JUN 29 2015 | The Empty Tomb

Sea Change Church · "The Empty Tomb" · Adam Stadtmiller · June 29, 2015
John 20:1-10
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Yeah. See, it's time not to be afraid. It's going to take courage to move forward. But yeah, not afraid. The more you know God loves you, the less you're afraid. Two years ago, this conversation would have terrified me. It's not terrified. I just know the Father loves me. I'm not arrogant either. I see a lot of Christian arrogance. I'm not arrogant either.

It's just what I think God says. Now, Lord, help me figure it out and help me love people. You have your Bible. So we're talking about the resurrection of Christ. We were in the final two chapters of John. I started John last year. We've been in the book of John for about a year. And I love the book of John because John has such a sweet understanding of what it means to know Jesus, what it means to sit and have an intimate friendship with the Savior.

And we see here the picture of three believers coming to the tomb of Jesus and coming to a realization that the stone had been removed and that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Three incredibly different individuals. We'll talk about those three individuals. It was Mary Magdalene. It was Mary Magdalene. It was Peter. And it was John. They are the first three. I love the fact that the first one to know was a woman.

Jesus was liberating women from the curse that was put upon them at the beginning of time. And I believe that he began to do that. We see that as he speaks to the woman in John chapter 5 where she says, you're a Jew. Not only a Jew, you're a rabbi. Why are you speaking to me? Speaking to me. God unwinds curses. You see, it isn't that being a helpmate and coming alongside man as a partner was not a curse.

And so many people have seen that as a curse. The curse was that they would have to be completely submissive to men. You'll read about what they would have and what would happen in childbirth. You see this. And Jesus begins to unravel this. And I think we need not to miss the fact that when God wanted to reveal the fact that he was resurrected, it was a woman. Okay? That he brought it to. That he brought that understanding to.

And thank God for women in the church. Thank God for moms. Right? We can get a little more clapping than that. Right? That they came and they found that the tomb was empty. And they came as they owned. Let me just say where I felt like God wanted me to say in this scripture today. Because I believe whenever we listen to the scripture, we have to be able to take it home to our own lives.

And we have to be able to take it to the streets. It can't just stop with you. It's got to go from the heart home that you have and onto the streets. And this is what the Lord told me to say to you today. God is still in the business of removing stones and emptying tombs. He's still in the business, and let's just put this in your wheelhouse, that he's in the business of removing those massive mountains or stones.

You know, stones are just a mountain. And Jesus said that he could move both. He said you can speak to the mountain and the mountain will be moved. He also said to the stone with Lazarus, he asked people to go remove the stone. And the stone was removed. And we see here that an angel's removed the stone. And the stones in your life and the mountains in your life can be moved.

Don't give up hope. Do not. I just want to say the Lord said profoundly to me as I studied this scripture to say to your congregation, do not give up hope. Hope is what perseveres. Hope is what lights our soul on fire. God can remove the stones of your life. And so the question is, what's your stone? What's the stone in your life? And what in your life needs resurrecting?

Now let me just talk about the difference between stones and empty tombs, okay? Because there's sometimes a proclivity to wrap up the removing of a stone with God resurrecting something from a tomb. I want to say they're completely different. The stone we see, both with the raising of Lazarus and with the raising of Jesus, was something that needed to be removed before the resurrected life happened.

See, oftentimes we want the resurrected life, but we want to keep the stone where it is. Let me say that again, because that's going to hit home. Hits home with me. We want a resurrected life. We want to live in the power of the resurrection. We want to fellowship with Jesus, with all the goodness that comes with living a resurrected life. But we want to keep our stones in place.

Jesus, I want to be resurrected from my tomb, but don't touch my stone. I want to say in each case, the stone needed to be removed. Did Jesus need the stone to be removed so that he can be resurrected? No. No. Why did he remove the stone? Well, for a couple reasons. One, I think, to show others that the stone was removed and that they could have entry to see the resurrected life.

You know, oftentimes when we leave the stone in our life, people go and they ask, you know, especially they ask to Christians these days. Christians don't seem any different because they're claiming to live a resurrected life. But if you look in their life, it isn't that they're not imperfect because we are imperfect. It isn't that we're not struggling with things in life.

But the willingness just to have huge stones in their life. You know, Jesus, one of the reasons he removed the stone is to invite others into his tomb. You know, we see that all three of these individuals in the scripture end up in the dead place. But the dead place is a place that had been turned to life. And so the stone was removed. And I want to say, when you removed the stone from your life, the stone didn't disappear.

You get that? There's a difference between stones disappearing. That would have been pretty cool if he would have said the stone disappeared. But the stone didn't disappear. The stone was just moved. And the presence of the stone was still there. Oftentimes as Christians, oftentimes as believers in God, we feel that the stone should disappear in our life.

That it should be vanished. That if my life, if God had really resurrected my life, there wouldn't be any remnants of the stone anymore. Jesus allows stones. He allows scars in order to remember the goodness of God. And when we get to heaven, it says that he himself will bear the scars of what he went through so that there might be a greater glory that people remember what he did.

I want to say, when the stone is removed in your life, and what is the stone in your life, that you have the ability then not only to look and to say thank God for removing that stone, but also to invite people past the stone into the place of resurrection. If the stone doesn't get moved, and if there's no memory of the stone, I think it degradates the ability to share the love and the power of what God has done in your life.

Every day I walk by a liquor store, I remember the stone of addiction that was in my life. I've been 26 going on, I think I'll be 27. I've almost forgotten now. Years of sobriety that are coming up for me. But every day, it is there, and I don't forget it. One of the reasons I don't drink anymore is because I remember the stone. I don't want to go back to the stone.

And so let me ask this. What is the stone in your life that needs to be removed? And are you willing, like Jesus said, remember when Jesus healed the man in John chapter 5, 4, 4, he says to the man, do you what? Do you want to be healed? That's the question. Do you want your stone removed? I've got to say, I've had a lot of stones I haven't wanted to have removed.

I want to say, God wants to ask you, how badly, how desperate are you to have the stone removed? And do you really want a resurrected life? I want to say, we get too comfortable with our stones. I've lived with stones for years. I lived as I first rededicated my life to Christ. When I was 19, I got rid of the alcoholism. But there was other areas of my life that were not quite up to the standard of God's word.

And it would be three to four to five years until I got that standard right. And then God said, hey, give me your stone. And my life completely changed. And so we see Jesus is in the business of removing stones. So what's your stone? And then what needs to be resurrected? Stones are obstacles that keep us from the resurrected life. And I want to look at five quick keys to stone removal in your life.

And if you follow these, I believe that they'll help you to begin to experience God. Because I think stones keep us from experiencing God. The first is this. The first key to stone removal is a heart's knowledge that you are beloved. I want to say we live in a society of people who don't understand how much God loves them. We try and we fight to present ourselves to the world and to get the world's blessing.

We want the world's blessing. I want to say the thing about the world is it loves to give and take blessings away. And it will cast you aside. I'm reminded that every time I go to the store and I look to my left and see the people who were once lauded in society as celebrities and now they're being paraded around on the paper of shame. We live in a shaming society today that shames people.

John, the one thing I love about his gospel is this. Is that he defined himself as beloved of God. At first I used to think that was arrogant. It is so not arrogant to believe that God loves you and to believe that God can love you. I want to say the best way to remove stones in your life is to drink deeply of God's love for you. And that's God's love for all people.

It even says, in Romans 5.8, it says, While we were yet what? Sinners. Christ died for us. It isn't like there's this elite group of people God loves. God loves every single person in this world who was born. He loves them desperately. And even in the midst of sin, he's willing to die. Before we knew who he was, he was willing to die for them. That is the gospel that we need to share.

That the church says, come unto Jesus as you are, but maybe you can't stay as you is. Does that make sense? Come to Jesus as you are. And he is so good at embracing you as you are. But maybe we can't stay as we is. And that might take a while. I want to say that in this church, we want to be on that journey with you. I'm not going to say, you know, maybe today is the day that you say, hey, that stone is gone.

Maybe you need more time. I want to know that's okay with me. Jesus had a lot of people, Nicodemus, who took him off the cross, that followed him for three years as a secret disciple, just figuring it out. It might take you 20 years to figure it out. Stick around. Stick next to Jesus. Keep reading the word of God. Let me just say, he doesn't have to remove your stone today, but it's available to be removed today.

One thing I was told as a kid all the time, if you're not willing to remove your stone today, then get out and come back when you are. Never saw Jesus saying that, you know, over and over to people. He would say, come follow me. And actually, there is one thing where he says to the rich man, he says, leave everything and come follow me. But he was always willing to say, it's on your terms.

It's on your terms if you want to give up that stone. I think knowing how beloved you are, it's easy to give the stone to someone who loves you so much. Look at verse 2. Verse 2, it says in the notes, talking to, about Mary Magdalene, after she says to Simon Peter that Jesus is there and John. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved.

John's entire context and narrative of his life was framed in a heart's knowledge that he was beloved. Not a mind's knowledge, a heart's knowledge. Look, take the next year and devote all of your effort and spiritual time into sitting and knowing that God loves you. Just thinking, just all of it. Drink deeply of his love. Perfect love casts out what?

Fear. I want to say, going forward as a church, and I think it's going to get harder to go forward as a church, in God's truth. We need a church that knows they're beloved. Because when you're beloved, you're not what? Afraid. And when you're beloved, you don't have to prove yourself. You don't have to go out and scream from the rooftops, we're right, we're right, the Bible says this, we're right.

You can just speak, this is what I feel like God says, this is what I feel like the Word says. You don't have to be something. You don't have to prove yourself to be anything other than God's beloved. Are you in touch with your belovedness? I would say that's the key to stone removal. Before you approach your stones, before Peter, excuse me, John got to the tomb where the stone was to see the resurrection, he knew one thing, that he was beloved.

1 John 4, it says, there's no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear. Because fear has to do with what? Punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. The more God perfects you in his love, it doesn't mean that you're made perfect in your ability to love others. I believe that that scripture, when it's speaking, says you become more perfect in your understanding of how much you're loved.

You know how easy it is to love when you know you're loved? I would say being a father has become so much easier for me when I understand the father that I have. That's why I fight for fatherhood. I do fight for fatherhood because I believe that the world needs a father, and God reveals himself as father. Number two, and I love this point. It really hit me.

Certain points I write I like more than others. I don't know if anybody of you are like that. I just was like, I like this point. This takes courage, okay? Love and courage. Can you not win the world with love and courage? If I had to pick two, it's like playing one of those, you know, online games. You get to pick, like, stamina, stability, health, weapon skills, you know.

You have so many, like, life points you can put towards any of those. I'm not really a gamer, although I used to be. Love and courage. Love and courage. Put that into a milkshake and drink it, you know. That is, put that in your spiritual pipe and smoke it. A lot of Christians smoked. We won't get into that topic. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis. But I'm not saying it.

Well, that was a left turn there. I'm going to extract that from the notes. You have to be willing to go to the tomb, the dead place, to experience stone removal. I just love that. You're not going to experience an empty tomb unless you go to a dead place. You've got to be willing. Tombs are scary. We go to England to visit my brother on vacation.

They've got cemeteries all over the place. I'm always creepy walking in, you know what I mean? I don't know. Like, I shouldn't be, you know. But I just, I went, I did a memorial service the other day, and you couldn't get to the place without walking over people. And I was like, oh! Like, I don't want anyone to be reaching out, you know, like in the movies.

But I love this idea. If you're going to see resurrection in your life, you've got to go to the dead place in your life. I want to say Jesus will meet you in the dead place. He's already there. We run from the dead places. We hide in the dark. Like Eric said, you know, last week, as soon as they sinned, what did they do? They went and hid naked and afraid in the bushes.

And God comes, and they said, we were naked. We were ashamed. And I love Eric's point from last week. He did such a great job. The point was this, that God said to them, who told you that? Like, I love that. And the indignation in the voice. Who told you that about yourself? You know, the enemy and the world has been telling you things about yourself that, I want to use a different word, but they're not true.

Okay? They're not true. Getting in trouble today, right? Smoking and cursing. Welcome to church. Who told you that? Who told you? Who told you that? God didn't tell you that. He didn't tell you you're a loser. He didn't tell you you're never going to meet up. He never told you that you were worthless. He never told you that you were unloved. Who told you that?

I want to say that to you. Who told you that? And when you get these thoughts that come over you, these heavy thoughts about worthlessness, that God, that you can just ask yourself, who told you? Where did I learn that? One of the things I did recently, and my wife and I went away to a deliverance thing, and one of the things that they said is, they went back to find out who told you what about you.

Who told you that? Who told you you were ugly? Who told you you were no good? Who told you you weren't cared for? Where did you, maybe life circumstances told you that. Now let's go back and say what God's word is, and let's rebuild that from the foundation up, and we started restoring the foundations in our life. That I don't accept lies anymore about myself.

I just don't accept it. I just don't accept it. Go to the dead place. Where's the dead place? What does that look like? Maybe it looks like going to some counseling. Maybe it looks like talking to a friend and going through this. Maybe it's going back and revisiting some old thing. I don't know. But you know where your dead place is, and it probably is not going to smell great, but go there because the angels will be there like we see in this passage, and Jesus will be there waiting for you in the dead place.

He's not afraid of sin. He's not afraid of lepers. He touches wounds. That's what he does. That's what he does. That's why we're here today. The next thing is I love this. Come to the dead place as you are. Don't try to be somebody else. Don't try to be a good Christian. Don't try to just be, all you have is you, and you can't fool Jesus. He always knows.

Just show up. You know, the enemy is always there going, don't go to that place. He is going to be ticked off. I saw him. He had a ruler in his hand. He's going to hit you with it. He's going to tell you how bad you are. He dislikes you. He's got no hope for you. Do not go to that place. The enemy does not want to put light into the dark places of your life because light brings truth and exposes darkness.

I want to say run boldly to your dark places. Run boldly to your tomb and just show up as you are. Look who showed up at the tomb here. I mean, this is amazing. We have three unique personalities in John chapter 20 that show up. Personalities all coming to faith on their own terms and all expressing the essence of what? Desire. They were desperate.

They had desire to get to the tomb, to get to the dead place, to find out, to find Jesus, to find out what had happened. Who's the first? The first person recorded to go to the tomb after crucifixion of Christ was a former prostitute. One who, it says in Luke 8, 2, had been filled with seven demons. I mean, come on. Like, any of us can follow her to the tomb, okay?

I mean, she was full on. She loved Jesus. She met him where she was. And people still thought she was a perverse woman. They speak against her. We have some theologians who believe that she was the one that anointed Jesus, and that can go back and forth. But that she was willing to anoint and care for Jesus. What we do know is this from the scripture, not speaking out of silence, is that she wanted to be near Jesus.

She just wanted to be near Jesus. She showed up as she was. She didn't try to be Peter. She didn't try to be John. The second was Jesus' best friend, John, and a deserter. We know that all the disciples deserted. And in Mark 14, 52, many believe that it was John who was stripped as he ran away. That one of the Roman soldiers grabbed his clothing, but it fell off him, and he ran away naked.

Ran away naked. He deserted his best friend. Deserted him. Left him alone. How do you think John felt about that? We talk about Peter's betrayal a lot, but John is a deserter. You know what happens in many armies if you desert on the front lines? Yeah, death. Yeah, it's treason. They'll kill you for it. John did that. But yet, John, where do we find him?

Running. And he even says, faster than Peter. That was important to him. I don't know why the theological understanding of that. I just think it was really cool that he outran Peter. Probably tripped him along the way. Desperate. Who runs to Jesus after you've deserted him? People that have met Jesus and know the character of him. Honey, you're late.

We've got to be there in five minutes. Hope you heard that on the tape. The third was a betrayer. Peter. He didn't only desert Jesus. He called down curses on himself. Curse me. He said, curse me. Will you go close those doors, the back doors? Thank you, Olin. You know the enemy loves when the gospel is preached, right? The third was a betrayer. He left.

He not only left, he called down curses on himself. Imagine that. Calling down curses on yourself. Curses. Curse me. I pray that I would be cursed rather than to have known Jesus. Curse me. Silver colored VW needs to be moved, obviously. So if you have a silver colored VW, you might want to move it. So we'll sort that out. And yeah. Cool. And then finally, anybody have that car?

Anybody have that car? They're next door. Olin, would you go outside and take care of that? Thank you. Actually, you're doing worship. Chris. Actually, Chris, you're going to do worship here in a second. Yeah. How to win your neighbors over. Final thing I want to say is this, is that faith empowers the resurrected life. Look in verse 8. Verse 8 says this.

Finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb also went inside, and he saw and believed. He didn't know that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Right? He didn't see it happen. But when he got there, there was enough evidence from what he could see that he believed and had faith. I want to say, oftentimes in our lives, we are going to have a basic understanding that God has moved in our life.

But you're not going to see it all at once. But he still believed. He still believed. And oftentimes, the enemy wants you to say, look, you didn't experience everything like you thought you were going to experience it. That you didn't see Jesus rise, and there wasn't fireworks. All you have is an old stone that's been moved and an empty tomb. But I'm asking you to believe a little further than you might understand.

You see, faith goes beyond what we understand. And it says that John believed. That John believed and he had faith. I want to ask you to begin to believe again that God can resurrect your life if you've lost hope. To believe that God can resurrect your life and lift it up from the ashes where it is. Ephesians 2.8 says this. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and it is not from yourselves.

It is a gift of God. I want to ask Olin to come forward and the worship team. And we are going to receive that gift through worship. A place that needs healing. God, we just pray now for those that would go to that place. You would remove the stone. You would let them walk in the resurrected life. We bless them. We bless this congregation with that.

In Jesus' name. Amen. Would you be seated quickly? And we're just going to have a final offering. We would ask that you would just give to this if you could. And thank you, like Chris said, for all you've done to give to this church. So, Lord, now we just pray you would just bless this offering as it will go out to those that are in need. If you need prayer, our prayer team is going to come forward and pray for you up here in the front.

The service has officially ended. Let me just pray and bless you. And join us for a meal afterwards. This is Potluck Sunday. We're excited about that. God, bless this message, God. The enemy wants to steal this message from the hearts of our church. We invite you, Jesus, to remove stones now and just be gone. Stone be moved. We just bless you, Jesus.

We bless this congregation with stone removal, with resurrected lives. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Come forward if you need some prayer. Come eat some food with us. We love you. We'll see you here during the week or next week. Membership class, sign up with Carol in the back.