John 20:1, 10-18 – You Need to See Jesus – Bible study

John 20:1, 10-18 Maybe You Need to See Jesus It might surprise some of the younger people to learn this but sometimeseven for an adultlife can be tough. I think that is why God didnt stop after He created Adam. He went on to create Evegiving Adam a wifeand commanded them to have childrena familyall so that when life got tough, Adam would not have to bear it alone. In time, Adam even got to have a friend. (It took a while to get enough distance between him and his family members to actually have a friend but since he lived 930 years, I suspect he eventually got one.) Family and friend help to get us across the tough days in life, but the Bible says there is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. His name is Jesus. Tonight, lets notice some of the people who just needed to see Jesus. I. A grieving Mary needed to see Jesus. A. Mark tells us that Mary was the first to see the risen Lord. Mark 16:9 Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. B. My, how Mary loved Jesus. 1. Her name is mentioned 12 times in the gospels. (I believe that is more than any of the disciples except for Peter.) 2. Some wonder at the relationship Jesus and Mary had. (The world who cant get its mind out of the gutter likes to imagine wicked things.) 3. My thought would be, "How could she not love Him?" a. He had freed her from seven demons. b. He had forgiven her of her sins. c. He had adopted her into His family. d. We should not marvel that Mary loved Jesus so much. We should marvel that we love Jesus so little. C. Mary was the one I made reference to this morning. 1. She was one of the first to arrive at the tomb. 2. The angel seems to have spoken to her from outside the tomb, perhaps even still perched upon the huge rock used for a door. 3. Despite the angels appearance, it seems unlikely that Mary realized she was talking to an angel for although she obeyed the angeland did so in hasteshe still believed Jesus to be dead. D. Here is a woman with grief beyond measure. 1. Not only the Love of her life but the Hope for her soul was dead. Her world had collapsed. 2. \#John 19:13\ An angel spoke to her. He offered no comfort. In fact, I do not know that an angel is capable of offering comfort. 3. \#John 19:14-15\ The angel stepped out and Jesus stepped in. a. The truth be known, Jesus did not offer Mary any comfort either! b. \#John 19:6\ He simply spoke her name and every thing became all right! E. Sometimes you are grieving so hard, you just need to see Jesus! 1. The One who died deaths cruelest deaths. 2. The One who endured deaths most painful deaths. 3. The One who kicked deaths front door down so hard, it slide across eternity past and future to ram the gates of hell and knock them off their hinges setting the captives free. II. A group of fearful women needed to see Jesus. A. All of the gospel writers give us the names of at least some of the women that went to the tomb that Sunday morning. 1. I do not think that any gospel writer gives us the name of all them. Luke 24:10 It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them. 2. I point this out because we need to understand there was a fairly large group of women that went together that morning. a. Perhaps they met at a house and walked together but it is also possible that they were to meet at the grave of Jesus, with some getting there a little earlier and some arriving a little later. b. That might explain why some gospel writers report seeing one angel and while another reports seeing two and while one reports the angel outside of the tomb and another on the inside. 3. Even so, the point I want to make is that, if the women were ever all together, they did not stay together. a. It appears that Mary Magdalene went off and found Peter and John as recorded in John 20 while some of the other women seemed to have stalled somewhere along the journey. Matt 28:8 And they (the women) departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word. 9 And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. 10 Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me. b. Mark makes it clear that Mary saw Jesus before this group of ladies for "he appeared first to Mary" \#Mark 16:9\. c. So Mary had left the tomb, found Peter and John, returned with them to examine the tomb, the two men left, she wept for a time, and then met Jesusall while these ladies had not found anyone yet. (1) To be honest, I am not certain they have gotten out of the garden yet. (2) I know they started off "quickly" with "great joy," but the verse also said they had "fear." (3) I wonder if their joy did not shrink in the face of their fear, and this group got stalled somewhere along the way. d. Fear will do that to you. (1) Fear will stop you. (2) It will make you doubt. It will cause you to hesitate. 4. This appears to the second group that Jesus appeared to after His resurrection. a. Mary could not touch Jesus because He had not yet ascended to His Father, but these ladies grabbed Jesus by the feet and worshipped Him. b. Jesus has been to the Father and returned but these ladies have not found anyone to talk to about Jesus. c. Why? Because fear had stopped them. B. You know what the cure for fear is? 1. Someone would say, "Just man up and go." No. 2. Someone would say, "Work through it." No. 3. When you are afraid, you just need to see Jesus. 4. Thats what happened here and the ladies seemed to move pretty good the rest of the day. III. A defeated Peter needed to see Jesus. A. It appears that Peter may have seen the resurrected Jesus more than anyone else. B. As far as we know, Peter was the only one to see Jesus twice on the resurrection day. 1. Paul tells us that Peter saw Jesus before the rest of the disciples. 1Cor 15:5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: 2. Peter saw Jesus again that same day when He appeared in the midst of the closed room \#John 20:19-23\. C. Why would Jesus appear twice to Peter? 1. Perhaps it is because Peter needed to see Jesus. 2. He must have felt pretty bad about his behavior. 3. He had denied Jesus three times. 4. Id be filled with shame, the type that just consumes and kills you. 5. I think Peter was too. D. But even those two visits did not fix Peter. 1. It would take at three visits, the third being at the Sea of Galilee. \#John 21:1-14\ 2. The disciples were fishing and they spotted Jesus on the shore. 3. Peter was so excited to see Jesus that he jumped into the water and swam to shore. 4. Still, things were not right. a. Jesus took Peter aside and asked Peter three times if he loved Him. b. Peter confessed three times that he did. c. Each time, Jesus repeated the command, "Then feed My sheep." d. Jesus was giving Peter the means to prove he loved Jesus. How? By serving Him. e. Peter was slow but he caught on. He worked harder than mostperhaps than allto feed Gods flock. f. He just needed to see Jesus. IV. \#Luke 24:13-35\ A confused pair needed to see Jesus. A. \#Luke 24:13\ introduces these men as "two of them." 1. Two of who? 2. Immediately preceding, Luke was giving his account of Peter and John running to the empty tomb. (Luke left John out.) 3. He goes immediately from discussing a story about Jesus disciple to saying "two of them." 4. I think this was two of Jesus disciples, not the inner Twelve but two who were well known and faithful to Jesus. B. But they were confused. 1. They could not reconcile the Messiah with death nor the death with the stories of a resurrection. 2. Is it interesting that the greatest Teacher ever now stood before them and personally taught from the greatest Book ever, the Bible, the greatest story ever, "the death, burial, and resurrection of the Messiah from the Old Testament." 3. Jesus taught them from \#25-28,\ from late afternoon through evening time, and straight on through supper; but all of His teaching did them no good. 4. They were still confused. C. Until \#31\. Luke 24:31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. 1. Even the teaching that God could give did not clear up the confusion in these disciples minds. 2. No. The confusion did not leave until they saw Jesus. 3. They just needed to see Jesus.