The story found in John 20 is fascinating, especially if we remember where chapter 19 had left us. Jesus was clearly dead. The spear shoved through his side had shown that. He had been wrapped in linen cloths and buried, with a stone rolled over the entrance to the tomb. So, on the first day of the week, after Jesus' death, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early and saw that the stone had been rolled away.

Now, in this day, robbing of the graves was common enough that this was her assumption. Therefore, she ran and told Peter and John that someone had taken the Lord's body. Instantly they ran for the tomb. Here we find out that though Peter is quick with his thoughts, mouth, and actions, he is slower with his feet than John, for John gets there first. And as John arrived he looked in the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there. This would have been proof that no one had simply taken the body, for these linen cloths were quite expensive. It would have been foolish to take a dead body and leave behind all your profit.

Peter arrived a little later and went into the tomb, whereas John had only peered into it. John then followed and they saw the head cloth separated from the other cloths and folded up in a place by itself, being laid aside by one who had needed it no longer. John then writes (referring to himself in a humble fashion as 'the other disciple'), "He saw and believed." That is, he believed that Jesus had truly risen from the dead, for none of the disciples understood before this that this was what was to happen. Then the disciples went back to their homes.

Mary, however, stood there outside the tomb weeping. She was still thinking that someone had taken the body of Jesus. All of the sudden, though, there were two angels sitting in the tomb of Jesus. They were there to be another clear sign that no robbery had taken place, but that this had been a miraculous work of God. They asked her why she was weeping, and she mentions that someone had taken Jesus' body. Then, apparently she heard someone behind her and turned around. It was Jesus, only she did not know it. She thought he was simply a gardener, and so when he asked her the same question she responded, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away" (20:15). She thought if anyone had seen anything it would have surely been the gardener. But then he said, "Mary."

Now, I think I understand how this might have worked because I have a son who says, "Daddy" in a way that always gets my attention. I think I could be ten rooms down from him, faintly hear his voice in the midst of many others saying, "Daddy," and I would say, "That's my little boy!" Mary must have known Christ's voice calling her in the same way, for as soon as he said her name she responded, "Rabboni" (or Teacher). She knew it was the Lord. And apparently, grasped onto him out of fear that she might lose him again.

Therefore, Jesus makes clear that he is not yet ascending (i.e. leaving her) but soon will, so she should go to the others and tell them. Therefore, she ran to the others and told them that she had seen the Lord.

That evening, all of the disciples except for Thomas (and Judas, of course) were in a room with the doors locked out of fear. It seems they reasoned that if they were able to kill their leader, it would be quite easy to take them out as well. Yet, in their midst appeared Jesus, alive. He had physically and literally risen from the dead and was standing in their midst.

That night Thomas was not there. And he did not believe. In fact, he said, "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe" (20:25). But lest we're too hard on him, think of how you would respond were a crowd of people to tell you that one that you had seen irrefutably die was now alive. Thomas did not need to wait long, for only eight days later, as the disciples were in the same situation (but this time Thomas with them), Jesus appeared again. Thomas saw his hands and his side and confessed that he believed, saying, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus had risen and appeared to all of his disciples. Death had not been able to hold our Lord in the ground.

And yet, this time every year, as I focus specifically on the resurrection, I am reminded how little we know what to do with this event - the resurrection. For many times we speak of Jesus' death alone as that which saves us. We read books titled, The Cross and Salvation and The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (which are both excellent books!) and miss the relevance of the resurrection to salvation or the apostolic preaching of the resurrection. We know we need Jesus to be our substitute on the cross, but we're not sure how his resurrection on that Sunday morning affects us. So, what did the resurrection accomplish, what are its benefits, and how are those benefits applied? These are the questions I want to answer this on this Easter Sunday morning.

First, in the resurrection, God overturns the verdict of the Sanhedrin and Rome and declares Jesus as King

We looked last week at how the events of chapters 18-19 were such a gloomy picture. Jesus had been condemned as a blasphemer and hanged on a tree to suffocate and die. If we had been there on that Friday, everything would have pointed to the fact that he was condemned by God. We would have esteemed him smitten by God and crushed under his wrathful hand. We would have recalled that cursed is anyone who is hanged on a tree. We would have watched him there drowning in his own blood. And indeed he was crushed by his Father, but for our sins.

On that resurrection Sunday morning as Mary Magdalene came to the tomb, Jesus was not there because the Father had vindicated his Son. He was overturning the verdict of the Sanhedrin and Rome. God is exalting him as the King, justifying his Son's claim. That is why Peter can preach a few weeks later, "This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. ... Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified" (Acts 2:23-24, 36). God had raised him from the dead so that it might be clear that the message on the sign hanging above his head when he died ("This is the King of the Jews") had indeed been true; he was and is the King. He was justifying his Son before all men.

And I think many of us understand that. Jesus was shown to be right and his sacrifice was shown to be acceptable by the resurrection. Yet we still don't understand the connection to us. We know Jesus' justification before men is clear in the resurrection. Yet, Romans 4:25 says that Jesus "was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification" (emphasis added).

So, how does this work? This understanding is the key to why the resurrection is so crucial for us. For Paul even says that if Jesus is not raised then we are still in our sins, damned, and on our way to hell. The issue is that just as we need Jesus as our substitute dying on the cross, we also need him as our substitute being raised from the dead. For our salvation is that which comes to us by being united with him (which is why Paul and John use "in him" (or similar language) 242 times in their writings). As we are united with Christ, that which is objectively true of Jesus becomes subjectively true of us. We are dead to our sins because we have been united with Christ who died to sin. We have life because he lives. We are justified because he has been justified. Therefore if Christ does not live we don't have life. If he is not justified, we are not justified. He was raised for our justification. Being united with Christ is utterly crucial in thinking of salvation. The only reason death will not reign over us in a world where death clearly reigns is because death could not reign over the one with whom we have been united. Remember, the promise to Israel is Ezekiel 37 was that they would rise from their graves? That is only possible because we are united with one who was first raised from the grave.

So, it is clear that it is crucial that we are united with Christ, but how are we united with Christ? How do we share in his life?

We are united with Christ through faith

It is by believing. John mentions this again and again in the text. In verse 8, he notes that he believed. In verses 26-28 he records Thomas believing and confessing his faith. And then he tells the purpose of writing this book in verses 30-31, writing, "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." Believing in Christ (that he is who he claimed to be and did what Scripture says of him) is how we are united with him.

Paul writes in Romans 10:9, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." John wrote this gospel so that we might believe. But that's not all. Also, he wrote so that in believing, we might have life in Christ. In God's wisdom, it is not us doing enough good works so as to merit his forgiveness or not doing a number of bad works. Rather, it is placing one's faith in Christ.

That's why I said what is objectively true of Christ becomes subjectively true of us. It is because you must personally believe for it to be applied. Just because Jesus overcame death and lives forever does not mean everyone else will as well. Rather, it means that all who believe in him will. If you do not believe, you will still remain in your sins and suffer God's infinite wrath in hell for all of eternity. But if you believe, you will have life. John wrote in John 3:36, "He who believes in the Son has life, but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him."

So, we are united with Christ by faith. But what does it mean to be united with Christ?

In being united with Christ, we are sons of God

When Jesus sent Mary back to tell the disciples that he had risen and would soon be ascending back to his Father, he told her, "Go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God'" (20:17).

Two things are striking there. One, Jesus calls his disciples his brothers. And, two, he calls his Father their Father. It is clear that he was trying to communicate with them that by believing in him, they were united with him, and they were now sons of God. He did not mean in the same sense that Jesus was God's Son (I think that's why he sets apart "Father" and "God" when speaking in relation of himself to God and them to God - i.e. he doesn't just say "Our Father and our God"), but he obviously did want to communicate that they were God's Sons.

Now, I say "sons" instead of "sons and daughters" very particularly here. For the son was the heir of the father. A daughter was still her father's child, but not the heir. Only the sons were heirs. This is why Paul makes clear that the Jews and Gentiles were both sons of God. If he had simply said that the Jews and Gentiles were sons and daughters of God, the Jews would have probably thought, "Oh, the Gentiles are the daughters of God. God is their Father too, but they are not recipients of the covenant promises." But Paul calls them sons. He writes in Romans 8:14-17, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs-heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him."

If we are united with Christ, then we are God's sons, heirs with Christ. And as the exalted King, both Lord and Christ, God has delivered all things into his hands (see John 3:35). This is why Paul writes in Romans 8:32, "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things." Being united with Christ by faith, we are sons of God and heirs with Christ.

However, as long as we on this side of eternity, we have a mission.

We are sent on a mission to proclaim the gospel

It is typical that when Jesus appears to his disciples after the resurrection, it is not just to make them happy to see him but to speak to them their mission after he goes to the Father. So, we see it here. As Jesus comes into the room with his disciples he says in 20:21-23, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. ... Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld."

His breathing on them was probably much as had been his washing of their feet, a sign of something greater to come, which we know came on Pentecost. But his clear message was that they were being sent out. And his proclamation of forgiveness (sounding much like Matthew 18, in the context of church discipline) is probably to be set in the context of sharing the gospel. That is to say, the disciples’ witness would not find forgiveness. For they were charged to go as witnesses of Christ. They were to go forth as witnesses of the only those who believed in the gospel would be forgiven and those who rejected risen and victorious and exalted King. And so are we.

On another occasion (and a more familiar one) as Jesus appears to his disciples after his resurrection, he says to them, "And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

We are sent on a mission to declare the gospel of the kingdom. That is, we are to proclaim that there is a King, the ruler of this world is judged, and the King is coming to crush all of his enemies. Therefore, we plead with men to repent. John Angell James sums up our task well, writing:

"We tell them that we are appointed by God whom they have offended, and who could overwhelm them with the terrors of his justice, to call upon them to lay down their arms and accept the offer of eternal pardon and peace: but we find them every where so bent upon their sins, and the enjoyment of their worldly occupations and possessions, that we are compelled to use the language of the most vehement entreaty, and to beseech and implore them in God's name, and in Christ's stead, to come into a state of reconciliation."¹

We must go forth and proclaim the gospel of the resurrected Christ that men might be united to him by faith instead of suffering God's wrath for all eternity. And the gospel is not just the preaching of the cross but the empty tomb. The gospel is Christ crucified, buried, and resurrected. If you don't preach the resurrection, you don't preach the gospel, and man will not be saved.

Therefore, as we have looked at the victory over death of our Savior this morning, may our cry be - Onward Christian Soldiers! Let us go forth, under the victorious authority of our Savior and speak his Word that many might be united to him by faith, justified before God in him, and become sons of God and fellow heirs with Christ.

By his grace, Amen.

¹ John Angell James, An Earnest Ministry: The Want of the Times, reprint (Carlisle: Banner of Truth Trust, 1993), 23.

HIS TRIUMPH OVER THE GRAVE