Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,
a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.
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sermon. God Bless. Great God, we pray again that
you would stir in our hearts the wonder of your
resurrection, the wonder of life in the kingdom
where death cannot hold you down. God, I pray
that you would speak to us again this morning,
that you would speak to us specifically, or that
you would call us to greater life and to greater
faith in you. We ask in your name. Amen. Now,
I will admit that I actually intended a longer
text there. I'm going to be focusing our attention
on three of the narratives in the Gospel of John
this morning. But I want to tell you a story
that you've probably heard before, at least you've
heard the gist of it. On Saturday, June 17th
in 1972, Five men were arrested and they arrested
for breaking into the Democratic National Committee
headquarters. You've probably heard of this.
The security guard at the office complex had
noticed that there was tape that was covering
the door. You know how you can do this? You can
cover it so that when it shuts, it doesn't really
lock. And so he had noticed that and he'd actually
taken off. He said, that's weird. And then he
went back and he found that there was tape on
again. And he said, well, something's fishy.
And so he called the police and an unmarked police
car arrived. And while the burglars, the burglars
sentry across the street, they were distracted
by watching TV. That's when the car arrived.
Well, the five men were arrested and they were
arrested for conspiracy, right? Burglary, attempted
wiretapping. Y 'all know the story. That wasn't
the big story. The real scandal happened when
the president of the United States, Richard Nixon,
and his committee to reelect him was found to
be behind it all. Scandal and deception, right?
Lies. It's the stuff of actually, it's the stuff
of the great stories and the great movies. Things
that kind of draw us in wondering what's going
on and who done it? Who's at fault? Of course,
what's that known as? That's the known as Watergate,
right? Those buildings are still there, standing
there. I've pointed them out and told the story
to my children. One of the president's men was
known as the Hatchet Man. One of the president's
men was Charles Coulson. He was one of the Watergate
Seven, the seven men who were advisors to the
president, who were part of the cover -up story,
part of the scandal. And you probably know that
he became a Christian. He actually became a Christian
reading C .S. Lewis, his book, Mere Christianity.
And he was eventually put in prison for a little
while, and then he started a wonderful ministry
called Prison Fellowship. Some of you may have
been involved with that at the time. Anyway,
Charles Colson talks about the resurrection like
this, and I love this. He says, I know the resurrection
is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. Watergate
proved to him the resurrection. This is why he
says, this is why. Because 12 men testified they
had seen Jesus raised from the dead. Then they
proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once
denying it. Everyone was beaten, tortured, stoned,
and put in prison. That's what happened to the
disciples. The gospel, or John, you know, the...
The disciple John may have lived in prison on
Patmos and may have died naturally, but all the
rest of the disciples were tortured and killed.
And he probably died in that exiled island in
prison. He says, they would not have endured
that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled
12 of the most powerful men in the world and
they couldn't keep the lie for three weeks. Three
weeks. He says, you're telling me the 12 apostles
could keep alive for 40 years? Impossible. Watergate
showed him the truth of the resurrection. Of
course, I wonder this morning, what do you make
of the resurrection? What do you make of it?
I also wonder what does it make of you? Many
people, many people believe the resurrection
is a watergate, a scandal, a cover -up. It's
a self -producing, self -reinforcing kind of
lie that we just kind of live into. And so many
people have been duped over the millennia about
the resurrection. It's a cover -up put together
by some of Jesus' disciples to dupe the Roman
authorities. to say, gotcha, to the religious
leaders. And people have just been believing
that story time and again. That's often what's
said. It's Easter, a water gate, a cover up.
Is it the Easter gate, right? But I wonder what
you make of it. What do you think of it? What
do you think of the resurrection? I mean, it's
the central thing of Christianity. Paul says,
as I mentioned earlier, if it didn't happen,
Christians are to be pitied, maybe laughed at,
scorned. Look at all these people. They come
in week in, week out, confess their sins, believe
that they're truly forgiven because of the work
of Christ. Is it all a big cover -up? Well, The
Gospel of John gives us a few different narratives
that I think kind of invite us into this kind
of process. One of them, you probably know of,
it's the doubting Thomas story. One of his own
disciples, one of Jesus' own disciples after
the resurrection. And he's wondering if it's
true. And in some ways, I think actually Thomas
is sort of, interacts with Jesus how we would
expect. He doubts this reality of what God has
done. And I think there's a little bit of this.
There's a couple reasons why we think this is
what we'd expect. One is that Thomas is an interesting
character in the Gospels. He doesn't appear too
much. He's not like the Apostle Peter or John
or James. They get a lot of attention. Thomas
doesn't get a lot of attention. But at one point
in John chapter 11, he basically says, well,
if we're going to go with Jesus, let's die. Maybe
he's kind of a dour guy. Chapter 14, he basically
tells Jesus, Lord, your teaching's not very clear.
Which, you know, that's true sometimes. Sometimes
you're kind of wondering what's going on. But
on the first Easter, all the disciples are gathered
together in a room and that door is locked and
Thomas isn't there. And in some ways, at least
first when Jesus appears to them. And in some
ways that's maybe not a big surprise because
because of his own kind of history, but also
because he understands what we understand. Maybe
he had thought to throw in the whole towel and
the whole thing. Maybe he had actually seen Jesus'
hands nailed to the cross. He had seen him breathe
his last, all that kind of stuff. Maybe he knew
what you and I know. Which is not new to sort
of modern science that once people breathe their
last they don't breathe again When you die you
die In the gospel of John there are some that
are simply sort of hostile to Jesus You can think
of the religious leaders who plot to kill him,
right? You can think of the the crowds that we
remembered last Sunday who shout, Hosanna, and
then on Good Friday, they're saying, crucify
him. Do away with him. There are a lot of people
who just misunderstand Jesus. You know, again,
think of last week, you know, the people are
mixed, right? That's what I was saying last week.
They're throwing these palms and these cloaks
down and they're thinking, okay, you're going
to kind of do away with the empire, do away with
the Romans. They're not quite understanding Jesus.
And then there are some who believe, and then
there are people, other people like Thomas, right?
Initially here, at least in that story. And I
want to suggest to you that maybe that's you.
You're not necessarily hostile. You just kind
of go, I don't know what to make of this stuff.
I don't know that I kind of buy it. What do you
do with a God who comes and heals people and
declares the forgiveness of sins? What do you
do with a God who who dies on a torture instrument
and Christians celebrate that? What do you do
with the God who comes and liberates? What do
you do with the God who rises from the dead?
Right. I mean some at least you may be scratching
your head and you're wondering I don't know what's
going on here Thomas I'm suggesting to you in
some ways is who we expect him to be but it's
Who we expect him to be because it's the case
for so many. No doubt it's the case for some
of you this morning. That you hear the story
of Thomas and his doubting of whether or not
Jesus rose from the dead and you go, yeah, I
get that. Rowan Williams, who was the last, I
guess two archbishops of Canterbury ago now,
says, death and the hells of dereliction and
abandonment eat people up. You know, like our
life kind of eats us up. Broken hearts and broken
relationships bodies that don't work Exhaust
us they scrape us out. They bring us to nothing
and it's often even in that that we kind of go
there is no Hope and so we hear something like
resurrection. We go. I don't know. I'm gonna
have to see some of that If I buy that We live
lives of death and loss we live lives where our
minds are often confused Where sin persists where
death really does seem to run rampant and resurrection
real resurrection life is just Too much to buy
into maybe too much to believe So again, I just
want to ask this morning do you think of the
resurrection is just kind of this fanciful story
Maybe a cover -up for something else maybe like
some people say it was a hallucination It was
Jesus raising in their hearts so they could feel
good about stuff. Now the claim of Christianity,
the claim of the scriptures is that God truly
rose. Real life, body. So what you have in the
story of Thomas is, is Jesus meeting him in that
place of doubt and wonder and questioning. Not
shirking him off not pushing him away, but coming
to him and saying here put your put your hands
in my hands Place your hand in my side don't
disbelieve but but believe And this morning I
want to suggest you if you're kind of somebody
who's like figment of the imagination Probably
didn't happen. Everybody's duped Would you come
to the Lord in that place? Would you Maybe invite
him to say, it's true. Let Jesus draw you into
a world where Good Friday's not the end of the
story. Where it breaks way into Easter morning.
Where the cross becomes a flowering tree. Well,
another story, actually the one that precedes
that in John's Gospel. is the story of the disciples,
right? So the disciples are gathered and Thomas
isn't there. They're gathered in this room together.
And what the text tells us is that the room's
locked. And why would the room be locked? I would
guess that the disciples are full of fear. My
guess... is that Peter told them stories. You
know what? When I was following Jesus around
after he got arrested, people were like, hey,
you were with them. You were one of them. Your
accent betrays you. You're from Galilee. I saw
you with them. And they saw what happened to
Christ on Good Friday, nailed to a tree. They're
locking the door, right? They're locking the
door. They don't want people to come in. Certainly
not the people that might say you were one of
his people and one of his disciples. And in comes
Jesus. That's how the story goes. They got a
locked door and in comes Jesus. He doesn't come
in through the door. He's bodily, but this resurrection
bodily is a different kind of bodily dynamic.
He just appears and they can touch him. Thomas
touches him. He's as real as real can be. And
he comes to them in the midst of this place where
the door is locked. And the first thing he tells
them is peace. And he repeats it, peace, peace
be with you. And they touch him again and he
says, peace be with you. So the first thing that
the resurrection does to this group of fearful
disciples is it brings peace. It comes to a world
that is The world of Thomas, right? The one who
properly doubts that this kind of good news can
really happen because the resurrection comes
to a world that is full of death and decay and
despondency and depression and despair and all
of that. That's the way of this world. And it
says that's no longer the order of things. That's
what the resurrection does. It speaks into this
world that is full of understandable fear. And
Jesus says, peace be with you. Jesus comes and
he brings peace. And when he does, it's not just
that we have to make something of the resurrection,
but the resurrection made something of those
disciples. It changed them. And specifically,
actually in that text, it makes them into assent
people because right after he gives them peace,
he says, as the father sends me, I'm sending
you, which is great when you're locked in a room,
because what he's saying is get out, get out
of this room, go, unlock the doors. He's sending
them out into a Good Friday, fear -filled world
with an Easter hope. Get out and tell people
that death is no longer the order of the day,
life is. Get out, get out from your fear, from
your locked up self. Nothing can hold you back.
Death is no longer a real obstacle for you. All
of the disciples gave their life for that truth.
They went out of that room, locked up, opened
door, all of it. So it was a sent people, but
it also, this is an interesting thing in the
text too, is that makes them a, the people who
are the presence of God in the world. Cause after
he says, get out, I'm gonna send you out. He
says, I'm gonna give you the Holy Spirit. And
he says this, if you forgive the sins of any,
they're forgiven. If you withhold them, they're
withheld, which is a really weird thing for Jesus
to say in that moment. But he immediately follows
that up with receive the Holy Spirit. What he's
saying is, you are my presence. You are the good
news presence into the world. Get out and go
in my name and do my work. So what's that look
like? Here's what someone suggested. How is a
Christian to prove the tomb is still empty the
day after Easter? They dare to love difficult
neighbors. They repent for wrongs a little bit
more quickly. That's partly how you believe in
the resurrection. You repent a little more quickly.
You repent and engage with conflict a little
less defensively. That's hard. You return to
work with a fresh sense of purpose and mission.
You commit to praying for the impossible situation
that you're finding yourself in. That's part
of believing in the resurrection. You quietly
preserve in the long -term battles with depression.
You approach your spouses and your children,
your roommates with fresh wonder and fresh affection,
fresh hope. You can risk serving where nobody
else wants to go. That's what is happening there.
Go out, forgive, here's the Holy Spirit. Fleming
Rutledge, some of you have read her wonderful
book, The Crucifixion. It says, it cannot be
said too often. If Christ was not raised from
the dead, we would never have heard of him. Of
course, the flip side is that because you heard,
because he did rise from the dead, you have heard
of him. You have gathered together. Broken relationships
are healed. Forgiveness really is on offer. New
life in the midst of death. Disciples would have
never been sent. The disciples... I mean, think
about them. They were a motley crew. Peter, of
course, was impetuous. He's always doing crazy
things. Some of them we don't hear anything about,
but some of them, you know, they're zealots.
Simon the zealot. He's wanting to take up arms
against the Romans. Matthew's a tax collector.
He's in cahoots with the Romans. They're just
a weird group of people. And somehow that weird
group of people, God changes in that moment.
He sends them out with his good news. and it
changes the world. Christians throughout the
world this morning and Christians throughout
time are gathering together not because of some
cover -up, not because of some scandal, not because
of some wishful thinking, but because the resurrection
made something of them, made them into a sent
people into the presence of God in this world
of death. But here's the great thing is that
the first story actually that tells of the resurrection
in John's gospel is when John or when Peter meets,
what am I saying, when Jesus meets Mary. And
Mary comes to the tomb that first Easter morning
and she comes right with spices. That's part
of a big part of the story. Why is she coming
with spices? Because she knows that dead bodies
smell. She's not thinking this will be fun. Maybe
I'll see my savior again. She's thinking this
will not be fun It will smell and I'll need to
cover up the stench And when she comes she stoops
down, right? She it says she weeps She's probably
cries she probably cries bitterly And my guess
is you know sort of those deep weepings deep
times of tears Times of loss and estrangement
of death the death of a loved one, where tears
sort of have their own timetable, and they just
kind of keep flowing until they sort of stop,
they have their own rhythm to them. And as she
wonders what's happening as she's weeping, it
seems as though there's figure there. She's wondering,
where have they taken my Lord, right? She's looking
and she's saying, where is Jesus? Where is his
body? And then it's in that moment that Jesus
comes to her. If you remember that story, one
of the things that she says is that she thought
that he was a gardener. But she doesn't say gardener.
She speaks to him in a sort of impersonal way.
She says, sir, sir, where have they taken my
Lord? And in that moment, actually, Jesus speaks
her name specifically. Which is to say, in the
midst of her tears, in the midst of her experiences
of Good Friday reality, death on this side of
glory, He knows her pain. He says, Mary. And
it's sort of like saying, Bella, Bettina, Alec,
Devin Peter Bruce Part of what's happening in
this story of the resurrection are is the reality
of the specifics of God knowing your experiences
of living in the Good Friday world Your experiences
of doubt and wonder and questioning your experiences
of weeping and crying and pain He speaks to her
and he turns her weeping also then into going.
He turns her weeping into a life towards others.
You might remember that she goes back and tells
the disciples. What do we make of the resurrection?
Well, part of the question is, what is it doing
to you? Is it just a figment of our imagination?
Is it a scandal or is it a cover up? Is it a
cute fairy tale that gives us a reason to eat
chocolate? As if we need a reason to eat chocolate,
right? We don't need one of those. Is it a parable?
That though bad things happen in the world, don't
give up. Is it a moral story? Love is stronger
than death. wishful thinking. Did it really happen?
Because if the resurrection didn't happen, nothing
matters. If it did, everything matters. If Jesus
really rose from the dead, physical, everything
physical is sort of charged with wonder, glory,
and beauty that God would come among it and declare
it good and worth redeeming. What do you make
of the resurrection? I'm gonna tell you a story.
There is a beautiful ritual in the Habsburg family,
you know that Austrian Empire. When the emperors
would die, they would be brought to the cathedral.
I looked up the name of this cathedral, but I
honestly, I feel like sometimes I try to say
things in other languages and they just don't
come out very well. I was like, I'm not going
to write it down because it was too tricky. But
they come to this cathedral in the middle of
Vienna. And if you go down deep into the steps
below there, there's the crypt where these emperors
are buried. And the tradition when an emperor
dies is that they are brought, their cask is
brought down and there is a door that is locked.
It's sort of like the story there in the disciples.
It's all locked. And the master of the ceremonies
comes and he knocks on this door and a voice
from inside says, who's there? Sounds spooky,
but it's just part of what happens, right? Well,
the tradition goes is that... The Master of Ceremonies
responds by saying something like this, Franz
Joseph, Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary,
King of Croatia, and then rattles off all 27
titles that the Emperor had. Who's there, right?
Let me tell you all of what I have, all the titles
that I have. Let me in. And inside the monk,
responds, yeah, we don't know him. So anyway,
the master of ceremonies, he knocks again. And
the voice from inside says, who's there? And
the tradition goes that this time, the master
of ceremonies is to recount the emperor's great
deeds, the peace treaties that were made, the
wars that he won, who he married, what children
he had. rattle off all of this great stuff that
the emperor did. What's the reply from inside?
We don't know him. And then a third time, third
time the master of ceremonies knocks and the
monk from inside says, who's there? And the reply
the third time, is Franz Joseph, a poor sinner.
And this is the invitation to this new life.
The doors opened up. The crypt is just a temporary
thing for somebody that comes to Jesus and says,
I'm just gonna rest in your grace for me and
trust that death is just an entrance into a whole
new life. That all the things that I've sort
of added up all the titles I've gained all of
the jobs I've done all of the blah blah blah
blah That I think earns me something all I need
to do is come to you knock Come to you and say
I'm a sinner and Jesus says let me give you new
life Resurrection hope is on offer for you just
come to Jesus Come to Jesus and knock and the
door will be opened to you. What do you make
of Christ? What do you make of the resurrection?
What do you make of it today? And what? What
if you gave yourself to following this Lord?
Coming to him and just saying, I'm a poor sinner
and I need you. What might it do to you? Let
me pray for us. Lord, we're thankful that Good
Friday is not the end. That this world that we
live in now that is so full of despair and death
and despondency and so many reasons for doubt,
Lord. So many reasons why we can see ourselves
right there next to Thomas going no way. So many
reasons why In the world that we live in, something
like resurrection hope, death not actually having
the final say seems impossible. But I pray that
we'd come to you this morning and just say, Lord,
I'm a sinner, give me belief. That we'd come
maybe like Thomas and desire to put our hands
into the, our fingers into your hands and into
your side and to hear Jesus say, don't disbelief,
but believe. And I pray that as we do that, Lord,
that we would become a resurrection people, that
we'd be people that press into the dark places
of life, that we press into the dark relationships
of our lives. We move out into the world with
a hope and a belief that you can do the impossible
and that you are with us. I hear this, Lord.
We lay these prayers before you. Transform us
by your resurrection power. In Jesus' holy name,
Amen.