1. He Is Risen! See and Believe! John 20:1-9; 19-23

2. “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I WILL raise him up at the last day.” ~ John 6:40

3. 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. 2 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!” ~ John 20:1-2

4. So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.

5. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) ~ John 20:3-9

6. On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. ~ John 20:19-20

7. “…the Watergate cover-up actually lasted three weeks or less—from March 21 to April 8, 1973. Here we were, the 12 most powerful men in the United States. All the power of government was at our fingertips, but we could not keep a lie together for three weeks. The most powerful men in the world could not hold on to a lie…Are you going to tell me that those powerless apostles who were outcasts in their own land could be stoned, persecuted, and beaten for some 40 years, never once denying that Jesus was raised from the dead? Impossible, humanly impossible—unless they had seen the risen Christ face to face.” (Chuck Colson)

8. Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” ~ John 20:21-23

9. “God paid the human race the supreme honor by becoming one of us. He then paid us an even greater honor—in His death and resurrection. He made a way for us to become one with Him.” (Danny Silk) “We owe people an encounter with God. We owe them this honor.” (Bill Johnson)