Seeing and Believing

Minister:
Date: AM
Text: John 20:1-10
Psalters: 261, 334, 302, 265
  1. The sad setting.
    1. After Jesus’ death, the followers of Jesus grieved.
      1. They stayed together, someplace in Jerusalem, but we are not told where.
      2. We are told what charactertized their gathering: “mourned and wept” (Mark 16:10).
    2. They gathered together again this second morning after His death.
    3. Mary came with the startling news: they have taken away the Lord (2).
  2. The wonder seen by John.
    1. Impulsive Peter and John immediately dash out and run to the grave.
    2. They “saw.” Holy Spirit uses three different Greek words for seeing.
      1. John looked in and “saw” something very strange in the grave clothes lying in their place (5).
      2. Simon Peter went in and “seeth” the grave clothes and the napkin in its place by itself (6,7).
      3. Then John “saw and believed” (8).
    3. It was the grave clothes which proved that a miracle had taken place and not a physical stealing of the body.
  3. Belief in Jesus.
    1. John saw and believed that Jesus had risen from the dead (though he did not know what that meant).
    2. We know more than they did, but also we do not understand it all, but hold it for truth.
      1. They did not get the implications because they “knew not that He must rise again” (9).
      2. His resurrection is the gospel declaring our justification.
    3. See and believe. By faith (God’s gift) embrace His resurrection as your only hope, as the victory.