Seeing the unseen, believing the unbelievable.

I believe in the sun, even though it doesn’t shine
I believe in love, even when it isn’t shown
I believe in God, even when He doesn’t speak

Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,
We live in a society & culture where there our hundreds of symbols.
What is a young man saying to the girl he gives a ring to?
What is the mayor of the city saying when he gives a key to a person?
What are you saying to someone when you give them an egg?
Unless someone explains the reality behind the symbol, the person hasn’t a clue about what is going on.
John began His book with:
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”
The historic existence of Jesus is beyond doubt to those who are willing to consider the evidence. But the significance of the cross remains a mystery unless someone who knows explains it.
The reason John wrote his book was that those who read it might know that Jesus is the Christ, and believing in His name have eternal life. John does not tell us everything that happened on Easter Sunday.
He assumes that his readers knew from the other gospels who went to the tomb very early on that 1st Easter Sunday morning – Mary the mother of James, Salome, Joanna and Mary of Magdala.
John’s focus is on the experience of Mary of Magdala.
Mary was the woman out of whom Jesus had cast out seven demons.
Having been delivered, she became a devoted follower of Christ.
She was at the cross at Jesus crucifixion and was one of the women who went to anoint the body of Jesus with the burial spices & balms.

She was alarmed by the fact that the tomb was open and went to tell John and Peter. They ran to check out what Mary had said. Mary followed them back to the tomb. But the disciples having found the tomb empty went back to their homes.
Mary would have been slower getting back, whilst the others had gone believing that Jesus was risen:
John says, “He saw and believed. (though they still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
Jesus had to reveal more before they would fully understand.
Who do you think was the first person to whom Jesus chose to reveal Himself?
Mary of Magdala.
The first person to see Jesus was not what we would call a good person.
She who had been mad – rejected, probably single – who would marry a demon possessed woman or if you had, you wouldn’t stay married to them for long.
The fact that she was called Mary of Magdala indicates that she had no real family connections. I can see Mary was standing at the tomb weeping.
She had not understood that Jesus had risen.
She stoops and looks in the tomb and sees the two angels.

Heaven took a special interest in Jesus resurrection – just as it did in His birth and ascension. The angels ask her why she is crying,
“Because they have taken my Lord away.”
Then either because the angels motioned or because she hears someone behind her, she turns and sees a man. She does not realise it was Jesus.

This is quite understandable for she had come to look for a corpse.
Mary had no idea that it could be Jesus alive and walking.
To her he would have been someone who looked like Jesus and in her grief and tear laden eyes, she did not recognise Him.
Jesus says, “Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?”
Thinking He was the gardener, she says,
“Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have put Him and I will get Him.”
To this Jesus simply replies, “Mary”
Hearing the familiar way Jesus said her name, “Mary”,
Mary cries out in her native tongue, Rabboni! – which has the sense: teacher/Master/Lord.
She hugs Jesus with joy and happiness and relief.
He who was dead is alive!
He is alive.
Jesus is risen.
It was not that Jesus objected to being touched, but tells Mary not to cling to him for He would ascend to the Father. Here already Jesus is indicating that the type of relationship he would have with her would change.
Jesus then entrusts Mary with the message,

“Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I am returning to My Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
This is one of the key themes in John’s Gospel:
Jesus is God the Son, He becomes God in flesh, To the Father He returns in triumph having completed the task the Father had given him to do.

Note: Jesus has a different relationship to Father God than the disciples.
Jesus is the eternal Son, the disciples are sons by adoption.
MY FATHER AND YOUR FATHER.
Jesus shares in the Godhead, yet speaks of His relationship with Father God as one of service – doing His Father’s will.
MY GOD AND YOUR GOD.
Mary returns to the disciples and exclaims,
“I have seen the Lord.”
Mary has seen the living Lord.
She has been privileged to be the first to see Him with her own eyes.
She is welcomed into the family of God.
Then an amazing miracle happened.
“Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘PEACE BE WITH YOU.‘
Then He showed them his hands and side and the disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
Now we have the answer to Job’s cry:
“If a man die, shall he live again?”
Before the resurrection of Jesus, no-one really knew.
The best thinkers and philosophers and pagan religions have only been able to say,

“I don’t know, or I hope so, or I think so.” Plato said, when he was asked, “Shall we live again?”, His response, “I hope so, but no man may know.”

The tombs of all the great leaders of religion are occupied – Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius etc. But the tomb of Jesus is empty to this day. There is more proof for the truth of the resurrection than almost any other historical event.

There are at least 10 different occasions recorded in the Scriptures when Jesus appeared to one or more of His disciples after the resurrection.
We read in 1 Cor 15 that, “Jesus appeared to Peter and then the other disciples. After that He appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most who are still living, though some have fallen asleep.”
In other words you can ask these people whether they were dreaming, or hallucinating. They saw on Him the marks of the crucifixion. His hands, feet and side. The writers of the gospels and all the disciples were not concocting a lie.
Do you know anyone who would die for a lie?
Would you give your life for a hoax?
No and if Jesus did not rise, where was the body? All the enemies of Jesus had to do to put down this new belief was to produce the body of Jesus.
They didn’t, they couldn’t, BECAUSE HE IS ALIVE.
Shall one live after He dies?
Yes because Jesus did.

All that Jesus said He would do, HE DID.
All the prophecies concerning Him were fulfilled.
Hence, we have no doubt that when Jesus said,
“All who believe in me will live.”
The last great enemy DEATH has been defeated.
I want to remind you of our loved ones who we brought to the grave …
Did we bury them without hope?
Did we grieve without hope?

NO, BECAUSE JESUS LIVES ALL WHO DIE TRUSTING IN HIM CAN KNOW THAT THEY GO TO BE WITH HIM IN GLORY.
The death and resurrection of Jesus, His ministry, tells us what sort of person God is and what He has done. It reveals His character, His power, His holiness, His
Justice, His love, compassion and grace.

An invitation of Jesus, gentle and humble in heart is: “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion?
Come to me.
Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.
I’ll show you how to take a real rest.
Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it.
Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.
Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and
lightly.” Matthew 11:28-30 MESSAGE translation)
The centre of the Scriptures is Jesus.
The centre of history is Jesus.
If there was no resurrection life would be futile.
As the writer of Ecclesiastes says, MEANINGLESS!
Who is the key to life?
Jesus.
Who makes life worth while?
Jesus.
Who holds the key to mans eternal destiny?
Not the philosopher, not the scientist, no learned man of
this world.
Jesus Christ – revelations description of him The lion and the lamb. In Jesus all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found. The Lord appointed the disciples to tell others of the hope and truth of the gospel. Not only to tell, but to demonstrate the power of Christ’s resurrection. This power was given to them at Pentecost. Being filled with the Spirit of Christ Peter proclaimed the gospel with power. This resulted in the birth of the church which has continued to grow as families, single people, the poor, the rich, indeed, people from every tribe language and nation have been made part of the family of God.

When Jesus appeared to His beloved disciple (John) He said,
“Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am He that lives, and was dead; and behold, I am alive forever more, Amen; and I hold the keys of hell and death.”
You are the children of light, God’s beloved people. God sent Jesus Christ, who has came in the fullness of time to set man free from the bondage of sin and evil.
Jesus has liberated His people so that they may understand/know the Lord their maker. He came to make us right with God,
In Jesus alone is there life.
The cross is the ladder to God.
Don’t let anyone make you think otherwise by some fine sounding argument.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.”
Jesus is the only person who gives sense to this crazy mixed up planet.
Without Him there would be no hope and no logic to living.
He gives life.
There are many who look at life and come to the conclusion
“Life is not worth living.“
The most logical thing to do is commit suicide.
Why go through the struggles and suffering in this world.
Put an end to it now.
But Jesus does make life worth living.
In him the mystery of God has been revealed.
In Him we find meaning, purpose, direction and HOPE which will not disappoint.
AMEN.