Rev. Chris Enoch - March 27, 2016
Link To Sermon Audio
Scripture:
Hebrews 12:1-3
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
John 20:1-18
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
So Peter and the other disciple
started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter
and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen
lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived
and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the
burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by
itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached
the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not
understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
Then the disciples went back to their
homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to
look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had
been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, “Woman, why are you
crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she
said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around
and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
“Woman,” he said, “why are you
crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she
said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I
will get him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out
in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).
Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me,
for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell
them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples
with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these
things to her.