Sermon – John 20: 1-18 Coming to Belief

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – John 20: 1-18 Coming to Belief

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Easter Sunday

April 8, 2012

Just as the farmers of old we look to the heaven for clues about when to plant the potatoes and corn. We wait for the sun to give us equal days and nights. Then we wait for the full moon to light the evening for planting. Both have now occurred. So we have reached the time to plant your crops. Also on this first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox we are ready to plant seeds of faith. It is Easter morning and we join with Christians around the world and of all time to boldly proclaim what we believe: Jesus Christ has been resurrected from the dead. Let us pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

The Gospel of John is about belief. The key text in this important book come from the third chapter and the sixteenth verse “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” The promise of Easter is that you will have eternal life. You will live forever in the presence of God. But before we receive this promise we must first do something. We must believe. But believe in what? What are we suppose to believe to receive this wonderful gift of eternal life? The content of our belief is what we celebrate on Easter. We believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. But how does someone come to this belief? What is the process of conversion from unbelief to belief. The twentieth chapter of John gives us two examples of people coming out of the darkness of unbelief into the light of faith.

You heard in the first reading of scripture read earlier these words. “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark”. On that Easter morning the world was shrouded in darkness; belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ had not yet started. Then after a missing stone and a foot race the disciple that Jesus loved looked into an empty tomb. This disciple became the first person to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He came to belief because of what he saw, or in his case what he didn't see.

Sometimes we come to belief in Jesus by seeing God in the world around us. We see God in the beauty of our forests and streams and rivers and coastlines. We see God in the faces of believers as they volunteer in church, or in other non-profits. We see God in the stories shared by seniors in nursing homes. We see God in the children as they learn Bible stories. We see God as we share bread and wine in the Lord's Supper. God has blessed us with eyes with which we can see him in the world he created. The disciple Jesus loved saw an empty tomb, he remembered Jesus' teachings and he knew that Jesus had been resurrected from the dead. He believed in Jesus Christ and was promised eternal life.

So I urge you this Easter to look for Jesus in the world around you. Look for Jesus when the children enjoy their chocolate bunnies and jelly beans. Look for Jesus when your family sits down for a meal. Look for Jesus in the loving eyes of those caring for children or for aging parents. Use your eyes to look for Jesus in the world and you will be blessed with belief that he was truly resurrected from the dead with the promise for you of eternal life.

But seeing with our eyes is only one of the two ways we have of coming to belief. The other is contained in the twentieth chapter of John, verses 11-18.

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her,“Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her,

“Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Mary Magdalene saw Jesus with her own eyes, but even though she saw she still did not believe. For some of us we need more than just seeing God at work in the world around us for us to come to belief. Sometime we just don't believe what we see. Like Mary we need something more. Mary turn away from Jesus and was not looking at him when the following happened. Jesus spoke to her. Mary Magdalene came to belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ not with her eyes but with her ears. She believed in Jesus Christ when she heard Jesus say her name, and she received the promise of eternal life.

Sometimes we come to belief when God speaks to us. I remember a Sunday morning many years ago. As I drove to church I prayed to God, expressing all my anger and dissatisfaction with my life. I gave God a piece of my mind. I arrived in church and was surrounded by the faithful, but my prayers continued when suddenly I heard a voice. It was as clear as if someone behind was speaking. But it wasn't someone behind me and no one else heard it. I'm certain that it was God's voice. I heard it and remember exactly what it said, “It's in the book.” Suddenly I had a need to find out what was in that book. I reached down and picked up a pew Bible and began to read. The next Sunday I started attending a Sunday School class for the first time since I was a kid. The next Wednesday I enrolled in a two year Bible overview called the Bethel Bible Series. One thing led to another and I became and Bethel teacher at the church and eventually went to seminary. Today I am responding to God's voice by studying God's book every day, and telling you what I find.

We can hear God's voice calling us through the scripture we read and hear proclaimed. We come to belief in Jesus Christ by allowing God's voice to speak to us through the Bible. That's why it is so important to start every day with God's word and prayer. That's why it is so important to study God's word on Sunday mornings and Wednesday afternoons or evenings. That's why it is so important to hear God's voice through the proclamation of Gospel each Sunday morning. Through all of these things we can hear God call our names and like Mary Magdalene come to belief with the promise of eternal life.

Once Mary Magdalene heard Jesus call her name her eyes were opened and she could see him in the world. This is what happens to us. After we hear God voice in our meditations, study and worship we then begin to see God in the world around us. The Bible was written by people who had heard God's voice and saw God doing things. They wrote these things down and the church has preserved them for us. So as we are immersed in the Scripture we are better able to see God in our world. Our study of the word of God helps us to see God in the world. So our eyes and our ears work together to bring us to belief in Jesus Christ. With our ears we hear God speak to us in church through the pages of the Bible. The helps to recognize God in the world we see with our eyes. Though hearing and seeing we come to belief.

Later that night the disciples gathered back in the upper room. They heard Mary Magdalene's report of her encounter with the risen Jesus. Then they saw Jesus in the room with them. The heard with their ears and saw with their eyes and came to belief. Like these disciples we are a people who have heard God speaking to us through the scripture. We are also a people who can see God at work in the world around us. So we are a people who believe. And on this Easter Sunday we believe with the disciple that Jesus loved and with Mary Magdalene and with the other disciples that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. This belief comes with a promise. Because we believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has promised us eternal life. This is what we celebrate at Easter.

And like Mary Magdalene and the disciples we just can't wait to proclaim to the world what we have heard and seen. “I have seen the Lord”, said Mary to the disciples. What will you say to the people you meet about what you have seen and heard? I urge to go and tell everyone the good news that Jesus Christ has been resurrected from dead. All who believe this receive the gift of eternal life. This may sound like something too good to be true. But it is true, we have heard and seen it. So proclaim it as the truth to everyone you meet so they will hear it too and come to belief.

The Easter story in John begins with the darkness of unbelief. But then through hearing and seeing belief comes into the world. This belief is that Jesus Christ, the light of the world, has been resurrected from the dead. He lives! Believe in your heart what others have heard and seen that Jesus conquered death. As believers you will now receive the gift of eternal life.

Lord Jesus we thank you for the gift of faith. Through you voice in scripture and through your work in the world we have heard you and seen you. So we believe in your resurrection from the dead and anticipate our own resurrections when we will live forever with you, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Help us to proclaim this good news to everyone we know. This we pray in your holy name. Amen.