Easter Sunday sermon on the resurrection of Jesus, delivered at Latimer: Listen
Tim Behan delivers an Easter Sunday sermon exploring the resurrection accounts from the Gospel of John, focusing on the responses of Mary Magdalene, the disciples, and Thomas.
Summary
This is an Easter Sunday sermon from the Latimer: Listen channel, in which Tim Behan walks through the resurrection account in the Gospel of John, examining how three groups of witnesses — Mary Magdalene, the disciples as a group, and Thomas — each responded to encountering the risen Jesus. The sermon argues that the resurrection was a real, physical, historical event, addressing common objections such as the idea that Jesus merely fainted, that his body was hidden, or that the wrong tomb was visited. Tim Behan contends that the disciples' willingness to die for their testimony is strong evidence that they genuinely believed what they proclaimed. The central claim is that the same transformations experienced by the first witnesses — from grief to hope, fear to joy, and doubt to belief — are available to anyone today who puts their trust in Jesus.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Welcome and Introduction
Tim Behan: Well, a very good morning, everyone. Wonderful to be with you. And thank you for those readings, Wendy and Teresa. If you're new or you're visiting here today, that reading you heard was one of four accounts of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, written by people who were around at the time. And if you've got further questions or you'd like to read more of those accounts, you can find copies of them down the back. They're free for you to take with you if you would like to read one of those. So please do feel welcome to do that after the service on your way out.
We're going to look and think about that account that was just read for us. If you've been coming to church for any length of time, the thought of a person rising from the dead is something you likely accept quite readily as fact — even, strangely, maybe a bit blasé. Life after death is so ingrained in what we believe, it's almost commonplace. My hope today is that we're reminded of the astounding significance of Jesus rising from the dead, the difference the resurrection makes — and not just for a future eternity, but today. Eternal life can start today with the Lord Jesus.
On the other hand, if you're new or you're visiting church today, firstly, let me say a very warm welcome. It's wonderful to have you here. But you might be thinking that when Christians speak about life after death, people physically rising from the dead, it's decidedly not commonplace. That in fact, it's a little on the bonkers side. Well, it might comfort you to know that you're not alone in thinking this way, that your reaction has been shared by people for the last 2,000 years. And it started not with Jesus' enemies, as you might expect. It started with his followers, with his closest friends.
The Disciples Did Not Expect the Resurrection
You may have noted from what was read that not a single person that day expected to see Jesus. Even though Jesus had repeatedly told his followers that he would rise from the dead, it was so far beyond their experience, it didn't even occur to them to take Jesus at face value. Maybe they thought what many people say today: when I die, I'll still be there with you in spirit, I'll be watching down on you from above. Maybe that's what Jesus meant. They certainly didn't expect what they got.
We get several clues to this in what we heard from the Bible today. In verse 2, right at the beginning, Mary, upon finding the empty tomb, assumes that someone has moved Jesus' body — not that he got up and walked out on his own. In verse 8, although one of the disciples believes something, verse 9 makes clear that whatever he believed, it says they still didn't understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. But all of that changed when they were confronted with Jesus that day. Their grief, their fear, their doubt — it all disappeared when Jesus was standing right in front of them. The resurrection made all the difference.
Was Jesus Really Dead?
Now, first of all, we should be quite clear that there was no doubt that Jesus was dead. He didn't, as some people say he did, faint on the cross and wake up a few days later feeling just a little worse for wear. The Romans were nothing if not experts at execution. To them, it was more than a science. It was an art form. They had perfected it through long experience. Jesus was dead.
No one had squirreled his body away somewhere to hide it either. For example, if Jesus' enemies had hidden the body — and think about this — they would have produced it when people started saying that he had risen from the dead. Here he is. No, he hasn't. And if Jesus' disciples had hidden the body for whatever reason, then — and I'll mention this again a bit later on — you've got to ask, why would they willingly die for preaching something they absolutely knew was a lie? You could understand if they believed it to be the truth and went to die for that. But if they knew it was a lie, why would they die telling people about it? It gave them no benefit of any kind. Nor did they get the wrong tomb, as is often assumed, for the very same reasons. They would have found it eventually. Jesus was dead, and he was laid in that tomb.
Now, if you were one of the religious leaders, the Jewish leaders at the time, this fact was cause for celebration. You've been maneuvering for Jesus' death for quite some time now. If you were a Roman, well, you probably weren't too fussed either way. It was just another day at the executing office. And if you were a member of the general public, although you had just very strangely enjoyed watching three people be gruesomely executed, you would likely now go about your day and continue on with your life.
However, for a small group of people who'd spent anywhere up to the last three years of their lives living with Jesus as he traveled and taught and performed miracles in front of their eyes — and as he'd grown to be far more than a teacher, but a true and close friend, a confidant, a wise head, a loving heart, a constant rock, and a seemingly undeterrable, unstoppable power and glorious leader — well, the fact that Jesus was dead was quite naturally the most devastating thing they'd ever faced. They were understandably lost, broken, grief-stricken, even fearful — fearful that as those who had stood with Jesus, they might be next.
But on that day, that first Easter Sunday, everything changed. And the resurrection was what made all the difference.
How to Listen to This Account
And today as you listen, I want you to do two things. Firstly, I want you to think about — while the events described are most certainly supernatural — think about how natural the reactions are of the people who went through it to those supernatural events. They're natural reactions, but only if what happened actually happened. Think about that.
And secondly, I want you to think about what this changes for you now. People don't rise from the dead every day. Jesus is still alive now. And if Jesus truly was dead but is now truly alive, what difference does that make for you today?
We'll look in turn at how Jesus' resurrection affected those first witnesses: at Mary as she moves from grief to hope; at the disciples as they move from fear to joy; and then one specific disciple, Thomas, as he moves from doubt to belief.
Mary: From Grief to Hope
The first witness is Mary. Mary wants to know where her Lord is. His body has disappeared from the tomb he was laid in. And when she can't find Jesus, she runs to tell the disciples about it. Two of them come running. Peter is always first out of the gate for everything, but in this case he's still not as fast as the other disciple — who we know from other parts of the Bible is actually John, who's writing this very account. They look, they can't find anything, so they head back to their hidey hole. We'll come back to them in a moment.
But verse 11: Mary stood outside the tomb, weeping. We know from other parts of the accounts of Jesus' life that Mary was one of several women who followed and lived with Jesus and the other disciples during his ministry, both caring for him and obviously being cared for by him. And while some of these other women are mentioned at several points in these narratives, it was Mary alone who stood outside that tomb, weeping.
And as she wept, John records, two angels ask her, "Woman, why are you crying?" Let me just say, "woman" isn't an offensive term at this time — think "ma'am." Ma'am wasn't invented at that point, but think ma'am. "Ma'am, why are you crying?" Now, if we're okay with people rising from the dead, then I don't think angels are too much of a stretch. So I'm not going to say too much more on them. If you've got questions about angels, come see me afterwards. We'll keep our focus on Mary.
And if you can understand the grief of Mary, you'll understand why her first words aren't, "Hey, where did you two come from?" But with the weight of sorrow at losing Jesus from her life, she can only respond, "They've taken my Lord away." Doubtless, Mary's not just mourning that they had moved Jesus, but that they had killed him in the first place.
Mary stood outside the tomb, weeping. And as she turns back from the angels, she's confronted again — this time by Jesus, although she thinks it's the gardener. Often people see what they expect to see, and Mary did not expect to see Jesus. Mary is asked again, "Woman, why are you crying?" "Sir," she replies, "if you've carried him away, tell me where you've put him, and I'll go and get him."
Jesus addresses her again, but this time by name. "Mary," he says. And you've got to think, how often has she heard that name spoken by that voice, maybe even with that same inflection? Mary. And something clicks in her brain. Immediately she turns toward him and cries out in recognition. "Teacher," she says — and she must have hugged him, and why wouldn't you? Natural reaction is to see someone you love return after an absence. So she hugs him.
But then Jesus reacts in a way we might think is a bit odd. In verse 17, Jesus says, "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."
Now this might seem like a strange response. It may even seem a little rude by Jesus. However, to help us understand — to Mary and to the disciples, the words Jesus is saying about going to his Father bring to mind a promise Jesus made on the night before he died. Because he told them where he was going and what he was going to do when he got there. So back in chapter 14, he told his disciples:
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. My Father's house has many rooms. I've told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me where I am, so that you may also be with me where I am."
You see, Jesus is saying, death is not the end. It wasn't for me. And I will make sure it's not for you as well, if you believe in me.
Now you've got to think, when Jesus first said that, it might have seemed a little like those spiritual platitudes I was talking about earlier — you know, those things people say, but everyone knows they're just pleasant thoughts without any real substance. "I'll watch over you when I'm gone." "I'll always be there in your heart." "We'll see each other again one day." Before Jesus died, one might have thought he was just mouthing nice nothings. But now, confronted with the concrete reality of a man who not only predicted that he would die and then rise again, but actually did — well, now all of a sudden his promises are cast in a different light, aren't they? His promise of life after death isn't some out-there spiritual pipe dream. It's living and breathing and standing in front of Mary as a picture of what is possible by the power and grace of God.
Mary again responds pretty much how you'd expect her to — a natural reaction to a decidedly supernatural event. Obeying Jesus, she runs to the disciples and yells, "I've seen my Lord!" How else would you expect her to react?
Mary moves from a terrible grief to a renewed hope. A recognition that death is not the end. That is what the resurrection means to her. Her Lord hadn't been taken away. Her Lord was going to prepare a place for her in his Father's house where she could spend eternity living with her Lord. Death isn't the end. And the proof was tangible. It was walking and talking. Jesus is alive. "I've seen the Lord," she says.
The resurrection brought Mary from a grief of death to a wonderful hope of a concrete reality of life still to come — life with Jesus. The resurrection made all the difference to Mary.
The Disciples: From Fear to Joy
The next change it brought about was in the disciples themselves, and it begins in fear. Verse 19 says, "On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, they had the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders."
Like Mary's, it's worth noting the very natural reaction of the disciples here. They've very publicly followed and taken part in the ministry of Jesus for the past three years. The Jewish leaders have just arranged to have Jesus killed, and they won't want anyone who followed Jesus to hang around and continue on that sort of teaching. So the disciples hide. They retreat. And they lock the doors.
But then Jesus appears again. And the locked doors mean nothing to him as he comes and joins them and speaks to them. Some people have taken this to mean that Jesus was raised as a spirit so that he could just walk through walls. But we'll see in a moment — and even more next week, if you come back next week — that that can't be the case. Jesus rose from the dead in his physical body. But if death was not enough of a barrier to hold Jesus back, neither are some pitiful walls.
Jesus appears, and he immediately says to the disciples, "Peace be with you." He says it twice: "Peace be with you." Jesus knows exactly what the disciples are going through. He knows exactly the fear which has them gripped in his absence. And he knows exactly what to say to change it for them. Peace be with you.
And how did the disciples respond? Verse 20 says, "The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord."
One of the most relevant questions which can be asked in evidence of Jesus' resurrection, I think, is the reaction of the disciples themselves. Ask yourself: what makes a group of fearful, broken individuals go from hiding in a locked room to joyfully rising up in bold proclamation? What made them unashamedly and now fearlessly confront the Jewish religious authorities who want to kill them? What had they seen that changed them so much that they were willing to go to their deaths to tell the world about that?
You have to ask yourself that question, because for the rest of their lives, the disciples preached a message centering on one single fact. They didn't gain popularity for preaching it. They didn't get rich for saying it. In fact, almost every single one of them died for declaring it and for writing it down for us so that we could read about it 2,000 years later. What was the message? Jesus is alive.
That fact changed the disciples from being fearful fugitives to loud and proud preachers of a truth which changed the course of history — all because they saw Jesus risen from the dead. The resurrection made all the difference for Jesus' disciples.
Thomas: From Doubt to Belief
The third and final witness in this account is the disciple named Thomas. Now we Christians often refer to Thomas as "doubting Thomas" in a vaguely insulting way. I think we're a bit harsh. As if we expect that when the disciples went to Thomas and said, "You know Jesus who was executed on a cross a few days ago? Turns out he's alive again" — do we expect Thomas to go, "Okay, yeah, sure"?
In verse 24, we read, "Now Thomas, also known as Didymus" — I would have stuck with Thomas as well; I hope there's no one in here called Didymus, sorry — "Thomas, one of the twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came." So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." And just remember, Thomas doesn't have our benefit of hindsight or the disciples' benefit of actual sight. How would you respond if you were Thomas? "We've seen the Lord, Thomas." "Oh, well, good for you. Let me know when you come back to reality and want to face facts." I'd want evidence. So does Thomas.
Verse 25: "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side where the spear has stabbed Jesus, I will not believe," Thomas says.
Now it's not until a week later, when they've gathered again, that Jesus appears in front of Thomas and the rest of them. He repeats his peaceful greeting, and then he turns his attention squarely onto Thomas. I wonder what it would have been like looking into Jesus' eyes at that moment. I imagine if it was a cartoon, his jaw would have dropped and rolled along the floor a little bit. But this isn't a cartoon.
Have you ever had all your assumptions shattered in a moment? Your entire world tipped upside down in an instant? So it was for Thomas. Jesus turns to Thomas and very graciously gives him the very proof he demanded. "Thomas, put your finger here," Jesus says. "See my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting, Thomas, and believe."
And doubt leaves just as fast as Jesus had entered. "My Lord and my God," Thomas exclaims. And this isn't, as some people have said of it, some form of using God's title as a swear word, some sort of OMG moment. This is a man who cannot help but recognize the reality of the person standing in front of him. This one who lived, suffered, was crucified and died, now stands before Thomas, risen from the dead in power. Jesus is his Lord. Jesus is God. There is no doubt. Only belief. A deep trust in who Jesus truly is.
The resurrection made all the difference for Thomas.
What Difference Does the Resurrection Make for You?
What difference does the resurrection make to you? The Bible is clear that the reactions of those first witnesses to Jesus are the same reactions we can still have here today. They're available to anyone at any time if you will but put your trust in Jesus — that is, if you believe that he died to save you from your sins and rose again as your Lord and God. With those things, we can have new life because Jesus himself is alive.
With Mary, we can have hope. We can be assured that death is not the end. Of course, grief will never truly disappear in this life — the Bible is also clear about that, not until Jesus comes back again. So we will still mourn the absence of loved ones and friends. We'll still miss them when they aren't in front of us. But for those of us who trust in Jesus, who know that there is a life to come, we have no need to be consumed by that grief. Because we know that death is only temporary. And not just death — all loss, all brokenness, loneliness, pain, and suffering. Jesus promises that one day he will come back and put an end to it all for us, if we will but trust in him. Do you want hope like Mary? Look to Jesus and believe.
With the disciples, we need not fear the things of this world which are only temporary. They have no eternal power like Jesus. We fear a lot of things in this life. Maybe you're here today and you don't know Jesus. Maybe you're afraid of what it might cost you. Maybe you're afraid of what your friends or your family might think if you start believing in all this crazy-sounding religious stuff. And it's true, some people will think less of you and tell you that you're nuts or you're foolish. Jesus predicted that people would react like that to his disciples. But if Jesus truly rose from the dead, then fears like that can take a back seat. Surely eternal life is worth the temporary reactions you might face in a few short years just in this world. Trusting Jesus, let me tell you, is worth it — now and for all eternity.
Now, like grief, any Christian will tell you that this fear doesn't entirely disappear in this life, even if you do trust in Jesus. We're only human. We still live in a broken world. But friends — and especially can I say to my brothers and sisters in Christ here this morning — when we are tempted to fear: fear suffering and persecution, fear the cost of following Jesus, fear missing out on worldly pleasures, even to fear our own failures, to fear boldly and joyfully living to the Lord — if you fear that, look to Jesus. Risen from the dead. Raised to the Father. And preparing a room for you. And he's coming back to get you. And the more you dwell on that reality, the more the fear can fade into the background. Do you want freedom from fear? Look to Jesus and believe.
With Thomas, we need not doubt who Jesus is or what he has done, because Jesus is alive. Of course, the obvious response is, "Well, we can't see Jesus standing before our eyes." You're stuck with me — I'm very sorry. So what would make you believe?
Jesus' final words in this passage are directed at Thomas, but they're there for you. He says to Thomas, "Because you have seen me, you have believed, but blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Jesus says that for the vast majority of history who will never see him directly in front of their eyes until he comes back. But he doesn't want anyone to think that they're going to miss out just because they haven't seen him. He wants us to know the certainty of that promise. He doesn't leave us alone, and he hasn't left us without evidence. He's left us with the witness of those who first saw Jesus alive and risen from the dead. He's left us with the record of all that he said and done and promised for us in the Bible, so that we could look at it and judge for ourselves — with the promise that if you look at Jesus and trust in his life, death, and resurrection, that he died for our sins and rose to be our Lord and God, if you trust in that, then you too can have the sure hope of life which is to come. A real, risen, physical, eternal, perfect life when Jesus comes back to take us home.
His invitation is to anyone who turns and puts their trust in him. John closes this part of his account with these words, and they were spoken for us earlier:
"Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah — that is, God's promised King, the Son of God — and that by believing, you may have life in his name."
From grief to hope. From fear to joy. From doubt to belief. From death to life. What difference will the resurrection make for you?
Closing Prayer
Let me pray. Our great and gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for Jesus. We thank you that you so loved this world that you sent your one and only Son to die for us, for our sins — that whoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life. We thank you for giving proof of this by raising him from the dead, by placing him in front of those first eyewitnesses. We thank you for their witness in the Bible that we can look at and be reminded of this wonderful truth here this morning, 2,000 years later. Help each and every one of us to look at Jesus, risen from the dead in power, and to know the assurance of an eternal life that can be had by putting our trust in him. Help us to know that this morning. In Jesus' name and for his glory we pray. Amen.