I have seen the Lord
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2017 · 16 April 2017
When I was in college, over 45 years ago, the arguments were more prominent than they are today about whether Jesus rose historically and bodily from the dead. There was widespread consensus among believers generally in America that deciding about that claim really mattered. You took a stand, you believed in the resurrection, or you didn’t. And if you did, you believed the rest of the Bible and you are a Christian.
Today that question, “Did Jesus really rise from the dead historically, bodily?” is not as prominent or as intense because people feel that it doesn’t matter to them, because different people believe in different things. I may or may not call myself a Christian, and if the resurrection seems helpful to me, I may believe it; and if it doesn’t, then I won’t, and I don’t think anybody should tell me that I have to choose.
In my college days the assumption pretty much was that there are fixed, closed natural laws, that make the world understandable and scientifically manageable. And these laws do not allow the truth of the claim that someone has risen from the dead to live forever. The modern world with its scientific understanding of natural laws does not allow for resurrections.
But today the assumption is not that there are natural laws outside of me forbidding the resurrection of Jesus, but there is a personal law inside of me that says: I don’t have to adapt my life to anything I don’t find helpful. In other words: Truth for me is what I find acceptable and helpful.
What really Matters? Now with that inner law in place, it doesn’t matter whether Jesus rose from the dead, because, my issue is: Do I need to care? Do I find that idea helpful? Do I feel that it helps me flourish as a human being? And if it seems like it doesn’t, then I will just view it the way I view UFO’s and possible life in some distant galaxy. If it helps you, that’s fine; but don’t press it on me.
Some of you think that way without even knowing that is the way you think. You have simply absorbed it from this culture, since that way of thinking is woven into most internet and television shows and advertising and movies and today’s educational curricula. You have created your own god that will accommodate all that you want.
What we need to do is to raise the level of everyone’s awareness of how we view the realities that are coming at us every day. And my hope is that when we examine the resurrection of Jesus, you will not so easily be carried along by the assumptions from 45 years ago or the post-modern assumptions of today, but may with God’s help have a true concern for what really matters to you.
Paul in Athens. Let me begin with a sermon that the apostle Paul preached to philosophy-lovers in Athens about 20 years after the resurrection of Jesus. It is found in Acts 17:30-31, “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
At that point in the sermon, his listeners cut him off and mocked him because of the claim that Jesus was raised from the dead. This in itself is very significant because it means the amazing spread of Christianity in the early years did happen in a world that did not believe that resurrections were possible.
It will matter to you. Notice what Paul said: God commands the whole world to repent, because we have all sinned against Him, that is, we are de facto idolaters. This repentance is urgent because God is going to judge the world in perfect righteousness. And He is going to do it by Jesus Christ, the judge of every human being who will stand before the living God-man, Jesus. None of our excuses will work in that court. We will all be guilty unless we have trusted Christ as our Savior and Lord.
This word of God through the apostle Paul is flying full force into the face of the contemporary assumption that even if Christ rose from the dead, it doesn’t matter to me. Paul is saying: It will matter to you whether you find it helpful or not. God’s judgment of the world by Jesus Christ is like death, it is coming, and saying it doesn’t concern you, is like closing your eyes and saying there is no light.
The last thing Paul says in his sermon in Athens is: “This God has given assurance (or evidence or proof) to all by raising Jesus from the dead.” In other words, the resurrection of Jesus is designed by God to be a global warning or assurance that repentance is necessary for everyone.
Resurrection known through Witnesses. God always intended for the resurrection to be known and believed through human witnesses. This doesn’t rule out the work of His Spirit in opening our eyes. There were no video recordings or photographs. When it happened, God saw to it that there were witnesses, and that Jesus appeared to witnesses in enough settings that they were fully convinced of His reality and could tell others.
When Paul says, “God has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.” What Paul meant was that the testimony of those who saw Him will spread through the whole world and be a valid assurance that this really happened.
The way God designed so that we know. Another eyewitness, the apostle Peter in a sermon preached about 8 or 10 years after the resurrection of Jesus said in Acts 10:40-41, “God raised [Jesus] on the third day and made Him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.”
In other words, God’s intentional design was not for the risen Christ to be seen by everyone, and not even in the day when it happened. And not today, as much as we might wish we could! His intentional design is: Jesus appeared repeatedly and with many proofs (Acts 1:3) to a limited group of people whose job it was to bear witness in what they said and what they wrote so that everyone who hears or reads this witness will be able know the assurance that God provides for the world about the resurrection of his Son.
That is what we have in John 20, John’s eyewitness account of the resurrection appearances of Jesus. That’s what we have in Matthew 28, Matthew’s eyewitness account; Luke 24, Luke was not an eyewitness but lived and traveled with Paul who was, and he talked to many others (Luke 1:2); Mark 16, as we hear Mark describe Peter’s eyewitness testimony, as well as his own.
John, a witness. Look at John 19:35 in the middle of Jesus’ crucifixion, John breaks off and says, “And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe.” This is what Paul meant: The world can know what happened in those last hours because there were witnesses, and they give testimony and there are ways to test the truth of the testimony of witnesses.
Look at John 21:24, “This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.” This is not hearsay. And his testimony can be checked out with other testimonies in the New Testament. So let him explain what he witnessed and judge for yourselves if these things are true.
“They have taken the Lord.” Look at John 20:1–2, “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”
Mary did not believe the resurrection had happened. She assumed His body was moved. This is another evidence how slow the disciples, including the women, were to believe Jesus had been raised. These were not easily excitable, gullible people, who quickly believed what other told them.
Peter and John at the Tomb. John 20: 3–5 says, “Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple (John), and were going to the tomb. 4 So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. 5 And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there.” This is what Jesus’ body had been wrapped in when they buried him (John 19:40).
Verses 6–7: “Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself.” What does John want us to learn about the resurrection from this?
1. Risen bodily, not just spiritually. Some look at the resurrection as a symbol of Jesus’ ongoing influence or his spirit alive in the world. That is not John’s point. The body was not there. He had risen bodily. In fact, one of the most striking historical facts is that the enemies of Jesus in those first weeks and months in Jerusalem could not produce the body. There was no dead body, because Jesus was raised bodily.
2. Like the body that died, but not exactly. Second, this body was not exactly like the body that died, and yet it was like the body that died. There is continuity and discontinuity. This is important because the resurrection of Jesus in the New Testament is viewed as the first fruits of the harvest of the resurrection of all Christians. 1 Corinthians 15:22-23 says, “even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 but each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.”
The point of saying the linen cloths were there, is probably to show how this resurrection was different from Lazarus’ resurrection. Do you recall John 11 where Jesus raised Lazarus after he had been dead four days? In John 11:44 it says, “The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Different from Lazarus. People had to help Lazarus out of the linen strips and face covering because he had a mortal body. He would die again. After the resurrection, Jesus had an immortal body. He would never die again. Romans 6:9 says, “We know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will never die again.” Jesus’ body is different. He passed through those grave clothes the way he passed through doors. John 20:19, 26 says, “the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
But at that very moment of entering the room like no ordinary body can, he says to doubting Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe” (John 20:27). This was a physical body that you could recognize and touch. And Luke tells us Jesus ate fish after He had risen (Luke 24:43).
Why It Matters. Remember, those who are in Christ, who believe in Him, and belong to Him, and receive forgiveness from Him, will be raised like Him. Paul says in Philippians 3:21 that Jesus “will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself.” This is not another life on another galaxy. This will happen when God judges the world by Jesus Christ.
Here’s the issue: Do you see? In John 20:8 it says, “Then the other disciple [John], who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed.” What did he see? What did he believe? Jesus wasn’t there, just some cloths that He left behind. Compare this to Mary in John 20:18: She has met Jesus in the garden and spoken to him. She returns to the disciples and says, “I have seen the Lord.”
The Witness has become a window. Let me close with an analogy. Your doorbell rings this afternoon and one of your friends asks to talk to you. He comes and says, “I have some really bad news. Your brother Jim is dead.” And you say, shaking your head, “I don’t believe it. I just saw him this morning. He was fine. I don’t believe it. It can’t be.”
And your friend says, “We went to the game together, and as we were leaving, this car went out of control and jumped the curb and hit Jim. I knelt over him. I waited for the medical examiner. I saw it. He’s gone.” And you say, softly, “I see.” What do you mean, “I see”? You mean that the witness of your friend has become a window so that you can understand what happened. And the reality in the window has become plain. You were not there.
“I have seen the Lord.” God has brought you here to hear this message and for this Scripture and for this story of the resurrection of Jesus and this witness. And my prayer for you is that you will now or very soon, by God’s grace, say, “I see.” There is one main difference between Jesus and my illustration: He is alive. That’s what Mary said, “I have seen the Lord.” Do you see? Let us pray.