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Now, let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. At first, when the women came and Said that Jesus had been risen from the dead. The other Gospels tell us. They didn't believe it. Listen to how Luke puts it.
For their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them. But there were two. There were two in that room. Peter and John. Their ears went up like my doggy when I come home and call his name.
Peter and John heard that. And they got out of that room and they. They undertook the first resurrection marathon. They ran to the tomb. I find that a little bit interesting.
Mary tells them, they don't say, Mary, take my arm, let's go together. They just sort of leave her in the dust and run. Gentlemen, right? Yep, John tells us that he beat Peter. Peter was sort of like a fullback.
He's only good for 50 yards. John was younger, probably, in better shape. No more. Why did John write this? Did John want forever to be known as the guy who beat Peter in the resurrection marathon?
I beat Peter, I beat Peter. Maybe, but I don't think so. I don't think John would have included that detail for that reason in this place. He might have. Here's another thought.
Do you remember growing up? When you did something that really wasn't great around the house. You were with your mom, and your mom would simply say, Wait till your dad gets home. She didn't even have to say it rough. She could just say, Wait till your dad gets home.
And you thought, uh-oh, that's right, dad is gonna come home. And if I'm not right with mom and therefore not right with dad, I'm in trouble. Remember that?
So, when dad came through the door, if things were good with you and mom and you and dad, you were happy to see him. If they weren't, you weren't too happy to be around him. I think that's how it is with Peter. Last time Jesus and Peter were together. Peter denied Jesus afterwards.
Even though he said, I'll never deny you, he denied him three times. And Jesus looked at Peter. when he was arrested. And Peter's coming to the tombs with mixed emotions, to say the least, with a load of guilt. He's not too excited about getting there and being back in that situation and getting close to it again.
Oh, he's going to come and check it out, but. Uh oh. Things are different with Peter.
Now there's a principle here with this. Not every reaction to Christ is the same.
Okay. You'll notice there are three different responses here. Mary came, saw the tomb was empty, the stone was removed, and she thought, the body's been stolen. Peter comes and he saw And he's puzzled by the whole thing and thought, huh, an empty tomb. Whereas in verse 8, John saw and believed.
Can I stop for a moment? Yeah. If you just read it in English, you have the same word. She saw, he saw, he saw, he saw, he saw. It's repeated several times.
It's the same word. In the Greek language, there are three, get this, three different words used in this text for they saw. I want you to notice them. In verse 1 and in verse 5, that's the first word. Mary saw But as she simply noticed, Verse 5 He, that is John, stooping down, looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there and did not go in.
It's a simple word blepo in Greek. It just simply means to take note of. I see it.
Okay. I'm observing. There's the second word. If you um Look at verse six. This is Peter.
Simon Peter came following him. Mm. And went into the tomb. That's just like Peter, isn't it? Get out of my way.
Let me get in there. He's impetuous. He wants to get close. He went into the tomb and he saw the linen cloths. lying there.
Different word altogether. This is the Greek word, not blepo, but. Fair rat o I know it sounds weird, it's just we get the word theater from this word. It means to study something, to gaze at something because there's something unusual that catches your attention.
So Peter looked in and went, Hmm. Look at that. He checked it out. Verse 8 is an entirely different word. Then the other disciple, that is John, came to the tomb first, went in also.
And he saw and he believed. This is the word ora'o. It's in its aoris form, iden, which means to see with understanding and comprehension. He looked and he got it. He connected all the dots.
Something made sense to him. He said, There must have been a resurrection And it says he believed. James Montgomery Boyce says, In that moment, John the Apostle became the first Christian. Jesus has not appeared to John yet, or Peter, or Mary. But John believed.
Now, the other two, Peter and Mary, they will come to understand that Jesus is risen. But they're not yet on the same page with John. And that's the point I want to make. Be patient. with people.
who have a different response to the truth than you have.
Okay, you've become mature, you've become enlightened, you understand things in the scripture. But sometimes I observe Christians who become so zealous, they've discovered something. Wow, it's right there in the Bible, it's so clear. How come everybody doesn't know this? And they make it their goal to make sure everybody knows this.
Maybe it's a long-forgotten truth, or a truth that they never saw until now, or an experience that they're seeing with the Lord, some epiphanal moment, and now they've just got to boldly share it with everybody.
Okay, cool, but back off. A little bit. Allow God to grow up. And get those others to realize, just like he has for you. Just like he was so patient with you, be patient with them.
Soon, both of these, Peter and Mary, will also understand what John has come to understand. Let's go back to the text. Go back to verse 8, and let's finish off where we have read. There's the third angle, the factual reality. Then the other disciple Again, we know that as John.
Who came to the tomb first? There it is again. He's first. He went in also and he saw and believed. For as yet, They did not know the scripture that he must rise again from the dead.
Then the disciples went away again to their own homes.
Now what did John believe exactly? Did he just believe that Jesus was gone? No, Peter believed that too, and Mary believed that. Yeah. John believed specifically Jesus must be alive.
Right now. based on what he saw.
So let me paint the picture for you. Let's try to figure out what he's looking at. Let's begin with Jewish burial or refresh your memory. Yes. Whenever Jews buried their dead, they typically buried them the same day that their loved ones died.
You die that day, you're buried that day. And the way they would bury, as we have mentioned, they did not embalm. But they entombed.
So they took the body, and before it could decay, they would wrap the body in strips of linen. First, each limb individually. each arm, each leg, and then the body would be wrapped totally. Mixed in between the folds or the winds. Was a gummy substance, a mixture of myrrh and aloes.
A sweet odiferous Gummy substance that was quite weighty when you add that to the body weight. And that was put in between and on top of all of the folds so that it became sort of a. Um An encasement, a cocoon, if you will, this gummy that would eventually harden into a cocoon. That's how the Jews would bury them. They would wind the wrappings from the ankles all the way up to the neck and stop.
The head was treated separately with a cloth or a napkin or a turban, if you will. That's important to realize because When Jesus raises from the dead the son of the widow at Nain. In Luke chapter 7, it says the little boy sat up and began to talk. The reason he could speak is that the wrappings weren't around his head. There was just a cloth.
He could speak through it. That's why we read in John chapter 11: Lazarus came out of the tomb bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. That's how they buried the dead.
So what is John looking at? Same thing Peter was looking at, verse 6. Yeah. He saw the linen cloths. Lying there.
Now listen. Literally, it's he saw them lying in there. Folds. Undisturbed. Unfurled.
Not piled up in a heap, not in disarray, neat and orderly. Just as when the body was there, all wrapped up. But the body is gone. That's what they were studying. You're listening to Connect with Skiff Heitzig Weekend Edition.
Before we return to today's message, what does real spiritual maturity actually look like and how can you achieve it? In his new series, Adulting, A Study Through the Book of James, Pastor Skip gives straight talk from scripture on how to grow up in your faith. through trials, temptations, and daily life. This eye-opening 21 message series is our thanks for your generous gift of $50 or more to help reach more people with God's Word through Connect with Skip. Request your CD package or digital download of adulting when you give at connectwithskip.com/slash offer or call 800-922-1888.
Now, let's get back to today's teaching from Pastor Skip.
Now, let's say you and I could have been in the tomb the moment Jesus. Was raised from the dead. What would we have seen? Would we have seen him kind of like waking up and going, uh-uh, uh-uh, and then like grabbing some of the bandages and pulling them off? No, that's not a resurrection.
That'd be a resuscitation. And you would find, they would have found a pile of Bandages here and there, and spices scattered everywhere as Jesus got out of that cocoon. Rather, he was there Dead. And then he just, as John Stott put it, disappeared or vaporized through the cloth. Like passing through that cocoon, out of that encasement, and out of the sealed tomb.
By the way, Um The reason the stone was rolled away wasn't to let Jesus out. If he can get out of that encasement, he can get out of the tomb. Like later on, he could get in and out of rooms without using the door. The reason the stone was rolled away wasn't to let Jesus out, but to let the disciples in. to see this.
It was an advertisement. Come and check this out, boys.
So Jesus would have just left there just Vaporized. And the grave clothes, that cocoon, that encasement, would have mildly collapsed like a flat tire because the body wasn't in it. John saw that and he goes, I get it. I get it. Nobody moved him, nobody stole him.
There's been a resurrection. Yeah. See? Let's suppose they're right, the generic they, who say Jesus didn't die, he just fainted on the cross or swooned, and then he woke up in the tomb.
Well, if that were the case, then you would read that they saw bandages scattered everywhere in the tomb because he got out. Let's say they stole the body. Let's follow that theory. If they would have stolen the body, do you think they would have unwound the body? And then taken the body out and wound the windings back up so it looked like a body had been there.
They would have stolen the whole encasement and trashed the bandages, thrown them somewhere else. John understood that. It was an epiphanal moment and he got it. There's an interesting detail. Look at verse 7.
Yeah. And The handkerchief. John wants you to know about that handkerchief. And the handkerchief that had been around his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself.
Now why does John include that? simply as an added proof of a resurrection. Once Jesus passed through that encasement, He took the cloth and he folded it up and neatly placed it Next one. I know what's going to happen. Parents are going to leave today and they're going to be telling their kids in the future: listen, if Jesus, before he could leave the tomb, could fold up that napkin, you can certainly make your bed before you go to school.
I can just hear it. Fair enough. It was proof. Added proof of a resurrection. Not a stolen body, not a swooned resuscitation, but a resurrection.
Something else I read in one of the commentaries that I found interesting. According to Jewish custom, if you were the guest in somebody's house, you came over for dinner and they were very hospitable to you and you thought they were just great, you loved the meal, you loved the time. At the end of the meal, You would crumple up your napkin and throw it into the. Food the plate. But If You felt you really didn't like your company, they weren't all that hospitable, the food wasn't really that great.
You would politely fold your napkin and place it next to the plate. It was a polite way of saying, I'm not coming back here again. Here's Jesus folding up the napkin saying, I'm not coming back here again. I haven't been treated all that nice. I came into my own, and my own did not receive me.
So here's Mary. She saw and she panicked. Here's Peter. He saw and he scratched his head and was puzzled and said, wow. Huh, look at that, an empty tomb.
Wonder what it means. Here's John. He saw the tomb empty, but he saw the unfurled encasement, and he believed. in a resurrection. But he adds something.
And this always puzzled me. And I draw your attention to it as we close. Verse 9. What? For as yet they did not know The scriptures.
That he must rise from the dead.
Now what did they know? They knew That the stone was rolled away. They knew that the tomb was empty of a human body. They knew that there was that encasement still lying there and the napkin folded, that they knew. And they formed Their assumptions or belief system based upon what they saw and experienced.
solely upon their experience.
Now, by the time John writes this down. It's different. At that time, they didn't know the scripture, they only knew what they saw. But when John is writing this, now they know the scripture.
Now they put it all together. They formed a theology, an epistemology of why they know that Jesus Christ physically resurrected.
So, their faith that was once based upon experience and evidence, the open tomb, the body gone, the clothes intact, as good as that was to convince John at that moment, that's not enough to sustain a person through life. It seems that John saying, This is what I saw. This is what I knew and believed. But We didn't know the scripture yet. That he must rise from the dead, as if to say, there's something even better to base your belief and knowledge upon, and that's the objective inerrant scripture.
that has been predicted. The Bible predicted, Jesus predicted. that he would be risen from the dead.
Now that's what John wrote. Peter, who was there that day, would say to John, Amen, Brother John. I believe what he said. Because later on when Peter writes one of his letters, He talks about the eyewitness testimony. I was there, I saw, I heard.
But then he writes this. But even though I was an eyewitness and I saw and I heard, we have a more Sure. Word Of Prophecy, more sure word of prophecy.
So how do you know? That you know. How do you know anything? You could say, well, I know because I saw.
Okay. Well, I know because I heard.
Okay. But here's something better. What I saw. And what I heard was predicted long ago. In the prophets.
So now I have my subjective experience and the objective prediction of the Bible. And that's unshakable. That is unshakable. That's what I want you to see in this text. That's what I want you to walk away with.
Jesus said in Matthew 24: heaven and earth will pass away, my words will never pass away. There's only two things that will live forever. The soul of a human being and the word of God will endure forever. And attacks have come for the last 2,000 years. They're mounting again and afresh with a new atheist movement.
And many of them are pointing their barrels. At the scripture saying, You can't believe it, you can't trust it. There's so many different accounts. To the uninitiated, They would seem like compelling arguments. But no, the evidence, if you care to check it out, is there.
That is objective evidence in the validity of scripture and the resurrection of Christ, and you marry the objective evidence to your subjective experience with Christ, and you have unshakable faith. Years ago, and I close with this. I know you've heard me say, I close, I close, I close. One of these times, I'll be right. John Clifford wrote a poem about a blacksmith who Was hammering pieces of metal with.
A number of different hammers that had worn down over time, the anvil that he was beating the metal on remained the same. And he writes this. I paused one day beside the blacksmith's door and listened to the anvil ring the evening chime. And looking in, I saw upon the floor old hammers worn from beating years of time. And so I thought, The anvil of God's word.
For ages sceptics' blows Have beat upon, And though the noise of infidels was heard, the anvil is unworn. The hammers Gone. And eventually, all the new hammers that have been developed by your college professor, by your philosophy students or professors, or by books that are written, those anvils. or those hammers will be gone and the anvil will remain the same. We have the experience that we have with Christ Which is valid only as it is tied to something that is outside of your experience, that is objective, and that's the inerrant word.
of God in Scripture. That's unshakable. that, with that, you can face anything.
Now, if you just have the inerrant word of Scripture, but you don't have an experience with God yourself. then it's not personal. If you have your personal experience, but it doesn't match what the scripture says, That is not reasonable. Put them both together. It's powerful.
Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before you go, don't forget to request this month's featured resource, Adulting, a study through the book of James, Pastor Skip's 21 Message Series that gives you straight talk from Scripture about how to grow in spiritual maturity and live out your faith in the real world. Adulting is our thanks for your generous gift of $50 or more to help share God's word with more people. Call 800-922-8888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer. And while you're there, sign up for Skip's weekly devotional emails and get a free download of a chapter of Skip's The Biography of God.
We'll see you next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect the Skiff-Heitzig weekend edition. Make a connection! Make a connection now. At the foot of the crossing, cast your burdens on me. Connect with Gif Heitzig is a presentation of connection communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
