New Life Group Study - Part 3 - Rock Point Church · Rewind

Pastor Mark Collins · May 1, 2019 · 17 min watch · 3 min read

New Life Group Study - Part 3 - Rock Point Church

Big Idea

The risen Jesus meets us where we are — in grief, doubt, or hiding — and sends us out as witnesses of the new creation He has begun.

John 20 narrates the unfolding dawn of a new creation: the empty tomb with its undisturbed grave clothes, Mary's tearful encounter with the risen Gardener, the disciples' fearful commissioning, and Thomas's honest doubt resolved by a personal appearance of Jesus. Together these moments reveal that the resurrection is not merely a resuscitation but the launch of a whole new order — one in which Jesus sends His Spirit-empowered people into the world to announce forgiveness and carry the good news to every corner of creation.

Key points

1
1The undisturbed grave clothes in the empty tomb were evidence not of grave-robbery but of resurrection — Jesus had passed through death into a new creation entirely.
2
2Mary mistook Jesus for the gardener, but the preacher notes she was both wrong and right: Jesus is the new Gardener who brings order out of the chaos left since Adam was expelled from Eden.
3
3Jesus told Mary not to cling to Him because their relationship was about to change — He would soon return to the Father, and the Holy Spirit would become the new, permanent means of access to God.
4
4Mary Magdalene became an apostle to the apostles — the first person sent by the risen Jesus to proclaim the good news — even though the culture of her day dismissed women as unreliable witnesses.
5
5Jesus commissioned the disciples not to forgive sins on their own authority, but to announce forgiveness or its absence based on a person's response to the gospel — a mission only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit.
6
6Thomas's doubt was met not with rebuke but with personal appearance and tangible evidence, showing that Jesus responds to searching hearts and that honest questions are no barrier to encountering the risen Lord.
7
7Those who believe without seeing — including every generation after the apostles — are called truly blessed, and this should motivate us to seek the Lord through His Word while He may be found.

Application

The resurrection is not an event safely locked in the past — it is the opening chapter of a new creation that we are invited to live inside of right now. Jesus met Mary in her grief, the disciples in their fear, and Thomas in his doubt, and in every case He did not scold or abandon them. He met them where they were and then sent them forward. The same pattern holds for us. When sorrow or skepticism or shame tempts us to stay behind locked doors, Jesus shows up and says 'peace' — and then gives us something worth doing: announcing forgiveness, carrying good news, and living as Spirit-empowered witnesses in the world. We may not see Him face to face, but He still appears through His Word. Pick it up, wear it out, and let Him send you.

Take it into your week

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7-day devotional

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There is something quietly stunning about the detail John gives us in the tomb that first Easter morning. The grave clothes were not scattered or torn — they were lying there, undisturbed, as if a body had simply passed through them. Peter and John saw the same linen wrappings, but John saw them and believed. The sermon points out that this was not the scene of a theft. Thieves don't fold napkins or leave fabric arranged in peace. What happened here was something altogether different — something the world had never seen before. Jesus had not simply come back to the life He had before. He had passed through death into an entirely new kind of existence, a new creation breaking open from the inside out. That detail matters because it means the resurrection is not a patch on the old order. It is the beginning of something genuinely new. The same Jesus who lay in that tomb is alive — not as a resuscitated corpse counting down to a second death, but as the firstborn of a whole new creation. And because He is, everything that seemed final — grief, failure, death itself — is now open to question. The empty tomb does not just tell us Jesus is gone. It tells us something new has begun, and we are invited into it.

For reflection

What in your life have you quietly assumed is permanent or beyond hope? How does the reality of a genuinely new creation — not just a reset — change how you see that thing today?

Pray

Pray for open eyes to see the resurrection not as a past event but as a present reality that reaches into the parts of your life that feel most stuck or finished.

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

This message traces one extraordinary day in John 20 — from an empty tomb at dawn to a locked room that evening — and asks what it means that the resurrection isn't just history but the opening chapter of a whole new creation we're invited to live inside of right now.

Discussion questions

1
In John 20:6-8, Peter and John find the grave clothes lying undisturbed — not scattered, but neatly in place — while Jesus is gone. What do you think that detail was meant to signal to the first people who saw it?
2
Mary mistakes Jesus for the gardener, and the message pointed out she was both wrong and right — that Jesus is the new Gardener restoring what was lost when Adam was expelled from Eden. What does that image of Jesus as a new Gardener add to how we understand what the resurrection actually accomplished?
3
In John 20:17-18, Jesus chose Mary Magdalene as the first person He sent to proclaim the resurrection — even though her culture dismissed women as unreliable witnesses. What does that choice say about the kind of people Jesus sends, and about what His mission looks like?
4
In John 20:21-23, Jesus breathes on the disciples and says, 'As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you,' then gives them the Holy Spirit and ties that gift to the announcement of forgiveness. What do you think it means for ordinary people to carry that kind of authority into the world?
5
Thomas wasn't in the room the first time Jesus appeared, and when the others told him, he said he needed to see for himself. When Jesus came back and met Thomas face to face, He didn't scold him — He showed up with evidence. What does that response tell us about how Jesus handles honest doubt or hard questions?
6
In John 20:29, Jesus calls those who believe without seeing 'truly blessed,' and the message connected that directly to seeking Jesus through His Word. How might a community like ours actually live that out together — not just as individuals, but as a group?

Pray together

Ask God to meet us where we actually are — in grief, in fear, or in honest doubt — and to send us forward as people carrying the good news of forgiveness into the world around us.

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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New Life Group Study

Week 3 · 2 messages

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Doubt and Faith Encountering the Risen Jesus New Creation The Great Commission The Resurrection

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