8th June 2011

John 20:1-9 – The Empty Tomb.

• “Running to catch up”
• Mary approached Jesus’ tomb to find He is not there.
• So she get’s two of the disciples and they run to the tomb to find our for themselves what has happened.
• When they get there they begin to realize that Jesus has risen.
• The Bible stated that the disciples did not understand from Scripture that Jesus would rise from the dead.
• In one commentary it gives two particular scriptures from the Old Testament that it says prophecy Jesus will rise from the dead, almost as though the disciples should have realized.
• Looking at them – I don’t think I would have realized either – they both seem pretty tenuous at best.
• They are Isaiah 53:9-12 and Psalm 16:10.
• The second one seems a little more obvious but even then it could mean a number of things..
• The fact is this; we are always catching up to God.
• He is always doing things to surprise us and to think that we can understand everything up front is a little foolish.
• I love what Simeon Peter does.
• Whilst the other disciple stands at the edge of the tomb, Peter explores.
• We need more explorers.
• The first disciple seems a little nervous, as though he is waiting for it to be deemed ‘safe’. So many are on the edge of God’s intentions. Waiting for things to someone else to declare it is safe rather than searching things out themselves.
• I want to be an explorer and to do that I need to recognize that God is always going to have a few tricks up His sleeve and some shocking ideas.
• I don’t want to stand on the edge – I want to be the first to go in and find out what He is up to.
• Don’t you?