The Conquering Savior

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Conquering Savior. He will be in John 20:1-10.

And so the story doesn’t end that somehow Jesus was on the cross and he failed in his mission no just the opposite for he conquered sin on that cross and when he came out of that grave he took care of our future in that we have eternal life in Jesus Christ hello this is pastor Mike Sanders with hope worth having thank you for joining us today on the radio broadcast as we’re looking forward to studying the gospel of John today we begin a new chapter we’re in chapter 20 covering verses 1 through 10 I’ve entitled the message the conquering Savior he is not only the suffering Savior and he is not only the Savior who was crucified for us but he is the Savior who lives today and he is risen from the dead let’s rejoice we studied together in the gospel of John as we look into the Word this morning I want to talk to you about the conquering Savior I think it’s imperative that you and I remember the context of the gospel of John that we understand that Jesus has unveiled to us supernaturally through the Spirit of God in the writing of the gospel of John the miraculous signs that have been woven into the gospel chapter after chapter verse after verse we have witnessed amazing miraculous sign and these miracles were designed to reveal who Christ is but they were also designed to ignite faith in to the hearts of those who would read it and that’s why when we come to this text in verse 8 of chapter 20 we’re so encouraged when the Bible says that when and also that other disciples which came first to the sepulcher saw and believed they saw and believed the scripture teachers teach us in verse 30 and 31 of this same chapter that truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples,

which are not written in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, that believing you may have life in His name. So throughout the chapters, these signs have been unveiled to us.

In chapter 2, we saw the changing of water into wine. In chapter 4, we saw the healing of the official Son. And then in chapter 5, we saw that there was a man who was by the pole of Bessetta, and he was healed.

In chapter 6, at the beginning of the chapter, we saw that Jesus fed the 5 ,000. Then at the end of the chapter, after teaching great lessons on faith, Jesus sent His disciples out into a boat, and a great storm came upon the Sea of Galilee.

And we witnessed the miracle of Jesus walking on water. In addition, in chapter 9, we saw the healing of a blind man that caused a great stir within the community and among the religious elites and upset them.

And then when we came to chapter 11, we got to see that great miracle of Lazarus being raised from the dead. Today, we come to the final miracle. It is in chapter 20. All of God’s miracles have a message.

They are not isolated unto themselves and simply something to observe, but rather God is sending us a message. The miracles are designed to point people to Jesus Christ for salvation. Jesus used the miracles to give validation to the evidence that he truly was the Messiah, that he truly was the Christ that was sent from the Father.

You and I, in a few weeks, will celebrate specifically the birth of Jesus Christ. And it’s really called the Advent of Christ, the coming of Christ. It is the birth of our Savior who has come in that God has not abandoned us.

He has not left us to ourselves. Unlike all other religions and all other teachings about so -called gods, we have a God who is very observant of our lives and he understands where we’re at and he not only suffered for us by coming into this world to be born, but he suffers with us in that Jesus Christ does not leave us alone.

Once we believe in him, he understands and empathizes and sympathizes with each of us as we walk through the journey of life. It is unfortunate that seeing is not always believing, that having read all of these wonderful miracles in the gospel, not everybody that sees believes.

After… seeing so many wonderful miracles in the ministry of Jesus Christ, there still was a crowd that desired for Him to be crucified. We talked about the crucifixion of Jesus last week, but what I want you to note is the sign of His resurrection is recorded in the Gospels.

And when we think about the resurrection of Christ being recorded, it is like no other miracle. It is the greatest miracle. It is the rising of Christ unto life. And I like to remind people that there is a difference between other resurrections and the resurrection of Christ up to this point.

For all other resurrections were resurrections unto death, for even Lazarus had to die again. But the resurrection of Christ, it was the unique resurrection of Christ, unique in its kind, for it was a not the first resurrection but rather it was the first of its kind in that it was the resurrection unto eternal life and the Bible promises that you and I have a resurrection just like that that is to come to us in that one day God will call us and we will rise from the dead and the Bible says the dead in Christ shall rise and we which remain will be caught up together and it is a resurrection unto life and we rejoice in that and therefore we understand that we have a savior who is a conquering savior and to understand how Jesus manifested his great power in the resurrection I want you to see even through his death burial and resurrection he has demonstrated that he is the conquering savior so let’s see the power of Christ first of all this morning manifested in his death in order to do that we back up a little bit into chapter 19 and we look at verse 31 through 33 the Bible says the Jews therefore because it was the preparation that the body should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day for that Sabbath was a high day besought pilot that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away then came the soldiers and break the legs of the first and of the other which was crucified with him but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already they break not his legs even in Jesus Christ being on the cross we see that he is a conquering savior because the Jews not wanting anyone to be crucified during Passover were in a hurry to get Jesus to the cross which we talked so much about last week but in addition they had to make sure that they came down from the cross and the Bible talks about a day of preparation which was simply the Friday before the Saturday before the Passover week and so they were in this mode of we’ve got to get him down because all work has to cease on Friday evening and so as a result of that John makes an important point here as he is linking the Passover celebration with the crucifixion of our Savior and you need to see how God is speaking and showing and connecting the dots for all who would read and understand that as the Jews are preparing for the Passover that Jesus Christ is the sacrificial Lamb that has already been offered up the sinless Son of God and that he is fulfilling all that God had prophesied about the sinless Son of God who would be the Lamb of God.

Again in verse 33 we note that the Bible says that they did not break the legs of Jesus. And the reason that is important is because in the Old Testament, the Passover lamb could not have any flaws or any broken bones or anything like that, and it had to be the perfect lamb in the sense that it had to be without blemish.

And so here is Jesus Christ offering up his life for our life, offering up himself as a sacrifice so that he can truly take the punishment for our sins and he is the sinless Son of God, key in keeping with all that was required by the law.

The Bible says in verse 34 of John chapter 19 that the soldiers pierced the side of Jesus Christ. Again, fulfilling the prophecies in Zechariah chapter 12 and reminding all of John’s readers that truly Jesus Christ was the suffering Savior.

And this is why you and I are not ashamed to preach the cross. For as the Apostle Paul said, the preaching of the cross is to them that perish and foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.

For we recognize that our Savior has conquered sin on the cross. We recognize that he has exactly fulfilled every aspect that is required by the law. The Bible teaches us that out of Jesus’ side came forth blood and water.

And I think that as we think about this, there’s certainly two different angles that we can look at this. That as we think about the fact that Jesus Christ was 100% man and he was 100% God, that Jesus Christ was born into this world, that he became a man, that he took on the flesh of a man.

The Bible teaches us in Philippians chapter two and yet he lived. a sinless life. He walked on this earth and he never violated the law. He never sinned against a holy God. He lived a perfect life. And then after he’s already declared it is finished, he’s already died and he’s already commended his soul into the hands of the Father, the Bible says that they thrusted a spear into his side and blood and water came out reminding us that he was truly man.

For there are some that might teach that somehow Jesus Christ was not truly a man but he was 100% as a true follower of Christ. You can’t deny the humanity of Christ that he truly was one of us and this is how he has brought redemption and forgiveness and grace to us.

He is not aloof, he is not distant, he is not far off, but rather he is among us in that Christ is 100% man. But he is also 100% God. The blood and the water being symbolism, symbolic of the fact that his blood and the power, the cleansing of his word washes away our sin and brings eternal life to all who believe in Jesus Christ.

The Hebrew writer said it so well in Hebrews 2 .14, when he said, in as much then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, that is that Jesus shared in our flesh, he shared in our humanity, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death.

That is the devil. And so Jesus Christ gave his life and he has conquered sin, he has conquered death, and Christ’s death is the supreme act of his mission of coming to this earth. We love a cuddly baby Jesus.

We are enamored with all the major scenes and rightly so. But remember that he came to die. He came for you and he came for me and he came for us so that we might know Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior.

And so may God help us to focus our minds and to focus our hearts on what is the true meaning of Jesus Christ coming to this earth. He is the conquering savior who has manifested his power through his death.

But he has also manifested his power through his burial. The burial of Christ is often overlooked among Christians. But again, we have a unique understanding of the burial of Christ because John takes some time to acknowledge the burial of Christ.

In verse 42, the Bible says there laid they Jesus. Therefore, because of the Jews preparation day for the settler was nigh at hand. Now it’s interesting because when you read this text, we see here that there were two men who were interested in taking care of the body of Christ as it was taken off the cross.

And those two men’s name were Nicodemus and Joseph. And I thought it interesting is that I was reading and studying and learning that it was mentioned by one author that it is amazing truth here that at the birth of Jesus, he was cared for by a man named Joseph.

And at the death of Jesus, his body was cared for by a man named Joseph. In this we see God’s providence. God is in control of all the unique details and the circumstances of our lives. For as we watch in the burial of our savior, how the details are taken care of, for not only is prophecy fulfilled, but the details are taken care of for the burial of Jesus Christ.

And Joseph and Nicodemus were two men who knew Jesus Christ. You remember Nicodemus, he came to Jesus by night. You remember that he was a religious teacher. You remember that he acknowledged that Jesus was from God.

For Jesus had been telling and communicating that he was sent from the Father. And the reason that this was so profound to the minds of those Jewish listeners was because they would know that whoever was sent from the Father must be the true Messiah.

And Jesus reiterates through the Gospel of John that he is sent from the Father, that he is on mission and on assignment from the Father, and that the Father has brought him to this earth to bring eternal life to all who would believe.

It was Nicodemus who early recognized that Jesus was sent from the Father. In that Nicodemus said, no man could do these works unless he was sent from the Father. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, and Jesus taught him that great principle that you must be born again.

You must be born again. That eternal life is not religious activity. Eternal life is not trying to keep all the lists of do’s and don’ts in your life, but eternal life is being born again, is receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior and acknowledging him as the one who has come to die for your sins.

The Bible teaches us here that Joseph and Nicodemus knew Christ. They were loyal to Jesus. And God had blessed these two men with great resources and an abundance of material things. And God had used these men to provide a place to fulfill his word in Isaiah 53 .9.

The prophet Isaiah said that, referring to the suffering servant, that he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence. Neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Joseph had made sure that there was a proper burial for our lives. Savior. Joseph had made sure that the body was taken care of and that he gave up his tomb, his sepulchre, if you will. He gave up his tomb for Jesus Christ.

He used his resources for the cause of God, which reminds me and encourages me that as a believer, this is my responsibility to understand that I’m blessed to be a blessing, right? And that God gives to us so that we might give to him, that we might give for his cause, for his work, for his ministry, for the purpose that God has.

It manifests itself in small ways and big ways. It manifests itself as you are led by the Spirit of God to do what he is called you to do. Listen friends, you can’t take it to heaven with you, right?

But to use our resources, and I’m moved and deeply touched by these two men in these short verses, verse 38. all the way down to verse 42, that they took care of the body of Christ. They understood that their riches did not gain them entrance into heaven, but they understood that God wanted them to use their riches to express their devotion, their loyalty, and their love to the cause of Jesus Christ.

The Bible teaches us in 1 Timothy 6, 17 and 18, as for the rich in this present age charged them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

And they are to do good, to be rich in good works, and to be generous and ready to share. Americans are more generous from September through December than any other time on the calendar. And I assume that’s because we’re gearing up for Christmas and we just can’t say no.

But I would say to us as believers, it doesn’t matter what month of the calendar it is, right? For we are led by the Spirit and we are driven by the cause of Jesus Christ. And we can see God’s great power moving in our hearts and moving in our lives as we use our resources.

Whether we can give little or we can give much, it doesn’t matter. It is that we all are ready to give and share, and we are ready to help advance the cause of Jesus Christ. The power of Christ is manifested not only in His death and His burial, it is manifested in His resurrection.

Now John takes us from Christ’s death to Christ’s resurrection. And that’s important for us to understand that it’s not the end of the story when Christ died for our sins. Paul the Apostle taught us that the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

And so the story doesn’t end that somehow Jesus was on the cross and He failed in His mission. No, just the opposite. For He conquered sin on that cross and when He came out of that grave, He took care of us.

of our future in that we have eternal life in Jesus Christ. The Bible says in John chapter 20 verse nine, yet they knew not the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. And here’s the point, they had not fully connected the dots.

If you’re a student of the Bible, you know that Jesus after his resurrection, that he walked a seven mile journey. It’s called the Emmaus Road. And he took this journey with some disciples and he began to help them understand and bring the Old Testament together with what he had been teaching them and helping them to understand that he was the fulfillment of what the prophets had proclaimed.

So we know that as we read this text in chapter 20 and verse nine, the New Testament has not been written. The gospels have not been written. The epistle letters have not been written by the apostles yet.

This has not taken place. So what scripture is he talking about? He’s talking about the Old Testament, and it wasn’t that they were ignorant of the Old Testament, they were very much learned, and they were very much cognizant of what the Old Testament taught, but they had not fully put it all together, and that it was through the resurrection of Christ that they began to understand, and that they began to see that Christ is the one that the prophets had been describing,

and he is the one that would bring eternal life. That is why the resurrection is the foundation of Christianity. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, and he said that he, referring to Christ, was raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

You see, it is what Christ has done in the cross and the resurrection that is brought about for us to be delivered from the wrath of God. We don’t like to talk about the wrath of God. It certainly doesn’t make us feel fuzzy, and it doesn’t make us feel good, but friends, on all who do not believe in Jesus Christ, the wrath of God is upon them, but whoever believes in Christ, Jesus has already taken the wrath of God for you.

This is why we invite all this morning who are listening to the sound of my voice and other gospel preachers throughout this nation who are proclaiming the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, we invite all to come to Jesus Christ so that they will no longer be under the wrath of God.

Now, certainly, the disciples in our text are concerned that perhaps somebody stole the body of Jesus, but John takes careful attention to remind us that no one could have taken the body of Christ because of the valuable linens and spices that were left behind.

So we come to verse six, and we note that Peter, the Bible says, then comes Peter, who was following him, and he went into the sepulcher, and he sees the linen clothes lying there. somebody was trying to steal the body of Christ they would have taken everything and then again here’s another detail verse 7 the napkin that was about his head was not lying with the linen clothes but wrapped together in a place by itself it was properly folded properly put in its place it was taken care of so this could undermine any argument that anybody would have that would say why all this was a sham and all this was just something that people made up and that somehow that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross and that he was just in a coma state and he just was overwhelmed with all the suffering and all that he was enduring and then he came to his senses and he got up and he left out of there absolutely not my friends there are all kinds of theories out there but I appreciate the attention that John gives to the detail providing us infallible proofs and verifying to us that our Savior is a triumphant God that our Savior has triumphed over death and He has triumphed over the grave.

And therefore, you and I can move forward and walk forward in the hope that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. As you and I read about the resurrection, we find and know and understand that Jesus is the source of life, that all life emanates from Him, and that one day He is gonna call us from the grave, and He is going to bring new life to all of us that have put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

And we’re gonna be blessed with a new body, and we’re gonna live with Him forever and ever. Now as our loved ones leave this earth, their spirit and soul is with Jesus Christ, but their body has not been resurrected.

But one day, that resurrection will take place. In John chapter five, verse 25, we know that Jesus will resurrect our bodies. But when He does, we will be granted a new body, and the soul and the spirit and the body will be reunited.

And Paul describes it as an incorruptible, immortal body that will never suffer disease, it will never endure suffering, it will never have to overcome any sickness because it will be an impeccable body that was created by God Almighty.

And what is unique about this body is that this body will be recognizable because the Bible says that we will be like Him. John three, two, beloved, now we are the children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.

So people say, Pastor, what’s my body gonna be like? It’s gonna be like the immortal body of Christ that after Jesus was resurrected, He walked on this earth for 40 days. He interacted with over 500 people.

people. He was seen by over 500 people according to the Apostle Paul. He trained and equipped and helped the apostles to connect the dots and understand all that he was teaching relating to the church and the new covenant and the times that we live in.

The apostles thought surely the now after his resurrection he would restore Israel but Jesus said no that’s not for you to know. He would then shortly ascend into heaven. But while Jesus was walking for 40 days on this earth he ate with the disciples.

He appeared and then he was gone. He walked through walls. There was a dimension about his body that you and I cannot fully grasp or understand but it is a dimension that will be true of all of us. And get this there is going to be a new heaven and there is going to be a new earth the Bible says.

And all that is in this world is going to be consumed and destroyed and God is going to create a new heaven. and a new earth, and you and I will be able to go from heaven and earth instantaneously, and we will be able to serve, and we will be able to fellowship, and we will be able to love, and we will be able to enjoy all that God has for us.

But my point is that you’re not just gonna float around on a cloud playing a harp. We will have responsibilities. We will serve the Lord Jesus Christ. We will worship Him. We will function using gifts and abilities, and talents, and intelligence, and emotions, but it’ll all be without sin.

It’ll be perfect. And you will fellowship with family, you will fellowship with friends, and you will fellowship with people you don’t know, but I want you to know that there is much hope for us to look forward to.

When you think about your loved ones, you think about those who have already gone on before you, you can be assured that there’s nothing about heaven that they are disappointed in, and that they are living at the maximum of their life.

For in thy presence, the psalmist said, in thy presence is fullness of joy, and at the right hand are pleasures forevermore. Paul taught us that death, oh death, where is your sting? Oh grave, where is your victory?

Friends, the Bible teaches us that His resurrection is our resurrection, and we will be like Jesus. And here’s what I want you to know. Until then, this power that was manifested in the death, and burial, and resurrection of Christ.

What about this power? This power that raised Lazarus from the dead, this power that raised our savior from the dead, is the same power that can raise your dead spirit. It is the same power that can awaken your heart to new life in Jesus Christ.

It is the same power that can bring you to the poor. to humble your heart and to confess your sin and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a conquering savior who has not only conquered disease and he has not only conquered demons and he’s not only conquered death, but friends, he can conquer our sinful souls and bring eternal life and forgiveness to all who believe in Jesus Christ.

That’s why Paul said these words in Ephesians 2 .1, and you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. I hope that your heart has been encouraged and you have been strengthened in the overwhelming evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

He is our savior who was sent by the father to finish the great work of bringing men and women, boys and girls, to him in true salvation. so we are rejoicing and we hope that you will come to Christ as well and believe in Him.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.