The Resurrection Declares The Diety Of Christ

John 20:1-10

 

I get excited about the resurrection because it…

 

DECLARES THE DIETY OF CHRIST

 

Romans 1:4 (KJV) And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.

 

Let me say first of all, that Jesus really died.  

 

I love John’s account of the resurrection of Jesus. We read in verse 1, “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark…” The word “early” that is used was the technical word for the last of the four watches into which the night was divided. It refers to the time between 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. As John described, it would have been grey dark when Mary came near the tomb. As she approached the tomb she became aware that something was not normal. Verse 1 tells us that she “seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.” 

 

At the very beginning let me say that the stone was not rolled away in order for Jesus to get out of the tomb. It was rolled away so others could see in the tomb. As we come to John 20 we find certain ones coming to the tomb and looking inside the tomb. It seems that John’s account of the resurrection of Jesus places great emphasis on what they saw in the tomb. John draws our attention to the linen clothes and how Peter and John saw them. In verse 5 we see John looking in the tomb and he “saw the linen clothes lying.” In verse 6 we see Peter entering the tomb and how he “seeth the linen clothes.” Then in verse 8 we read of John entering the tomb and we read “he saw, and believed.”

 

The words that are used to describe what and how they saw the linen clothes describes a progression of sight and understanding. In verse 5 the word “saw” simply means “to look at.” It describes someone simply seeing something. John outran Peter to the tomb and when he came to the entrance of the tomb, he stooped down, looked inside and “saw” or looked at the linen clothes.

 

In verses 6-7 we read that when Peter got to the tomb he walked past John, stepped inside the tomb and “seeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin, that was about His head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.” The word “seeth” is a word that means that Peter “beheld attentively” the grave clothes. The word speaks of considering and seeking discernment. Peter not only saw the linen clothes but there was something about them that arrested his attention. We might say that he stood there scratching his head trying to figure out what he was seeing.

 

Then in verse 8 we read that John, who had been the first to look inside, “saw and believed.” The word “saw” as used here means to “properly see or know.” At first John merely looked at the grave clothes. But as he stood outside the tomb he began to think about what he had just seen. Then it hit him what he had seen and it dawned on him what had occurred. I can see the troubled look on his face slowly turn into a smile—Jesus was alive! He had risen from the dead! As verse 8 says, he “believed.”

 

What do you see when you look in the tomb of the Lord Jesus? You say, “When you look in the tomb you see nothing because Jesus wasn’t in the tomb.” However, the Bible tells us that Peter and John saw something. They saw the linen clothes. When we look in the tomb and see the “linen clothes” what do we see? We see portrayed a dying Lord.

 

In John 19 we read how Joseph of Arimathea begged Pilate to let him have the body of Jesus. Pilate granted his request and we read in verse 40 how he and Nicodemus “took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury” (19:40).  The process was to wash the body and cover it with aromatic oils or spices. Then the body was wrapped in a cloth or shroud. John tells us that the body of Jesus was “wound…in linen clothes.” The words that he used indicate that they used strips of linen and wrapped them around his body.  They wound the strips around His body much like the images we have of a mummy.

 

When Peter and John looked in the tomb the first thing that caught their attention was these linen clothes or strips. These were the linen strips that the body of the Lord Jesus had been wrapped in. They were a reminder that Jesus had died. The tomb and the linen clothes testify to the death of the Lord Jesus. When we look in the tomb we are reminded that Jesus Christ died. What we see in the tomb takes us back to Calvary and the cross on which He died. Each time we look in the tomb and see the linen clothes we are once again made aware that Jesus Christ died on Calvary’s Cross.

 

After the death of the Lord Jesus every effort was made by the chief priests and Pharisees to see that the body of the Lord Jesus was secure and could not be stolen. You read in Matthew 27:63-64 that they came to Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night, and steal Him away, and say to the people, ‘He is risen from the dead…’” Pilate agreed to their wishes, had the tomb sealed and set a watch (four soldiers) to guard the tomb.

 

Jesus had said that He would rise from the dead. In John 2, the Jews asked for a sign that He was who He said He was and He replied, “Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (2:19). They thought He was talking about the Temple as a building. They exclaimed that it took 46 years to build the Temple. There was no way He could destroy it and then rebuild it in 3 days. But Jesus wasn’t talking about a building. He was talking about His body (Cp. John 2:20-21). He was declaring that He would rise again on the third day.

 

Just as He said, on the morning of the third day, just as the sun began to break through the eastern sky, an angel descended from heaven, and rolled the stone away. 

 

Very shortly afterwards came Mary Magdalene and when she saw the stone rolled away, the first thing that went through her mind was that someone had broken into the tomb and stolen the body of Jesus. In fact we read in verse 2 that she ran to Peter and John and said, “They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid Him.”

 

Peter and John took off running toward the tomb. When they looked inside, both saw the linen clothes that had been wrapped around the body of the Lord Jesus. Immediately both were struck by how the linen clothes were lying. They were lying flat on the stone. They had not been unwrapped or unwound. They had not been cut or torn off or left in a disheveled mess as if someone had hastily stolen the body of Jesus. They were lying there as if untouched and as if the body had simply vaporized.

 

John stands outside the tomb thinking about what he saw and Peter inside the tomb thinking about what he is seeing, then all of a sudden it dawned on John, “He’s alive. His body has not been stolen. He’s rose from the dead!” The position and condition of the linen clothes were a physical piece of evidence that Jesus had rose from the dead.  

 

Romans 1:4 says that Jesus was declared to be the Son of God through His resurrection. The word “declared” means “to mark out.” Jesus was the Son of God before His resurrection. He has always been the Son of God. Yet, it was the resurrection that marked Him out and clearly identified Him as God’s Son. It verified every claim He had made that He was the Son of God.

 

His resurrection from the dead silences the critics and settle for time and eternity that He is the Son of God! His resurrection declares that Jesus was more than a man. He was indeed the Son of God!