Apply Within

Bob Davis: Somebody took the time to make sure that the body looked like it was still in it, except the stuff was more flat because there was no body in it. There was a nice little fold at the top right where the head was. You know who did that? Jesus. If he was in a hurry, he would have said, "I am out of here before they catch me." He was not in a hurry. He rose from the dead and he just set that thing, took it off, and walked out.

Do you know why the stone was rolled away? It was not rolled away so Jesus could get out. Jesus was already gone. The stone was rolled away so you could get in and see, so every one of us could go in and look for ourselves. That is why the stone was rolled away.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Apply Within, a verse-by-verse study of the Word of God with Pastor Bob Davis of North Country Chapel. We invite you to join with us as we, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, apply His Word within our own hearts as we study line upon line, precept upon precept, verse by verse through the Bible. Jesus is crucified as our study of John continues in chapter 19, verse 26. Here is Pastor Bob.

Bob Davis: He buried Jesus. Rome made sure he was dead. Jesus said, "No one will take my life. I will lay it down." He gave up the ghost. He let his spirit go. Now, you and I do not have that kind of authority. We are trying to hang on for all we have got, but we are going home. We are leaving this Earth one way or the other. True? Everybody knows it, but nobody likes to talk about it.

One hundred pounds of spices. They wrapped him in linen clothes, wrap, put some spices, wrap tightly. They put one wrap separately around his head. They buried him in a rich man's tomb, Joseph of Arimathea. And everybody went to finish their preparations for the feast.

We learn that there were some ladies who went with Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea as they prepared the body. The women were there. They could see it was done in a hurry. They wanted to come back and finish the job. One hundred pounds was not enough for their Lord and they wanted to come back.

When the feast was over, on the first day of the week, which you and I call Sunday, chapter 20, verse one says, "The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was still dark, to the sepulcher, and she saw the stone rolled away from the sepulcher." The stone had been taken away, rolled back.

That stone was usually a rock about six or eight inches thick, solid rock. They would put it in a little trough and it would roll into place and lock into place. Some of those rocks were nearly a ton, a couple thousand pounds. It was downhill, so they locked it into place. To get it back out, you would have to pry it out and do a little bit of work. They would let you do that, but we have an exception right here.

Mary went to the tomb. "The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was still dark, to the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher. Then she runneth and she came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple." We learn at the very end of this gospel that other disciple was John, the beloved disciple. She ran to Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved and she said to them, "They have taken away my Lord out of the sepulcher and we know not where they have laid him."

I talk about "them" all the time. I catch myself. You know who they are. You talk about them. "They say it is going to snow." Everyone knows who they are, you just cannot put a name to them. "They say it is going to be a really warm summer." This is Idaho, stop it.

There is a word in here that lets you know something. Mary and a few other women went to the tomb. Why does John just say Mary? John is not telling you the number of women, he is telling you the one woman that came to him and Peter first. Mary says right here there were multiple women.

That tells me a lot of things. You see, they did not know that Pilate had ordered the stone to be sealed. They would take two leather straps, make an X, lock it down, and put the seal in the center of that X. If you break the seal without permission, it is an instant death penalty. They did not know that. They were just going out because when they left, it was not all there and they wanted to make sure the body of Jesus was buried correctly.

Once it was sealed, it was a protected piece of property by the Roman government itself. Armed Roman guards were there. Some say four, some suggest eight, but there were fully armed Roman guards. Anyone who would break the seal without permission would be instantly dead. In other words, as I like to say, "Cancel Christmas."

That is important for you to know, especially when you read through the Gospel of Matthew at the end. John wrote down what he experienced, but did you hear what Mary said? Mary told us there was more than her. She told us there were other women. She said, "They have moved him in the night and none of us know where."

I will say it in her language. "They took the body and we do not know where it is." Who is "we," Mary? She is telling you there were other women. John is not going to give us their names because he is telling you exactly what he heard and saw. This is his eyewitness report. There is no contradiction.

I could do that with almost everything. Every one I have seen, I can show you what the Bible says and there are no contradictions there. You can keep believing it or you can start reading it yourselves. Let me read you the language. "The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, 'They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid him.'"

She just told you she was not alone. She did not give us a list of names, but some of the other gospels do. If you just read it, you will not have to panic. People are trying to scare you out of the Bible. Just take your time and do not panic. When you see something that looks like a contradiction, hear this: God is bigger than us and smarter. He will never contradict Himself, ever. He cannot. He is too big.

If I see something I think is a contradiction, there is something I am not understanding or something I am missing. You can always count on that. "They have moved him in the night. We do not know where." Notice, she does not have the body. John and Peter do not have the body. She came to tell them and they were shocked. Somebody had it; it had to be "them." Who is them? We do not know. She does not know. It had to be them because it was not us.

Verse three says, "Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulcher." They ran. "So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulcher." You know why? That may not be important to you, but it was important to John. John wrote this and he was young. They believe that John was probably around 19 years old, whereas Peter was 40 or over. When they ran, the 19-year-old outran the 40-year-old. Who couldn't?

Stooping down and looking into the tomb, the stone was rolled out of the way so he could look right into the tomb. Mary and the ladies were right; someone moved that stone. Looking in, he saw the linen clothes lying right where they belonged. They were lying there in the space they needed to be. But he did not go in. John was a little bit young and not as forward as Peter. Peter was brash. He would open his mouth to exchange feet. I know what that man feels like. Do you?

Then came Simon Peter following him, and Simon just kept running right past him and ran on in. That is Peter; that is the way he is. He saw the linen clothes lying there, and the napkin that was on his head was not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. They would wrap up to the neck and then they would put a piece across the top of the head. It was separated right there, all folded nice.

Somebody took the time to make sure that the body looked like it was still in it, except the stuff was more flat because there was no body in it. There was a nice little fold at the top right where the head was. You know who did that? Jesus. If he was in a hurry, he would have said, "I am out of here before they catch me." He was not in a hurry. He rose from the dead and he just set that thing, took it off, and walked out.

Do you know why the stone was rolled away? It was not rolled away so Jesus could get out. Jesus was already gone. The stone was rolled away so you could get in and see, so every one of us could go in and look for ourselves. That is why the stone was rolled away.

Then John went in also in verse eight. He was the one that got there first, and he saw. What did he do? He looked, and two and two made sense to him. He came up with four. He believed he rose from the dead. That is what John believed. Peter did not know what to believe. "For as yet," verse nine says, "they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead." But John believed he is not here. Peter said, "I can see that." No, he has got to be alive. Peter did not know what to think.

The disciples went away again to the place they were staying in verse 10. Here they were running and hurrying. It was still kind of dark in the early morning. John, being the younger, outran Peter and got there first, but he was a little bit timid. He was just looking in, trying to see what he could see. But Peter just came brashly running in. That is what Peter would do and he did it.

He was always aggressive. That is the way God built him. Some of you are shy and polite, and some of you are aggressive and you are going to step right in. You usually sink first in the quicksand and then everybody knows it is quicksand. Someone has got to do it, right? Here comes Peter.

He saw the same thing. The linen clothes were still there looking like there was a body in it, but flatter. That little napkin about his head was still in its place. But Jesus was not there. No one disputes it. Even the Roman soldiers, if you read through Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and the women, the disciples, the high priest, and the Jewish leaders all agree that body was not there.

It is not a contradiction. It is true, and history even says Josephus writes that Jesus was crucified and was buried. Jesus existed. Contrary to that big article today, yes, he existed. By the way, he still exists; he is alive. He rose from the dead.

Peter went in there and said, "This is where Jesus was, but I am an eyewitness that he was not there." John enters the tomb after that and John believed Jesus is alive. He was certainly not there. John was at the cross. John saw Jesus Christ die and he was completely dead. The Romans made sure of it to prove to the whole world that Jesus Christ died.

They did not understand, just like sometimes you and me. The verse is written about the Lord in the Old Testament talking about Messiah rising from the dead. Psalm 16, Psalm 110, and Isaiah 53 all tell you that the Messiah will rise from the dead. He will die and he will live forever. How can you do both? He is going to rise from the dead.

Peter and John headed back to where they were staying. Of course, they told the other disciples. Judas had taken his own life. Judas did not have to do that and he should not have. He could have just surrendered his heart and said, "I have done the worst thing in the whole of creation. Please forgive me." The Lord would have said, "That is exactly why I shed my blood. You are forgiven."

There is nothing too dark, too ugly, too bad, or too big that Jesus cannot forgive. He forgives. He will forgive you. He has forgiven me and He has forgiven some of you that belong to Him. If you do not belong to Him, you can, and He will forgive every bit of sin. I have had people ask me, "Pastor Bob, my life is absolutely gross. Should I make myself better before I try to give my heart to Jesus? Should I get off these drugs and try to clean up my language?"

I say to them that it is really dumb to take a shower before you take a bath. It is a waste of time. No, you cannot clean up your act. Most of you do not know where you left your act. You give it to Jesus Christ and He washes you clean forever by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.

Look at verse 11. "But Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping." She was right there at the tomb, just weeping. She knew he was not in there. She had no explanation of where he was or what happened. She knew he was dead. So someone had to have taken the body. She said, "They have taken him and we do not know where they put him."

She was weeping, and as she wept, she stooped down once again. You know how we are? "I know he is not there. I looked in a couple of times, but I am going to look in again and maybe there is something wrong with me and he is probably there." You know how that goes.

She wept, and as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher. She saw two angels dressed in white sitting right where the body had been laid. One was at the head and the other at the foot where the body of Jesus had lain. They were sitting there right where the body would have been. That is so weird. "What are you guys doing?" "Nothing, just hanging out. What is up?" "You were not there when I looked in before."

They spoke to her though and they said to her, "Woman, why weepest thou?" In our language, it is a very respectful word, "Ma'am." They were so respectful with her. Jesus was respectful with the women. The little girls he called "daughter." The ladies he called "ma'am." He was very respectful, polite, and courteous.

These angels said, "Ma'am, why are you crying?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him." She lost her Jesus. He was here when she saw them roll that stone across and he was gone. Dead bodies do not walk, therefore, somebody took him. She did not know who or where, but she was determined to find out.

As she cried, she stooped down to look in again. Maybe she mis-saw what she saw. We are that way, unsure. She looked in and sure enough, this time there were two angels there. The linen was still there, but there were two angels where Jesus had been.

They asked her a simple question so calmly and politely. "Ma'am, why are you crying?" "Because they have taken my Lord." Her story was not changing. "They have taken my Lord away and I do not know where they put his body." That tells me again John and Peter were not expecting Jesus to rise from the dead. Neither was Mary, nor those other ladies.

None of them were expecting him to rise again, even though he told them over and over through his public ministry for three and a half years that he would rise from the dead. They never got that part because it did not fit into their theology or the scenarios they had built in their heads. They will say it is a contradiction, but it is what God says.

That is why I suggest to you, read your Bible. Do not take their word for it. Go and read it for yourselves just to see the words yourselves. Even though Jesus promised that he would rise from the dead, it never crossed the heart of Mary. She was brokenhearted, confused, and upset. She did not know what to do. She was standing there weeping, but you cannot stand there all day. "Ma'am, why are you crying?" "Because somebody took my Lord and I do not know where his body is. He is dead. You cannot just be doing that."

When she said that, the language almost infers that something caused her to turn around because verse 14 says she turned herself back. She must have seen something or heard something. She turned herself back and she saw Jesus standing there and knew not that it was Jesus. Why wouldn't you know that was Jesus? Again, I am putting myself in her shoes. It is because Jesus was dead. Anybody standing behind her right then was not Jesus, no matter what he looked like. Because that is impossible; it cannot happen. God says it will, but we say no.

She saw Jesus but did not know it was him and Jesus spoke to Mary. He said, "Ma'am, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?" In other words, you are here at this tomb, so who are you looking for? She assumed, and you know what you do when you assume. You make a big mistake.

She supposed him to be the gardener. It was early morning and way too early for anybody to be out and about. It was still probably not quite sunrise. She thought it had to be the guy that worked there. She said to him, supposing he was the gardener, "Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away."

I wonder how big Mary was? You know what? Love does that. That is what love does. Love is not this warm fuzzy. She was brokenhearted, but that was her Lord. She wanted to make sure Jesus was okay. This is the Son of God. She believed, but she just did not grasp the power and the authority that she was dealing with here.

Verse 16 says Jesus said unto her just one word: "Mary." Just one word. Why would that cause her to recognize him? She turned around and said to him, "Rabboni," which is to say, Master. The other gospels tell us what Jesus is saying here. She immediately fell down at his feet and she grabbed his feet with what I like to call a death grip. "I lost you once, and you are not going anywhere now." she just fell at his feet and grabbed on.

Jesus said to her, "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." Look at what he tells her to do. "You go tell my brothers." Now everybody, they were his disciples. Now that he has risen from the dead, he paid the price for sin. So we are his brothers and sisters. We are his body.

He said, "You go tell my brothers I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, He is our Father and we can pray, "Our Father in heaven, help me." By grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, He is our Father. He is my God and your God, my Father and your Father. All of us that are truly born again call Him Father by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Mary did exactly what Jesus told her to do. See how easy it is to obey God? "Go tell my brothers." And Mary did exactly what he told her to do. She could not explain how He rose from the dead. "Are you sure you saw him?" "Yes, I saw him alive. I touched him and I grabbed him and it was him. I knew my Master as soon as he called me by my name. I knew my Master and he told me to come and tell you that he is alive. I saw him alive. I have seen him. I have walked with him. I have talked with him. Jesus Christ rose from the dead."

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Apply Within with Pastor Bob Davis. Apply Within is a radio outreach ministry of North Country Chapel. Our Sunday morning Bible studies are at 9:00 and 11:00 AM. We also have a Friday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM and a Monday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM.

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