John 20:1, 10-18
Maybe You Need to See Jesus
It might surprise some of the younger people to learn this but
sometimes—even for an adult—life can be tough. I think that is why
God didn’t stop after He created Adam. He went on to create
Eve—giving Adam a wife—and commanded them to have children—a
family—all 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, let’s 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 can’t 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 angel’s appearance, it seems unlikely that
Mary realized she was talking to an angel for although
she obeyed the angel—and did so in haste—she 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 death’s cruelest deaths.
2. The One who endured death’s most painful deaths.
3. The One who kicked death’s 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 Jesus—all
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. That’s 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. I’d 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 most—perhaps than all—to feed God’s 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.
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