All posts tagged resurrection

In the Church – Sermon Manuscript

-We’re in our last week looking at the Nicene Creed! We’ve broken it down into the 3 persons of the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, this week we’ll be looking at the institution that represents that Trinity today: the church.

-And once again, I found another bad creed for us to look at, from an organization that claims to represent all “progressive Christians”

-“Inherently evolving and always progressing” how does that relate to Jude 3-4? A faith that was “once for all” delivered to the saints? Should Christianity always be evolving? No! That’s the amazing thing about it, it’s true forever. Now it can be applied differently depending on the context, but Christianity itself will never change!

-Is Jesus THE Way, truth, and life, or not? 

  1. One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic

-These 4 words have often become referred to as the 4 characteristics of the church, and I think we need all of them together because each new generation needs different reminders. We also need to be careful not to project current issues onto what the early church meant here. When we read “one” today, we tend to kind of chuckle to ourselves because of the abundance of denominations we have today. I found 1 article online that said there are over 50,000 “Christian” denominations around the world, and we’ll look at that in a minute, but think of what these 4 words together mean: it distinguishes them all from the different heretical sects that were popping up all over (one of which was Arius). And each one of these are brought up throughout the Bible as something Christians should be pursuing together. So let’s take each one in turn!

-What does it mean that the church is one? This signifies the unity that’s supposed to be true of Christ’s church, and this is literally something that Jesus prayed for during His last night on earth. Look at what He prays in John 17:

-First of all, I’m going to point this out every time we read this text, but I think it’s just amazing that Jesus prays for us. He’s facing His death and He takes the time to pray for anyone who will believe in Him. Another way of saying that is He’s praying for the church throughout all history. But look at what He prays for: that they would be one. He says it 3 different times!

-And look at the outworking of this: so that the world would know that Jesus was sent and that we’re loved by Jesus. But how can we confess that the church is one when there’s so many different churches that look & act differently from each other? And I want to propose potentially a different way of thinking through the unity of the church. There are 2 things we need to think through in relation to this: first we need a way of defining what actually is a church because it’s more than just meeting together (JW and Mormons meet together, and as I shared in the 1 sermon in this series, they also claim to be Christians. We’ll look at that more when we get to baptism). But secondly, what if, instead of being inconsistent with the differences between church and denominations, those are actually markers of unity?

-One of the biggest questions philosophers wrestle with is the connection between groups and individuals. How can there be unity & diversity at the same time? And I think it’s getting us back to the Trinity! The creation is pointing to the Creator who is united as 1 God who exists as 3 persons. So what if the different true churches are representative of the eternal God who can’t be contained by any 1 church or denomination? A couple things that might help illustrate this for you: how many families do we have represented in this room? Quite a few! Does every family look and act exactly the same? Nope! Even though we spend time together, even though we worship the same God, there’s variety in these families, just like there’s variety in church families. If that doesn’t help, think of all the various sandwich shops we have, kids, I need your help to list some of them! Subway, Jimmy Johns, Jersey Mikes, Erberts & Gerbets, and because I’m from Northfield, Hogan Bros. Every one of those places is taking basically the same ingredients (some places have better ingredients than others), and putting them into a similar vehicle for calorie delivery to your mouth, right? So again, we have unity and diversity in the way these sandwiches are compiled. It’s similar in the church, where each local expression of the church will do some things better than others, but together we better represent the unity and diversity in the Godhead. With that in mind, I want to look at one more passage:

-Paul also talks about this in Eph. 4 where he has a running list of “ones.” He calls the church a body, and it’s hard for one body to be divided, isn’t it? So while I do believe that the various expressions of church help us represent God, there is still the call for us to pursue unity and work to break down some of the divides that we see between true churches around us (true is important there).

-What does it mean that the church is holy? This is a way of saying the church is set apart, sacred, unique, but this marker also signifies that we’re supposed to represent God. Peter talks about this in 1 Peter (quoting a few passages from Lev.)

-And notice how Peter begins this section: children. We’re operating under the assumption that we’re brought in as adopted children of God, which changes the focus of this holiness. It’s not pursuing holiness as a way to earn God’s recognition or to get Him to like you, it’s pursuing holiness because you know that He loves you and desires your flourishing. And because you know that God wants the best for you, it means obeying the things He’s told us to do.

-As I brought up earlier, we know that each family has “traits” that set them apart from other families, you all have told me how much my kids look alike, and there’s literally nothing they can do about it! But there’s also certain habits or patterns that my kids pick up that I can do something about. The foods we eat, the games we play, the inside jokes we have, and that’s also meant to be true in the church! When the world looks at the true church, they’re supposed to see God represented in us and through us, which means holiness should be a family trait they see!

-What does it mean that the church is catholic? This word “catholic” is taking from word that means “universal,” NOT referring to the Roman Catholic Church (notice that the word is lower case when I didn’t capitalize it, meaning it’s not a proper noun). And we see this in Jesus’s last words in Matt. The church is supposed to have disciples in all nations!

-Each church I’ve been at I’ve introduced reciting various historical creeds, confessions, or catechisms (like we do here) and each time I’ve had someone get upset with me when they’re first introduced because we’re Protestants and not Catholics! Unfortunately, there has been a tendency to conflate church history with Roman Catholic, and that’s not a helpful way to view church history. Gavin Ortlund has done some fantastic YT videos from a particularly Baptist perspective on church history, if you want to learn more about church history from a Protestant and baptistic perspective, watch him!

-All that to say, when we confess that we’re a part of the catholic church, we’re saying that we trace our heritage all the way back to Jesus! It’s confessing that we’re a part of the global church today, connected to the historic church of the past, and will remain a part of the church into eternity!

-What does it mean that the church is apostolic? Just as I said, we’re tracing our beliefs back to Jesus, and His first apostles. Look at what Jesus said to Peter in Matt. 16

-We’ve looked at this other times, the rock that the church is being built on is Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, it’s not being built on Peter being the first Pope (which is why Jesus 3 verses later changes Peter’s nickname to Satan!)

-But do you see the authority that Jesus is giving to the church? The binding and loosing is in terms of recognizing and affirming the salvation of the future disciples. That’s an unbelievably weighty task! Now I want to be careful about this because I know your ears may have just pricked up: isn’t salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone? Yes, but the moment you’re saved you’re brought into a family that recognizes and affirms that you’re a part of this family.

-One of the early church fathers, writing in the 3rd century (so before the Nicene Creed) wrote an entire book titled “On the Unity of the Catholic Church” (again, catholic meaning universal). In that book, he stated the importance of the church this way: but then he went even further and also said: Once again, we need to caveat this a bit because Roman Catholics have taken this the wrong way to say that outside the church they’ve created there’s no salvation, what Cyprian is pointing to is the reality that God’s representatives on earth right now are found in the church. Think back to the great commission that we read earlier in Matt. 28, who is that charge given to? It’s not given to individuals, the command is given in the plural, saying YOU ALL TOGETHER go and make disciples.

-Jesus founded the church as His earthly representation in this time between His comings and for us to follow after Jesus, we must be a part of the church, and since I talk about it so much, this is another one of the reasons I emphasize membership so much. Membership is a modern day response attempting to live out what Jesus has commanded because every human relationship requires a commitment on the part of both parties involved.

  • Markers of the Church

-This only talks about baptism, not the Lord’s Supper, but we believe those are the 2 markers that help us get at what a true church is (our denomination SOF says it this way). Before we look at those, though, one of the common critiques from Protestants to this creed is the forgiveness of sins (which I just mentioned comes only through faith in Jesus), so is this Creed saying that baptism is required for salvation? This is picking up on Peter’s words at Pentecost in Acts 2:

-Do you see the way repentance and baptism are intertwined? Baptism is meant to serve as a marker of the entry point of faith. Baptism is often the first step of obedience when the Lord has saved you, and the New Testament has no category for someone who is not baptized. Throughout the NT these 2 things are intimately connected together. You can also read Rom. 6 to see the picture Paul gives assuming that every Christian has been baptized.

-The other reality we confess about baptism is that there is “one” and we can see that in Eph. 4. This means that you shouldn’t be baptized more than once, that would be like asking to be born again (and I know that none of your mothers would sign up for that!) If you, any of you, have trusted in Jesus as your Savior, we would LOVE to baptize you here! We will fill up this tank anytime someone talks to us and expresses a desire to be baptized, so if that is any of you, please talk to me or anyone else on staff here and we’ll set up a time to talk about the significance of baptism and what it looks like.

-One other important thing to note about this creed is that it’s a summary of the bare minimum doctrines, but it isn’t a complete list of things that you need to practice or affirm to be a Christian. For example, baptism is only 1 of the ordinances Jesus gave to the church, the other is the Lord’s Supper. As I shared at the beginning of this series, creeds are written in response to questions or issues being raised, so at the time these statements were enough to articulate what the church is. 1200 years later, another confession was written that was working to distinguish the true church vs. false churches, and look at their summary: 3 things: correct preaching of the gospel, practicing of the sacraments (or ordinances) of baptism & communion, and church discipline (which I believe is a subset of the Lord’s Supper, email me if you want to know why).

-And I want to take some time to walk through the connection between those 2 things, because they are connected to each other, but most of the time we don’t think about their relationship. In fact, I’ve gotten into some debates with some pastors over this connection before! And that debate is: who should celebrate communion? And to answer that we need to think about what each sacrament is connected to. Baptism, as I shared earlier, is connected to repentance and the moment you’re saved. The Bible doesn’t have a category for an unbaptized Christian, which means anyone who is following Jesus should be baptized as a step of obedience to the Bible. Communion is connected to the ongoing sanctification (being made holy) of the believer, which I believe means you shouldn’t celebrate communion before you have been baptized, hence why I’ve shared before in various settings that I would discourage children from celebrating the Lord’s Supper until they have been baptized, because I don’t think it’s right to celebrate the ongoing practices until you have celebrated the beginning practice. There’s a logical connection to these 2 things that we need to keep in mind. This is also the historic practice of the church. The Didache (late 1st or early 2nd century document describing the practice of the church) says this:

-That being said, because I can’t point to a chapter and verse that makes this practice explicit I don’t believe it’s a sin if you get these out of order, and in my debates with people I’ve had people ask me: if someone got saved today would I bar them from the table? No! But the normal practice should be: saved, baptism, Lord’s Supper. And parents, you have a role to play in this: talk to your kids about what each of those ordinances mean! And if you don’t know how, talk to Erin because she’s a master at collecting books and resources to equip you to help your kids take 1 step closer to Jesus! Kids: talk to your parents about these things! And if you have put your trust in Jesus, talk to your parents about being baptized!

  • The Future Church

-This first phrase would have been viewed as ridiculous to most of the world at the time! What do you mean there’s a resurrection of the dead?! We need to squeeze as much pleasure out of this world as we possibly can, because once we’re gone that’s it! And I hate to break it to you, but that’s not Christianity. Christianity tells us that this world is broken, but redeemed, and that one day all the brokenness will be fixed, and the reason we can trust that is because someone told us that, and then He proved His words by rising from the dead.

-One of the most helpful passages for us to meditate on in relation to this is 1 Cor. 15. Paul tells us the necessity of the resurrection of the body because if there is no resurrection, then even Jesus is still dead, and if Jesus is still dead, then we have no reason to put our faith in Him. And it gets worse! Paul says if our only hope is in this world then everyone else should pity for us. But Jesus has been raised from the dead, which means the only people who should be pitied are those who don’t put their faith in Him!

-And Paul connects that reality to us for the rest of this section. Do you see how he refers to Jesus as the firstfruits here? That’s a way of saying Jesus is the picture of what we someday will be like. Those who belong to Christ will be resurrected just like Him, someday in the future when death itself is defeated and undone.

-And friends, the Bible also tells us about the life in the world to come, and the guy who told us what it will be like is the same one who rose from the dead, and since He’s the only guy who can claim that, I’m going to stick with His suggestions. Look at the picture we get of this new life in the last chapter of the Bible, Rev. 22

-In the new Jerusalem, after Jesus comes back, the city is divided by the river of the water of life. No more death exists there! And do you see the sources of this life? The throne of God and the Lamb. God is the source of all our life (remember last week we saw the Lifegiver?). And the tree of life produces fruit each month, the nations are healed, and the curse of sin is the only things that’s dead. And this life will never end! It says we will reign forever and ever.

-And the whole creed appropriately ends with a Hebrew word that means “this is true.” Which also happens to be the last word in the Bible, which is connected to another promise from Jesus. Jesus says that He is coming soon (which is a relative term when you compare it to eternity!)

-So John’s response: Amen, yes, this is true! And we respond inviting Jesus to return, but until that time we ask for the Lord’s grace to be with all of us, and just to reiterate that this is true, the Bible ends with this note of praise: amen. Yes, let it be true!

-We’ve made it all the way through this creed; how do we take this and begin applying it to our lives?

-First, we read and reflect on this as our pledge of allegiance to this Trinitarian God who exists as Father, Son, and Spirit, and we fall on our faces in worship of this mysterious reality that brings us into the loving relationship of this God.

-Second, we use this as a reminder of what is most important in our faith, this summary of God’s plan in salvation to rescue, reconcile, and redeem a people for Himself. This reminder of what the church throughout history and the world together believes and confesses as the mark of orthodoxy.

-Finally, because of the way this creed (and the Bible) ends, we use it as a reminder to hope! Jesus is coming soon, so we say: amen and amen, this is true, so come, Lord Jesus, come!

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by mikethestrand on May 31, 2026  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, History, Sermon, Worship
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Posted by mikethestrand on May 31, 2026

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2026/05/31/in-the-church-sermon-manuscript/

John 20:1-31 – Sermon Manuscript

-The resurrection is the single most important event for every single one of us to believe in. In fact, when I’m tempted to doubt, the empty grave is what I come back to every single time to remind me what’s really true.

-I can still remember the first time I dug into studying 1 Cor. 15,

-especially vs. 14 “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” 19 “we are of all people most to be pitied”

-Some people have gone so far to say that if Jesus’ body was found it wouldn’t change anything about their “faith,” who’s to be pitied now?

-Which option is most likely, makes sense of all the evidence and therefore to be believed? Which book do we rely on as the most accurate representation of what happened in the 1st Century? 

-NT Wright

-Friends, the resurrection of Jesus is historically verifiable, it makes the most sense of the evidence given, and to just dismiss that claim is, as Wright say, to enter into a fantasy land! You have to find some way to account for the belief of the early apostles, the sudden growth of the early church, the change in approach by the disciples, and the way both Jews and Greeks responded to this news!

-We’ll see in John 20 – 4 different responses to the reality of the empty tomb, and as we’re looking at them, be thinking about which response you’re most prone to.

READ/PRAY (pg. 963)

  1. Peter and John (1-10)

-It’s fascinating that Mary Magdalene is the first person at the tomb.

-This is another piece that testifies to the reliability of the resurrection

-Women’s testimonies were viewed suspiciously in the 1st Century (no offense to the females in the room, but it’s a VERY different context than today!) this also served as one of the reasons Christianity was so attractive to the watching world – they honored people regardless of gender, ethnicity, creed, political leaning, sickness, they treated every person with dignity

-Other Gospel accounts share that Mary came with others to the tomb to add spices to Jesus’ body (way of honoring/respecting Him)

-But something unexpected happened as Marry arrived

-As she gets closer (it says it was still dark outside) she sees the stone is gone. 

-Maybe she is hallucinating, Luke 8 tells us she had demon possession in her past, is that still affecting her today?

-So she runs to get some other disciples to see if they see the same thing

-Quick note – “The other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved” is most likely referring to John, the son of Zebedee, who wrote this book. We have writings from the 2nd Century that list John as the author of this Gospel, 2 generations down (John – Polycarp – Irenaeus)

-John was so concerned with putting the focus on Jesus, he wouldn’t even list his name in the book he wrote about Jesus! We talked about this at our Maundy Thursday service, we’re supposed to have the same mind as Christ Jesus, always looking to others interest about our own, it’s why I have a tattoo to remind me that Jesus must increase, but I must decrease.

-Getting back to the story – she goes and tells Peter and John. Apparently grave robbing was a pretty serious offense in the 1st Century, so again, first instinct would be that’s what happened here.

-So they take off! Have a footrace to get to the tomb, John wins, scholars believe this is because he’s younger. Gets to the tomb and is so shocked he becomes paralyzed!

-If you’re a golf fan, I picture this a bit like Rory McIlroy last week when he sank his final putt, because remember who the author is here? John! John’s writing in Scripture that he won the footrace. Mic drop on Peter for eternity!

-But don’t worry, Peter’s hot on his tail! Impulsive Peter runs straight into the tomb. 

-Something weird about the burial clothes. You’d think if a grave robber came, they’d have just taken everything as quickly as possible, but Jesus’ clothes are still in there, almost as if not even clothing can constrain him anymore

-But notice a couple things about these clothes: linen clothes, and the piece on his head folded up.

-There’s some slight irony here, because Jesus was crucified naked, but John also tells us that when they took Jesus’ clothes off to crucify him, they didn’t tear his tunic. That word is used to describe the priestly clothes in Exodus and Leviticus, and it first appears in Gen. 3:21 as the clothing God uses to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness. The fact that this tunic wasn’t torn is significant because priests weren’t allowed to serve God if their clothes were torn. Jesus, the perfect high priest fulfilled all of God’s laws, but he did it uncovered so that we today could be covered.

-Then John says the burial linens are carefully laid out. First this should make us think of last week where Lazarus needed help with his linens. That’s not the case for Jesus! This tells us the “swoon theory” (passed out but didn’t die) has no merit, Jesus was strong enough to take his linens off. But secondly, this points us back to the Day of Atonement. Aaron is commanded to take off his linens once the atoning sacrifice is done, he’s supposed to leave them behind as he goes back out. This is Jesus’s way of saying the atonement is done! The linens are left behind, just like the sacrifice for sin and death is now left behind.

-After Peter dives in, John follows (and another dig against Peter “who had reached the tomb first) and (as one commentator translated it) “Began to believe” but they hadn’t yet put all the pieces together.

-Maybe this is a good description of you today! You’ve started to believe in Jesus, but haven’t yet put all the pieces together on what it means to follow him. That’s fine! There’s a reason Jesus says your faith only needs to be as big as a mustard seed. 

-John then shifts from his focus from himself and Peter and moves on to the first person to witness the risen Lord

  • Jesus and Mary (11-18)

-She could have easily followed Peter & John back, then stuck around weeping, grieving.

-Not only had Jesus died, now his body had been stolen and there was nothing she could do about it

-Remember, they don’t have the same privilege looking back that we do! This is totally unexpected, neither Jews nor Greeks thought this was ever going to happen! But at some point Mary leans over again to look into the tomb, but it’s not empty anymore.

12 -The position of the angels is telling – Do you know of anywhere else in the Bible do we see an example of 2 angels sitting at both ends of something? Ex. 25 when God is giving his people instructions on how to build the ark of the covenant.

-Ark of the covenant is to be placed in the Most Holy place

-On top of the ark is to be built the mercy seat, and on both sides of the mercy seat were 2 angels engraved in gold.

-Significant because the mercy seat was where God would descend to meet with His people, where the priest would come 1/year into God’s presence

-These 2 angels are pointing to the reality that there’s now a new mercy seat that’s not dependent on the old sacrificial system. 

-But Mary doesn’t know that yet, so when the angels ask her why she’s so sad, she answers the only way she could know how – Jesus is gone, so she doesn’t know what to do.

-And Jesus is standing there and asks her a question.

-Could still be dark, could be the sun shining in Mary’s eyes, could be supernatural (there’s other instances of people spending time with Jesus and not recognizing him), but she thinks he’s the gardener who managed this area.

-Notice how Jesus responds. 1 simple word. He just says her name. But that’s all she needs. How do you respond when someone you love and care about calls your name? It’s not like being at church and hearing “Mommy” and watching 10 moms turn and look, this is more like when you’re growing up and in trouble and your dad calls you by your full name! You know exactly what’s going on!

-And that’s all it takes for Mary, her weeping turns to rejoicing! Her fears disappear, her tears of sadness turn to tears of joy as her Savior is standing right in front of her

-I don’t think it’s too much of a guess to think that she fell at his feet in worship

-But Jesus gently rebukes Mary, who’s trying to desperately cling to Him and not let go. She doesn’t want to lose him again. Jesus is communicating that something is different now than it was on before the resurrection, in fact, it’s something that he had promised previously, in John 16:7 “It is for your benefit that I go away.” His ministry is now shifting from ministering with his disciples to ministering through his disciples, but we’ll get there in a bit.

-Then Mary serves as the first witness to the resurrection and she tells the rest of the disciples this good news.

-Maybe you relate to Mary today! Maybe you feel like you’re trying to hold on to Jesus as tightly as you can, but you feel him slipping away. Even in the midst of her fears, she still is obedient to Jesus.

  • Jesus and the Disciples (19-25)

-The first 18 verse take place on Sunday morning, John then skips ahead a few hours to the evening.

-I would conjecture the disciples were wondering if the previous verses actually happened to them. Doesn’t our mind tend to play tricks on us like this? One of my favorite verses in the Gospels related to the resurrection is Luke 24:41. It shows the entire range of human emotions in the way the disciples respond. I don’t think the disciples really believed that Jesus rose from the dead.

-The reason I think they still weren’t convinced was because of the rest of this verse: they’re in a room with a locked door because they’re scared of the Jews

-It makes sense! The Jews just killed their Teacher, wouldn’t it make sense for them to take care of his followers too?

-Suddenly, Jesus joins them!

-Basically 2 Harry Potter options here: either Voldemort where the doors fly open, or he apparates straight into the room

-First words out of his mouth make it seem like he’s oblivious to what’s going on

-“Peace.” Really Jesus? You think it’s peaceful right now? His body was just beaten to a pulp, he was hung on a cross, and he’s focused on peace? This is such an important theme, he mentions it a second time in vs. 21.

-Wouldn’t it be nice if there were true & lasting peace in our world? Can you even begin to imagine what that would look like? Ukraine, China, Taiwan, Houthis, Sudan, Somalia. And what about different wars, like maybe a family conflict, conflict at work, or even internal conflict?

-Jesus came to make peace possible. Apart from him dealing with the sin of the world there’s no hope for lasting peace, lasting reconciliation, or even a smidgeon of hope that peace can come.

-Part of the reason He talks about peace is because He’s aiming straight for the hearts of the disciples, do you think they’re feeling like things are peaceful right now?

-Everything they’d been hoping in had broken, everything they’d banked on  disappeared, and then his body was gone! In the midst of all that chaos, Jesus

cuts through it all to bring peace.

-Then he goes for their heads and demonstrates that it’s really him, shows them his scars, this makes the disciples glad.

-Lastly they’re commissioned. Just as Jesus was sent by the Father, his disciples now need to carry on the exact same mission.

-This theme carries through vs. 22-23. There are some weird things in these next couple verses, so it helps to keep the idea that Jesus is sending his disciples out.

–22 First weird thing, he breathes on them. What is Jesus doing here?

-Referencing back to 2 OT passages: Gen. 2:7, God breathes into Adam’s nose and brings him to life. Then Ezek. 37 where Ezekiel is brought to a valley of dry bones and told to prophesy over them, but they’re not alive until the breath of God is in them. Just as in the first creation God breathed into his creatures, in this new creation that Jesus is enacting through his sacrifice, so again God breathes into his people and makes them a new creation, filling them with the Holy Spirit.

-Then there’s another weird verse (23). What Jesus is doing here is getting back to His commissioning of His disciples. Jesus was tasked with bringing the kingdom of heaven down to earth, so now as His disciples share the gospel message in word and deed with the world, the response people give to this message will be as if Jesus was really there. The way God’s message goes out now is through his people, we today have the same authority as Jesus to preach the gospel, to tell the world how to have their sins forgiven.

-Unfortunately, 1 disciple misses this event:

  • Jesus and Thomas (26-29)

-Thomas has a normal response. Again, I think there’s a tendency today to miss the shock of the resurrection.

-“Doubting Thomas” doubtless would have thought he was the only one who was clear headed about this whole thing! Everyone else is losing their mind

-He needs to witness it with his own 2 eyes, otherwise he’ll never believe.

-Thankfully, Jesus is accommodating.

-A week later, the disciples are doing the same thing they had done when Jesus appeared the first time. Doors locked again.

-Again, Jesus joined them and began the exact same way, but this time Thomas was with them, and then invites Thomas to fulfill his wish. Then exhorts Thomas to believe instead of faithless. The Greek uses the same word with a negative; “don’t unbelieve, believe”

-Because Jesus himself shows up, Thomas then acknowledges that Jesus truly is God.

-Maybe you’re like Thomas, and you don’t actually believe the resurrection, and you think maybe you’d believe too if you’d seen Jesus come back to life. But did he really?

-This gets us to the last part of this chapter – this reality demands some kind of response.

-Jesus’ last statement in this chapter is a blessing to those who haven’t seen, but have believed. That’s any Christian today! Anyone here who has believed in Jesus did so without seeing him in the flesh. But someday we will see Him!

  • Jesus and You (30-31)

-John, the narrator, adds some commentary here, reminding us that not everything Jesus did is recorded in the Gospel stories. John was selective on which stories/signs he used, and the ones he picked were done to either urge you to believe, or if you already believe to encourage you to remain faithful, which will leave to eternal life, a life of peace.

-All of us today are called to be like one of these disciples in this story. Which one are you going to be like, how will you respond to the reality of the resurrection?

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by mikethestrand on April 20, 2025  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on April 20, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/04/20/john-201-31-sermon-manuscript/

John 11 – Sermon Manuscript

-Break from Abraham to follow the church calendar (ordering the year around significant events in the church, most of the year is called “Ordinary Time”)

-John’s Gospel is probably my favorite of the 4. Emphasis on the Jesus being God. Gospels are all about the same story, centered on the same person. One author has described them as “extended passion narratives.” Have you ever noticed the way they’re structured: only 2 of them talk about his birth, only 1 of them adds any information between his birth and the beginning of His ministry (Luke at the temple). And then it feels like it rushes through the 3 years of his ministry and then spends a TON of time on the last week of His life (Matt. 21-28, Mark 11-16, Luke 19-24; John 12-21)

-John’s Gospel is a beautiful work of literature, centers on 7 signs, contains Jesus’s 7 “I Am” statements (1 of which we’ll get to today)

-But John’s Gospel also has 2 significant resurrection stories. John brackets his passion narrative with Jesus raising someone from the dead, and then Jesus being raised from the dead. This week, we’re going to look at the first one:

-A couple things to look for throughout this passage: 

-Jesus is jealous for His glory. This event is in here to model/demonstrate that He is worthy of worship.

-Jesus interacts with people based on what they need, not what they think they need. Every interaction is different, every response is different

-The end goal is for people to believe in Jesus.

READ/PRAY (pg. 953)

  1. Jesus and His Disciples (1-16)

-This section serves as a bit of a background to this unique relationship. 

-One of the things that should stand out to us as we walk through this passage is the humanity of Jesus. Yes, as I said at the beginning, I love this Gospel because it emphasizes the divinity of Jesus, but Jesus is also fully human, living a fully human life with all of the implications that come with being human.

-John gives us a little more info on Mary, apparently when he was writing this Mary anointing Jesus’ feet was well known! Doesn’t happen until the next chapter so if you want to read that account keep going beyond where we’ll be today!

-John also assumes you know the account from Luke 10, Martha the worker bee, and Mary the lazy one who just listens to Jesus and doesn’t help prepare the meal

-Then find out Lazarus is Mary & Martha’s brother – I’m going to guess Lazarus was the middle child. The neglected and overlooked one.

-Because Lazarus is sick, they decide to reach out to Jesus to ask for help

-Jesus, who knows everything (including what will happen in the future) says what seems like a weird phrase “will not end in death” Most likely Lazarus was already dead at this point, it took a bit for the messengers to get to him. The ultimate outcome isn’t death, but it sure goes through death before the end!

-Jesus says something similar to the situation back in John 9, blind man, disciples ask whose sin is responsible for the man’s handicap, Jesus says in vs. 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned. This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him.”

-Jesus will stop at nothing to ensure He is receiving glory

-With that said, look how Jesus responds. Vs. 5 tells us that Jesus loved this family. This is one of those instances I wish John had more info. What kind of a friend was Jesus? How close of a friendship was this? Back in vs. 3 Lazarus is described as “he whom you love.” Jesus had close friends – people he enjoyed spending time with and who enjoyed spending time with Jesus.

-Now, what would a normal response be when you find out your best friend is sick and you could help them? Drop everything and go! Look at vs. 6.

-Jesus waits TWO EXTRA DAYS! So much for loving them and wanting what’s best for them! The Greek is actually even more explicit than the English, it says “Jesus loved them, THEREFORE he stayed longer” explicitly connecting the love for them with His actions of staying longer.

-Remember what I said earlier, about Jesus stopping at nothing to be glorified? Here’s why Jesus did this:

-There was a Jewish superstition connected to death. How do we know someone’s dead? We have machines that tell us their heart stopped, Dr. tells us they’re dead. They didn’t have that in the 1stcentury. Sometimes people would be declared dead, funeral would be held, and then on the way to bury them they would wake up. How would you feel carrying a coffin, and then you heard someone knocking from the inside? This led to this Jewish superstition that after someone dies, their soul kind of lingers or hovers around the body for 3 days to see if they resuscitate, and only after 3 days is someone actually dead. If he hadn’t waited, people wouldn’t have believed it was a miracle. Jesus waited to demonstrate that even death is defeated by Him!

-So Jesus brings his disciples into his plans, and they remind him of what he appears to have forgotten! (referring back to John 10:31 after his Good Shepherd speech, “Again the Jews picked up rocks to stone him.”)

-Jesus uses a seemingly weird illustration here. Look at vs. 9-10

-He’s saying that it’s not his time to die. As long as it’s “during the day” (walking according to His Father’s will) he doesn’t need to be afraid, he’s untouchable!

-“The disciples (and all Christians) could not be more secure as they enter life-threatening situations (e.g. Judaea), than when they are right where they are supposed to be: “In him.”” (Zondervan, Klink, 499)

-Isn’t that incredibly comforting? We have nothing to fear when we’re “In Him”

-The confusion worsens, because Jesus tells them Lazarus has fallen asleep, which they think is good news! A little rest is always good for a sick person! So he has to explain again, Lazarus is dead. 

– Thomas, on behalf of the whole group, sarcastically responds “might as well go die with him!” (Him is referring to Jesus here) Little does he know exactly how prophetic this is! Lazarus is dead, Jesus is going to die, why not all join in the fun?

  • Jesus and Martha (17-27)

-This section begins with more back story. Bethany was near Jerusalem, and apparently this family was pretty well known, so many Jews had come to console Mary and Martha.

-Customary to hire professional mourners. Group to come grieve with you. Jewish customs demanded that even a poor family was to hire AT LEAST 2 flute players and a professional wailing woman. Since it appears that this family was well off, they would most likely have had a much larger wailing group.

-Martha’s response in vs. 20 is abnormal, as typically those coming to mourn with the family would go to the house. Perhaps it’s for privacy, perhaps Jesus is avoiding the crowds, but either way Martha hears Jesus has come and goes to find him while Mary stays home. 

-Notice what Martha says here “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” She’s accusing Jesus of not caring enough, yet just a breath later she realizes what she said and admits God will answer whatever Jesus asks.

-So Jesus assures her that Lazarus will rise again. Common to Jewish thought, at some point, he will rise again! Jesus corrects her – that future resurrection is already here, because I’m here! Jesus is both the resurrection and the life, just as you don’t need to fear as long as you’re “in Christ” so we don’t need to fear death as long as we’re “in Christ.”

-“What to the Jews is a future hope is to Christians a present reality.” (Zondervan, Klink, 504)

-And all you need to do to live forever is believe in the one who is the resurrection and the life. Just as Jesus asks Martha here “Do you believe this?” Is a question every person in the world needs to be asked. Because if you believe (like Martha) that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, you don’t every need to be afraid! 

-Jesus is jealous for his glory, so even in the midst of Lazarus dying, he points Martha to himself

  • Jesus and Mary (28-35)

-Martha then leaves to go tell Mary that Jesus is here (in private!), so now it’s Mary’s turn to go talk to Jesus. There’s a lot of background info here (Jews follow, assuming she’s going to the tomb to mourn some more, Jesus doesn’t go into the village but stays at the same place Martha and he met)

-Notice what Mary says in vs. 32. It appears that Mary and Martha had decided the best way to approach Jesus. But Mary stops there. Where Martha continued on acknowledging that he was God, for some reason Mary doesn’t. She does however, fall down at his feet, it’s almost as if her body can’t help but worship Jesus, but her mind can’t keep up

-Sometimes it seems like the hardest thing in the world is to get up to go to church, or read your Bible, or spend time praying. We need to remember we’re complex creatures, we can’t segment our lives into various components. Sometimes we just need to go through the motions and wait for our mind to catch up!

-Sometimes it is a white-knuckled, grimace, and get through it. In the midst of those difficulties, look back to how God has provided for you in the past, because that’s the same precedent that will carry you into the future. Quote I heard “I speak the truth in the light so I can whisper it in the dark.”

-Jesus then responds a little differently than he did to Martha earlier

33

-“Deeply moved in his spirit” is better translated as angry, so Jesus was angry in his spirit and greatly troubled. Jesus was worked up over what was going on. Then the question is: why was he angry? Was he angry at the group of mourners? Was he angry with Mary for her response? 

-2 options: angry with the sin brokenness and fallen world, or angry toward the unbelief of the people in front of them, who are grieving like pagans who have no hope.

-Jesus reconciles both anger and love at the same time. Jesus can be angry toward the broken, fallen world, AND angry at the unbelief currently demonstrated in front of him, while at the same time being completely loving toward them. Just as the world can be at enmity with God (James 4:4) yet God still loving the world (John 3:16). God can say that with no contradiction.

-We need to remember how Jesus acted in the midst of grief taking place around us! There is something so unnatural about death. Something screams within us that this isn’t right, this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be! And it’s not. We don’t grieve without hope, instead we grieve with hope.

-I was listening to a sermon from Tim Keller on anger recently, and he pointed out some things that Jesus’s anger in this passage can teach us, too.

-We’re actually commanded to be angry. I’m guessing you’ve never heard that at church before! But the direction to our anger matters GREATLY! In fact, Keller actually says that no human emotions are sinful. God created us as emotional, God Himself gets angry, but the way we direct our anger can either be holy or sinful. 

-When my children sin, I can get angry with them and direct my anger AT them, or I can direct my anger at their sin. One makes my kids the problem, the other gives us a common enemy to attack. Jesus here is angry at sin and its’ consequences, but he still responds with love towards people, serving as as model for the way we should respond to sin.

-And look at how Jesus responds to his close friend in the tomb, the shortest verse in the Bible! Jesus wept, which the Jews take as a sign his close friendship.

-Jesus isn’t weeping for Lazarus, he’s gonna be alive again in just a couple minutes! No sense weeping for that, Jesus said all the way back in vs. 11 he was going to wake him up, Jesus is weeping because of the state of the world. Death isn’t normal! Sickness, sadness, cancer isn’t the way things are supposed to be! We’re made to have life to the full, life in perfect union with God and each other, anger directed at our sin not at other humans. 

-Jesus is the 1 true perfect human to ever live. He’s more human than any of us! Can you imagine how frustrating it would be to know what this world could be like, but all you see if death, despair, and grief?

  • Jesus and Lazarus (36-44)

-Jews (as is typical) have 2 responses: some saw Jesus’ weeping as how much he loved Lazarus, others said he should’ve saved him.

-We begin this section with the same word from vs. 33, Jesus is angry once again when he comes to the tomb. More background description (cave)

-Jesus orders the stone be removed. He also will order the people on unbind Lazarus after he’s raised. Why doesn’t he move it supernaturally to have it automatically done? 

-It’s not “let go and let go” it’s trust God and get to work!

-Carson, For the Love of God

-Dallas Willard

-Martha jumps out again at Jesus and tells him not to have the stone removed because (as the KJV says) he stinketh!

-Don’t forget, Jesus will stop at NOTHING to receive glory – so that’s what he tells Martha. Then he prays. But his prayer is a little different, don’t you think?

41-42

-Apparently he’s already prayed for the Father to raise Lazarus, so he just jumps straight to the point, he’s praying for other people.

-Sometimes, prayers are done to serve as a model to those around you. Yes, prayer is primarily you talking to the Lord, but sometimes prayer is done to strengthen and encourage those around you.

-Then, finally, Jesus calls out to Lazarus “with a loud voice.” Many scholars quip that it’s a good thing Jesus specifies a person, because otherwise every dead person would have obeyed!

-The text doesn’t even make mention that it was Lazarus, instead “The man who had died.” Lazarus isn’t the point of the story! And then the story ends. Jesus’s fame continues to spread, the Jews continue to plot against Jesus to eventually kill Him, and someday afterwards Lazarus will die again.

-But did you notice the other resurrection? Look back up at vs. 25

-Jesus says whoever believes in Him will never die, and then he asks Martha a question: do you believe? And does she? Yes!

-Friends, this is the bigger deal, and the bigger miracle than someone raising physically from the dead. The physical resurrection is actually meant to point to what’s taking place spiritually here with Martha. This is the moment where she’s spiritually brought from death to life, and we went by it pretty quickly earlier because we almost take it for granted that this is possible.

-If you have been saved, if you confess with your mouth what Martha did here, and believe in your heart (your innermost being) that God raised Jesus from the dead, you are saved. You are made alive in Christ, and best of all, you never have to be afraid of death ever again. Lazarus is just the picture, what Martha experiences is the substance. And we can have that exact same experience today! 

-We get to celebrate this reality today through baptism: the reminder that those are saved are laid in the water like Jesus was laid in the tomb, and then brought up into new life to never die again. Have you believed in Jesus, and taken this step of obedience? Have you been raised from death to life? Because if you have, you are now “In Christ,” you have nothing to fear, not even death!

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by mikethestrand on April 13, 2025  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Sermon, Worship
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Posted by mikethestrand on April 13, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/04/13/john-11-sermon-manuscript/

What Is the Gospel?

What is the gospel? We’ve all heard the many different examples listed and been told that it is literally “Good New” to the world. The Good News that Jesus has come to take our place and pay the penalty for our sins, but what does that mean? (It’s even been asked in a book.) I think it’s even become the “hot topic” within Christianity today with more books and conferences than any of us can or should partake in. But that pat answer doesn’t seem to do it justice, and while I never want to minimize the importance of the gospel, I think many of us take it for granted.

  • It it exclusively about “Good News”?
  • Is there multiple ways to express the gospel?
  • Is the gospel just another name for the Bible?
  • Do we have a “hole” in our gospel?
  • Can it be summed up in 6 words?
  • Have we missed the heart of the gospel?
  • Have we made it all about morality and sexuality separated from grace?
  • Is it all of these things? None? Some?

Obviously I can’t deal with all the issues raised about in regard to the gospel, but I think as I’ve read what people have said and are saying about the gospel, we’re missing a huge piece of it. The piece that we’re remembering this week in the church calendar. The biggest piece missing from our discussion about the gospel is the cross. Apart from the cross, the gospel isn’t good news at all. In fact, if the cross is taken completely out of the discussion, the Bible just makes me want to curl up and die.

So many times I’ve heard the gospel message summed up as either a salvation message or a call to “fix” the world by bringing God’s kingdom to earth. And while Jesus did inaugurate a new kingdom, it hasn’t yet reached it’s conclusion. We live in a time period where Christ has ALREADY begun his work in redeeming the world but it has NOT YET reached its final point. There are a number of things that won’t be resolved until Christ comes again to “judge the living and the dead.” We need to learn to be content living within this unresolved tension until Christ returns. No, the gospel can’t be summed up in a list of moral codes or absolutes, but it can be summed up in the cross. The fact that God loved and loves us despite our sin. The fact that God sent His one and only son into the world and “tabernacled” or “made his dwelling” among us. The fact that God has now reconciled us to Him by taking our sins, past, present and future, upon Himself. The fact that He continues to relentlessly pursue us and woo us to Himself.

It doesn’t take me very long to daily be reminded of my sinful state. I’m continually attempting to find ways to build myself up, even if it means tearing others down. What hope could a sinful man like me have? Through the cross, infinite hope.

In his expose of the gospel message, Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 lays out the message of the gospel – but then shows us the hope we can have because the cross isn’t the final word – the resurrection is. In today’s culture it’s become commonplace to question the validity of Jesus. Was He really who He said He was? Did he really rise from the dead? Paul takes this to its logical conclusion when he says, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” Questioning the message of the gospel is in vain because we have it clearly laid out for us in Scripture. No, it can’t be put in a list because it’s how we should live.

BUT

Jesus did leave his disciples, and us, with this command:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

I have yet to hear a sermon or read a blog that deals with this part of the great commission. Jesus told his disciples to observe all that He commanded. And Jesus laid out some pretty specific things. Honor your parents, love your neighbors, give to the poor and needy, and be perfect. How much of that list have you broken?

In one of my classes in college we attempted to condense the gospel to 140 characters to find out if we could tweet the gospel. I came to the conclusion that it can’t be done. In order to truly explain the message of the gospel I need to tell you about my life. Yes, the message of the gospel is that Christ has already done the work for us, but the implications for that have changed my entire life. Does your life paint a picture of the gospel, no matter how blurry or broken it is, or does it paint a picture of you? How has the gospel shaped your life today and where would you be without Christ’s work on the cross?

“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.”

Philippians 1:27

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by mikethestrand on April 14, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Theology
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Posted by mikethestrand on April 14, 2014

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2014/04/14/what-is-the-gospel/