Is Seeing Believing?

“Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.”
– John 20:8

It was a Sunday morning unlike any other in history.

When Mary Magdalene told Peter and John that Jesus’ grave was empty, they wasted no time strapping on their sandals and bolting down the street toward the garden tomb.

Once John got there, he bent over and peeked inside the small entrance to the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying on the shelf where Jesus’ body had been placed. Then Peter caught up and rushed right into the tomb to examine the bandages and burial clothing that had covered Jesus. At last, in John 20:8, “the other disciple [John] … also went inside. He saw and believed.” John appears to have been the first follower of Jesus to see the evidence of His resurrection and believe that He was and is alive.

The rest, as they say, is history. Here are three important insights we can glean from these important moments:

Insight #1: “The empty cross and the empty tomb are God’s ‘receipts’ telling us that the debt has been paid” (Warren Wiersbe). Why is the empty cross one of the greatest symbols of Christianity? Because Jesus isn’t hanging there anymore! He’s completed the work of redemption. The debt of sin is paid … once and for all. The empty tomb proves that Jesus not only conquered sin; He also conquered death.

Insight #2: “The whole point of the description is that the grave clothes did not look as if they had been put off or taken off; they were lying there in their regular folds as if the body of Jesus had simply evaporated out of them” (William Barclay). Have you ever heard of a burglar breaking into a house, stealing some jewelry … then washing the dishes before he leaves? No! Then why would anyone in their right mind think that a grave robber would take the time to make Jesus’ grave clothes nice and tidy in the tomb before disappearing into the dark with His body? There’s no doubt: Jesus’ resurrected body passed right through the grave clothes.

Insight #3: “John entered the tomb, at which point he perceived with understanding and believed” (Chuck Swindoll). In verse 5, John looked through the open door of the tomb and was able to “see” the strips of linen. In verse 6, after Peter went into the tomb, he was able to “see” the grave clothes in the sense of investigating them. But then in verse 8, after John entered the tomb, he was able to “see” with the eyes of understanding … and “believe” that Jesus was and IS alive!

So, let me ask you: How is your eyesight today? It’s not enough to just see Jesus. You must believe in Jesus. As we read in Hebrews 11:6, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”

Dane Davis is the pastor of Impact Christian Church, meeting Sundays at 8:30 and 10 a.m. at 16209 Kamana Road in Apple Valley.

Why Were You in Church on Easter?

“He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.” – Matthew 28:6

 In the mid-1950s, a British pastor named W. E. Sangster began to lose his voice due to a rare disease that caused his muscles to deteriorate. For him, this was devastating, because he loved to teach God’s Word and sing praises to God. Sangster eventually lost the ability to speak at all. On the Easter morning just a few weeks before his death, he took out a pen and paper, and with a trembling hand he wrote these words to his daughter: “It is terrible to wake up on Easter morning and have no voice with which to shout, ‘He is risen!’—but it would be still more terrible to have a voice and not want to shout.”

On Easter Sunday, most Christian churches saw their biggest attendance day of the year. People who rarely if ever attend at any other time showed up to pack the place. And we might ask ourselves … why?

Before we look at that question, let’s take a look at that first Easter morning. We usually focus on the group of women who went to Jesus’ tomb, but they weren’t the first to arrive there. They were beaten to the tomb by about 36 hours … by Roman guards. Governor Pontius Pilate had ordered the tomb sealed and guarded by armed soldiers after the chief priests and Pharisees remembered that Jesus had predicted, “After three days I will rise again” (Matthew 27:63). They wanted to make sure Jesus’ disciples couldn’t steal the body and claim that he’d risen from the dead. So, when the women arrived, the guards were standing right outside.

As a sign of respect and love, the women had come to anoint Jesus’ grave cloths with spices and oils. But their plans were shaken up—literally. According to Matthew 28:2, there was a “violent earthquake” as an angel from heaven came down rolled back the stone and sat on it. “His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow” (v. 3), and the guards were so terrified that they “shook and became like dead men” (v. 4). They were frozen in place—so scared they couldn’t even run away. The angel announced: “He is not here; He has risen, just as He said” (v. 6). The angel sent them to share the good news with the disciples, and the women saw Jesus for themselves on their way back.

In verses 11-15, Matthew tells us some of the guards went into the city and told the Jewish leaders what had happened. The leaders hastily met and devised a quick plan. They gave the soldiers “a large sum of money”—likely a year’s wages, or about $30,000 in today’s currency. They ordered the soldiers that, if anyone asked them what happened to Jesus’ body, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep” (v. 14). The soldiers took the money and obeyed their orders (v. 15). That was their story, and they were paid well to stick to it. But deep down, the soldiers knew the truth. And so did the women. And later that day, so did Jesus’ apostles. Within a few short years, Christianity swept across three continents, because the fact of the resurrection was plain for all to see.

Now, I want to ask you two very important questions:

Question #1: Did you go to an Easter service to worship Jesus because you were somehow PAID to be there … or because you WANTED to be there? The soldiers at the tomb were there on Easter morning because they were PAID to be there. The women at the tomb were there because they WANTED to be there. Across our nation, millions of Americans attended Easter services last week who haven’t set foot inside a church building in a long time. Many of them came because a family member pretty much made them come. Others might have come to church because they were serving lunch afterward. Still others came for an Easter Egg Hunt, prize giveaways or free entertainment. All that to say, many people come to Easter services because they are—in some way or another—paid to be there.

Question #2: Are you walking past a goldmine of eternal treasure for a few quick bucks? As the Roman guards left the temple courts with a bag full of cash, they thought they’d struck it rich. They were fools! They ran past a goldmine to pick up a few pennies. That’s how it is when we choose money over Jesus, when we choose goods over God, when we choose the temporary things of earth over the eternal things of heaven. And many of us do it every day. We live for the moment. We live for pleasure. So, many of us don’t read God’s Word every day, because we don’t feel like reading God’s Word every day. We don’t go to church with our families each week, because we don’t feel like it. We’ve got more important things to do. You can do that. God has given you free choice. But when it comes to your time, your priorities and your money, if you and your family are the center of your universe, you and your family ARE your god.

Are you more like a paid soldier who was at the tomb for the money, or are you more like one of Jesus’ followers, who came to the tomb because they truly loved Jesus Christ and wanted to be close to Jesus, worship Jesus and live for Jesus? If you’re just in it for the money, your church will still be glad to see you. But you and I both know—that’s not going to fly with God. I hope and pray that when you come to church, it’s because you WANT to be there. I hope and pray that instead of toying with Jesus Christ, you trust in Him … love Him … and serve Him.

Dane Davis is the pastor of Impact Christian Church in Victorville. Join us at Impact for Sunday services: in person at 9 a.m., or online at 10 a.m. on YouTube or Facebook Live. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.

Set Free by the Empty Tomb

“If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” – John 8:36

Last week as we celebrated Easter, I remembered a story I once heard about a first grade teacher who gave her class an assignment that involved plastic eggs. She passed out an egg to each of her students and told them, “Easter is about life. So, I want you each to take your egg home and put something inside it that is a sign of life.” The next day the kids returned with all sorts of things in their plastic eggs: leaves, blades of grass, an ant and even a butterfly. But when one little boy opened up his egg, it was empty. The other kids laughed. The teacher asked him, gently, why he didn’t do his assignment. He answered, “I DID do my assignment. My egg is empty because on Easter Jesus’ tomb was empty. Isn’t that a sign of life?”

It certainly is. And today I’d like to take a look at one of the first people to discover the empty tomb: Mary Magdalene. That empty tomb transformed her life. And it can transform yours as well.

 

All four gospels mention women going to the tomb at sunrise on resurrection Sunday to anoint Jesus’ body with spices. Matthew, Mark and Luke mention several women in the group, but each time, Mary Magdalene is at the top of the list. And John doesn’t even mention the other women. He focuses entirely on Mary Magdalene. What was so special about Mary Magdalene? That’s just the thing: As best as we can tell, she wasn’t very special at all. In fact, before she met Jesus a year or two earlier, she was pretty messed up.

Now, over the centuries many Christians have assumed that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute with loose morals. But nothing in Scripture supports that. When Mary Magdalene is introduced in Luke 8, we read that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her (verse 2). So, most people who knew Mary Magdalene wouldn’t have said, “She’s a floozy!” They would have said, “This lady has lost her mind! Those demons are making her as nutty as a fruitcake.” But one day Mary Magdalene met Jesus. He drove out the seven demons and set her free. And she was never the same again.

From that point forward she stuck with Jesus wherever he went—regardless of whether he was popular or unpopular, regardless of whether the crowd was shouting “Hosanna!” on Palm Sunday or “Crucify him!” on Good Friday. Mary Magdalene was one of the few remaining followers of Jesus who was faithful and courageous enough to stand at the foot of his cross. She was the first to arrive at Jesus’ tomb on Easter morning. And she was the first to see Jesus after he rose from the grave.

This woman had likely been tormented by demons for years, but she was set free from her demons by the power and authority of Jesus Christ. And she was forever grateful to him. She had been forgiven much, so she loved much.

This transformed woman became even more transformed when she experienced the empty tomb and saw her risen Savior face-to-face. She ran back to the disciples and exclaimed, “I have seen the Lord.” They probably thought she had lost her mind again. But she hadn’t.

This oppressed woman had been transformed by Jesus Christ. And she was more in her right mind than ever before. Once again, Jesus Christ had set her free.

Honestly, many of us need to be set free in much the same way as Mary Magdalene. Some of us are held captive by our past. We look back on who we used to be and we’re the first to admit, “I was nuts! I was out of my mind. I wasn’t rowing with both oars in the water.”  And what’s worse, we know our family and friends had a front row seat to our nuttiness. They saw it all! They heard it all! And sometimes we feel like crawling into a hole. We know that we’ve deeply hurt the people who mean the most to us. We’ve burned so many bridges. And even though we’ve made big changes in our lives, we can’t repair the damage we’ve done. We’re still haunted by the demons of our past.

Well, I have good news for you. Just as surely as Jesus drove Mary’s demons out of her, he can drive the demons of our past out of you and me—if we’ll let him. There were likely times when Mary Magdalene thought about the woman she used to be, and she felt like crawling into a hole. But Jesus Christ had set her free. So, she boldly stood at the foot of the cross when Jesus was crucified. And she boldly led the ladies to Jesus’ tomb on Resurrection Sunday. And after seeing Jesus with her own two eyes she proclaimed to the rest of Jesus’ followers, “I have seen the risen Lord!”

So, if you feel like a prisoner of your past, Jesus holds the key to your prison cell. He alone can set you free. As Jesus himself says in John 8:36, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” So, journey to the empty tomb today. Come to Jesus and take hold of his forgiveness. Take hold of his healing. And take hold of his peace. Because the tomb is empty, because Jesus is alive … you CAN be set free from the demons of your past. You CAN be set free from  your guilt and shame. Jesus Christ can set you free. And if the Son of God sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Dane Davis is the Pastor of Impact Christian Church. Please join us for our online worship service tomorrow at

10 a.m. at Live.GreaterImpact.cc or on our YouTube channel (Impact Christian Church) or on Facebook.