Life in His Name

On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. 2So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him." 3 So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb...(Peter) entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there….9they did not yet understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. 10So the disciples went away again to their own homes. 11But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13And 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."14When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" 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." 16Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (Teacher)….18Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," 19So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you."20And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord…24But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came….He said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." 26After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you." 27Then He said to Thomas, "Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing." 28Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" 29Jesus said, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed." 30Many other signs Jesus performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31but these have been written so you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name. - John 20

Faith matters. Faith is not just believing something, though it involves it. Faith is entrusting yourself, or at least some aspect of yourself, to the care of something or someone else. Life regularly requires such faith of each us. For example, anyone who invests with a financial institution must entrust at least some of their financial health to that institution's care. Hopefully, none of us banked on Bear Stearns, whose value recently went from $170 to $2 a share. If we had, our misplaced faith would have cost us. Faith is certainly required whenever we go in for an operation. Once we are under the anesthesia, our lives are literally in our surgical team's hands. That is faith - believing in and banking on, and I truly believe your eternal destiny depends on whether or not you trust your life to the care and control of Jesus Christ. I know believing in and banking on the historical reality of Jesus’ bodily resurrection can be challenging, and I pray God will use this message to help overcome obstacles between you and saving faith in the resurrection.

I see three categories of obstacles to saving faith in our text. First, I see Mary struggling with naturalistic faith assumptions. She saw the evidence, immediately jumped to a plausible conclusion, and in her mind that’s the way it was - grave robbers stole the body. The problem was her reality was not really reality and that is the case with all who preemptively rule out the resurrection, simply because they are closed to even considering the possibility of a supernatural event. So many people fall for a false dichotomy between faith (supernatural/resurrection) and reason (natural/robbers). One of the most relentless purveyors of this myth is the biologist Richard Dawkins, who wrote the bestseller The God Delusion, but like all of us, Dr. Dawkins is a man of faith. Consider his quote from a recent NY Times interview: “I cannot know for certain, but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life according to that assumption.” That is faith. So, how do we overcome our naturalistic assumptions? First, we must realize that they are faith-based. Beneath every doubt is a belief. Disbelief in ‘this’ is actually belief in ‘that’, and it helps to realize we are comparing two faiths rather than faith vs. reason. Next, we must be open to the reasonable possibility that if God can create all life from nothing at all, this God can also create life from death. Then we must consider the evidence for Jesus' resurrection honestly in light of that possibility.

The next obstacle to saving faith that I see in our text comes from Peter and the beloved disciple, who had a lack of Scriptural awareness. They did not realize they were witnessing exactly what the Bible promised. The Bible is like no other sacred book, which are usually the product of a single ‘enlightened’ author. The Bible is 66 books written by at least 40 human authors from various cultures and walks of life over a period of 1500 years. It was written about the most profound and often divisive issues of life and yet there is thematic harmony and factual consistency throughout. In fact, it is literally the unfolding of a single, non-contradictory story, and I do not believe that just happens. Still, even during Biblical times, Jesus fulfilled numerous, highly detailed Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah right in front of people, and they missed it. How? He once said to those who did not believe in the resurrection, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God” (Matthew 22:29). I think that still applies. Knowing God and the Scriptures goes together. The more you know the Scriptures - the more you will be awed by God’s power and the more you will be able to trust in and rely on His resurrected Christ.

The final obstacle to faith in our text is evidenced by the most famous skeptic of all, Thomas, who lacked tangible personal experience. His close personal friends’ experience was not enough for Thomas, and I get that. One of the things I love about Jesus is His willingness to do whatever it takes to overcome our sincere obstacles to saving faith. The One who let Thomas reach his hand into His side will do what it takes to reach you, if you truly want Him enough to sincerely seek Him. Everyone who sincerely seeks Him, like Mary (the first person to see Jesus after His resurrection), finds Him. Mary was seeking Jesus before dawn, and she stayed after everyone else went home. She sought Him with tears, and when He finally called her by name, her tears turned to joy. Yours will too. More than 500 people saw Jesus alive after His death. His first followers went from cowering in fear to boldly giving their lives to proclaim His resurrection. These things and so many more are written that you may believe in Jesus, the living Son of God, and through believing in and banking on Him, may have life in His name.