Hebrews 9:12
"Neither by the blood of goats and calves, (as we just saw in the previous verses) but by his own blood (the Blood of the Cross, on Calvary as the high priest entered behind the veil with the blood of an animal. This High Priest, Christ Jesus Himself by His own Blood) enters into the holy place, (in heaven. In other words into the presence of God the Father. Not with the blood of bulls and calves) having obtained eternal redemption for us."
With His own Blood we have the redemption. Now I know this is all hard for most humans to comprehend but we are to take it by trusting in His faith. How did He approach the Father in the Holy of Holiest in Heaven? By presenting His own Blood at the Mercy Seat of the Throne Room? Remember Aaron and the following priests came in behind the veil with the blood of animals, and that only once a year and then only under certain conditions, so Christ came in with His own Blood, just one time. Now I’m going to take you back to John’s Gospel.
Come back with me to chapter 20 and you all know the account. How that Mary Magdalene, along with all of the other believers and followers of Jesus, had no idea that He would be raised from the dead. That fact never entered their mind, even though Jesus had told the Twelve more than once, that He would die and rise again, yet it was hidden from them, providentially of course. And so Mary Magdalene is no different and so she’s going to carry out the process of anointing the body after the burial.
John 20:1
"The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, (in other words, before full daylight.) when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre."
Now here comes the human element, the minute she sees that, she’s shaken to her toes and what does she do? She just turns on her heels and she runs as fast as that poor girl can run and finds Peter and John.
John 20:2
"Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, (whom we know was, John) and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him."
Peter doesn’t say, "Well, Mary, we know! He’s not supposed to be in the tomb. He’s risen from the dead!" He doesn’t have the foggiest notion of resurrection yet, and so he’s just as shocked as Mary.
John 20:3
"Peter therefore went forth, and the other disciple, and came to the sepulchre."
Don’t think for a minute that was an early morning stroll. They ran! This was shocking, the tomb empty! With all those Roman guards stationed with threat of their lives if anybody would try to take the corpse. Because you know, that’s what the Pharisees did. They made sure that the Romans stationed guards around the tomb because they had heard that somebody had said He would be raised after three days and three nights, so they thought that was just a gimmick. They’d come and steal the corpse and then they’d be able to say, "See, He rose from the dead." So they purposely asked the Romans to put extra guards around the tomb.
Now if you know Roman law, you know that when those men were stationed with that kind of responsibility it was with their lives at stake. And here comes Mary and now Peter and John and I don’t even see any record that the soldiers are around. They’ve either run for their lives or they’re already executed, but they’re not there. But the tomb is empty as Matthew reveals there was an earth quake which caused the stone that covered the hole in the stone wall to roll away. Then Matthew also tells us that the dead were raised with Christ as He had the power of an Endless Life in Him. He had to take them and Himself into the Heavenliest and the Holiest of all quickly. That is why he told Mary not to cling to Him.
John 20:4
"So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre."
I think this is all so practical because we’re pretty confident that Peter was quite a bit older than John and so the young man shows his athletic ability. And John outruns Peter, and gets to the sepulcher first. But of course, John is more timid than Peter and so he doesn’t go right in. You want to remember the sepulcher was a cave in the limestone cliff and that’s why the stone could be rolled away from the opening. And so verse 5.
John 20:5-6
And he (John) stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.(I just picture him as being a little bit young and timid.) Then cometh Simon Peter following him, (now I like to bring this down to the every day. He’s probably around forty years old. And I don’t know how far he’s run but he’s been running pretty hard, so what’s he doing? He’s huffing and he’s puffing, but he doesn’t even stop to get his breath, Can’t you just hear him? So Peter) went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie."
As he looks around, he just surveys the whole scenario. Now verse 7.
John 20:7
"And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself."
No comments:
Post a Comment