Resurrection Encounters - Part 1
Life provides many examples of different versions of the same thing. Coffee is an excellent example of this. Some people like Maxwell House, some prefer Starbucks, some Dunkin’, some mushroom coffee, and on the list goes. But even in good coffee, there are different versions of the same thing – expresso, latte, sugar, no sugar, black, cream.
When we look at religion, a lot of them do some version of the same thing – gathering, rituals, buildings. There are many things we can build our faith on.
Even the idea that our shortcomings, sins, or debts need to be paid or atoned for before God is not unique. Many religions have some concept of sacrifice involved.
None of these are bad things, they are essential parts of our faith. But there’s only one thing that makes our faith unique: only one who rose again for us and, in doing so, fully atoned for us.
Jesus paid the price that was ours to pay to set us free.
The early Christians staked their lives on this. Everything they did flowed out of a determined belief in what Jesus had done and the life He gave us.
What if we had that same way of living?
The Unexpected
John 20
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
We don’t know too much except that the Gospels mention how Jesus cast seven demons out of her.
“Now that Jesus is dead, what’s going to happen to me? Are those demons going to come back? The living Jesus cast them out, but now He’s gone…”
She runs off to Peter and John to tell them not that Jesus is risen but that the body has been stolen.
John 20
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.
There’s still no, “He is risen!” They were disillusioned already, and now, to heap insult onto injury, Jesus’ body had apparently been stolen. And the disciples are grappling with that.
John 20
8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
Have you ever seen something but not really “seen” it? Have you ever stood in front of a full closet of clothes and thought, “I have nothing to wear.” There are dozens of shirts, pants, jackets, and shoes, but still “nothing to wear.”
The resurrection is a fact, but there’s more than fact behind it. There’s meaning.
Then the men leave – not the best time to do that – and they leave Mary by herself.
Fact Becomes Meaning
John 20
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
This is the moment where fact becomes meaning. Jesus calls her by name. She’s not even looking at Him, but He speaks, and it’s personal.
It wasn’t the open tomb, the discarded grave clothes, or even the angels.
Facts inform us, but meaning transforms us.
John 20
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
The one who begins to understand the meaning is the one who carries this reality back to the ones left only with the fact. She’s the one Jesus had done so much for, on who her hope was hinged – the one who transformed her life from bondage and demon-possessed to healed and free.
At this time, each follower of Jesus had their version of what Jesus had done for them. Each was unlikely and had a transformation encounter in their life. This rag-tag group of people and unlikely story turned the world upside down. They went from not believing to embracing an incredible account from less-than-credible sources, staking everything on it, including their lives.
Fact Anchors Feelings
The majority of Jesus’ closest disciples gave their lives for the story. Why would they do that if it wasn’t true?
People might suffer for a lie, but they wouldn’t die for one. This wasn’t a legend from the distant past. This was something they had experienced personally. But meaning is deeply personal. It’s when something (or someone) speaks and calls to us by name.
When we experience something personally, no one can shake us from it. Facts inform us, but meaning transforms us to the point that we’ll follow, risk, or even give our lives, and there are different versions of this.
Mary went to the tomb looking for facts but left with meaning. She came searching for a body but left proclaiming a risen Lord. And that encounter changed everything.
The facts of the resurrection are essential. They inform our faith. But the meaning of the resurrection transforms us, and we need to act on that. It’s one thing to know that Jesus rose from the dead. It’s another to realize what this means in our lives.
Facts don’t ignore feelings, they anchor them.
Fact: Jesus rose from the dead.
Meaning: Jesus rose for me.
Fact: The resurrection happened.
Meaning: Because He lives, I have new life.
Fact: Jesus saves.
Meaning: I am saved, loved, and secured in Him.
We move from fact to meaning when we realize these facts have a personal impact. These aren’t just factoids, they’re meant to change our lives. Mary shows us that when we encounter the Risen Jesus, the search for meaning ends because meaning Himself has found us and called us by name.
Want to play catch-up, or are you looking for a specific topic? Check out our collection of sermons here or our podcast, LHC Unplugged, here.
For more LHC content, subscribe to our newsletter here or follow us on Instagram.
When we look at religion, a lot of them do some version of the same thing – gathering, rituals, buildings. There are many things we can build our faith on.
- A moral and better way to live.
- Holy books held as “truth”.
- Leaders or gurus that have taught and died.
Even the idea that our shortcomings, sins, or debts need to be paid or atoned for before God is not unique. Many religions have some concept of sacrifice involved.
None of these are bad things, they are essential parts of our faith. But there’s only one thing that makes our faith unique: only one who rose again for us and, in doing so, fully atoned for us.
Jesus paid the price that was ours to pay to set us free.
The early Christians staked their lives on this. Everything they did flowed out of a determined belief in what Jesus had done and the life He gave us.
What if we had that same way of living?
The Unexpected
John 20
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
We don’t know too much except that the Gospels mention how Jesus cast seven demons out of her.
“Now that Jesus is dead, what’s going to happen to me? Are those demons going to come back? The living Jesus cast them out, but now He’s gone…”
She runs off to Peter and John to tell them not that Jesus is risen but that the body has been stolen.
John 20
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.
There’s still no, “He is risen!” They were disillusioned already, and now, to heap insult onto injury, Jesus’ body had apparently been stolen. And the disciples are grappling with that.
John 20
8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
Have you ever seen something but not really “seen” it? Have you ever stood in front of a full closet of clothes and thought, “I have nothing to wear.” There are dozens of shirts, pants, jackets, and shoes, but still “nothing to wear.”
The resurrection is a fact, but there’s more than fact behind it. There’s meaning.
Then the men leave – not the best time to do that – and they leave Mary by herself.
Fact Becomes Meaning
John 20
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
This is the moment where fact becomes meaning. Jesus calls her by name. She’s not even looking at Him, but He speaks, and it’s personal.
It wasn’t the open tomb, the discarded grave clothes, or even the angels.
Facts inform us, but meaning transforms us.
John 20
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
The one who begins to understand the meaning is the one who carries this reality back to the ones left only with the fact. She’s the one Jesus had done so much for, on who her hope was hinged – the one who transformed her life from bondage and demon-possessed to healed and free.
At this time, each follower of Jesus had their version of what Jesus had done for them. Each was unlikely and had a transformation encounter in their life. This rag-tag group of people and unlikely story turned the world upside down. They went from not believing to embracing an incredible account from less-than-credible sources, staking everything on it, including their lives.
Fact Anchors Feelings
The majority of Jesus’ closest disciples gave their lives for the story. Why would they do that if it wasn’t true?
People might suffer for a lie, but they wouldn’t die for one. This wasn’t a legend from the distant past. This was something they had experienced personally. But meaning is deeply personal. It’s when something (or someone) speaks and calls to us by name.
When we experience something personally, no one can shake us from it. Facts inform us, but meaning transforms us to the point that we’ll follow, risk, or even give our lives, and there are different versions of this.
Mary went to the tomb looking for facts but left with meaning. She came searching for a body but left proclaiming a risen Lord. And that encounter changed everything.
The facts of the resurrection are essential. They inform our faith. But the meaning of the resurrection transforms us, and we need to act on that. It’s one thing to know that Jesus rose from the dead. It’s another to realize what this means in our lives.
Facts don’t ignore feelings, they anchor them.
Fact: Jesus rose from the dead.
Meaning: Jesus rose for me.
Fact: The resurrection happened.
Meaning: Because He lives, I have new life.
Fact: Jesus saves.
Meaning: I am saved, loved, and secured in Him.
We move from fact to meaning when we realize these facts have a personal impact. These aren’t just factoids, they’re meant to change our lives. Mary shows us that when we encounter the Risen Jesus, the search for meaning ends because meaning Himself has found us and called us by name.
Want to play catch-up, or are you looking for a specific topic? Check out our collection of sermons here or our podcast, LHC Unplugged, here.
For more LHC content, subscribe to our newsletter here or follow us on Instagram.
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