicodemus, and eventually produced saving faith. 

There is one other note about Nicodemus in chapter 7, around vs 50, we see Nicodemus coming to the defense of Christ that He should be given a fair hearing before they judged Him.  And in that passage, the Pharisees rebuked him for that defense.  So at that point there is an indication of the Spirit at work in him, but he has not yet come forward completely as a disciple.

The other man we know less about.  Mark tells us that Joseph of Arimathea was a prominent member of the Sanhedrin as well. Matthew says he was a rich man. And Mark also adds that he was waiting for the kingdom of God. That means he was looking for the Messiah. Some traditions say that Joseph and Nicodemus were actually brothers.  They both were rich men, they both were members of the Sanhedrin. They both were very prominent in Jewish religion and society.

And because of those things, they had a lot to lose for becoming disciples of Christ.  John says that Joseph was a disciple, but secretly for fear of the Jews.  He doesn’t mean just the Jewish people at large necessarily, but the Jewish leaders, the ruling party.  There were 70 men that were part of the Sanhedrin.  And there were undoubtedly thousands of Pharisees.  These were the leaders of the community, and these two men were considered the most prominent of the leaders. And so to come out publicly as Christ’s disciples meant the possible loss of their positions in society, their careers, and their wealth. So up to this point they hid their growing faith.

I think that it’s obvious God does not save us, He does not shine His light in us, that we might hide it under a basket. Jesus said in  Matt. 5:14, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”  So we are not saved to hide our discipleship, but to reflect the light of Christ.

The application to disciples today should be pretty obvious as well.  Christ died to save us not just to escape hell, but that we might shine His light through us to the world by looking like Christ, by acting like Christ.  That the world might see our good works, and bring glory to our Father in heaven.  

What stops us from doing that?  Well, it’s the same things that stopped Joseph and Nicodemus.  They feared the excommunication of the ruling party.  They feared what their community might say if they really stepped out and followed the Lord.  They were afraid they might lose their friends.  Lose their social standing in the community.  And I’m afraid that the same concerns keep many of us from truly following Christ today.  If we really gave Christ 100% it would cost us friendships or jobs or money or something that we hold dear.

You know, tradition says that these men did eventually lose all those things.  Not as much is known about Joseph, but there are traditions about Nicodemus that say that as a result of his coming forward to claim the body of Christ and becoming a true disciple that  he lost his position in the Sanhedrin, he lost his wealth, and one historian recounts one of his daughters being so destitute that she was seen picking grain from manure.

Jesus speaks of what it means to truly follow Him, to be a true disciple.  In Matt. 16:24

Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”  

So I think that Joseph and Nicodemus were at the cross. They would have had to have been there, to be able to respond so quickly to Jesus’s death that they were able to appeal to Pilate for His body and prepare His embalmment before nightfall and the Sabbath began.  It’s ironic, all His disciples save John had fled Him in the darkest hour.  And yet in the providence of God, these two fearful, secret disciples are the ones who are there to take Him to a tomb and prepare Him for burial.  

Somehow in the death of Christ, these men’s reservations fell away.  When they saw the way that He died, they must have come to the same conclusion that the Roman centurion did, saying, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”(Mark 15:39)  All their reservations fell away.  And in that moment, they realized that they had participated in some way in the crucifixion of the very Son of God. They knew that their sin had caused the death of God’s Son. And in light of that realization, they knew that their lives meant nothing if they were not sealed in Christ.

I can’t help but think that Nicodemus remembered what Christ had told him back in chapter 3:14, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.”  When He saw Jesus lifted up on the cross, I’m sure this statement came flooding back to him, and He realized not only the fulfillment of prophecy, but also realized that for the deathly sting of his sin to be removed, he had to look unto Christ as his Savior and Lord.  That instead of death from the serpent’s sting he might receive the eternal life that God promised to those who believe in Him.  And so I believe Nicodemus and Joseph came to complete discipleship when they saw Jesus hanging on that cross for their sins.

And that is where true discipleship starts for us as well.  When we consider the horror of our sins, when we consider the Son of God taking my penalty by His death, when we consider the shame and suffering that we deserved, placed upon Him who did not deserve it, then the least that I can do is to follow Him in forsaking my sin, being willing to give up my hold on this life, so that I might have real life, even eternal life through Him. 

So I think that Joseph and Nicodemus not only got a vision of the cross, but they considered the cost of discipleship in light of what Christ did for them, and they realized that whatever it cost them, He was worth it all. In Mark 15:43, it says Joseph went in before Pilate and gathered up his courage, and asked for the body of Jesus.  I think it took a lot of courage to do that.  Pilate had after all just condemned Jesus to death.  What prevented him from doing the same to Joseph for revealing he was Christ’s disciple?  

But it also took a lot of courage because it would have been known to all his colleagues in the Sanhedrin.  With this one bold act, he pretty much sounded the death knell on his career.  That kind of courage and commitment to Christ no matter how great the cost is what is required of disciples.   Jesus said in  Matt. 10:37, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.”  So to take up your cross means to count the cost, and consider as Paul said the things I once thought valuable in this life as nothing but rubbish for the sake of knowing Christ.  Phil. 3:8

“More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.”  

That kind of abandon in following Christ is illustrated in two sacrificial gifts that each man gave to the Lord in His death.  First of all, Joseph gave Jesus his own personal tomb.  If not for this act of love on the part of Joseph, Jesus’s body would have been dragged off to Gehana, a trash pile outside of town that was always burning.  It was a picture of hell that Jesus had often referred to.  But Isaiah 53:9 had prophesied that  “His grave was assigned with wicked men,Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.”  

John gives us some information about this tomb.  It was a tomb fit for a King.  He says that no body had ever been laid in it.  And he also mentions that this tomb was in a garden.  It’s interesting that when the first Adam sinned it was in a garden, and when the second Adam atoned for that sin, He is laid to rest in a garden.The fellowship that had been broken by sin in the first garden was restored by atonement in the second.  

So Joseph’s gift to Christ was fit for a King.  A new tomb, in a garden.  An extravagant gift to honor Christ as his King in death.  And of course God used this gift of Joseph to prove conclusively that the resurrection of Christ had taken place.  If Jesus’s burial had not been well known, there would not have been the numerous witnesses to His resurrection.

And then Nicodemus also gives an extravagant, sacrificial gift suitable for a king. John tells us that he brought a hundred pounds weight of spices, made from myrrh and aloes.  Myrrh was brought at the birth of Jesus as well, by the wise men, who noted that a King had been born and came to worship Him.  Now in Christ’s death, another wise man brought myrrh to honor the King.  A hundred pounds weight would have represented a fortune in perfume.  Much more than simply sprinkled in the folds of the shroud, it would have filled the tomb where Jesus’s body was laid.

And so I suggest that a true disciple is known by his extravagance, by sacrificial giving to honor God.  Material things are recognized as merely offerings we give back to God.  Whether it be our time, or treasure, we realize that no sacrifice is too great, when we consider the sacrifice He gave first for us.

When Joseph and Nicodemus stepped up to full discipleship, they claimed Christ’s body and boldly took on all the associations that came with that.  So we too as Christians  must  claim His body, His church, and embrace all the associations that come wth that.  All the stigma.  All the social rejection.  There is no cost too great for the sake of Him who suffered for me.  It requires stepping out of our comfort zone.  It requires fellowship in His suffering.  It requires sacrifice of time, money and resources for the sake of the Kingdom of God.  Being a true disciple requires that we lose our identity, and claim our identity with Christ.  And when we give up our hold on this life and follow Him completely in true discipleship, then we will know the real, abundant life that God promises to those who trust Him. 

I would ask you to consider your relationship to Christ this morning.  Are you living in effect as as secret disciple?  Are you trying to hold on to control of your life?  Are you holding onto things that are keeping you from fully committing to the Lord?  True discipleship demands our all, renouncing sin and clinging to the cross of Christ.  And when that kind of commitment has been made in our life, then it will be revealed in an extravagant love for Christ that considers anything that was once considered gain as loss for the sake of knowing Him.  I pray that today you see clearly what Christ did for you at the cross, and that you fully commit to take up your cross as well and follow Him.

Four vignettes in the crucifixion; John 19:23-37

For many Christians, the passion, or the events surrounding the crucifixion of Christ, are very familiar.  We’ve heard countless messages on the crucifixion and even possibly seen movies or plays depicting it.  Not to mention, there are four gospel accounts in the New Testament.  However, not all the gospels offer the exact same details.  One might include some things which others leave out.  In John’s gospel, he includes some details which others have not, but at the same time, he has left out some events that others included.  So the tendency among preachers and expositors is to fill in the blanks, so to speak, as if to make up for what John was lacking. 

Now in the case of the other gospel writers, Matthew, Mark and Luke, that could be considered an appropriate method of exposition, since you could make the case that those three writers were not actually in attendance.  However, that’s not the case with John.  He makes it clear that He was there.  He is the disciple whom Jesus loved mentioned in vs.26 and 35 who was there and witnessed himself the proceedings.

So then the question is, why did John include some things and not others?  Well, the answer is that John is not writing a biography, but a gospel.  He is telling and emphasizing certain events to present the gospel of Jesus Christ which leads to salvation.  That’s what he says in chapter 20:30, 31, “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”  

My dilemma then is to figure out exactly how to present this gospel message that John is endeavoring to give us.  And as I prayed and studied this text, I came to a very simple conclusion; John is presenting the fact that Jesus gave His life to accomplish salvation, not focusing on the morbid aspects of the crucifixion, but on the aspects which teach principles of Christ’s atonement for us.  So as someone said, Christ gave His life not to engender sentimentality but spirituality.  Not that we might be mortified by the physical torture and bloody gore of the crucifixion, but that it teach us the knowledge leading to salvation. As another writer said, Salvation is based on believing. Believing is based on truth. And truth is revealed in Scripture.  That believing we might have life in His name.

So then, we will examine this principle of Christ giving His life to accomplish salvation through four vignettes which John presents to us.  The first is He gave up His clothes, then He gave up His mother, then He gave up His Spirit, and finally He gave out water and blood.

Now, I also want to add at the beginning that John correlates some of these events with Old Testament prophesies, showing that they were fulfilled in Jesus’s crucifixion.  And I believe three of the references he mentions are found in Psalm 22, and one in Psalm 34.  And I just want to point out that the Psalms was written 1000 years before Christ.  There is absolute proof of that.  It is indisputable.  In fact, the enemies of Christ, the Jews, would have been very familiar with these Psalms. They probably did not consider these references as Messianic prophesies. So they would not have connived to correlate Christ’s crucifixion with the prophesies even if they had wanted to.  The Romans did what Roman soldiers did, irregardless of what the Jews wanted.  And those Jews would not have wanted to confirm Christ’s Messiahship. So these prophetic fulfillments are very important to John to point out, so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ.  And I don’t want to gloss over that.  But now let’s focus on the four vignettes of how Jesus gave His life to accomplish our salvation.

First. Jesus gave up His clothes.  We’ve all heard the phrase, “he didn’t own anything but the clothes on his back.”  Well, that was especially true of Jesus.  He had no possessions, no home, nothing of any value.  All that He had were the clothes on His back.  And we see in vs 23, that the soldiers took those clothes and divided them up between themselves.  When Jesus came down from heaven’s glory to earth, He came all the way down to the bottom to accomplish our salvation.  He let go of all His pride, all His clothes, becoming completely poor for us, so that we might become rich in Him.  He became naked, bearing all the shame which that brings.  It’s the same shame that Adam and Eve felt in the garden of Eden when they realized they were naked and hid from God.  Christ became naked for us, bearing the shame, the scoffing, the stares, so that He might be our substitute for sin.

2 Cor. 8:9 says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”  Now how does this incident illustrate that we became rich?  Because these four soldiers each received a part of His clothing.  There were no more vile sinners than these soldiers who stripped Jesus’s clothes from Him and nailed Him to a cross.  And yet we know that even as they did so, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  

What John pictures here is that the clothes of Christ were made available at the cross for the covering of sinners.  Just as God skinned animals to make clothing for Adam and Eve, so also He skinned Jesus to make clothing for you and me.  Isaiah 61:10 says, “For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness.” 

The hymn we sing, The Solid Rock, says, “dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.”  2 Cor. 5:21 says, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  There is no better picture of our sin situation than that we are naked and ashamed before God.  Christ took that upon Himself, that we might become clothed in His righteousness.

But John adds that there is another piece of clothing there, which was not divided, because it was made in one piece.  It was a tunic, worn under the outer clothing.  And I find two pictures in this; first it is the inner garment, signifying the spiritual. And secondly, it was without seams.  It’s not in part, it’s complete.  The Spirit of Christ is not given piecemeal.  Then thirdly, it is the garment of the High Priest, according to Exodus 28:31-31.    Christ as our High Priest is described in Romans 8:34 saying, “who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”

Now as we see this dividing of His clothing played out by the soldiers, it may seem that Jesus has no control over these events. Yet John informs us that the invisible hand of God guides all things, so that specific prophecy is specifically fulfilled.  The fact that it was foreordained indicates that Jesus gave His clothing willingly, even as He gave His life willingly.

The picture teaches us that we need to be clothed in His righteousness if we are to be saved. It is the means of our justification; Christ’s righteousness given to us in exchange for our sin. And when we are saved, then we receive the spiritual covering of  His Spirit, so that we might be like Christ. Then in response to Christ’s likeness we also are willing give up our possessions for the sake of the kingdom. Matthew 5:40 “If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also.” 45, “so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

Secondly, Christ gave up His mother.  I know that heading sounds awkward.  Maybe it would be more palatable to say, He gave up His family associations.  But all we have presented here is His mother.  There are indications from this text and others that Joseph was long dead and Jesus had, as the eldest son, taken on the responsibility of His mother and His brothers.  His brothers at this point had not believed in Him.  There is no evidence that they were there at the crucifixion.  In fact, all his disciples had fled except for John and these four women.  

Jesus would have been very aware of the pain that His crucifixion was causing to Mary. She was the only one out of His family that believed in Him.  And now as Simeon prophesied to her 33 years earlier,  a sword would pierce her soul.  I’m sure in His humanness, Jesus would have loved to have used His divine power to come down from the cross and spare His mother this grief.  But He was obedient even unto death to the will of the Father, knowing that in His death He would spare not only her soul, but millions more.

So John records here that Jesus gave up His mother, His family, and He gave over her care to John.  He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”  Not only was Jesus concerned about her physical care, but He was emphasizing also the nature of family in the kingdom of God. There is a new family dimension in the Kingdom of God.  Our brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers are those in the kingdom. In Luke 8:21 Jesus said, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”

He not only gave up His earthly family, He gave up His friendships.  Note that John is always described as the one that He loved.  This attitude of Christ also must be our attitude. This principle of consecration to God is stated by Christ in  Matt. 10:37, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”

Thirdly, He gave up His Spirit.  Phil. 2:8 says, “And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Giving up His Spirit means first of all, that He gave up His life. That is a tremendous thing.  It was not an act of suicide.  His hands are nailed to a cross.  He can’t take His life by violence against Himself. But what He does is an act of divinity.  He gives up His life willingly, of His own volition. 

But before He acts in divinity, John shows His humanity.  Jesus became thirsty and asks for a drink.  So they give Him vinegar to drink.  He suffered as all mankind would suffer  the pangs of the cross.  His divinity did not prevent His suffering. As a man, He thirsted.  As God, He had the power over His life. 

He gave up His life, voluntarily. As Jesus said, “I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” (John 10:17-18)

The gospels record 7 statements or words of Jesus on the cross.  John only gives us three.  One was the statement to John and His mother.  The second was He was thirsty.  And now John records another statement that Jesus made as He gives up His Spirit.  He cries, “Tetelistai!” it is finished.  Tetelistai means it is complete, perfect.  His life on earth as a man was complete.  He lived from the first moment to the last, sinless, perfect.  By the death of His perfect life He paid in full the debt of mankind who could never live a perfect life.  And by dying, He paid the complete price which we owed; a life of perfection, righteousness, that God might place upon Him our sins as a substitute for the world.

1Peter 3:18 “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison.” Not only did He give up His life, but He surrendered up His Spirit to death, to the abode of the spirits.  Very little in scripture is given to us concerning the three days Christ spent in the grave.  But according to both Peter and Paul, though His body was in the tomb, His Spirit was alive in the abode of the dead. I don’t want to speculate where the Bible does not indicate, but I cannot help but wonder if there was not an element of the punishment He bore for sins which was accomplished in the Spirit while He was in Hades.  For it is certain, as the Apostle’s Creed confirms, that “He descended into Hell.”  Though we are not privy to all that means, one thing is certain, He went to Hell, that He might triumph over death and Hell, that we who have faith in Him might never experience it. 

The human body is spirit, soul and body.  Our spirit is the spiritual part of our being that is connected to God, which then rules over the mind and the body. That is what it means to be born again.  We must be born of the Spirit, if we are to be spiritual. And then we must give up our self rule to the rule of the Spirit if we are going to live as God would have us live, to be obedient to death, even as Christ.

Finally, the last vignette John presents for us is He gave up water and blood.  The soldiers, in order to hurry the death of the crucified, broke their legs, which would cause them to suffocate.  But coming to Jesus, these executioners realize that He is already dead.  So one took his spear and stabbed Him in the side, presumably to prove He was dead, and John tells us that blood and water comes out.  Now doctors have said that this clear liquid was from the pericardium surrounding the heart and partly coagulated blood.  That’s the physical explanation.  Other, more sentimental explanations have said it was a sign of a broken heart.  I’m not sure that such a thing has been established as physically possible.  But there is no doubt that there is a symbolic reference in the blood and water coming out of His side.  And perhaps it is best stated in the old hymn, Rock of Ages, which says, “Let the water and the blood, from thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin the double cure, save from death and make me pure.”  The blood therefore representing justification from sin, and the water being purification from sin. 

Matthew Henry, the great theologian said it like this; “The blood and water that flowed out, signified those two great benefits which all believers partake of through Christ, justification and sanctification; blood for atonement, water for purification. They both flow from the pierced side of our Redeemer. To Christ crucified we owe merit for our justification, and Spirit and grace for our sanctification.”

Therefore, we can say that He gave His life to save us not only from the penalty of sin, but the power of it.  As I have said numerous times, there are three phases in salvation.  All must be accomplished for salvation to be complete.  Justification is deliverance from the penalty of sin.  Sanctification is the deliverance from the power of sin.  And glorification is the deliverance from the presence of sin.  The last phase will not happen until the resurrection when we will be given a glorified body.  But all three phases are necessary in our salvation. 

John has given us these vignettes of salvation tucked into the greater story of the cross, so that we might get a better understanding of what Christ gave His life for.  Salvation must be more than just believing intellectually in Christ’s existence, otherwise everyone attending the crucifixion would have been saved that night.  But we know that is not the case.  Salvation is more than just some sort of superficial belief in the historicity of the events.  And I will add something else that you may find disconcerting; salvation is more than just what Christ did on the cross.  If salvation was accomplished for men by what Christ did on the cross, then all men have been saved.  There is no need to evangelize. Christ has done everything.  We do nothing.  Well, we must do something, we must believe.  But we must believe with saving faith. And faith is not merely intellectual, but it is also a matter of the will.   Romans  10:10 says, “with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”  Faith is a matter of both the intellect and the will. And in those two aspects of faith are couched justification and sanctification. So that James may rightly say, “show me your faith by your works. Faith without works is dead.”

Listen, the water and the blood streaming from the cross of Christ destroyed the enslavement to sin that the devil has held all of mankind in for all who believe.  The symbolism of the blood and the water is the crux of the gospel, it is powerful for the destruction of fortresses. And it provides complete salvation.  It is able to justify us, to deliver from the penalty of sin, but it is also powerful to sanctify us, to deliver us from the power of sin.  Sin no longer needs have dominion over us.  The truth will make us free when we embrace the whole truth of the gospel.  Let us take up our cross and follow Christ, dressed in His righteousness, our justification.  And being made free from the penalty of sin, let us live as free from the power of sin as we yield to the Spirit who lives in us and rules over our will.