WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.400 This is John's account of the resurrection, and we're just going to briefly look at two 00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:07.400 things this morning. 00:00:07.400 --> 00:00:13.919 We're going to look at the place of the resurrection first, and then the gardener of the resurrection. 00:00:13.919 --> 00:00:16.559 So first, the place of the resurrection. 00:00:16.559 --> 00:00:25.879 If you look down at verse 8, the other disciple who had reached the tomb is John, the writer 00:00:25.879 --> 00:00:27.080 of this gospel. 00:00:27.079 --> 00:00:33.519 And Peter and John had run out to the tomb on Sunday morning to see, and they got there, 00:00:33.519 --> 00:00:39.679 and John goes down, he stoopes down, he looks in, he sees the cloths folded up, and it says 00:00:39.679 --> 00:00:44.079 here in verse 8 that he believed. 00:00:44.079 --> 00:00:48.359 And he believed, and he and Peter left and went back to talk about what had happened 00:00:48.359 --> 00:00:50.399 to the other disciples. 00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:56.039 But Mary is left here in verse 11, weeping, standing there weeping outside the tomb. 00:00:56.039 --> 00:01:02.159 And the word, the original Greek word that underlies this English translation here, weeping, 00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:08.480 it's a deep guttural, gutt level type cry. 00:01:08.480 --> 00:01:14.280 It's not just a mere tear, it's she's weeping. 00:01:14.280 --> 00:01:19.439 And why is the question? 00:01:19.439 --> 00:01:22.319 And we don't get the answer exactly until verse 13. 00:01:22.319 --> 00:01:30.399 She had seven demons removed from her in Luke chapter 8, that's how she met Jesus. 00:01:30.399 --> 00:01:36.439 And she was also wealthy probably we think, she was a patron, she's called Mary Magdalene 00:01:36.439 --> 00:01:41.799 because she's from Magdala, which is a wealthier city and it's likely that she had helped 00:01:41.799 --> 00:01:44.560 feed the disciples while they were doing ministry. 00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:48.359 She was a patron, had traveled with Jesus, she had been there and seen almost the whole 00:01:48.359 --> 00:01:54.239 of his entire ministry and heard everything he had said, but now she's at the tomb and 00:01:54.239 --> 00:01:57.560 she's gutt, bowel level weeping. 00:01:57.560 --> 00:02:02.959 And she says why in verse 13, when the angels come, they ask her, why are you weeping? 00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:06.680 And she says to them, they've taken away my Lord and I do not know where they've put 00:02:06.680 --> 00:02:08.520 him. 00:02:08.520 --> 00:02:13.479 And what she means by that is that she thinks that Jesus' body has been stolen. 00:02:13.479 --> 00:02:15.719 She's talking about grave robbery. 00:02:15.719 --> 00:02:20.159 And grave robbery was a really big deal in the first century, it was really common. 00:02:20.159 --> 00:02:26.280 Ten years after the resurrection, the emperor Claudius, the emperor of Rome would pronounce 00:02:26.280 --> 00:02:31.400 that if you are caught as a grave robber, that's a capital offense, you would be killed 00:02:31.400 --> 00:02:32.400 for it. 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:35.079 So it's a really big deal, really common in the first century and that's what she thinks 00:02:35.079 --> 00:02:36.079 has happened. 00:02:36.079 --> 00:02:44.319 John and Peter see it and they believe it and Mary sees it and she says his body's stolen. 00:02:44.319 --> 00:02:50.439 And so we have an antithesis between two encounters with the resurrection. 00:02:50.439 --> 00:02:56.000 On the one hand they see and in faith they believe John remembered what Mary had said, 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:58.000 what Jesus had said. 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:02.519 The son of man must be lifted up and in three days he will rise again. 00:03:02.519 --> 00:03:06.159 John remembered and he believed it and Mary is left there. 00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:11.120 Even after having traveled with Jesus for three years, having seven demons removed from her, 00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:14.039 she thinks his body was stolen. 00:03:14.039 --> 00:03:19.719 And she's crying because it's deep dishonor to him, to his memory. 00:03:19.719 --> 00:03:27.120 And her response is a response that's been around the two responses since this moment, 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:33.840 the response of faith, of seeing and believing and the response that says his body was just 00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:37.319 stolen. 00:03:37.319 --> 00:03:42.840 This second response that Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, that his body was 00:03:42.840 --> 00:03:47.439 stolen from the tomb by grave robbers and that's what accounts for the tremendous growth 00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:50.400 of Christianity in the first century. 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:55.759 That's something that even came to be common in some church context in the 20th century 00:03:55.759 --> 00:03:56.759 even. 00:03:56.759 --> 00:04:03.719 I mean, one commentator puts it this way, having renounced physical resurrection as impossible, 00:04:03.719 --> 00:04:10.080 the resurrection has now become in the 20th century for many theologians something here 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:17.280 and now entering into a new dimension of existence, being set free from the past and from guilt 00:04:17.280 --> 00:04:21.400 and from care and being made open to one's fellow man. 00:04:21.400 --> 00:04:25.080 And in other words, what they're saying is even in theology, even in some churches, even 00:04:25.080 --> 00:04:31.319 in the academic view of the scriptures, there are many, even now, even today, even in the 00:04:31.319 --> 00:04:37.840 modern era that have said that the resurrection is not physical, it's the transformation of 00:04:37.839 --> 00:04:40.439 one's inner life. 00:04:40.439 --> 00:04:46.879 It's not physical and material, it's psychological, it's being resurrected from the inside out, 00:04:46.879 --> 00:04:49.560 it's being open to one's fellow man, right? 00:04:49.560 --> 00:04:53.120 It's something that merely happens on the inside and I just want to say in this first 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:57.799 point, the place of the resurrection very simply, that the main point of this passage 00:04:57.799 --> 00:05:02.639 is really clear and it comes out, you'll see it, the thrust of the whole passage which 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:07.279 is the thrust of the entire Bible as we saw just a second ago in the kids' talk, it comes 00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:14.319 out really clearly in verse nine, John stoopes down, he sees the cloths folded there, he 00:05:14.319 --> 00:05:21.719 believes in verse nine, but he did not yet understand the scripture that Jesus Christ 00:05:21.719 --> 00:05:26.399 must rise from the dead, that he must rise from the dead. 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:31.839 And what that's talking about is the Old Testament, that from the very beginning, the whole point 00:05:31.839 --> 00:05:37.239 has always been this moment, that Jesus Christ must rise from the dead, you can think of 00:05:37.240 --> 00:05:46.160 Psalm 16, Isaiah 53, Ezekiel 37, son of man, can these dry bones live again? 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:47.519 Can they be raised up? 00:05:47.519 --> 00:05:54.160 The whole point, it was always that the son of God, this man must rise from the dead, 00:05:54.160 --> 00:05:59.079 and the main point of the passage, just simply, the first point is this, without Jesus Christ, 00:05:59.079 --> 00:06:05.920 this man in the first century, walk out of the tomb in a human body physically resurrected 00:06:05.920 --> 00:06:14.080 from the dead, died and risen to life, without that Christianity is just a mere religion, 00:06:14.080 --> 00:06:19.280 is a mere religion just like anything else, just like anything else. 00:06:19.280 --> 00:06:25.680 And that's exactly Paul's point in 1 Corinthians 15, when he says, if Christ has not been 00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:31.759 raised from the dead, then my preaching is in vain, and not only that, but your faith 00:06:31.759 --> 00:06:38.120 is in vain, is futile, and you are not forgiven from your sins. 00:06:38.120 --> 00:06:42.319 And so the point, the whole point is that if this man did not physically, if the resurrection 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:48.879 isn't physical, then Christianity is meaningless, then we're not forgiven of our sins, it's 00:06:48.879 --> 00:06:53.159 the central point of history and the central thrust of the Bible, and the main point of 00:06:53.159 --> 00:06:58.120 this passage is that Jesus Christ must have risen from the dead. 00:06:58.120 --> 00:07:03.480 We put it at the beginning of the bulletin and Tim Keller has a nice quote asking this 00:07:03.480 --> 00:07:08.120 question that the first question for all of us is, did Jesus walk out of the grave in 00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:09.600 the first century? 00:07:09.600 --> 00:07:12.920 And that's the question that we all have to deal with, and we all have to face, and he 00:07:12.920 --> 00:07:20.439 says this, if Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept everything else he said. 00:07:20.439 --> 00:07:24.600 And if he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of the rest of it? 00:07:24.600 --> 00:07:28.000 If Jesus Christ didn't walk out of the grave on Sunday morning, then why worry about the 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:31.600 other questions and answers and difficulties of the Bible? 00:07:31.600 --> 00:07:35.480 You don't have to worry about any of the rest of it if he didn't walk out of the grave. 00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:40.720 The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching, but 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:44.720 whether or not he rose from the dead. 00:07:44.720 --> 00:07:52.000 And right after this event, there were 500 witnesses of his body alive. 00:07:52.000 --> 00:08:00.839 The message had changed even the Emperor of Rome's household within 20 years. 00:08:00.839 --> 00:08:06.560 The men who saw it, the women who saw it, they would give their life up as martyrs to 00:08:06.560 --> 00:08:11.879 proclaim the truth that this man did defeat death. 00:08:11.879 --> 00:08:16.759 They saw something worth giving their life for, and that's something that they saw, well, 00:08:16.759 --> 00:08:25.879 it's the hope that death, death is not the end for humanity, but there's hope of life. 00:08:25.879 --> 00:08:29.399 And it's in this man who walked out of the grave on Sunday morning. 00:08:29.399 --> 00:08:36.360 Secondly, and finally, the gardener of the resurrection. 00:08:36.360 --> 00:08:42.559 So we're just going to look at the second half of this passage for just a few more minutes. 00:08:42.559 --> 00:08:49.759 John, the theme, the motif of misunderstanding in the Gospel of John is really common, and 00:08:49.759 --> 00:08:51.199 it happens here again. 00:08:51.199 --> 00:08:56.039 You'll remember if you've ever read the Gospel of John, in John chapter 3, when Jesus says 00:08:56.039 --> 00:09:02.199 to Nicodemus, you've got to be born again, and Nicodemus says, what's an adult man to 00:09:02.199 --> 00:09:03.519 do? 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:05.639 How can he be born from his mother? 00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:07.879 Again, that makes no sense to him. 00:09:07.879 --> 00:09:08.879 It's misunderstanding, right? 00:09:08.879 --> 00:09:12.479 He doesn't get what Jesus is saying, and it's really common throughout the book of John 00:09:12.480 --> 00:09:15.120 and it happens again here. 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:24.080 And Mary, just like John, she sees the empty tomb, she sees the cloths, she knew what Jesus 00:09:24.080 --> 00:09:30.080 had taught, but she's left here in disbelief saying that his body was stolen. 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:33.879 And what happens is three questions. 00:09:33.879 --> 00:09:41.600 The angels show up and ask her the first question, woman, why are you weeping? 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:46.879 And this is a, it's harder to see in English, but this is a mild rebuke. 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:48.440 It's a rebuke, but it's pastoral. 00:09:48.440 --> 00:09:52.159 Woman, why are you weeping? 00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:58.399 And we know this because it intensifies, because then she sees the gardener in the next verse, 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:01.040 and he asks her the same two questions. 00:10:01.040 --> 00:10:04.360 Woman, why are you weeping? 00:10:04.360 --> 00:10:05.920 Whom is it that you seek? 00:10:05.920 --> 00:10:08.720 Whom are you seeking? 00:10:08.720 --> 00:10:14.440 And like misunderstanding, this idea of seeking is really common throughout the book of John 00:10:14.440 --> 00:10:16.519 as well. 00:10:16.519 --> 00:10:20.279 Jesus often uses the question, whom are you seeking? 00:10:20.279 --> 00:10:26.320 Several times in the book to confront people who are struggling or wrestling with his identity. 00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:28.600 In chapter one, he confronts these two disciples. 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:34.000 He sees these two disciples and he asks them the question, whom is it that you seek? 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:35.840 And then he says, come and follow me. 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:43.240 And then, more importantly, in chapter 18, before his death in the Garden of Gethsemane, 00:10:43.240 --> 00:10:50.960 prison guards, soldiers come to arrest him and he says to them, who is it that you're 00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:53.200 seeking? 00:10:53.200 --> 00:10:57.320 And they say, Jesus, the Christ. 00:10:57.320 --> 00:11:00.480 And he says, I am. 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:03.120 And they fall down on their faces in worship. 00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:06.840 And he has to tell the prison guards that have come to arrest him to get up off the ground 00:11:06.840 --> 00:11:10.639 and do their duty and take him in. 00:11:10.639 --> 00:11:12.480 And he had asked them the question, whom are you seeking? 00:11:12.480 --> 00:11:15.560 And as soon as they hear his voice, they're forced to do nothing else but fall on their 00:11:15.560 --> 00:11:20.080 face in worship, you see. 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:22.399 They couldn't see him for who he really is. 00:11:22.399 --> 00:11:26.679 And here, Mary, this is a comedy. 00:11:26.679 --> 00:11:31.680 John is saying, the resurrected son of God is standing right in front of her and it says 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:37.319 that she thinks he's the gardener, the one who takes care of the plots where he's buried. 00:11:37.319 --> 00:11:39.559 She supposes him to be the gardener. 00:11:39.559 --> 00:11:45.559 She had seven demons removed by this man and she had followed him, his whole ministry, 00:11:45.559 --> 00:11:49.399 for three years and listened to everything he said and heard him talk about what he 00:11:49.399 --> 00:11:50.639 must do. 00:11:50.639 --> 00:11:58.319 And she finally sees him, risen from the whole point and she thinks that he's the gardener. 00:11:58.319 --> 00:12:00.879 She can't see. 00:12:00.879 --> 00:12:04.240 She can't see who he is. 00:12:04.240 --> 00:12:12.840 In John's point, it's impossible to see the resurrection. 00:12:12.840 --> 00:12:19.360 It's impossible to see this man for who he really is with frail human eyes. 00:12:19.360 --> 00:12:21.519 Nobody can see. 00:12:21.519 --> 00:12:24.080 Mary couldn't see. 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:28.600 The Bible teaches us that human sight is too frail. 00:12:28.600 --> 00:12:34.320 It's impossible with our sinful eyes to see who this man really is, even when he's standing 00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:37.840 right in front of us. 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:43.840 In other words, John Calvin puts it this way, all of us humans live in a world to which 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:51.279 our minds are blind and where our hearts do not trust the truth. 00:12:51.279 --> 00:12:57.600 In the face of death, we humans live not in reality, but in unreality. 00:12:57.600 --> 00:13:02.120 In other words, Calvin is saying that because of sin and because of the fact that we all 00:13:02.120 --> 00:13:05.600 face death, that we see death as the true end of humanity. 00:13:05.600 --> 00:13:07.840 That's the only thing standing out in front of us. 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:08.840 We feel it. 00:13:08.840 --> 00:13:09.840 We know it. 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:10.840 It comes up from our bones. 00:13:10.840 --> 00:13:13.360 We can feel it even now. 00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:17.639 We see death as reality, as truth, as what's really standing in front of us. 00:13:17.639 --> 00:13:20.240 And that's exactly what Mary was blinded by in this passage. 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:26.360 She's living in unreality and the unreality that supposes that death is the true end 00:13:26.360 --> 00:13:28.320 of this world. 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:29.440 She can't see the truth. 00:13:29.440 --> 00:13:32.759 She can't see the life that is standing right in front of her. 00:13:32.759 --> 00:13:36.120 She's blind to it. 00:13:36.120 --> 00:13:45.240 In John chapter one, Jesus Christ, this man, John says, is the logos, the word of power, 00:13:45.240 --> 00:13:50.159 the one by whom the world came into being. 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:54.560 The one through whom God, the Father, created the entire world. 00:13:54.559 --> 00:14:02.039 And in Colossians, we learn that he is the one who speaks at every moment and the world 00:14:02.039 --> 00:14:07.399 is upheld by the word of his power. 00:14:07.399 --> 00:14:09.159 This is the Creator of God, this man. 00:14:09.159 --> 00:14:11.279 And that's what the Bible says. 00:14:11.279 --> 00:14:16.599 And it's his voice, his speech that upholds the world at every single moment from its 00:14:16.599 --> 00:14:21.119 very foundations at every single moment. 00:14:21.119 --> 00:14:24.399 And it was his speech, his speech, his voice. 00:14:24.399 --> 00:14:30.079 That when the prison guards, the soldiers came and said, we're here to take away you, 00:14:30.079 --> 00:14:36.600 the criminal, to take you and kill you, it was simply him saying, I am. 00:14:36.600 --> 00:14:38.319 That changed their entire being. 00:14:38.319 --> 00:14:43.679 They were forced down onto the ground to worship him, the one that they came to kill, to murder. 00:14:43.679 --> 00:14:45.399 It's his voice. 00:14:45.399 --> 00:14:46.679 That's it. 00:14:46.679 --> 00:14:51.559 The power of the word, the logos himself, who upholds the foundations of the earth at 00:14:51.559 --> 00:14:55.759 all moments, he speaks. 00:14:55.759 --> 00:15:00.239 And here we see that Mary is completely blind. 00:15:00.239 --> 00:15:03.359 She can't see who he truly is. 00:15:03.359 --> 00:15:07.799 She was there in John chapter 10. 00:15:07.799 --> 00:15:12.199 She was sitting at his feet when he was teaching in John chapter 10. 00:15:12.199 --> 00:15:18.799 And in John chapter 10, he taught her and the rest of his disciples, he said, my sheep, 00:15:18.799 --> 00:15:24.719 hear my voice, and they come to me when I call them. 00:15:24.719 --> 00:15:28.319 My sheep, my sheep, I say their name. 00:15:28.319 --> 00:15:34.079 They hear my voice, and when I call to them, they come to me. 00:15:34.079 --> 00:15:41.719 And in the midst of complete blindness and unbelief, Mary accusing the resurrected Savior 00:15:41.719 --> 00:15:45.439 right in front of her face of being dead. 00:15:45.439 --> 00:15:47.959 He does one thing. 00:15:47.960 --> 00:15:48.960 That's one. 00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:51.480 Did you see it? 00:15:51.480 --> 00:16:02.480 Verse 16, he looks up at her and he says, Mary, he just says her name. 00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:04.280 And that's it. 00:16:04.280 --> 00:16:06.519 She wakes up. 00:16:06.519 --> 00:16:08.519 Unbelief gone. 00:16:08.519 --> 00:16:11.120 The scales taken off of her eyes. 00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:13.440 Her heart opened. 00:16:13.440 --> 00:16:17.600 He just, my sheep, hear my voice. 00:16:17.600 --> 00:16:21.639 And when I call their name, they come to me. 00:16:21.639 --> 00:16:27.159 Mary, Mary. 00:16:27.159 --> 00:16:33.120 The incarnation, Jesus Christ, the God-man, come into the world. 00:16:33.120 --> 00:16:36.680 Is light come into darkness? 00:16:36.680 --> 00:16:41.480 When Jesus Christ became a human being and came into this world, he pronounced, God pronounced 00:16:41.480 --> 00:16:51.800 us that the world is not what it should be, that we are not what we should be. 00:16:51.800 --> 00:17:00.680 And at the resurrection, God looks up at us and says, your name here, I will not leave 00:17:00.680 --> 00:17:02.639 it so. 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:07.880 I will not let you remain in this domain of death. 00:17:07.880 --> 00:17:12.520 I will come and I will rescue you and I will lift you up. 00:17:12.520 --> 00:17:13.760 He will not have it so. 00:17:13.760 --> 00:17:16.520 He would not have it so. 00:17:16.520 --> 00:17:22.120 And so he pronounces the unreality that all of us live in, the domain of death, into a 00:17:22.120 --> 00:17:24.680 domain of life and light. 00:17:24.680 --> 00:17:30.600 And he does it by just saying your name, you see. 00:17:30.600 --> 00:17:37.200 So look up at the gardener, the gardener of the resurrection. 00:17:37.200 --> 00:17:40.600 And he will say your name. 00:17:40.600 --> 00:17:46.360 And the end of your life will not be death but life. 00:17:46.360 --> 00:17:49.000 That's the promise. 00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:52.160 Now let me just close with this. 00:17:52.160 --> 00:18:00.160 When Mary saw the gardener on that Sunday morning, she was only half wrong. 00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:02.840 She was only half wrong. 00:18:02.839 --> 00:18:07.359 You know, Old Testament scholars, if you've paid attention to the book of Genesis, you 00:18:07.359 --> 00:18:12.279 know that from the very beginning, Genesis 1 and 2, when God creates the world, that 00:18:12.279 --> 00:18:21.559 he creates a garden and that he looks a lot like a gardener in Genesis 1 and 2, he cultivates, 00:18:21.559 --> 00:18:27.679 he raises up the plants from the ground, he creates humanity out of the dust of the earth, 00:18:27.679 --> 00:18:31.000 cultivating them just like we cultivate our plants today. 00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:35.640 He looks like the gardener, we learned from John 1 already, that this man, Jesus Christ, 00:18:35.640 --> 00:18:40.039 is that God that was there at the very beginning. 00:18:40.039 --> 00:18:42.160 She wasn't wrong. 00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:48.480 He was the gardener, the first gardener, the gardener of creation that cultivated the world 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:50.039 into being. 00:18:50.039 --> 00:18:53.880 If you look and read about the temple that God commanded to be constructed in the Old 00:18:53.880 --> 00:18:58.279 Testament, you'll know that the temple was decorated in the form of a garden, that all 00:18:58.279 --> 00:19:04.079 the pillars had flowers and trees engraving onto them, that even the furniture in the 00:19:04.079 --> 00:19:06.519 temple was to look like a garden. 00:19:06.519 --> 00:19:09.799 The candles looked like living trees, for example. 00:19:09.799 --> 00:19:10.799 Why? 00:19:10.799 --> 00:19:17.200 Because God has always come down to this earth and made his home on this planet in a garden. 00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:23.960 He's always done that, from the Garden of Eden to the temple to the final city of God 00:19:23.960 --> 00:19:31.440 in Revelation, which looks like a garden, a tree in the middle with a river. 00:19:31.440 --> 00:19:38.600 But in the middle of that, at the crucifixion, the day after he was betrayed at Gethsemane, 00:19:38.600 --> 00:19:45.039 John is the only gospel writer who mentions the fact that when Jesus was being crucified, 00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:51.559 they nailed him up on a tree just outside of a garden. 00:19:51.559 --> 00:19:56.960 John just passes by that in his account of the crucifixion, that it was just outside 00:19:56.960 --> 00:20:02.359 of a garden plot that Jesus Christ was crucified. 00:20:02.359 --> 00:20:03.599 Why? 00:20:03.599 --> 00:20:08.039 Why do you think he mentions it? 00:20:08.039 --> 00:20:15.960 When the first Adam sinned and sin entered the world, humanity was excluded from the 00:20:15.960 --> 00:20:19.240 Garden of God. 00:20:19.240 --> 00:20:21.519 The place of his presence. 00:20:21.519 --> 00:20:28.440 When Jesus Christ the second Adam came into this world, he chose at the crucifixion to 00:20:28.440 --> 00:20:35.519 be excluded from the Garden of God so that we might be embraced. 00:20:35.519 --> 00:20:39.319 And that's exactly what happens in this passage at the very end. 00:20:39.319 --> 00:20:44.319 The only thing that Mary can do when she sees the gardener of the true garden, the gates 00:20:44.319 --> 00:20:48.079 of the garden opened back up into the Garden of Eden for her. 00:20:48.079 --> 00:20:53.199 She hugs him from exclusion to embrace. 00:20:53.199 --> 00:20:55.679 She hugs him. 00:20:55.679 --> 00:21:02.399 And that hug is God's pronouncement to all of us that in the resurrection he loves you 00:21:02.399 --> 00:21:09.359 and he wants to hug you physically because he's resurrected and he's a human being. 00:21:09.359 --> 00:21:14.159 He wants to hug you and that's what he will do in the coming resurrection and the end 00:21:14.159 --> 00:21:15.159 of history. 00:21:15.159 --> 00:21:16.159 He will hug you. 00:21:16.160 --> 00:21:19.880 But he says here, just to close, don't cling to me. 00:21:19.880 --> 00:21:22.000 My work is not done. 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:25.120 I am going up to my father to complete this task. 00:21:25.120 --> 00:21:28.680 This is the beginning of the resurrection power but it is not the end. 00:21:28.680 --> 00:21:34.759 He continues to work and that means that this resurrection is God's act of affirming the 00:21:34.759 --> 00:21:38.440 created order, the physical created order that we live in and he's saying I'm going 00:21:38.440 --> 00:21:41.320 up and I'm not finished redeeming it. 00:21:41.319 --> 00:21:49.399 Calling my people, calling the church, renewing the creation and that means just simply this, 00:21:49.399 --> 00:21:53.480 that he's leaving us with an invitation here. 00:21:53.480 --> 00:21:59.839 It's an invitation for you to see the resurrection as a reality, to see it as the ordering point 00:21:59.839 --> 00:22:09.439 of all of history, to see that resurrection is your hope, not death. 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:15.519 And to embrace, come under, submit, obey the life of resurrection even now. 00:22:15.519 --> 00:22:17.720 And what's the life of resurrection? 00:22:17.720 --> 00:22:19.000 It's resurrecting your heart. 00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:21.320 It's killing sin. 00:22:21.320 --> 00:22:23.799 It's seeing yourself in the light of the mission of God. 00:22:23.799 --> 00:22:27.759 It's moving from self-centeredness to self-forgetfulness. 00:22:27.759 --> 00:22:33.920 These are all little moments of prophecy of what the resurrection life will be. 00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:37.880 And this is an invitation even now, even in a physical resurrection you don't yet see 00:22:37.880 --> 00:22:41.920 to live a life of resurrection, to be resurrected from the dead. 00:22:41.920 --> 00:22:50.120 In your heart now, looking forward to physical resurrection in the future, the angels, the 00:22:50.120 --> 00:22:54.400 angels, the angels, they beckon you now. 00:22:54.400 --> 00:22:59.920 The angels in the garden here, they beckon you. 00:22:59.920 --> 00:23:06.320 At the beginning of time when Adam and Eve sinned, the angels took flaming swords and 00:23:06.319 --> 00:23:12.519 they guarded the gate to the Garden of Eden so that none might enter, no human might enter. 00:23:12.519 --> 00:23:17.480 But in this second garden in the middle of history, the angels are beckoning you, come 00:23:17.480 --> 00:23:27.240 in, stoop down, look inside the tomb, see the cloth where he lay. 00:23:27.240 --> 00:23:29.319 Come and see. 00:23:29.319 --> 00:23:34.679 The garden does not closed off to you any longer. 00:23:34.680 --> 00:23:40.120 Death has died, death has died in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:23:40.120 --> 00:23:47.640 And that's an invitation to faith, to hope, and to love. 00:23:47.640 --> 00:23:49.279 Let's pray. 00:23:49.279 --> 00:23:56.240 Father, we ask, Lord, that you would give us eyes to see, that you would give us hope, 00:23:56.240 --> 00:24:09.120 and something more than 80, 90, 100 years, that we would know that there is an ultimate 00:24:09.120 --> 00:24:12.440 death of death in the death of Christ. 00:24:12.440 --> 00:24:14.799 Give some of us faith for the first time today. 00:24:14.799 --> 00:24:17.920 Give some of us renewed faith and change. 00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:21.960 We ask now, do it by the power of your Holy Spirit in Christ's name. 00:24:21.960 --> 00:24:28.960 Amen.