"These Things Were Written" -- John 20:30-21:14

The Sixty-Third in a Series of Sermons on the Gospel of John

Jesus was not only alive three days after being crucified, but he was now appearing to his disciples.  And he was appearing to them in a resurrected body which was transformed into an imperishable body, no longer subject to human frailty, or even death.  In allowing his disciples to see his wounds, then appearing to them in the Galilee, and then eating a meal with them, Jesus offered his disciples compelling proof that he had indeed done as he said he would do–conquer death and the grave and accomplish the salvation of all those given to him by the Father.  As a new era in redemptive history dawns, Jesus is now equipping his disciples for that mission of which he had been speaking, and which will begin in a matter of weeks at Pentecost–to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

As we near the end of our series on the Gospel John, we move into the epilogue of the gospel in which John recounts some of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus.  Jesus has already appeared to Mary Magdalene, and to a number of the other women devoted to Jesus from the early days of his ministry.  Jesus also appeared to Cleopas and an unnamed disciple as they traveled along the road to the village of Emmaus.  Then Jesus appeared to Peter (although the details of this encounter are not revealed).  Finally, Jesus appeared to a number of his disciples who had gathered together on the evening of the first day of the week (Easter) to recount how Jesus had appeared to many of their number and, no doubt, to share their collective joy and to discuss what all of this might mean.

With the doors locked for fear of the Jews–who were already spreading the rumor that the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body–Jesus suddenly appeared (he “materialized”) in their midst and pronounced his word of “Shalom” (his word of “peace” and forgiveness) upon his disciples.  No doubt, the disciples were overjoyed.  They had seen the empty tomb and the grave clothes, and yet Jesus’ body was nowhere to be found.  They heard the testimony of the women that angels had appeared to them, and told them that Jesus is risen from the dead.  The angels instructed the women to go and tell the disciples what the angels had told them.  The empty tomb, the grave clothes, and the testimony of the woman was good as far as it goes.  When Jesus appears among them that Easter evening, whatever doubts any among them were still harboring now became the certainty of sight.

Except for Thomas, one of the twelve, who will not believe until Jesus himself appears to Thomas and confirms that he is risen from the dead.  According to John 20:25, Thomas tells the other disciples that “unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”  As we saw last time, Jesus graciously grants Thomas’ request.  “Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them.  Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, `Peace be with you.’  Then [Jesus] said to Thomas, `Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side.  Do not disbelieve, but believe.’  Thomas answered him, `My Lord and my God!’”  Thomas’ confession is truly remarkable–perhaps, the clearest declaration of the deity of Jesus found in all the Bible.  Thomas sees that Jesus is truly alive and makes the immediate and proper connection to the fact that a risen Jesus, must be God in human flesh.  Even more remarkable, perhaps, is that Jesus accepts his confession.

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This Week at Christ Reformed Church (January 18-24)

Sunday Morning, January 24:  We are continuing with our new series on the Book of Daniel.  We are considering the great pressure put upon Daniel and his three friends by Nebuchanezzar to embrace Babylonian religion.  Our worship service begins at 10:30 a.m.

Sunday Afternoon:  We are in Lord's Day 7 of our study of the Heidelberg Catechism, and discussing the nature of faith (Q & A 20-23).  Our catechism service begins @ 1:15 p.m.

Wednesday Night Bible Study, January 20:  We doing an overview of the eschatology of Paul's two Thessalonian letters.  Our study begins at 7:30 p.m.

The Friday Night Academy: January 22:  The Academy resumes this week as we return to our series on the two kingdoms.  We will discuss the church's prophetic role in the midst of the civil kingdom.  The lecture begins at 7:30 p.m.

For more information on Christ Reformed Church you can always find us here (Christ Reformed Info), or on Facebook (Christ Reformed on Facebook).

"Bring Some of the People of Israel" -- Daniel 1:1-7

Here's the audio from this morning's sermon, the first in a series of sermons on the Book of Daniel

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Update on Monday, January 18, 2016 at 07:33AM by Kim Riddlebarger

These were taken from:  Andrew E. Steinmann, Daniel, Concordia Commentary (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2008).

This Week's White Horse Inn

Creation, Fall, & Redemption (Part 2)

On this program the hosts continue their series titled, The Story of God’s People. We are taking a look at the great characters and moments of redemptive history. In the book of Genesis man is created from the dust, and after the fall he is cursed with death and returns back to the dust from which he came. Yet is this the end of man? Is he forever doomed to live in the dust?

If you trace this theme through Scripture, you will discover that the Messiah himself was to be “laid in the dust of death” (Ps. 22:15), so that we could be raised to eternal life in him. In this program the hosts continue to unpack the themes found in the early chapters of Genesis as they continue their series, The Story of God’s People. Join us for this exciting episode of the White Horse Inn.

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"Peace Be With You" -- John 20:11-29

The Sixty-Second in a Series of Sermons on the Gospel of John

After studying Jesus’ messianic mission for many weeks, we now come to an entirely new phase of Jesus’ ministry–his post-resurrection appearances.  In the remaining verses in John’s Gospel, it becomes clear that the fundamental nature of redemptive history has been completely transformed.  Now that Jesus is risen bodily from the dead, and begins appearing to his disciples, we are given our first glimpse of the extent of Jesus’ victory over sin, death, and the grave.  His victory over our greatest foe is complete and total–even if not finally consummated until the end of the age when Jesus returns to judge the world, raised the dead, and make all things new.  Jesus’ bodily resurrection changes everything.

In this new phase of Jesus’ ministry, the humiliation of Jesus–extending from his incarnation until the moment of his death–gives way to his exaltation.  When the eternal Word took to himself a true human nature, Jesus gave up the glory which he possessed with the Father and the Holy Spirit before the creation of all things.  Jesus was rejected by his people (Israel) and abandoned by his disciples.  After his resurrection from the dead, the number of those following him (exercising true faith in Jesus) grows exponentially.  Jesus’ role as the suffering servant foretold by Isaiah gives way to his identity as Risen Lord.  Although he veiled his glory with human flesh in his incarnation, after the resurrection, Jesus’ human nature has been glorified.  The body he now possesses reveals to us the kind of body we will possess after the resurrection on the last day.  So, although John’s Gospel is quickly coming to an end (as is our time in John–two more sermons after this one), there is obviously much of interest to us.

When John’s account of Jesus’ passion began in chapter 18, with Jesus’ arrest, it became clear that although Jesus is without sin, he is truly human, and therefore subject to all manner of human weakness–including death.  His flesh tears when whipped, nails can be driven through his feet and wrists, he suffers terrible thirst and struggles to breathe, and then dies.  Recall that in the Upper Room Discourse (John 13-17), Jesus told his disciples that he was leaving them, and that it was actually to their advantage that he go away because he will then be able send to them the Holy Spirit (the comforter) and that he would go to prepare a place for them.  These promises were difficult for the disciples to accept because they did not yet have the categories they will need to make sense of Jesus’ instructions to them.  After Jesus rises from the dead, all that changes, as the weaknesses of human nature gives way to the transformation of human nature in the resurrection.  
    
When we left off last time (the first ten verses of John 20) with Mary Magdalene discovering that the stone sealing Jesus’ tomb was rolled away, and that Jesus’ tomb was empty, she then ran back to tell Peter and John that someone had taken the Lord’s body.  The two disciples hurried to the tomb to see for themselves what had happened.  It was just as Mary had said.  Jesus’ grave cloths were left behind, the head cloth had been neatly folded, but Jesus’ body was nowhere to be found.  John tells us that when he saw the tomb empty and the grave cloths, at that moment he believed that Jesus had risen from the dead.  Peter, we are told by Luke, marveled at what he saw, and he and John returned their homes not knowing what to expect, or what would come next.  

All of this indicates to the reader of John’s Gospel that it is not until Easter and the discovery of the empty tomb, that the things Jesus told them during the Upper Room Discourse make sense, specifically his departure so as to go and prepare a place for them, and the promise that he will send the Holy Spirit.  What follows, then, with the post-resurrection appearances by Jesus, is the realization of the promises he made earlier in his ministry–as when he first cleansed the temple three years earlier, and again in the Upper Room Discourse just days before.  Now that Jesus has risen from the dead, his earlier statements start to make sense as Jesus appears to several of his disciples.

To read the rest of this sermon, Click Here

This Week at Christ Reformed Church (January 11-17)

Sunday Morning, January 17:  We begin our series on the Book of Daniel by looking at who Daniel was and then consider why his prophecy is so remarkable.  Our worship service begins at 10:30 a.m.

Sunday Afternoon:  We are continuing to work through the Heidelberg Catechism.  This Lord's Day (7) we are discussing the nature of faith (Q & A 20-21).  Our catechism service begins @ 1:15 p.m.

Wednesday Night Bible Study, January 13:  We take up Paul's two Thessalonian letters--very important and sadly often overlooked.

The Academy:  Resumes on Friday, January 22, 7:30 p.m. as we return to our series on the two kingdoms.  This lecture will discuss the Church's prophetic role in the midst of the civil kingdom.

For More Information on Christ Reformed Church you can always find us here (Christ Reformed Info), or on Facebook (Christ Reformed on Facebook).

"The Sign of the Son of Man" -- Matthew 24:29-44

Here's the audio from this morning's sermon on the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24) in preparation for our series on Daniel

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This Week's White Horse Inn

Creation, Fall, & Redemption

On this program the hosts begin a new series titled, The Story of God’s People. We will be taking a look at the great characters and moments of redemptive history. What do they mean for us today? How are we to make sense of the overarching themes and characters presented to us? Do they have any relationship to the church today?

As we look at the major strands and figures throughout the Scriptures, we will seek to show how these themes develop and how they are ultimately resolved in Christ. In this first program, we will explore the themes of creation, fall, and redemption as they appear in the opening chapters of the book of Genesis. Join us for this exciting new series from the White Horse Inn.

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"He Must Rise from the Dead" -- John 20:1-10

The Sixty-First in a Series of Sermons on the Gospel of John

Easter Sunday is a day of joy and celebration for Christians because it is on this day we celebrate Jesus’ victory over death and the grave.  The very fact that God raised Jesus bodily from the dead means that Jesus’ has accomplished our salvation by satisfying the holy justice of God, paying the debt which we owe to God, and washing away the guilt of our sins.  The fact of the empty tomb also means that Jesus has overturned the curse, and Easter marks the birthday of a new creation.  The empty tomb, the eyewitnesses, and the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy provide the content of Christian preaching and serve as the foundation of Christian truth claim.  No resurrection, no Christianity.  In his Gospel, John has told of Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion.  When we left off last time, John described how Jesus was hurriedly buried before sundown on Friday (Passover).  John now tells us that when he entered Jesus’ empty tomb and saw the grave clothes left behind, it was at that moment he believed that his Lord had risen from the dead.

We have spent sixty Sundays so far in the Gospel of John, and in the providence of God, it just so happens that the Sunday on which we come to John 20 (and John’s account of the resurrection) is also Easter Sunday.  The bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the great climax of John’s Gospel, as well as the foundation of the Christian faith, which stands or falls with the resurrection.  To put the matter as simply as possible, if Jesus bodily rose again from the dead that first Easter as recounted by John (and the other gospel writers), then Christianity is true even if no one believes it.  And if Jesus did not rise again from the dead on Easter then Christianity cannot be true, even if the entire population of the world believes it.  If Christianity ends with the events of Good Friday and a dead Messiah, then we are still in our sins, and we have believed a lie.  That is how important the resurrection is to Christianity.

Thankfully, God has given us good reason to believe in the resurrection of Jesus.  First, there is the fact of the empty tomb.  Second, there are the reports of numerous eyewitnesses who saw Jesus quite alive three days after he died on a Roman cross.  Third, the resurrection is the fulfillment of a number of Old Testament prophecies which predicted this very thing hundreds of years in advance, in addition to the prediction of Jesus.  We have good and solid reasons to believe that Jesus rose bodily from the dead.  

As recounted in the second chapter of John’s Gospel, shortly after he began his public ministry, and when he cleansed the Jerusalem temple the first time, Jesus told his disciples as well as the angry Jewish religious leaders that he would indeed rise again from the dead.  When the Jews demanded that Jesus perform a miraculous sign to prove that he was who he claimed to be, John recounts that “the Jews said to him, `What sign do you show us for doing these things?’  Jesus answered them, `Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’  The Jews then said, `It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’  But he was speaking about the temple of his body.  When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.’”  Jesus made this prediction three years earlier, and now with his crucified body buried and sealed in a tomb just outside the city of Jerusalem, the time has come when the disciples will remember what Jesus said to them in the opening days of his messianic mission.  Jesus has kept his promise.

To read the rest of this sermon, Click Here

This Week at Christ Reformed Church (January 4-10)

Sunday Morning, January 10:  Before we begin a new series on the Book of Daniel, we continue with background.  This Lord's Day we will continue our look at Jesus' appeals to the prophecy of Daniel in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24).  Our worship service begins at 10:30 a.m.

Sunday Afternoon:  I am continuing with my series on the Heidelberg Catechism.  This Lord's Day we are considering the promise of the gospel as it unfolds in Scripture (Q & A 16-19).  Our catechism service begins @ 1:15 p.m.

Wednesday Night Bible Study:  Resumes on January 13, 2016, Lord willing, as we take up Paul's two Thessalonian letters

The Academy:  Resumes on Friday, January 22, 7:30 p.m. as we return to our series on the two kingdoms.  This lecture will discuss the Church's prophetic role in the midst of the civil kingdom.

For More Information on Christ Reformed Church you can always find us here (Christ Reformed Info), or on Facebook (Christ Reformed on Facebook).