If you would open your Bibles
with me, the book of John, John chapter 20. If you want to mark
this, this will serve as our text this morning. Brother Eric
Floyd is preaching in Williamsburg. We want to remember him in prayer
this morning. John chapter 20, we'll begin
reading in verse one, read down through verse 18. The first day of the week cometh
Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark unto the sepulchre
and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she
running and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom
Jesus loved and saith unto them, they've taken away the Lord out
of the sepulchre and we know not where they have laid him.
Peter therefore went forth and that other disciple and came
to the sepulchre. So they ran both together, and
the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the
sepulcher. And he, stooping down and looking
in, saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in. Then come
Simon Peter following him, and went to the sepulcher, and seeth
the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about his head,
not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place
by itself. Then went in also that other disciple, which came
first to the sepulchre, and he saw and believed. For as yet
they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from
the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own
home. But Mary stood without at the sepulchre, weeping. And
as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre,
and seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head,
the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And
they say unto her, Why weepest thou? She saith unto them, because
they've taken away my Lord, and I know not where they've laid
him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and
saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus
saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She,
supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou
have borne him hence, Tell me where thou hast laid him, and
I'll take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself and said unto
him, Rabboni, which is to say, master. Jesus saith unto her,
touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my father, and go
to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my father
and your father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came
and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he
had spoken these things unto her. We'll end our reading there. Let's stand together now as Shawn
leads us in singing our call to worship. Sons of God, redeemed by blood,
raise your songs to Zion's God. Made from condemnation free,
raise triumphant, sing with me. Calvary's wonders let us trace,
Justice magnified in grace. Mark the crimson streams and
say, Thus my sins were washed away. Wrath divine, no more we
dread. Vengeance smote our surety's
head. Legal claims are fully met. Jesus paid the dreadful debt. Lamb of God, thy death have been,
pardon, peace, and hope of heaven. It is finished, let us raise
songs of gratitude and praise. Okay, if you would, turn in your
hymnals to song number 39. This is my Father's Word. This is my father's world and
to my listening ears all nature sings and round me rings the
music of the spheres. This is my father's world. I rest me in the thought of rocks
and trees, of skies and seas, this and the wonders wrought. This is my father's world. The birds their carols raise
The morning light, the lily white Declare their Maker's praise
This is my Father's world He shines in all that's fair In
the rustling grass, I hear Him pass. He speaks to me everywhere. This is my Father's world. Oh, let me ne'er forget. That though the wrong seems oft
so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my Father's world, the
battle is not done. Jesus, who died, shall be satisfied,
and earth and heaven be one. Turn for your reading this morning
to Matthew chapter 28. Pastors ask that we read Matthew
chapter 28, the first 10 verses. In the end of the Sabbath, as
it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene
and the other Mary to see the sepulcher. And behold, there
was a great earthquake For the angel of the Lord descended from
heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat
upon it. His countenance was like lightning
and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him, the keepers
did shake and became as dead men. And the angel answered and
said unto the women, fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus,
which was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen. As he said, come see the place
where the Lord lay. And go, go quickly and tell his
disciples that he is risen from the dead. And behold, he goeth
before you into Galilee. There you shall see him. Lo,
I have told you. And they departed quickly from
the sepulcher with fear and great joy and did run to bring his
disciples word. And as they went to tell his
disciples, behold, Jesus met them saying, all hail. And they came and held him by
the feet and worshiped him. Then said Jesus unto them, be
not afraid, go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee and
there shall they see me. And Lord bless his word. Let's pray. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we're so thankful for this word that you've given us, for the
risen Christ. Father, what a blessing to know,
to be assured that our sin that was laid on the Savior, that
caused you to pour out your wrath on his body on the tree, that killed him has been put
away forever, and that he is risen. What an amazing, glorious
thought. Father, we freely admit that
we're in complete need of Thee. And
we pray, Lord, that You would, during this hour, give us a spirit
of worship, that you might send your spirit to be among us, that
you would give a word from thee to our pastor, that you would
lose his tongue, give him recall of his notes that in the message
that you've given him for your sheep, and that you would feed
us, that you would open our ears break our stony hearts and cause
us to see Christ the Savior, to worship Him, to run to Him.
Father, we're so thankful for the many blessings that you've
given us here in this place. We're thankful for each member
of this local body. We pray for those who are going
through difficult times. those that we know of and those
that we don't. But Lord, we confess that in Thee, all our needs are
met. And we pray that you would cause
us to not look within, but to look to Christ. We pray that
the word of the Savior would ring forth through this land,
from this place, from this pulpit for many years to come. and that
you might use it to call your sheep into the fold, that you
might reveal Christ to our children. Father, what a blessing they
are that we pray, Lord, that you would not leave them to themselves,
but that you would reveal yourself to their hearts. Cause them,
cause us to run to Christ, to cling to Christ, to fall at his
feet and worship him. Once again, Father, we thank
you for the many blessings that you've given us. We pray that
you would not leave us alone, that you would give us a spirit
of love in this world, that as we go out into the world, people
know that we're children of God by the love that we give. We
pray that we don't have pride of doctrine, but that we Show
the joy of grace that thou has given us what we didn't deserve
and made us righteous in Christ. We ask all these things in his
name, which is above every name, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. All right, let's open our Bibles
now again in John chapter 20, John 20. I have to tell you that Thursday
I was working on another message, and it occurred to me, I think
Sunday might be Easter. I had a glass of Janis, Sunday,
Easter. I didn't know Easter was coming up. We just don't
have little ones around the house anymore. I didn't know that Easter
was coming up. But I felt led to bring a message
on the resurrection of Christ this morning because of the error
that so prevalent and seen so much in today. Uh, I can tell
you this, that today is not the anniversary of our Lord's resurrection. Uh, you know, it can't be, it's
a different day, sometimes even a different month or something.
I mean, it's just, it's just all different days. This is not
a religious holiday. Um, this is a day for, to girls
and the ladies to get a nice new dress. Maybe our little ones
get a hat or get some white gloves or something, you know. Boys
get them a nice new outfit and we go home and we hunt colored
eggs and eat ham, you know, with our family. That's what today's
for, and buddy, just like Christmas, I'm all for it. Anything that
brings families together and they enjoy, I'm all for it. But
now I'm talking spiritually in our religion. You know, it's
really wrong to focus on the Lord's resurrection just one
day a year. You know, we are to remember
the Lord's death in every message that we preach. His death, his
sacrifice for his people, the blood of his atonement, the blood
of his sacrifice must be the bedrock of every message that
we preach. It's got to be the bedrock of
every worship service that we have. But you know, it's also
true in every message. We've got to have the Lord's
resurrection. We preach the Lord's resurrection. Brethren, we have
no good news of the gospel if Christ is not raised. I mean,
just as I was sitting here listening to Dan read there from Matthew,
It just brought a smile to my face. I mean, I just couldn't
help it. What good news we have. The Lord said, run and tell it.
Run and tell my people. I've risen. What good news we
have. If all that happened at Calvary is Christ dying, that's
the end of the story. We've got no good news. But oh,
if he rose from the dead in three days, just like he promised he
would. Oh, now we've got good news to tell. And I'll get into
that more in just a minute. But I would like for us in our
mind's eye, in the eye of faith, to go to the tomb this morning
with Mary Magdalene. As we go with her, we're going
to find an empty tomb. And if we've got ears to hear,
the Lord will give us a message, a gospel message, a message of
the empty tomb. And that's why I've entitled
the message this morning, the message of the empty tomb. And
here's the first point that the empty tomb has to tell us. The
empty tomb says that the sin of God's elect is gone. Verse one, Matthew or John, John
chapter 20, excuse me. The first day of the week come
with Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark under the sepulcher
and see the stone taken away from the sepulcher and she runneth
and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus
loved and sayeth unto them, they've taken away the Lord out of the
sepulcher and we know not where they've laid him. Peter therefore
went forth and that other disciple and came to the sepulcher. So
they ran both together and the other disciple did outrun Peter
and came first to the sepulcher and he's stooping down and looking
in, saw the linen clothes line yet when he not in the income
of Simon, Peter following him and went into the sepulcher and
see if the linen clothes lie and the napkin that was about
his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together
in a place by itself. then went and also that other
disciple which came first to the sepulcher and he saw and
believed. Now three days prior to this,
the Lord Jesus truly died. There was no life in his body.
Joseph of Arimathea begged the body and from, from pilot and
he and Nicodemus wrapped the body in the linen clothes and
the things that the way they did the dead at that time. You
remember when, Lazarus was raised from the dead. Our Lord raised
him, he was in a loosing. He was wrapped in those linen
clothes. That's what Joseph of Arimathea
and Nicodemus did with the body of the Lord, and they laid a
dead body. This was Joseph's tomb. It was prepared for him
where he would be buried when he died, and so it was readily
available. So they put the Lord in that
rich man's tomb, laid that dead body there, rolled the stone
in front of the door. Well, that's why Mary, And Peter
and John expected to find the Lord still there because the
dead body had been laid there and they expected the dead body
to still be there three days later. If it was a normal man,
reasonable assumption. But now Christ died. And before
we go any further, we have to always see this. Why is it that
Christ died? The son of God, holy, perfect. Why did he die? It's because
he was made guilty. of the sin of his people. That's
the only reason for death, is sin. There can't be any death
where there is no sin, and there must be death where there is
sin. There must be. Now we know the Lord Jesus never
committed any sin. The only holy, righteous man
to ever live. In thought, word, and deed, he
was perfect. I mean, what a marvel that is.
I mean, we're just so imperfect. We're so full of sin. I'm afraid
that we just are not utterly amazed at this like we should
be. This is a perfect man. Perfect. He never even wanted to sin.
He never even thought about sin and much less committing any
sin. He's perfect. Yet he died because the father
made him sin for his people. And people say, oh, now when
you say that, you're saying Christ was a sinner. No, I'm not. I'm
saying something, he was made something worse than a sinner.
He was made sin, made sin and he died. The father put him to
death. The father thrust the sword of
justice into the heart of his fellow because that sin became
his sin. Now I can't fully explain that.
How is it that the Lord Jesus is the sinless sacrifice yet
he was made sin? I can't explain that. My human
mind cannot comprehend that. And I don't feel the need to
comprehend it. I don't feel the need to explain to anybody else.
It's just what God's word said. This is something for us to believe.
Just believe. Oh, there's so much peace in
just believing. Not trying to have to figure
everything out and parse every little word. Just believe. Just
believe what God said. I do know this about Christ being
made sin. If he was not actually, literally
made sin for me, then I'm still on my sin and I'm going to perish. I know that. But if Christ was
made sin for me, then this is what else I know. I know he made
me righteous and I can never die. I can never perish because
I have no sin. I have no sin because Christ
took it away. I am only as truly righteous
as Christ was truly It's the only way I can be righteous if
he was made sin for me. And this is not just a legal
shuffling of paper here. This is not just pretend. Because
God can't pretend. God didn't act like his son was
guilty. If the father acted like his
son was guilty even when he wasn't, that's unholy. That's an unjust
judge, isn't it? So he was made sin. And just
as truly as he was made sin in Calvary, his people are made
righteous. truly righteous, so that we can
never perish. And the good news of the empty
tomb is this. Christ rose from the dead because
all that sin that was laid on him, when he was made sin, his
sacrifice at Calvary put it away. It's gone and his people can
never be condemned. See, it's his resurrection that
seals that. The resurrection of Christ is
the evidence that he put away the sin. of his people. He never
could have risen from the dead if sin was still on him. But
if all that sin that was laid on him is cleansed away and paid
for by his precious blood, he must rise from the dead. He must,
because justice demands it. I like to think about this, the
scene that morning, what was going on in that tomb. I know
this, the savior did not leave that tomb like a prison break.
You know, he left the tomb because justice is satisfied. This was
no prison break. You know, the linen that was
wrapped around his body is neatly put together. You know, if this
had been something he was trying to bust out of prison, I mean,
you know, that stuff would have been thrown everywhere. The napkin
and all those linen strips would have just been thrown everywhere,
because if you're rushing out of a place in a prison break,
you don't have time to clean up after yourself. This is all
done calmly. because justice is satisfied.
He doesn't have to be in a hurry. The linen clothes that wrapped
his body, the napkin, they're all folded neatly. The Lord was
leaving. The Savior was leaving that tomb
because God's justice has been satisfied. God's purpose had
been accomplished. And he left that place calmly.
He left it like a king walking like a king ought to walk calmly,
royally. Now here's the good news for
God's people. Since justice has been satisfied, now His resurrection
says justice is satisfied. Him calmly leaving that tomb
tells us justice is satisfied. Then no one who believes on Christ
has any reason to fear. We got no reason to fear death.
We have no fear in meeting God in the judgment. An innocent
man doesn't fear meeting God in the judgment. Christ has made
you not guilty. If you believe Him, He's made
you holy and righteous, then there's no fear. And we won't
get into this, but the disciples were comforted when the Lord
appeared to them. You know how He comforted them?
He set His eye, and then He showed them the scars in His hands,
in His feet, in His side. You know what those scars mean?
The one who actually died is risen. and that comforted their
hearts, it's him. His sacrifice put away the sin
of his people. Number two, the empty tomb tells
us this. Christ has conquered death for his people. He has
conquered both physical death and the second death. The resurrection
of Christ, the fact that Christ lives, the fact that he, shouldn't
even say, I wish I'd ever get that out of my vocabulary, Christ
lives. He is life. He is life. Since Christ, our
life, rose from the dead, that means all of God's people must
be given spiritual life. They have to be given spiritual
life in the new birth, because God's justice demands it. Christ-elect have been born again.
You know why they're born again? Because Christ was raised from
the dead. His life demands the life of his people. And not only
must God's elect not die. you know, or you're delivered
from death. More than that, better than that. The resurrection of
Christ and God's people must be given new life, must be given
a life better than you're seeing from Adam seed. This is the life
of Christ. God's people must be given this
righteous, holy life in the new birth. They must be. And that's our confidence in
preaching the gospel. That's our confidence. in praying
for our loved ones that don't know the Lord. You know, I do that every day.
For my loved ones, for the people of this congregation, our little
ones, people that don't know the Lord, I pray every day. And
I have no intention of stopping doing that. I preach the gospel. I do the
best with what God's given me. And when it doesn't all go, like
maybe I like to see it go, you know why I don't quit? Because
I know this, God's word is going to be successful. The gospel
preach is going to be successful. God will give spiritual life
to his people. He absolutely will. And that encourages me to pray
for the lost, to preach to them, to you. Now our bodies are still
gonna die. The bodies of believers will
die. I just, I've lost count of how many funerals I've preached. You remember the first Sunday
when I was pastor here, we took a picture of everybody out there
on those front steps. I was looking at that picture
recently and looking at some of our brothers and sisters that
the Lord's called home and thought about, I preached his funeral,
I preached his funeral, I preached his funeral. Believers are gonna
die. Our bodies die because of the
sin that's in the flesh. But now you listen to me, that
new man can never die. To be absent from this body is
to be present with the Lord. Well, that lets me not fear the
death of this body. To be absent from this body, be present with
the Savior. Our bodies will die and not the
believer must be given spiritual life. But you know, once these
bodies die, the resurrection of Christ also guarantees this.
It guarantees the resurrection of these bodies. Job said, in
this body, with these eyes, I'm going to see the Savior, and
He won't be another. He won't be a stranger to me.
I'll know Him, and He'll know me. Now, it's going to be glorified
flesh, but just like our brother Job, we're going to stand again
on this earth, and we're going to see the Lord. Forever be with
Him. You see, Christ opened the tomb.
The stone's been rolled away. The door's open. All of God's
elect are gonna come out of the tomb too. Raised just like Him.
See, Christ is the first fruits. He's the first one to rise from
the dead, never to die again. He's the first fruits. Not only
is He the first one to ever do it, He's the best, isn't He?
The first fruit is the best fruit. But I'm telling you, since He's
the first fruit, there's more coming. You wait to see the harvest. You just wait to see the harvest.
It's gonna be a number. that no man can number. I mean,
what a sight to behold. It's going to happen because
the victory that Christ won over the grave. When he strolled out,
he wasn't running. There wasn't a prison break.
He strolled out of that tomb. He won the victory over the grave. Oh, we're going to bury our loved
ones. We're going to bury our dead. But they're coming out. I think I say this almost every
single time I stand at the gravesite. They're in a cemetery. I look
around and say, well, We think of this place as a place of death,
don't we? This is where we come and we bury our dead and we leave
them there. Where there's coming death, that place is going to
be a place of life. Every person in those graves
is going to come out. And those that believe Christ are going
to come out to be forever with Him. That's the end of every
believer. We've all been given the same
spiritual life. We all have the same end. All
to be with Christ forever, made just like Him. But until that
time, let me give you something that I see here that I think
can be helpful. All God's people, they've been
redeemed by the same blood. Justice has all been satisfied.
They all received the same life in the new birth, but they don't
all have the same personalities. Peter and John have very different
personalities, don't they? Peter and most people have different
personality than Peter, I reckon, but, uh, But believers are different. Some of them are timid. Some
of them are bold. Some of them are quiet. Some
of them are talkative. Some of them are very shy. Some
of them are very outgoing. And I tell you, just make room
for those different personalities in your heart for these brethren. This other disciple John talks
about, that's him. He doesn't ever refer to himself
by name. the disciple that leaned on Jesus'
breast, the other disciple, the disciple that Jesus loved, that's
John. Well, John's younger than the
other apostles. He just lived so much longer
than them, we assume that he was younger. He's younger than
Peter, and that's why he could run faster. That's why he got
to the tomb first. But now John was, he was more
timid. He was a more careful man, you know, about how and
when he did things than Peter was. John got to the tomb first
and he stoops down, he's looking, you know, he's kind of taking
it all in. He's trying to gauge the situation before he just
wades on in there, you know. Boy, not Peter. Peter didn't,
I mean, he didn't break stride until he got into that tomb.
You know, Peter's the kind of shoot first, ask questions later,
you know. That's me, I'm like Peter. Two very different personalities,
aren't they? You see their personalities in
their writings. But we love them both. We love
them both. They have very different personalities.
I'll tell you something else, the church needs them both. They
need them both. Well, let's remember that with
these our brethren. Love them both. All right, here's the third
thing the empty tomb tells us. Those who seek the Lord, they're
gonna find him. Verse 11. But Mary stood without
at the sepulcher weeping. And as she wept, she stooped
down and looked into the sepulcher and seeth two angels in white
sitting the one at the head, the other at the feet, where
the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, woman,
why weepest thou? She saith unto them, because
they've taken away my Lord, and I know not where they've laid
him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw
Jesus standing, and knew not it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto
her, woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing
him to be the gardener, saith unto him, sir, if thou have borne
him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I'll take
him away. And Jesus saith unto her, Mary. And she turned herself
and saith unto him, Rabboni, which is to say master. Now Mary
Magdalene, remember who she is. She loved the Lord so much. She
loved him because she'd been forgiven much. This is the woman
that the Lord cast out those seven devils. She'd been forgiven
much. And she loved the Lord. She couldn't
bear to leave him, even his dead body. She just couldn't bear
to leave him. Mary was one of the very last
ones at the cross. And Mary, John doesn't mention
it, but other women came with her at this time. Mary was one
of the first ones back at the tomb. She just wanted to be where
the Lord was. And when they saw the tomb was
empty, Peter and John went back home, but not Mary. Mary stayed
there. She just, she didn't know where
her Lord was and she was determined. I'm going to keep looking for
him. And you know, this seems like a pretty good place to start.
Since this is the last place anybody saw him, you know, I'm
going to look here. Mary came to the sepulcher early
in the morning. It was dark. The sun hadn't risen
yet. And you know what? She found the Lord, didn't she?
Now I want you to look at Proverbs chapter eight. And it's not surprising that
Mary found the Lord because the Lord said those that seek Me
will find Me. She came early seeking the Lord
and she found Him. And will you let me tell you
one more time? Come to Christ. Look to Christ. Come to Him. Look, seek Him. You'll find Him
too if you seek Him because that's His promise. Look here at Proverbs
8 verse 17. I love them that love Me. And
those that seek Me early shall find Me." Now based on that Scripture,
I tell you, seek the Lord early. Seek Him early in your life.
Seek Him while you're young. When I was very young, Brother
Henry would say that. Seek the Lord early in life when
you're young. When your mind still works good
and you don't forget things. When you've got your faculties
about you. That's never gonna happen to
me. The downhill slide has started. Seek the Lord early. Seek the
Lord early in life. The end of it comes very quickly.
Seek the Lord early. The very moment. Maybe you are
older. I mean, just because you're not
a child anymore, don't think, well, there's no hope for me.
Now, wait a minute. Seek the Lord early. The very moment you
sense your need of Him. Seeking. Seek Him early. Seek
Him as soon as you have a sense of need for Him in your heart.
Seek the Lord with your first energy, your first energies of
the day. And the Lord says, seek Him early
like that and you'll find Him. That's a promise from God. And
I know we don't find Him, He finds us. Yet, seek Him early
and you'll find Him. That's a promise from God. And
I'll tell you, here's the fourth thing that the empty tomb tells
us. And this goes right with the third point. Seek the Lord
early, you'll find him. You know why you'll find him? Because
he'll find you and make himself known to you. That's what he
did with Mary here, didn't he? In verse 15, he saith unto her,
Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing
him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if you've borne
him hence, tell me where you've laid him, and I'll take him away.
She didn't know the Lord, who it was. And Jesus saith unto
her, Mary. She turned herself and saith
unto him, Rabboni, which is to say master. Now, it might seem
strange to us at first that Mary didn't recognize the Lord. Here
she was talking with him and she didn't recognize the Lord
right away. She'd been with him for three
years. She'd been serving him and bringing him food and doing
things to serve him for three years. And she still didn't recognize
him. It could be she didn't recognize
him because the Lord looked very different than the last time
she saw him. She's one of the last ones to leave the cross. And he did not look like a human
being hanging there. His visage was marred more than
any other man. Now here he is in glorified flesh.
He looks very different than the last time she saw him, doesn't
he? It could be she was crying so much she had tears in her
eyes and clouded her vision and she didn't recognize him. But
look at Luke 24. I think this is probably more
the reason why she didn't recognize the Lord just yet. Somebody else
had this very same experience in Luke chapter 24. Verse 13. And behold, two of them went
that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem,
about three score furlongs. And they talked together of all
these things which had happened. And it came to pass while they
communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, went
with them. But their eyes were holding that they should not
know him. The Lord did something to their
eyes, holding their eyes, whatever that means, so that they didn't
recognize him. And I think the same thing happened to Mary here.
I mean, the Lord wasn't disguising Himself or wasn't disguising
His voice. Her eyes were just holding. She didn't recognize
Him just yet. But when the Lord spoke to her,
when He spoke to her heart, when the shepherd called His sheep
by name, she knew Him, didn't she? Oh, she knew Him. Now she
saw. Now she heard. And you know why
she heard? You know why she recognized him
now? Because the Savior said, my sheep hear my voice. And when
he talks to his sheep, they know. You know, I tell you all the
time, come to Christ. I tell you all the time, look
to Christ. And you know when you'll come? When the Savior
calls you by name. Oh, you'll come. You'll come.
See, he has to call us. He has to. Because all of us
are just like Mary. We're just like these disciples
on the road to Emmaus. We're born with eyes that are
blind and we can't see Christ. I mean, we can't. We're born
with a mind that's dead and we can't know him. We're born spiritually
deaf, so we cannot hear the gospel and believe it. I mean, you can
hear it with these ears. You can. I mean, the gospel is
the only message anybody preaches anywhere that makes any sense.
I mean, anybody with any sense sees. I see that. I mean, that's the only way a
sinner can be saved. I mean, you can you can understand
the logic of it, but you can't believe it. You cannot cast your
soul upon Christ. You can't see him. You can't
believe him. You can't love him. Because we're dead in sins, and
that means our nature doesn't have the capacity to do anything
spiritual. But when Christ calls His people
in power, when He calls them by name Himself, His people see, and they hear,
and they come running. That's the only way any son of
Adam can know Christ is if He reveals Himself to us. And how
does He do it? How does he do it? Look at Romans
chapter 10. This is not a magical, mysterious
thing. You're not going to be somewhere
by yourself looking at the sky and the lightning suddenly striking
and you come to this revelation. That's not how God reveals himself
to his people. He reveals himself to his people
through preaching, through the preaching of the word. Look here,
Romans 10 verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord, I don't care who they are, what their
background is, whoever it is that calls upon the name of the
Lord, shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
whom they've not believed? How shall they believe in him
of whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? Verse 17 says, so then faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. There's just
nothing more important than the preaching of Christ. You can't
know Christ until somebody tells you who He is. Somebody tells
you about Him. It's pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. The preaching of Christ to save
them that believe. How did the rest of the disciples
know that Christ had risen? Somebody told them. Look back
in our text, verse 17. Jesus saith unto her, touch me
not. For I'm not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren
and say to them, I ascend unto my father and your father, to
my God and your God. That's another blessing of Christ's
resurrection. His death, his burial, his resurrection
gives us union with him, gives us a relationship with God. So
he's our father, like he's the father of Christ. He's our God,
like he's the father. He's given us this union with
him. And all that happens through preaching. Somebody's got to
tell us the truth about who Christ is. Now the Lord tells Mary here,
let me touch on this so you understand what he's saying. He's not saying
you're not allowed to touch me. Like I'm older now, you're not
allowed to touch me. In just a little while, he's
gonna command Thomas to touch him, isn't he? So he's not saying
you can't touch me. What he's telling her is you don't have
to hang on to me yet. I'm not going anywhere just yet.
About 40 days from now I will, but not right now. You don't
have to hang on to me. I've got something else for you
to do. You go tell my disciples I'm risen. You go tell this good
news to my people that Christ has risen. If the Savior ever
reveals Himself to you, if He ever calls you by name, you'll
call on Him. And you'll have the same reaction
that Mary did here You'll call him Rabboni, and that word means
my great master. You're my savior who saves my
soul. You're my savior whom I trust,
and you're my master, my great master. I live under your rule,
and if Christ ever reveals himself to you, calls you by name, he'll
be your heart's desire, just like he was here for Mary. All
right, here's the fifth thing. True believers who have been
well-taught, unfortunately, are still ignorant of many things.
Verse nine, or verse eight, then they went in, then went in also
the other disciple, which came first to the sepulcher, and he
saw and believed, for as yet they knew not the scripture,
that he must rise again from the dead. Now this verse is a
reference, if you want to look at it, Psalm 16. Psalm 16. This is the scripture
that John's referring about. He said, we didn't know this
yet. We didn't know what this meant yet. Psalm 16, verse nine. Therefore, my heart
is glad, and my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope,
for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell or in the grave, neither
wilt thou suffer thine holy one to seek corruption. The father
cannot allow his son to stay in the grave because sin is gone.
His body in those three days didn't decay at all because there's
no sin in him. There was no sin yet. And John's
telling us, he said, Peter and I, we just didn't know the meaning
of that scripture. We probably heard it before.
I mean, I know they definitely heard it before, but they didn't
know the meaning of it. Now, later on, they knew the
meaning of it. They were very well acquainted
with this verse. This is the verse that Peter used to preach
his message on that great day of Pentecost. In a little while,
he's going to understand this fully. But right now, he doesn't. Right now, he's ignorant of what
this verse means. Now, there's a difference between
what we know in our head and what we believe in our heart.
We could have this memory verse and we could spit it back out,
knowing the words that it says, but not believe it in the heart,
not know it in the heart. And the point I'm trying to make
is this. You know, a believer is still in this flesh, and there's
just a lot of unbelief left in us. And there's a whole lot of ignorance
left in us, too. God help us from ever thinking we got this
whole thing figured out yet, because we don't. We don't. But here's the thing. I'm not
excusing ignorance. There's a lot yet that we do
not know, but I am not excusing ignorance in any way whatsoever.
The disciples should not have been ignorant about the resurrection
of Christ. They should have had a better
understanding of the scriptures. They should have remembered the
things that the Lord told them. Look at Matthew chapter 16. I
just look at two or three things that the Lord said to them just
days before this, just days. Matthew 16, verse 21. From that time forth began Jesus
to show unto his disciples how that he must go into Jerusalem
and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and
scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. And
he told them that just days before he was crucified. Look over page
Matthew 17. Verse 22. And while they abode in Galilee,
Jesus said unto them, the son of man shall be betrayed into
the hands of men and they shall kill him. And the third day he
should be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry. Why were they sorry? The Lord
just told them I'll rise again. And it's like they didn't hear
anything he said after he said he's going to die. He told them
he's going to rise again. One more scripture, Matthew chapter
20. Verse 17. And Jesus going up to Jerusalem
took the 12 disciples apart in the way and said unto them, behold,
we go up to Jerusalem and the son of man should be betrayed
under the chief priests and under the scribes and they shall condemn
him to death and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and
discourage and to crucify him. And the third day he shall rise
again. Now this is just days before the Lord was crucified.
And when they went back to the tomb and they saw the Lord's
body was not in the tomb, why didn't they automatically think,
Oh, the Lord's risen just like he said. It's because they didn't
hear what the Lord said. Maybe they forgot or something.
You know, they didn't remember what they heard. and every believer here understands
it. Understand it. And you want to
hear something that will really strike at your heart? Look at
Matthew chapter 27. The disciples didn't remember
what the Lord said, but his enemies did. Look here
at Matthew 27 verse 62. Now the next day that followed the day of
the preparation for the preparation for the Passover, the chief priests
and Pharisees came together in a pilot saying, sir, we remember
that the deceiver said while he was yet alive, after three
days I'll rise again. Command therefore that the sepulcher
be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come
by night and steal him away and say unto the people, he's risen
from the dead. So the last error should be worse
than the first. And I love this, Pilate said, you have a Wahatch,
go your way, make it as sure as you can. I think Pilate pretty
much realized right here I'm fighting a losing battle. I bet
Pilate thought, this man's rising again the third day. And the
disciples didn't remember. I tell you, a very good request
for us in prayer would be this. And Dan prayed this way in our
service earlier, just a little bit ago. We ought always to pray
that the Lord enable the preacher to preach in the power of the
Spirit. But we ought also to pray for
ourselves that the Lord give me a hearing ear. Oh, how I'd
hate to be in a place where the gospel's being preached, where
Christ is being preached and I don't hear. I pray for both,
don't you? That the Lord bless the preacher
in preaching and let me hear. Give me an ear of faith to hear
and remember what I hear preached. So here's the point. Seek Christ. Don't seek knowledge. Seek Christ. Don't seek to get things. Seek
Christ. Don't seek to have all your doctrinal
ducks in a row. Seek Christ. Because my friend,
knowledge is not salvation. The people who had the knowledge
of the facts down straight, down right, down cold, they didn't
know the Lord. And the people that were saved,
the people that knew the Lord and trusted him, they had faith.
They had faith that saves. And they didn't always have the
facts just right. A good prayer for us would be, Lord, call me
by name like you did Mary. And maybe if you give me a heart
of faith, over time, I hope a little knowledge will follow that. Don't
you hope? All right, here's the last thing. The empty tomb says
that when we weep, our saviors nearby. Now Mary was weeping
because she couldn't find the Lord. And he was there the whole
time. He was there the whole time.
And the same thing is true of you and me. If we believe Christ,
he's there the whole time. And that ought to comfort our
hearts. Christ is always near his sheep. Now we may not always
sense his presence, but he's always near his sheep. The great
shepherd of the sheep has never one time left his sheep to their
own devices. Never. He's always there watching over
them, protecting them, feeding them, leading them in the green
pastures of His Word, leading them to the still waters to drink.
He's always there. You know, one of the names of
the Savior is Jehovah Shammah. The Lord is present. Now the
Lord, He's everywhere. He's everywhere all at the same
time. So of course, no matter where you are, the Lord's always
there. But this name Jehovah Shammah means something a whole
lot better than that. It means that the Lord is with
his people in a special way, a way of grace, a way of love,
a way of union, a way of salvation, a way of protection. The Lord
is there with his people in all of our times of weeping and sorrow
and pain. The Lord is nigh unto them who
have a broken heart. And because he rose again, the
Lord is always there with his people. And as I touched on earlier,
there's coming a day when we'll be with Him face to face forever. The Lord is there. You know,
the Lord told His disciples He's going to rise again. Surely enough,
He did. You want to hear another promise
of the Savior? I'm coming back to get you. He'll
do that too. He's coming back. He'll be back
before you know it. Now, I wouldn't say that we never
have reason to weep, because we do. We do. This world is nothing
but a trail of tears. I was talking with a dear lady
recently, and we were talking about this, you know, that, you
know, people can say all they want, oh, you don't have any
reason to cry, you know, you know the Lord, everything, you
know, is well with your soul, and just, you know, you just
don't, well, you know what they say. And this dear saint told me,
with big old tears in her eyes, that's true. Absolutely true,
I believe that. But I'm still in the flesh and
this hurts. This hurts. We have reason to weep. But you
know, sometimes when we weep, we might not have as much to
weep, to think about, or as we think we do. Who knows what the
Lord might be doing in this? Think about Mary this morning.
She gets up early while it's still dark. She goes to the sepulcher.
If the Lord's body had been in the tomb, Mary might would have
shed a tear, you know, of sorrow of loss, but she would have,
um, annoying the Lord's body with the spices that they do.
You know, the custom was, and she would have felt good about
that. This is something I can do for the Lord's body. She wouldn't
have wept with as much intensity as she wept when the Lord's body
wasn't there. The fact that the Lord's body, if the Lord's body
had been there, she should have wept and wept and wept and wept
and never stopped, because I have no hope of salvation. But since
the Lord's body was not in the grave, she actually had reason
for comfort and joy, didn't she? His sacrifice put away my sin.
And we have a real reason to weep, and we do. This is the
comfort that God's people have, is I also have reason for joy
and comfort and hope in the Lord. This hurts right now. And he'll
comfort my heart now with his grace and with his presence.
But you know what else comforts me? He's coming to get me. He's
coming. I hope the Lord bless that too.
Let's bow together. Our Father, oh how we thank you
for the death, the burial, and the resurrection of our Lord
Jesus Christ. How thankful we are for his resurrection,
which is the guarantee His blood has put away the sin of all of
your people. Father, I pray that you give
each one here this morning a heart of faith, that we might leave
here believing in Christ and rejoicing in who he is and what
he's accomplished for his people. Make him to be our all and in
all. It's in his precious name we
pray and give thanks. Okay, if you would, turn to song
number 62 and stand as we sing. Crown Him with Many Crowns. Round Him with many crowns, the
Lamb upon His throne. Our Kalahev lead, anthem drowns,
all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing of Him
who died for thee. and hail him as thy matchless
king through all eternity. in the sky, can fully bear that
sight. But downward bends his wandering
eye, that mystery so bright. Crown him the Lord of life, who
triumphed o'er the grave, Who rose victorious to the strife,
For those He came to save. His glories now we sing, Who
died and rose on high, Who died eternal life to bring, And lives
that death may die. Crowned Him the Lord of Heav'n,
One with the Father known, One with the Spirit through Him given,
From yonder glorious throne. To Thee be endless praise, For
Thou for us hast died. Be Thou, O Lord, through endless
days Adored and magnified.