{"id":13112,"date":"2016-08-17T01:40:37","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/an-empty-tomb\/"},"modified":"2016-08-17T01:40:37","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:40:37","slug":"an-empty-tomb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/an-empty-tomb\/","title":{"rendered":"AN EMPTY TOMB"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>JOHN 20:1\u20132<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><i>\u201cThey have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we, do not know where they have laid Him\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><i>(John 20:2)<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Returning now to our studies in John, we pick up in Chapter 20 and the resurrection of Christ. Mary Magdalene woke up early to anoint Jesus\u2019 body with oils, not having any expectation other than that of finding a corpse. It was to Mary\u2019s credit (and the other women with her as is indicated by the other gospels) that she tended to her task with diligence. She wanted to honor her Lord by rising before sunrise to visit the tomb.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>The women were quite alarmed when they arrived at the garden and found the stone removed from its place. It had not been simply rolled back, but it had been lifted right out of its groove. Such a feat could not have been performed by just one man, for the stone was very heavy. Alarmed, the women ran into the tomb only to find the body of their dear Teacher missing. Mary quickly ran to find Peter and John and tell them that someone must have removed the stone and stolen Jesus\u2019 body.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>It is too bad that Mary and the disciples did not reflect more on Jesus\u2019 teaching, for then they would not have been so distraught. Instead, they thought as an unbeliever would think, as the world thinks. They saw evidence of Jesus\u2019 teaching right before their eyes and yet they did not grasp the truth. They immediately assumed that someone had stolen the body.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>How typical such a response is among the followers of Christ. Too often, we walk into an alarming situation thinking like the world thinks, that the explanation must be this or that. It couldn\u2019t possibly be as Jesus said it would be. It couldn\u2019t possibly be evidence of the glorious and powerful work of God. It couldn\u2019t possibly be something greater than we ever imagined. This is an attitude of unbelief. When we approach life in such a way, we will often fail to see the glorious work of God in our lives.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>That morning in the garden, Mary did not look at the open tomb in light of the teaching of her Lord. She looked at it as the world did, and so she missed the glorious truth, at least until Christ graciously revealed Himself to her. May we not believe as the world does, but always look through the eyes of faith and in doing so see glory even in the most difficult circumstances.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'>Ezekiel 20\u201321<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'>James 1<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:   18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Having one\u2019s thoughts molded by the teaching of   Christ is the goal of every Christian. When something happens, do you react   as the world does, or do you step back and think, \u201cWhat has God taught us   about this sort of thing in His Word?\u201d Before you react, always ask, \u201cWhat   would God have me think and feel?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'><i>For   further study: Matt. 28:1\u20138 \u2022 Mark 16:1\u20138 \u2022 Luke 24:1\u201312<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'>thursday<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'>november<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JOHN 20:1\u20132 \u201cThey have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we, do not know where they have laid Him\u201d (John 20:2). Returning now to our studies in John, we pick up in Chapter 20 and the resurrection of Christ. Mary Magdalene woke up early to anoint Jesus\u2019 body with oils, not having &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/an-empty-tomb\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;AN EMPTY TOMB&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}