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That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Every Sunday for the last 2000 years, Christians have gathered together. And they've gathered together on Sunday, the first day of the week, principally because of chapter 20, verse 1. It was on the first day of the week that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. And because of the resurrection, because it happened on a Sunday, on the first day of the week, it had been the practice of the early church to meet on the first day of the week. Every week, celebrating, commemorating that death has been vanquished by life. Later on, we'll get to Acts chapter 20 in verse 7, and it says, On the first day of the week when the disciples gathered together. So already in the book of Acts, they made it a priority to meet on Sunday because of the resurrection.
And that's what we're studying. Chapter 20 of John is all about the resurrection. The resurrection is something I'm guessing we have all heard about since we were kids. It is just something we've heard.
It's just something we believe in. Oh yeah, Jesus rose from the dead, like that happens every day. And we're so familiar with it that we fail to recognize what a shock.
And that's a mild term. A cataclysmic shock to hear, let alone to see, somebody who had once been dead, to now be alive in front of you. And you can, or can you imagine, can we imagine the shock as Paul the apostle went around to different parts of the known world, and the central message was Christ crucified and resurrected. They would listen to that and go, huh, what are you talking about?
Dead people don't get up again, as a general rule. So when Paul the apostle will get to the city of Athens, and he will stand on the Areopagus, Mars Hill, and all of the erudite elite scholars of Athens will gather around to listen to Paul, it says Paul preached to them the resurrection from the dead. And they said, what's this babbler talking about?
He's a babbler, he's proclaiming some foreign god. And so they heard him again, and he mentioned the resurrection again, and it says some of them mocked him. I mean it was just laughable that somebody is standing there in the center of Greek culture telling them that a dead person got up again and is still alive. It says some mocked, but they asked him to come back.
They said, we'll hear more on this later. Well, we're reading the resurrection of Jesus from the dead in Acts, or in John chapter 20. But I just want you to try to refresh your heart, your mind, yourself with the concept that it was a shocking idea. And I hope that familiarity will not breed contempt. I hope that hearing so much of it so long we just won't go, yeah, let's sing about the resurrection. May we never lose that wonder. He conquered death. And I love it, when we sing about the resurrection, you all start clapping. Keep doing that.
It's worthy to do that. On the first day of the week, there it is, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Then 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.
Peter therefore went out and the other disciple and were going to the tomb. Of all the religions in the world, you need to know that most religions, most religious philosophies are based upon the actual philosophical teachings of the founders of those religions. In most of those religions, it's all about the belief system, the principles of faith that are passed down. It's considered that of all the world religions, only four of them are really based upon personalities. And that would be Judaism, the personality of Moses the lawgiver, Christianity on Christ, Buddhism, Buddha, and Islam on Muhammad. Four religions that are based really upon the personalities of the founders. Of all of those four religions and all of the other religions, only one makes the claim of a resurrection. So Christianity is very unique. What you're about to read is not only shocking, it's singular, it's unique. Nobody else will boast that.
Nobody else will claim that. Now on resurrection day, there are in this story as John tells it, he will tell you about three people who saw something. And what they saw and what they thought about it was all different. They saw the same thing essentially, but how they interpret it and what they say about it are all different.
It's really amazing. The first is Mary Magdalene. She sees something, doesn't quite know what to make of it, reports something that isn't true.
She's wrong in what she supposes was going on, something that happened that didn't happen. Then Peter, the apostle, will look inside the tomb and he'll see something and he'll think one thing. Really, he'll just be perplexed at what he sees, no real answer to what he sees. Then John, the other apostle mentioned, is also going to see the exact same thing, but he will see it differently and it will change him forever. So we keep that in mind. Now just go back to verse 1, indulge me. Let's go through this a little slower if you don't mind. I do aim to get through chapter 20.
I know that's a big chunk. Some of you think it's not possible, but with God all things are. On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Now we know from the other gospel accounts, she was not the only one there. There were other women, probably those four that were at the cross.
They all showed up at the tomb. But John chooses to write about one in particular and that is Mary Magdalene. And probably for a couple of reasons. Reason number one, perhaps she got there earlier than a couple of the others. Maybe she was first on the scene. How early did she come? It says she came to the tomb early while it was still dark. That's a technical term, a technical phrase in the Greek language for the last of four night watches. The Roman night was divided into watches. And the first watch was from 6 to 9 in the evening. The second watch from 9 at night till midnight. The third watch from midnight till 3. And the fourth watch, this watch, was between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. So how early?
Really early. Why did she get there early? I'm guessing she couldn't sleep very well.
I'm just guessing that she was tossing and churning all night, waking up, going back to sleep, and she just said, oh man, I'm just going to get up. I'm going to go to the tomb. I don't know really what she thought she was going to do once she got to the tomb. But love doesn't ask those questions.
You just go. It's very common for people who love someone who died to go visit the grave because that was the last point of contact they had with that person. It's just a way for them emotionally to get closer. And so she goes very early in the morning. One of the things we love about Mary Magdalene is her love for her Lord. She had a very unique love because Jesus did something for her that no one could ever do or had ever done. He forgave her. She knew she was a wicked woman, and Jesus' extended love and forgiveness gave her a whole new chance, a whole new life. So her love was very unique, and Jesus said, to whom much has been forgiven, the same loves much.
This is her love for her Lord. I'm going to the tomb. I don't care how early it is.
I don't care what dangers. I don't care if there's a stone there. I'm hanging out at the tomb.
It's where Jesus was put, and it's where I'm going. Now, we don't know what kind of a sinner Mary was originally before Jesus got a hold of her. We don't know what it was she was forgiven of. The Bible does tell us that seven demons were cast out of her.
So my guess is she was a pretty bad gal. You got seven demons hanging out inside of you, you're not going to be a good person. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we return to Skip's teaching, misunderstandings about Jesus abound. Some see him as a prophet, others as a moral teacher, and still others as just a myth or mere historical figure. But the Bible tells a different story about who Jesus is. We want to help you know the real Jesus of the Bible by sending you Skip Heitzig's nine-message CD series, Who Is This Jesus? In this eye-opening series, Pastor Skip addresses common misconceptions about Jesus, clarifying both Jesus' humanity and His divinity to equip you to confidently answer questions about who Jesus really is. We'll send you the Who Is This Jesus series, as well as Skip's booklet for new believers titled Life Change, as thanks for your gift of $50 or more to reach more people with God's love through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give. Now, let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. The Jewish Talmud records that the town of Magdala, where she is from, was a town of prostitution. So it could be some suggest, because a couple of those historic documents have surfaced, it's thought that maybe she was a prostitute. So it could be that, and that is the tradition, that she lived a life of prostitution. But don't you love it that Jesus has a big eraser?
Doesn't matter your background, doesn't matter how sordid the past. He'll take you as you are, and she didn't clean herself up first. She came, and Jesus always cleans the fish that He catches. He caught her, and He cleaned her up, and there she is.
It says, when she came, she saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Then she ran. Now, just notice this, because she isn't the only one running that day.
Other ones are gonna be running, too. She ran and came to Simon Peter, and that's normal. I mean, she's shocked by what she sees. 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. When she gets to the tomb, she's shocked. She didn't expect to see an open tomb.
She expected to see a sealed tomb. Tombs were sealed with stones. Stones that were placed before tombs like this weighed about two to three tons, so they were rolled into place in a downhill groove and sealed. Those things don't budge. It takes several people to roll it into place. Imagine how many people it would take to roll uphill in that groove, but the stone is just gone.
Now, she immediately thinks robbers. Somebody has stolen the tomb. It was quite common. It was so common, did you know, that the Emperor Claudius outlawed it, and it was already outlawed, but outlawed it with a capital sentence. That is, anybody who raids a tomb, a tomb raider, whether it's Lara Croft or not, anybody who raids tombs in those days and messes with the contents or the body or takes away this stone would be killed.
So it was a capital offense. All she knows is the stone has been rolled away. So she says, listen to what she says, and you tell me if she's right or wrong. They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb. Is that true or false? It's false. There's no they. Who are the they you're talking about? Who's they? You know how we do that? Well, you know they say, and then we say something. Well, who are they? They've taken her out of the tomb. Well, who are they?
I don't know, but somebody did, and they didn't. There is no they. It's just he. He just got up. He rose from the dead. Well, she's not expecting that. So her natural mind works for a natural explanation. Somebody messed with the body and stole the body out of the tomb.
She's wrong. It says, Peter, therefore, went out and the other disciple, and we know from what we have seen so far in the Gospel of John, this is John's self-effacing diminutive humble way of referring to himself in his own writing. When he says the other disciple, it's himself he's speaking about. Peter, therefore, went out and the other disciple who were going to the tomb.
It says they both ran together, so the race is on. We won't turn to it, but let me just tell you that when Luke writes his account, Luke chapter 24 of the same event, it says that she came to where the disciples were, Mary Magdalene, and said this. They've taken my Lord out of the tomb, and it says this when they said that the body is gone. It says the disciples heard these things and they seemed like idle tales to them, and they did not believe.
They just went, yeah, right. But two of them had got their attention, and the two were Peter and John. So Peter and John, verse 4, they both ran together.
The gentleman that they were just left her in the dust. And the other disciple, notice this, and the other disciple outran Peter. Why does John think that is so important to write?
But he does, right? And it's inspired scripture, so I just love that that's here. It's like, I, the author of this book, the disciple whom Jesus loved, I'm also faster than Pete. I beat him.
The resurrection marathon, I won it. He came to the tomb first. He's stooping down. This is John looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there, yet he did not go in.
Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. I don't know, this is just Peter's personality. Okay, go ahead and you can stare from afar. I'm going in.
I'm checking this out up close. So I don't know what Peter's deal is. Maybe he's a little sore that he lost the race. He's there second, John sort of checking it out. Peter goes, look out, let me get in there and check it out. And he went into the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there and the handkerchief that had been around his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, that's John, who came to the tomb first, 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. Now there are three words, three separate words, all translated exactly into the same English word. See, this is the unfortunate thing about the receptor language like ours that is so limited. I've told you before that Greek is a very exact language, and it conveys the exact situation, the thoughts of God, the historical events so perfectly, and we don't translate it really the way it ought to be, unless you have an expanded translation or a Greek help that helps you out here. But there are three words in Greek all for the word saw, and I want to show you. The first word in verse five is the word blepo, which simply means to notice. I'm looking at something and I'm just, I can see it with my eyes, I can make out the general facts, I can ascertain what I'm seeing. It simply means to notice. So in verse five, he, John, stooping down looking in, saw. So John is just noticing what he sees.
He saw the linen claws lying there, yet he did not go in. The second word is found in verse six, and it's the word therao. Sorry, that's how it's pronounced, therao. We get the term theater from it. Theater, like when you sit in a theater and you observe very carefully what's going on on stage, you look in the same direction for a long time, and you are putting things together in your head, you are studying it closely. That's the word that is used in verse six. Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb, and he, therao, he studied closely and intently the linen claws lying there. Now, he doesn't come to a conclusion. Peter's studying it going, huh, wow. He's like that kid in school when the teacher used to say stuff, and he would nod his head and go, yeah, huh, wow. Had no clue what the teacher was talking about. Peter's studying it carefully, but does not come to a suitable conclusion.
He's more bedazzled than anything. It's like, huh, go figure. And then in verse eight is the third word, eidon, in the Greek word, but also translated, saw. Then the other disciple, this is John, who came to the tomb first, went in also and saw. And that word, eidon, means to see with comprehension or understanding. That's why it says he saw, eidon, and believed. What he saw this time, he saw with understanding. He saw with comprehension. He got it, and he thought, oh, he rose from the dead. He saw and believed. For as yet they did not know the scripture that he must rise again from the dead.
We'll have to get to that on a Sunday morning when we look at against all odds. Then the disciples went away again to their own homes. Now what is it that Peter saw that made him believe in the resurrection? Well, first of all, can I describe to you how Jews buried their dead?
It would help. When a person died, they buried them with strips of cloth and a gooey substance made of aloes and spices. They brought 100 pounds of spices, we read last time, to bury the Lord Jesus in. So what they would do is they would wrap each limb individually in these strips encased in this gooey, spicy substance. So it would form and harden like a jelly, and then it would harden into like a cocoon. And so they would wrap each arm, each leg, and then the entire body. Then they would cover the face separately with its own cloth. So when Lazarus rose from the dead, it says he came out bound hand and foot in grave clothes, and also he had a cloth that covered his face. So that one verse of the resurrection of Lazarus tells us how Jews buried their dead. So they're looking at this, and they're noticing that they're in the tomb. It says they saw the linen claws lying there.
You know how we just read that a couple times? Literally it means they saw the linen claws lying in their folds, undisturbed, not ripped apart, not in a pile, not scattered all over the tomb, but lying there in their folds, undisturbed like a cocoon, but collapsed. If we would have been in the tomb at the very moment of resurrection, what would we have seen?
We wouldn't have seen a struggle. We wouldn't have seen a corpse going, oh, oh, we've got to get out of here and just started, you know, unwrapping himself. That wouldn't be a resurrection. That'd be a resuscitation.
That's when the guy isn't really dead, but he wakes up, and they're trying to bury him, and he figures it out, and he gets out of it. And I bring this up because one of the theories of the resurrection, people who try to counteract, contravene the resurrection, is that it wasn't a resurrection. Jesus didn't really die.
It's called the swoon theory. He passed out on the cross. He lost a lot of blood. He was unconscious. They thought he was dead, but the dampness of the tomb revived him, and he unbound himself like he'd have strength to do that and got out. If that were the case, you'd see bandages everywhere.
If the swoon theory happened, you'd see stuff all over the tomb. We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember that when you give $50 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you Pastor Skip's series, Who Is This Jesus?, and his booklet, Life Change, to help you better understand both who Jesus is and why you can trust what the Bible says and who you are as a believer in Christ. To request your copy of these resources, call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer. For more from Skip, be sure to check out the many resources available at connectwithskip.com slash store. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast your burdens on His Word. Make a connection, a connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
