As I was meditating on the resurrection this week, I found
myself exploring all the insights in the Scriptures,
namely in the Gospels, to just refresh my memory and to revisit
some things that we often know. And then skimming through what
the Word of God reveals, specifically about the events
that followed Christ's conquest of death, I encountered the very
first words that Jesus spoke after leaving the tomb empty.
Have you ever wondered what Christ's very first words were
when he rose from the grave? Well, when you consider the
sequence of Christ's post resurrection appearances, you'll
learn that Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene.
That's actually plainly stated at the end of the Gospel of
Mark. And that encounter is disclosed
to us in greater detail in John's writings, where he takes
us to that early Sunday morning and vividly describes it,
focusing on Mary's experience as she arrived at the burial site
of her Master. And it's in that testimony where
we locate the first documented words that Jesus said after
defeating death. And I'm sure that after reading
it, you will never forget it. Turn with me to John chapter 20
and let's look together at one verse here, verse 15, John 20,
verse 15. Jesus said to her, woman, why
are you weeping? Whom are you seeking, Supposing
him to be the gardener? She said to him, Sir, if you
have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I
will take him away. The first recorded words of
Jesus is in the form of a question.
Woman, why are you weeping? That fascinates me.
And it should compel us to pause, to zoom out, and to see
what took place before this and what follows it, to have Christ
approach Mary in this way. And that's what I want us to
consider in our short time together.
So let's read this in its entirety, beginning in verse 11
down through verse 18. But Mary stood weeping outside
the tomb. And as she wept, she stooped to
look into the tomb, and she saw 2 angels in white sitting where
the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.
They said to her, Woman, why are you weeping?
She said to them, they have taken away my Lord, and I do not
know where they have laid him. Having said this, she turned
around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was
Jesus. Jesus said to her, Woman, why
are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?
Supposing him to be the gardener?
She said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me
where you have laid him and I will take him away.
Jesus said to her, Mary, she turned and said to him in
Aramaic Rabboni, which means teacher.
Jesus said to her, Do not cling to me, for I have not yet
ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers and say to them,
I am ascending to my Father, and your father to my God and your
God. Mary Magdalene went and
announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and that He
had said these things to her. Verse 11 May be a little bit of
an awkward place to begin reading this account, so I think
it'll be helpful to just remember a little bit of the
back story here. If you look back at the
beginning of the chapter, we discover that Mary makes her way
to the tomb early in the morning, even before the sun
pierced the horizon. She's there to pay her honors,
but upon coming to that place, she saw that the that the stone
was rolled away, and this alarmed her.
So immediately she makes her way back to Peter and John and she
tells them, assuming the worst, they've taken his body.
Somebody kidnapped the body of the Lord.
Peter and John immediately make their way to this place, and
upon arrival, the Scriptures tell us that they silently, yet
carefully investigate the scene. There are the clothes, but
there's no body. And quite unexpectedly, the
disciples, in a state of confusion, walk away and they go
back home. That is how this section
concludes before we read what we find in verse 11.
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb.
There's something deeply commendable about Mary choosing
to stay where Jesus was laid while the disciples walked away.
This in no way is an attack on Peter and John, but you cannot
deny that Mary's refusal to leave so quickly speaks volumes
about her yearning for Christ. It's a beautiful demonstration
of how Mary understood her relationship with the Lord.
Her connection to Christ was not reduced to obeying some
commands, adhering to some moral code, joining a community of
religious people, or even signing up for an exciting
ministry. What Mary reveals here is that
her relationship with Jesus Christ was rooted in a sincere
and genuine love for the person. And the rest of the scene
confirms a very powerful truth. Christ honors those whose hearts
yearn for Him. More than anything else, the
fact that Mary was the first person that Jesus chose to
reveal Himself to means something.
It reveals that He blesses those who desire Him.
This precious woman love the Lord.
She had rich affection for him. She's broken.
In fact, I was struck by her reaction when she eventually
looked into the tomb to see what Peter and John saw.
And what does she find? She sees 2 angels in white
strategically seated at the slab where the body of Jesus was
laid, one at the head and one of the feet, invoking the imagery
of the cherubim who are infused on the Ark of the Covenant,
looking down on the mercy seat. We don't have time to get into
that as much as I would like to, because what we want to consider
is what these two angels said or asked Mary while her face was
being stained with tears. Woman, why are you weeping?
And her answer moves me. Look again at verse 13.
They sat her a woman. Why are you weeping?
She said to them. They have taken away my Lord,
and I do not know where they have laid him.
Isn't this remarkable saying? What's so remarkable about it?
Mary, standing in front of angels, is not distracted for a
moment. She's unfazed by their
mysterious appearance. No curiosity.
Curiosity is sparked. There's no diversion here.
Where had they taken him? Why is she not moved by what
she's seeing? Because her heart is already
consumed with Christ. She's after Christ.
She wants to find Christ. Oh, how easily our pursuit of
Christ is interfered, is meddled with pivots by things, even good
things. And yet this woman shows us as
an inspiring model that it is possible to not allow anything
or anyone get in the way of what should be our greatest goal.
Getting nearer and nearer to Christ.
I notice she boldly calls him my Lord.
Do you see that in verse 13? They have taken away my Lord,
even though in her mind Christ is dead.
Imagine this for a moment. In Christ's greatest
humiliation, Mary is unashamed to call him my Lord when it was
very dangerous to be associated with Public Enemy #1 Mary is
unafraid to say He is my Lord even in front of these
strangers. And from a human, carnal,
unbelieving standpoint, there is no benefit of declaring Jesus
Christ is Lord because he's supposedly dead.
And yet, Mary is unwavering in her devotion to Christ.
Where is my Lord? I must find him.
This woman loved the Lord Jesus. She adored Him.
And while her standing and her searching is admirable, her
weeping is not. The angels asked a very
important question when they asked Why are you weeping?
Because her answer reveals that her tears ultimately stem from a
misunderstanding of the work of Christ and what he had promised.
There is no reason to weep. If Jesus was still in the tomb.
And that's what you saw, Mary, you have every reason to weep,
and so should we. But the tomb is empty.
So why are you weeping? Here's what this shows us.
Mary's tears, like us, are often because we bring unnecessary
sorrow upon ourselves, and that sorrow is stimulated because we
fail to grasp who Jesus Christ accurately is and what He said
to us. How many times did Mary hear it?
Surely she found herself around the disciples.
Surely she heard what Christ taught about his own death, his
own burial, his own resurrection.
And she missed it. Her and the other disciples
should be at the tomb, rejoicing.
He gave him a play by play. What's going to happen?
Instead, she's there, weeping. Where did that come from?
Unbelief. Where'd that come from?
Missing what Jesus said. And listen, we are much more
like Mary in this than we would like to admit.
Christ's word is right in front of us.
His character is spelled out so obviously, and yet we still weep
for things that we shouldn't be weeping about.
This is a common trait of the disciples.
By the way, do you remember when Jesus sends them off into the
sea and a storm comes in and visits those disciples while
Jesus stays back on the shore and the winds are battering them
and the waves are crashing up against their vehicle?
And all of a sudden that sight we find Jesus walking on those
very waters in their direction? Do you remember what the
disciples said according to Matthew's version of the story?
Let me remind you what they said in Matthew 14.
Here in verse 26 they said something that I think is quite
humbling for us. But when the disciples saw him
walking on the sea, they were terrified and said it is a
ghost. And they cried out in fear.
It is a ghost. And So what we have here is how
we can often miss it, that Christ is present, that Christ
is faithful, that Christ is near.
And we see other things. Mary doesn't see it.
And so she's here confused. She's here trying to solve this.
She's here trying to make sense of this puzzle.
And what's fascinating here is that Christ is going to show his
ultimate patience for this woman.
So she's here showing her love. She's here showing her devotion,
yes, but her weeping is not justified.
And the one truth that is profoundly powerful enough to
purify perception of everything is this Jesus Christ is alive.
That one single reality can stop many tears from flowing if we
really believe it. So let me borrow the the
question of the angels and ask each of you in this room, are
you weeping? And if you are, why?
Why are you weeping? And once you've identified the
cause of your misery and the the pain that seems to be so fierce
and so overwhelming, let me ask you another question.
Have you ever tried taking the object of your sadness and
placing it in the light of this glorious fact?
Jesus Christ is alive? Have you ever consciously done
that? Have you ever intentionally
moved your sorrow to that place in your heart?
Because Mary forgot what Christ said.
She's weeping. And when we lose sight of that
same truth, we too will find ourselves paralyzed, puzzled
unnecessarily. Because if He's alive, that He's
sovereign over all things, including death.
And if He's alive, then He is, yes, governing the entire
universe, but not just the nations, and not just the stars
and not just kingdoms. But He promised to shepherd your
daily life with His infinite wisdom and unstoppable power.
So why are you weeping? I challenge you.
Anything that causes that agony, take it to the Lord and stamp on
it. Well, Christ is alive, so my
body may be sick, Christ is alive.
I may fear death, but Christ is alive.
I may not know the next step in this life, but Christ is alive.
Mary unfortunately didn't see it.
And perhaps you're sitting there today and you're thinking, well,
listen, you're preaching to the choir, brother.
I believe Christ is alive. I showed up here.
OK, maybe you do believe that Christ is alive, but perhaps
your stumbling block is not necessarily that event, but the
character of the one who did race from the grave.
And if that's you today, then I want you to consider what this
risen Savior does for this miserable follower of His.
Look again at verse 14 of John 20.
Having said this, when she said, they've taken away my Lord.
Having said that, she turned around and saw Jesus standing,
but she did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the
gardener? She said to him, Sir, if you
have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I
will take him away. Is that something?
Mary? What are you going to do with
the body anyway? So much can be said about these
verses, but let's simply start by acknowledging how Jesus
Christ chose to approach Mary. Notice that He didn't scold her,
doesn't even rebuke her. He shows up and he tenderly and
patiently guides her by way of reflection.
She didn't get it the first time when the angels asked the
question, Why are you weeping? And so he asks it again.
That's patience. That's kindness.
And more than that, he adds to that question to help her
investigate her own heart, examine her own soul.
I need you to think about this with me.
This is the very first encounter that Jesus has with any one of
his fathers after he vacated the tomb.
What does it show that Christ prioritized comforting the one
who is clearly in the most anguish, The one that was
singing about Christ who conquered death is so rich with
compassion for every single one of us in this place.
The first thing that He does is come and clarify the confusion
that is causing internal chaos in this woman's heart.
That's the first thing that He does.
And the Holy Spirit indicates that here, in order for you to
know one of the primary truths that I must embrace about the
resurrected crisis, that He cares about my tears.
He actually cares. Yes, this one who's in control
of all things, this one who defeated death, sin, Satan, one
of the top things to do on his list on that resurrection
morning is I must comfort Mary. That's the heart of Christ.
And yet Mary in this moment shows us, we regularly fail to
recognize the Lord as we should. You notice here that in the
midst of her frantic state, Jesus is right there.
So she's looking into the tomb. She sees the two angels, she
answers their question. And having said this, she
turned, you know, some try to figure out why she turned.
Did she hear the steps? Did the angels motion?
This is all speculation. One of my favorite ones though
is that the angels and seeing Christ stood up and she looked.
You know, Christ is near to us in our pain than we think, but
we often miss it. We fail to believe it.
We're looking for feeling. We're looking for something
tangible. Some write it in the sky, and
yes, this is a resurrection appearance, but it shows us a
principle that is true to this day about the resurrected
Christ. He's close, and you and I must
develop the eyes of faith to see that.
Well, Mary doesn't see that, and there's debate again about why
she couldn't recognize him when she turned around.
Right. She turns around and she sees
him, but she doesn't see that it's Christ.
Was it because it was still dark?
Was it because her eyes were filled and blinded?
Because of her tears? Was it because of her hysteria?
Was it a combination of both? Some say it's because Jesus
cloaked Himself, but it doesn't say He did that.
So let's not distract ourselves from what this is trying to
teach us. She did not perceive Him in the
midst of her confusion and turmoil.
We often do the same. Again.
I alluded to the disciples who were on that water and it was
about to ravish them and destroy them.
And here's Christ coming and they say it's a ghost.
It's a ghost. Hold on.
The one who is sovereign over the waves, the one who is
unmoved by the winds, the one who is for you, the one who sent
you, you see as a ghost. You know, there are many good
hearted believers who are more ready to acknowledge the
presence of demons and Satan in the midst of their problems
instead of acknowledging the Providence of Christ, instead of
acknowledging the power of Christ, we're more ready to say
it's a ghost than it's this. And you fail to see He's there.
He's always been there. He's not surprised by the storm.
You may be, but He's sovereign over it.
And here's Mary where she looks at Jesus.
He's right behind her, touching distance.
And what does the text tell us? She supposed that he was the
gardener. Why?
Gardener of all things, you know, John tells us.
Why are you there in John 20? Go to John 19.
Look at John 19, verse 41. Now in the place where he was
crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in
which no one had been yet been laid.
Jesus tomb was in a garden. And so Mary, turning to see this
man standing there, assumes that in the early hours of the day
the gardener has come to do his job.
And in her desperation she looks at the gardener thinking maybe
the gardener took Jesus away. Do you, do you know where you've
laid him? Can you tell me where you've
laid? I'll take him.
I wonder if you and I can sense a theme that John is trying to
illustrate. Obviously because he is being
led by the Holy Spirit. Think about it with me.
Christ was raised from a tomb in a garden, because long ago sin
entered into the world in a garden.
And in that garden long ago, the Lord walked in the cool of the
day. To do what?
To pronounce a curse, a sentence of death that would impact the
world forever. But now, on this resurrection
morning, the Lord stands again in a garden, not to pronounce a
curse, but to send forth a message of hope and salvation
until the world is fully restored again.
This is a new day not just for Jesus.
This is a new day not just for Mary.
This is a new day for mankind. So Mary thinks it's the
gardener. She's just she's falling apart
and we can applaud it because she loves Jesus so much, but we
also have to come gently say, Mary, there's you don't have to
weep like this. And everything is about to
change. She's about to realize very
quickly this is no gardener. Why?
Because look at verse 16. Jesus said to her, Mary, you
can't be a gardener because you wouldn't know my name.
You're not a landscaper. And I am sure that the way Jesus
said Mary's name had a ring of familiarity.
The tone, the pronunciation, everything about Jesus saying
her name unlocked the revelation and simultaneously flooded her
heart with joy and peace. It's an amazing thing to believe
that this resurrected Christ knows us by name.
Yes, we are sheep, but guess what?
Sheep are named? You don't get A tag on your ear
with a number on it. He knew her name.
She knew how he said her name. So when he said it, she melts.
And once again, Mary's reaction inspires me.
The first thing that she does when she hears her name spoken
in the way only Jesus can is turn her back to the angels and
from her lips cry Rabboni. So the movement here seems to
indicate that when she was looking into the tomb initially
and the angels were there asking the question, she answered it.
She senses the presence of someone else.
She, I, I think this is what's happening.
She turns her head only, but then when she hears her name,
she turns completely and she says Rabboni.
And John helps us in the meaning of this title means teacher, but
it's more than Rabbi Rabboni. It's a, it's a term of yes,
endearment. It's an emphatic way of saying
rabbi. It's like my teacher, my master,
my Lord. Listen, although it's personal,
Mary shows us something so important.
She gives Christ His due a title of dignity, respect and honor.
That's what spontaneously shoots out of her heart and her lips
when she discovers this is Him. And it teaches us something very
important about how we should and how we must relate to Jesus
Christ. Christ is intimate.
Christ is loving. Christ is thoughtful.
Christ oozes with mercy. Christ is very intentional with
each of us. And Mary who experienced the
love of Christ. Understand that this is the same
Mary whom the Gospels tells us Jesus delivered her from 7
demons. She knew the love of Christ.
She knew the power of Christ. She knew the rescuing grace of
Christ, and she in this moment is about to know a fresh
revelation of her, of his personal lover.
And yet none of that diminished her reverence for him.
You know when I first got saved in the early years.
Being a Christian, I notice how some people act as if the
invitation to be close to Christ gives license for us to be
cheeky with Christ, to be a little too casual with Jesus.
Be careful, Praise God, He is incredibly approachable, but
never forget that He is King. He is exalted forever, He's
matchless in His Majesty. He is infinitely holy.
The Seraphim dare not even look at him with their bare eyes.
So he is shepherd, He is friend, He is the lover of our souls.
But Mary shows us as close as Christ can get to us and longs
to be with us. He used to be reverenced, He
used to be feared. Rabbi and I and notice we come
to the end of this story. We see Mary moving merely from
turning her head to turning her body to now clinging to Christ
and we know that because what does Jesus say in verse 17?
Jesus said to her, do not cling to me.
Now I'm aware that the King James, which was really the only
and the most notable and famous Bible in the English speaking
world for hundreds of years, renders this part as Touch Me
Not so people get the idea that what Mary was doing here was
just simply touching him. But the the language and the
context suggests, especially in the original Greek, the word
more accurately means to fasten oneself to.
So you have to understand what Mary is doing here is clutching,
grabbing, not just embracing. But what makes this prohibition
from Christ more difficult is when we factor in the broader
context of the resurrection. Because we heard at the opening
of the service that when the group of women who visited the
tomb were making their way back to the disciples to say what the
angels told them, Jesus appears and he says, greetings.
I love that. You know what that means.
Hello. And that one hello.
Obviously the site of Christ before them makes them drop to
their knees and it and it says that they held fast to his feet.
Why didn't he stop them from doing that?
There's no indication at the end of Matthew that he says don't,
don't, don't grab my feet. What about Thomas when he shows
up in that meeting because he missed the first one when Christ
appeared and Jesus looks at him, he says, Thomas, he extends his
wounds. He says come touch him.
He invites him to touch him. What about the end of Luke 24
when Christ has another meeting with the disciples and he says,
look, I'm flesh and bone here. Touch.
So why in this case, when Mary Magdalene wants to grab him, the
Lord says do not. And we don't have time today to
explore every possible view. But in my opinion, the most
convincing is that Jesus Christ understood the intent of Mary's
action. Here He read the motive.
He understood why she was doing this, and the motive behind her
clinging is that she wanted to restrain him.
She wanted to keep him. She wanted to have him the way
she has always known him before his death.
Physically present, practically accessible.
And Jesus in the same verse, let's Mary know it would no
longer be this way. I must ascend to the Father.
And in doing so, Mary, along with every other true believer,
would experience what Christ taught about and promised after
His ascension and His exaltation, the indwelling of
the Holy Spirit. This is a new era.
This is going to be a big change for marrying the other followers
of Christ. But Christ also assured them
that it would be better. Sure, it's not physical.
Sure it's not tangible. But it's going to be spiritual.
And part of that spiritual blessing is that there is
uninterrupted access to Christ any place, anywhere.
All of us at the same time can have Christ one-on-one.
Mary, this whole thing is not done yet.
Don't think that it's going to be the way it was these past few
years. It's going to be different.
Don't cling to me. But we have to be careful,
because although Christ has risen and he's ascended to
heaven, and though we are enabled to engage with him on a
spiritual level, the Lord Jesus Christ, pay attention, please.
It's still flesh and bone. Understanding that important
theological truth helps us make sense of what Jesus says in this
verse. Notice this.
He tells her to relay this message to the disciples.
I am ascending to my Father, and your father, to my God and your
God. So those who deny the deity of
Christ will often come to this text and corner Christians and
ask the following If you claim that Jesus Christ is God, how
can he claim that he has a God? Resurrection is a very emotional
experience by brothers and sisters.
We have to be able to explain why we believe what we believe.
He says my God. And this statement would have
been easy to explain had he made it before his death and
resurrection. Because we would, I hope, be
able to say that the reason why Christ can say my God is because
the Father is his God by virtue of his humanity.
Jeremiah 3227 tells us the Lord who is the God of all flesh.
And remember that verse, The Lord who is the God of all
flesh. That's what the Lord says.
So when Christ, the second person of the Trinity, takes on
flesh, he assumes that the Father now is his God by virtue
of his humanity. Great.
But here's where people stumble. Jesus made this declaration,
made this statement after his death and resurrection.
If it was before his death, I could just say, yes, he became
man because of that. He relates to God as his God.
But now he rose from the grave. And if you found yourself
troubled by this or maybe confronted, not knowing how to
answer, today's the day where it changes.
It's very simple really, because what we have to understand about
the resurrection is that when Christ did indeed defeat death,
when he did walk out of that tomb, he did not do so
spiritually as some cults claim. He did not ascend invisibly as
some assume He did, both with a glorified body.
Christ physically arose. Christ physically ascended.
You ready for this? Christ is physically seated at
the right hand of God. So that same body that was
pierced, the same body that was beaten, that same body that was
hung, that same body that was prepared to be buried, that same
body that went into the tomb is the same body that came out of
the tomb. What does that lead to?
Well, if he is still flesh, though glorified, then the truth
of God being his God as a man still remains.
And that's why even after his resurrection, that's why even
after his ascension, where we find in Revelation where Jesus
is giving letters to the churches, he still says in some
of those places, my God, why? Because he is flesh forever, the
God man seated at the right hand of power for eternity.
We often think that when Christ came into this world and took on
flesh, He unzipped the flesh and He just moved on as though
things are going back to the way they were in eternity past.
Not so when Christ came in the flesh.
He added to His divinity humanity forever.
That's the extent of the price that Christ paid for us.
I wonder what a sight it was when Christ ascended to heaven
and He went up to those gates and for the first time ever,
flesh and blood glorified, entered into that place, and not
just entered into that place, but walked up to the Father and
sat beside him. And the Father accepts it
because his Son accomplished his will.
Oh, there's more to be said about this.
Let's land it soon. Here.
Notice that Jesus also said, yes, He is my Father, your
Father, my God, and your God. But one might wonder, why didn't
he just say our Father and our God?
That would have simplified the message, right?
Jesus is very careful with his words.
Do you believe that? I believe that with his recorded
words in red and with his entire word from Genesis to Revelation,
he's very precise when he needs to be.
The reason why Jesus makes this distinction, my Father, your
Father, my God, your God, is because he wants to teach
something very important about his status before God and that
of the disciples. He does now invite the disciples
to understand that He is your Father and He is your God.
But he also wants to make clear that God being Father to him has
always been from eternity past. God being Father to Christ is
because of Christ's nature. That has never changed.
But God being Father to the disciples and us is not because
of our nature. It's because of adoption.
He is my Father by virtue of my standing as the Son of God.
It always was. He is your Father because of
grace, and you were invited into that relationship because my
resurrection seals that status. And that's why He can say what
He said to Mary about how He identified these disciples.
Look at it again in verse 17. Do not cling to me, for I have
not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers.
My what? My brothers.
So if you're sitting there today as we wrap things up and you
think to yourself, that's a wonderful, wonderful explanation
of how Christ is so soft and patient towards Mary Magdalene.
But I'll admit, preacher, my devotion to Christ is nowhere
near Mary's. I'm more like those two
disciples on the road to Emmaus who are making their way back
home like, well, I guess he wasn't the hope.
A little bit of sadness there, but I'm ready to move on with my
life. Mary can't seem to function
here. And if that is what you're
thinking in this place, remember where the 12 disciples were at
this point, Judas is gone. Yes, Thomas is.
Who knows where the others obviously fearful.
The greatest failure that the disciples committed was walking
away from Christ in his greatest time of need, denying Him,
walking away from Him, and not believing what he had said about
His own resurrection. This is the lowest of the low
for the disciples. You know what Christ tells Mary
to tell them. Go tell my brothers.
If you said my servants, I would have been happy with that.
If you said my anything, we can praise Christ for his
acknowledgement, but of all things he says, go tell my
brothers. The disciples walked away.
The other disciples are hiding. They're still my brothers,
they're still mine, they still belong to me.
Who is this Jesus? You know, I'm fully aware that
there are people in here who might want to be somewhere else.
It's possible that you're here physically, but your heart is in
a different place because you're perhaps disappointed with God,
angry at God, living in sin, with all that you know about
God. But you know what the
resurrection does for those who believe it and those who have
put their faith and trust in it. It secures a relationship with
Christ that is unfathomable, that even in your distancing and
your separation and your back turned on Him, if you belong to
Him, the Lord looks at you with eyes of love.
Go tell my brothers. He doesn't give up on us, we
give up on Him. He's never failed us.
We fail Him. He's never told us anything that
was untrue. We don't believe Him.
And yet in this pathetic display of devotion on the part of the
disciples, Jesus says, Go tell my brothers, and what does Mary
do? In verse 18, Mary Magdalene went
and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and that
he had said these things to her. Can you imagine this woman who
had seven demons living inside of her, delivered from Christ
and because of her love her though, though her faith was not
fully developed, though she didn't have all the answers,
Christ honored her longing. And He came so carefully and so
lovingly to help her get out of this darkness.
And more than that, He gives her a message to give to the
apostles. Everything about Jesus and His
resurrection appearances shows grace upon grace.
Let me think about it. You would think that Christ
might make an appearance to Pilate after he rose.
Hey, Remember Me? What about the religious
leaders? What are you going to say now?
He doesn't do that. What does he go to?
The first person? Mary lost, bewildered, heaving
Mary, what about the disciples? Go tell my brothers this amazing
God that we serve, that we can know, that we can draw near to,
that we can experience, made what I'm speaking about
available because He chose to come into this world, take on
flesh, to be killed and crucified so He can purchase
what we've always needed. Friday we recognize the bread
and the cup. And in God's Providence, as we
always do in the first Sunday of the month, we recognize the
bread and the cup, but with an added reminder that flesh of His
was broken on our behalf. But that same flesh rose,
glorified, and Jesus Christ one day will come back bodily, and
we will be with him forever. I wonder if you know this Jesus
of whom I speak. I wonder if you've experienced
this Jesus. These are not just nice stories
that people put together. These are historical accounts,
and they are meant to show you who Jesus is and what he is
like. Are you not drawn to him?
Are you not moved by Him? Do you not want to have Him?
He is available and the way you access Him is by faith.
The way you experience Him is in a moment you realize I am a
Sinner, I am vile, I am guilty. It was my sin to put Him on that
cross, but He paid for it and so I received this gift.
Lord, forgive me, I repent. If you're willing to make me an
enemy into a brother and to a sister into a child of God, if I
can through you be able to call God the Holy 1 enthroned in
heaven as Father, I receive it. Why would you not?
What's better than that? And believer, maybe today you're
like Mary. You have an intense love for
Christ, but you're confused about some things.
Jesus is near to you than you imagined.
And if you never want to fall into that place again where
you're weeping tears and staying up and losing sleep for things
that you shouldn't get into the Word, know what he has said,
know who he is, and you'll save yourself from unnecessary tears.
Maybe some of you in here are like the disciples.
You're here. You're not really here actually.
So be it. He still loves you and he
summons you. He doesn't want you to live
another moment outside of his perfect will.
Would you respond to his conviction today?
So this is a table of remembrance of what Christ has
done for us. And it is prescribed for
Christians, those who have put their trust in the message that
these emblems represent. So if you are a Christian here,
you were invited to eat at this feast.
But if you're here today visiting us, we're so glad that
you're here. But know this, we honor Christ,
we believe his word, we want to love Him and obey him above all
else. And what he asks is that you
would not partake if you do not belong to him.
However, you can belong to Him, and while you see people taking
these elements and you sit there, realize that these people
are making a declaration. I've been saved by grace and you
can be saved by that same grace. Every person walking up here is
not holier than thou. Every person that's making their
way up here saying I've been forgiven.
Jesus is real to me, and I'm here to remind my own soul that
it's because of what He has done that I am redeemed forever.
So let's prepare our hearts, shall we, and ask Him to make
himself more real to us by faith.
We thank you, Father, for these truths.
Just a glimpse of what you were like.
Because when we see Christ, we see also who the Father is.
Distinct, yes, and persons, but one, an entity, one in being.
And what we've come yet again to the table to partake of the
truth of what Christ has done for us 2000 years ago.
Help our hearts savor these things with the revelation that
the Christ who appeared to marry the Christ who asked for the
disciples, as the Christ who loves us and sees us no
differently, we rejoice in these things together in Jesus name,
Amen. Amen.