Good evening. If you would open
your Bibles to the book of Luke, to the book of Luke chapter eight,
Luke chapter eight. I am a victim of the moment. And as I read or hear stories
from the New Testament, I get favorite stories, oftentimes
new favorites. And the one I've heard the most
recent is usually my most favorite at that time. Whether it's hearing
about the Lord casting out the legion of devils from the Gadarene
and him running into town to tell them what the Lord's done
for him. Whether it's the woman with the issue of blood who just
thinks, can I just get and touch the hem of his garment and I'll
be whole. Or blind Bartimaeus yelling out, thou son of David,
please have mercy on me. Well, this week I have a new
favorite. I was going through and studying
and I found one that I like. Now, this story is a little different
than most of the other New Testament stories. And when I use the term
story, I'm referring to the Lord's interaction with a sinner. Those
are the ones that are always my favorite. This one is different
because the ones I just mentioned and so many others are stories
of one interaction with the Lord and that person. and the Lord
saves them there. He heals them and He does a work
in them and then we don't see them again. Now that doesn't
mean that the Lord wasn't with them always or that they weren't
around. It's just the only time that that person is mentioned.
Now, the lady that we're talking about tonight is brought up over
and over again. In fact, there are at least six
different times or interactions between the Lord and Mary Magdalene.
And reading about her, it's been wonderful. And I hope that maybe
this would be, that you'd enjoy it the same way I have. Now,
there are a whole lot of things we can glean from this, a whole
lot of things we can learn. But let me just say a couple
things that this story tells us. It'll tell us who we are
and who He is, which that's very familiar, because we always get
that. It tells us what the Lord's done for us. It tells us what
He's doing for us. It tells us where we need to
be, it tells us what we need to be doing, and it tells us
how we need to be doing it. Mary is a wonderful example for
all of us. All right, in Luke chapter eight,
let's look at verse one. And it came to pass afterward
that he went, that's the Lord, went throughout every city and
village, preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom
of God, and the twelve were with him. And certain women, which
had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called
Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils. This story tells us that
the Lord was traveling around to every city and village. He
was preaching, He was healing, He was teaching. And it says
there were a group of women, certain women, all of which it
seemed had been healed of evil spirits or infirmities. There
are three women mentioned here, out of a lot of women, and only
one of them is given any more detail. And it says Mary, called
Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils. The Lord cast out seven
devils out of this woman. The writers say such things about
her as she was known to be a very wicked woman. She was known to
be evil. She had seven devils in her.
But this woman, the Lord healed her. And it says that she followed
Him. And now look at verse 3. And
Joanna the wife of Chuzaherod Stuart, and Susanna, and many
others. So many other women. But listen
to what these women were doing. These women which ministered
unto Him of their substance. Mary was a widow. which allowed
her to do what she was doing, to follow the Lord. She didn't
have any responsibilities. But she didn't just follow Him.
She was ministering to Him of her substance. That means she
was giving to Him everything that she had. She had taken all
of her possessions, all of her abilities, all of her everything
she had, and it was all the Lord's for whatever it was. Now, I don't
know exactly what these women's jobs were. I don't know if their
job was to talk to people, if their job was to tell people
about the Lord. I don't know if their job was
to make sure that they had food to eat, that they were to cook
the food, that they were to find a place to stay, whatever it
was. But these women were doing a
job that needed to be done and had to be done. We can learn
a lot of things from these women. In every ministry there are people
who do things that others don't see. There are jobs that need
to be done that no one knows about. But the Lord, as we see
here, in the things that He chose Mary, that He uses Mary, and
He does for Mary, we'll see how important this role is and how
the Lord blesses it. Alright, look over a couple pages
to Luke chapter 10 So we've seen where Mary started
and where she is now. Luke 10 verse 38, Now it came to pass, as they
went, that the Lord entered into a certain village, and a certain
woman named Martha received Him into her house. And she had a
sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard
His word. But Martha was cumbered about
much serving, and came to him and said, Lord, dost not thou
care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore
that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto
her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many
things, but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good
part, which shall not be taken away from her. Mary shows us,
the Lord uses Mary here to show us, as well as everyone that's
there, where we need to be. Martha is doing a good thing. She's trying to feed the Lord
and take care of everyone. But the Lord plainly tells her,
that's not the most important thing. Sitting at my feet and
listening to me, that is the most important thing. We don't
have that many opportunities to sit at his feet. But there
are three times a week that we can come here and sit at his
feet and listen. And there's always the book that
if we read it, we can find ourselves the information we need sitting
at his feet. Now turn over to John 11. John chapter 11. Now this is the story of Lazarus.
which we can't go through the whole thing, but look at verse
30, John 11, verse 30. Now, Jesus was not yet come into
the town, but was in that place where Martha met Him. The Jews
then, which were with her in the house, all the Jews had come
to that Mary and Martha's house where Lazarus was, where he lived,
after he died, and they were mourning with him. So there in
verse 31, the Jews then which were with her in her house and
comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily
and went out, the Jews followed her, saying, she goeth unto the
grave to weep there. Then when Mary was come where
Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet saying unto
him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. we again find Mary in the right
place at the Lord's feet. The phrase she uses here, Lord,
if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. I've always thought
of that, that she said to him, you know, you could have healed
him. You would have made him well. But then, thinking even
more in it, Looking back, throughout the Lord's ministry, there was
never an instance, and I asked a couple people this to make
sure I was right, there was never an instance that anyone died
around the Lord. Our Lord is quoted in the scriptures
as being life. Our Lord, death does not affect
Him. It does not affect those around
Him. No one can die around the Lord. The only death that the
Lord was a part of was His own. The only death that the Lord
saw was the one that would actually provide life for all of His children.
Now keep going here in verse 33. Let's see how the Lord has
used Mary even more. When Jesus therefore saw her
weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came with her, He groaned
in the Spirit and was troubled, and said, Where have ye laid
him that they said unto him, Lord, come and see? And Jesus
wept. Now go down to verse 45. Then
many of the Jews which came to Mary and had seen the things
which Jesus did, believed on him. The Lord used Mary with
her faith and her urgency when Martha came in and told her,
the Lord has come. Mary was in that house with all
those people. And she abruptly, immediately,
emotionally jumped up and ran to the Lord. And we saw there
a few minutes ago that all those Jews were like, oh, Mary's going
somewhere. They all noticed how she got
up, where she was going. She was going to mourn. Let's
go with her. He used Mary to bring all of those people out
to where he was. And then once he'd raised Lazarus,
he said in verse 45, then many of the Jews which came to Mary
and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him."
He used this woman to bring a group of people to an understanding
of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. All right, let's go to John
12. John 12, verse 1. Then Jesus, six days before the
Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead,
whom he raised from the dead. So we're back at their house
again with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. There they made him
a supper, and Martha served. Poor Martha. We had that lesson
last time about the Lord said, you know, Mary's chosen the right
thing here, but Martha's still serving. Well, where do we find
Mary? But Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with
him. Then took Mary, notice she was not at the table with him,
Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the
feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house
was filled with the odor of the ointment. Then saith one of his
disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him,
why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the
poor? This Judas said, not that he cared for the poor, but because
he was a thief, and he had the bag, and bare what was put therein. Then said Jesus, let her alone. Against the day of my bearing
hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with
you, but me ye have not always. Whether Mary knew it or not,
what she was actually doing here is she was anointing the Lord
before his death. We'll see here in a few minutes
that when the Lord was buried He was not anointed. In Joseph
of Arimathea when He buried Him and took Him to His sepulcher
there wasn't the normal situation. He took Him and buried Him without
it. And the Lord says in verse 7, "'Against the day of my burying
has she kept this?' He said, "'I'm using her to anoint my
body before its death.'" The Lord used Mary again in such
a profound way. The Lord taught these people
around that Judas was not right, that Mary had chosen the right
thing to be at his feet. Now this is where my knowledge
of Mary Magdalene stopped. Those are the three stories,
the last three we've said that I always knew about her. I knew
that Martha was serving and Mary went to his feet. I knew that
Mary and Martha both came to the Lord when Lazarus had died
and pleaded for him. And then I knew that she anointed
his feet. What I didn't know was that there's a lot more to
her than that. So if you will, go back to Mark 15. Mark 15, and we'll see here,
and I'm not, my emphasis on what I'm doing here is I want us all
to see the way the Lord has used Mary and what He's done for her.
Last time I preached the last thing I talked about was the
perseverance of the saints. How the Lord makes His children
to persevere and Mary is a wonderful example of this. A woman who
had seven evil spirits in her is now being used in so many
ways by the Lord and He will continue to use her and do things
for her. Mark 15 verse 39, This is as the Lord has just given
up the ghost from the cross. And when the centurion which
stood over against him saw that he so cried out, and he gave
up the ghost, he said, Truly, this man was the Son of God.
There were also women looking on afar off, among whom was Mary
Magdalene. This woman who was following
the Lord, who had followed the Lord, was still there. I can't
imagine how difficult this event would have been for someone in
her position. This was her father. This was
the one who had saved her from those evil spirits. This is the
one who'd saved her soul. This is the one who'd raised
her brother from the dead. This is the one who had taught
her so much, but she was there watching him die. Okay, look
at verse 45. Now this is when Joseph of Arimathea
had taken the body, in verse 45, and when he knew it of the
centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And he bought fine linen,
and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him
in a sepulcher, which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone
under the door of the sepulcher. And Mary Magdalene, and Mary
the mother of Joses, beheld where he was laid. Not only did Mary
watch him die on the cross, she didn't leave at that point. She
followed his body to where it was gonna be buried. All right,
now go back to John chapter 20. This woman will not leave the
Lord. Everywhere he goes, she's going.
John 20, and look at verse one. The first day of the week cometh,
Mary Magdalene, early, when it was yet dark unto the sepulcher."
After he was buried, the Passover came, the Lord's Day. And the
Jews were forbidden to do anything on the Passover. There were very
strict requirements. They couldn't walk so far, they
couldn't do anything like that. And in Mark, it tells us what
Jared read, Mary and another woman or two had prepared spices
and were planning to anoint the body of the Lord. They knew there
wasn't time at that moment, but they wanted to anoint the Lord.
They thought he deserved that. So they had prepared this. It
was still dark. But Mary went. She arrived when
it was dark. The writers say that this was
a lengthy trip. What it seems like Mary did was
wait till it was after midnight and she was allowed to travel.
And she left in the middle of the night and walked. And she
got there when it was still dark. So keep going in verse one. And
when it was dark under the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away
from the sepulcher. Mary is the one who found out
that the Lord wasn't in his grave anymore. Verse 2 says, Then she
runneth and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom
Jesus loved, which is John, and saith unto them, They have taken
away the Lord out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have
laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple,
and came to the sepulchre. So they both ran together, and
the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the
sepulchre. And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen
cloths lying there, yet went not in. Then cometh Simon Peter
following him, and went into the sepulchre, 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 the other disciple,
which came first to the sepulcher, and he saw, and he believed." Mary ran to those disciples. She went early in the morning.
It was dark. She came and saw the stone had been rolled away.
Her first thought, I'm sure, was panic and fear. So she ran
to tell them. And they didn't believe her.
So they had to go and look. And then they believed once they
saw it. And look at verse 9. 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. Mary told them about this. They didn't believe. So they
came and they saw firsthand and they did believe the Lord was
not in the tomb anymore. But it says they didn't understand.
They didn't know the scripture that he must rise again from
the dead. Now, they went back to their home. They went back
to where they came from. Look at verse 11. I love this. But
Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping. And she wept, she stooped
down and looked into the sepulcher. Mary didn't have anywhere to
go. Mary was where she wanted to
be. Mary was trying to find the Lord. In her panic, in their
panic, those disciples ran back. He was gone. What did they do?
They went home. What did Mary do? She didn't
give up. She had to be with the Lord.
She didn't have anywhere to go. That's the only place she wanted
to be. Okay, now, let's go again, starting with verse 11. But Mary
stood without a disciple, 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 and the other at the feet, where
the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman,
why weepest thou? And she saith unto them, Because
they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have
laid him. And in verse 14 it says, And
when she had thus said, she turned herself back. What this is selling
us is that I don't know if Mary realized these were angels. I'm
not sure how that worked, if she knew that or not. But what
Mary did was they said, why are you weeping? And we get more
in another example of this story. But in this one, she says to
them, I'm crying because they've taken my Lord and I know not
where they've put him. I don't know where the Lord is. I can't find my father. And that's
what it is. And she turns her back on them.
because they don't have the answer. So now keep going, look at verse
14. And when she had thus said, she
turned herself back and saw Jesus standing and knew not that it
was Jesus. We need to understand that the
Lord and his angels are always there for his children. Whether
we know it or not, whether it's something that we see, we hear,
that's put on our mind, our hearts, whatever it is, they're there.
But it has to be revealed to us. We can't decipher these things.
We can't understand them. But keep going. In verse 15,
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest
thou? Mary, 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 will take him away.
She thinks this is the gardener. He's there. He works there. So
her response to him is, if you've done something with him, just
let me know. I'll take care of it. I'll get
rid of it. I'll do whatever. She's pleading at this point.
Not only is it, I want to find him, but I'll make it easy on
you. I'll get rid of it. You don't
have to do anything. Just tell me where he is. So in verse 16 here,
it says, Jesus saith unto her, Mary, and she turneth herself. Now before we get further, I
want us to realize what Mary's, what kind of condition she's
in at this moment. We saw here that she had to run in the dark
all the way to get these disciples to show them that the Lord was
gone. They didn't believe her, so she had to make the whole
trip back while they ran there to prove whether she was right
or not. And of course she was right. Then they leave her there
again. She falls on her feet crying,
trying to figure out where they've taken her Lord. Then she sees
angels and they say, why are you crying? And she says, somebody's
taken my Lord. I don't know where he is. And
then she turns around and sees a gardener. And he's saying,
why are you crying? And she turns her back on him.
And she's in a frantic moment. She's trying to figure out where
the Lord is. So look here in verse 16, Jesus
saith unto her, Mary, she turned herself, meaning she had her
back to him, she turned to him and saith unto him, Rabboni,
which is to say, Master, Lord. She found what she was looking
for. Then Jesus saith unto her, before we go there, this is what
Mary did in this moment. We've seen Mary's history, right?
We've seen all these times we've seen her. What do you think Mary
did the moment he said, Mary, and she realized who it was?
She fell at his feet. That's what she did. And it says,
the writer's saying, they think she fell at his feet trying to
kiss his feet and worship him. So he says to her, Touch me not,
for I am not yet ascended to my father. But go to my brethren
and say unto them, I sin unto my father and your father and
to my God and your God. The Lord here is not saying don't
touch me because you can't or because he wasn't a person or
he wasn't real or anything like that. But he's saying this here
because he's giving her a message. He's telling her you've got to
go do something. And look at it again, it says,
Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father. But go,
go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father,
and your Father, and to my God, and to your God. Now he says
all of these things to her as she's laying on the ground, probably
weeping the most happy tears she's ever had, and she has to
go deliver a message. With all this that we've seen
about her, we can learn a few things from
these interactions. First, I said we would figure
out who are we. Who are we? Well, we're wicked
people like Mary. We're filled with evil spirits.
We're dependent upon the Lord to heal us, to cast them out.
We're unknowingly on a path to destruction away from our Lord.
And then He shows us who He is. We see that we need the Lord
to heal us. He's the only one who can heal
us. He is the one we need to give us a new heart. The Lord
is the only one who can save us. We see that the Lord is the
only one willing to save us. He's the only one able to save
us. He's the only one able to take our place on the cross.
So what has our Lord done for us? What did he do for Mary? Well, he healed us. He gave us
a new heart and a new desire to follow him. He showed us who
we are and who he is. He went to the cross and died
for us. He bore our sins and gave us
his righteousness. He conquered sin and he arose
from the grave. And what's he doing for us? He's
sitting on the throne interceding for us. He has his hand upon
us. He's revealing himself to us. He gives us faith. His angels
are there for us. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, is
right with us. He is preparing a place for us. And then for Mary, something
that I've always taken from her is where do we need to be? We
need to be at the Lord's feet. We need to be wherever the Lord
is, in whatever condition it is, we need to be in this place. We need to be in this book. We
need to do everything we can to be where the Lord is. And what do we need to be doing?
We need to follow Him. We need to minister unto Him
of our substance. We need to wash His feet. We
need to anoint his feet. We need to do whatever it is
that he asks. And how do we need to be doing
it? Like Mary, we need to be quiet. We need to be reverent. We need to be fervent. We need
to be excited to do it. We need to have energy to do
it. We need to do these things like
it's the only thing on earth that matters, like Mary did,
because it is the only thing on earth that matters. Now look
with me here where we were in John 20 and in closing I want
to look at the last thing the Lord and Mary, the Lord asked
Mary to do. So in verse 17, we'll read the
whole thing again and we'll look at the request the Lord gave
Mary and what she did. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me
not, for I am not yet ascended to my father. But go to my brethren
and say unto them, I ascend unto my father and your father and
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. I never Part of the reason I
never understood the comment there that says, touch me not,
is because I didn't understand the importance of the message
he was sending her with, the urgency of it. The Lord is asking
Mary to make the exact same trip she already made earlier that
morning. Mary, before dawn, in the dark, ran to get the disciples
in a panic. She was as if a little girl who'd
lost her father. She didn't know her way. She
didn't know what to do. She had to go ask for help. She'd
lost her compass, her guidance. She ran frantically. She ran
with just no idea what she was going to do. And she told them
and they didn't believe her. Well, this time, the Lord told
her to do this, and it was light. It was daytime. And she ran,
and she was excited. There was no panic. There was
no fear. Instead, it was hope. She was
making the same journey, yet it was much shorter this time.
She didn't get tired. She wasn't frustrated. She was
excited to portray the message the Lord told her. And as she
went, she couldn't contain herself. She was so excited, she had such
good news. And as she went to the house,
I don't know if they were in a house that was secluded. I
don't know if they were in a house hiding from everyone. I don't
know if there were people around or what it was. But I have a
feeling that when she was running, and I know she was running, as
she got to eyeshot of that house, she ran faster. And when she
got to where they could hear her, She was ready to yell out
her message. And I don't know if she said
it then. I don't know if she said it once she opened the door.
I don't know when. But Mary went to those disciples
and she said, He's alive! He's alive! The Lord is alive! And you know they all looked
at her. and were confused. And she just kept saying the
message. He's alive! We read in Mark where
it says they didn't believe her. Did she stop saying it? I promise
she never slowed down. She said, I saw Him. He told
me to come tell you that He is going to ascend to be with His
Father who He said is our Father and His God who He said is our
God. He's going to be with Him. He's alive! And it may seem like
I'm exaggerating this or doing it in a way that is over the
top. I promise you, I'm not even doing
it any justice whatsoever. I can't imitate her emotion. I can't put myself in her shoes. I don't know what it's like to
have lost the one you love the most only to be found again and
be told everything's going to be okay. Mary was given this
message. This was the most important message
that has ever been given and will ever be delivered. It's
not just that Mary was telling them, I saw Him. He's alive. Mary was telling them, you know
how everybody's been telling us that the Lord died and He's
dead? You know how they've been telling
us that they won? The Jews beat Him. He's gone. We'll never hear about the Lord
Jesus Christ again. You know how they said that?
It's not true. He won. He was victorious. He conquered death. He's alive. He's gonna be in glory. That
means we have a victorious Savior. Do you get that? He's alive. That's why that message was so
important. And the Lord gave it to one of
his sinners. He gave it to one of his children.
And I pray that every single time we hear that message, the
message we hear something about a victorious Savior, that we
can't hold back the smile. That every time we hear about
the fact that our Lord died on a cross bearing our sins, that
we get those butterflies in our stomach, that we're excited about
it. And every time we hear that He arose, He was victorious,
every time we hear it, we have to fight back or let go a tear
of pure joy. Because that's the only message
that matters. To say this about Mary, we need
to always realize the Lord is with us. The Lord is there. And do you know how important
this message is that she was given? We sing about it. I didn't have any conversation
with Dwight about what we were singing tonight. But we sung
three hymns before this talking about the message she said, face
to face in all his glory. I need thee every hour, I need
thee. She was proclaiming the Lord
Jesus Christ has saved His children forever. All right, may the Lord
bless His word.