Good morning. If you would open
your Bibles to the book of Luke. Luke chapter 8. I am a victim of the moment. I have a lot of favorite New
Testament stories, usually they're the one I'm reading or the one
I've heard about most recently. Some of those are the Gadarean
demoniac who the Lord comes to and casts out a legion of devils
and he goes running through the city telling everyone who did
this, who this Lord Jesus Christ is. Another is the woman with
the issue of blood who thinks to herself, if I can just touch
His garment, if I could just get to Him, He'll heal me. And then another would be blind
Barnabas who hears that the Lord is near and he just will not
shut his mouth. He just keeps screaming, Jesus,
Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Well, recently, I've stumbled
upon another favorite of mine. Part of it came from doing the
story of Lazarus. Now, there's a difference in
this story and that most of the stories that we know in the New
Testament, partially just because of the amount of words that we
have, everything's not recorded. It says in the scriptures that
there's not enough paper to write it down of all the things the
Lord did in his time on the earth. But most of the stories we see
are one interaction between the Lord and one of his children.
He meets them or they come to him and he saves them. And that's
all we see. And that's all it takes. As we saw earlier, it
just takes one word from the Lord to save his children, to
heal them and all that. But in this story of Mary Magdalene,
we see her at least six times in the scriptures. And it's a
great illustration for his children to see what he's done for us,
to see how he interacts with us and the things he does for
those he loves. And the title of this message
is called At His Feet. And I love confirmation in a
song that we sing right before I stand up and that the first
verse says, just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood
was shed for me and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb
of God, I come, I come. That's the only way I come. If
you draw me, you have to bid me to come to you. So in this
story, there are a few things I want us to see. We do see who
we are and who he is. And it's important we see those
two things in every single message about the Lord. Then we'll see
what he's done for us, what he's doing for us. We'll see where
we need to be, what we need to be doing and how we need to be
doing it. And all of that is going to be
summed up by the title of this message, At His Feet. If we're
at his feet, we find out who we are, we find out who he is.
We find out what he's done and what he's doing, and we figure
out where we need to be, what we need to be doing and how we
need to be doing it. So here in Luke chapter eight, we see in verse one, it says,
And it came to pass afterward that he went throughout every
city and village, preaching and showing the glad tidings of the
kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him.
The Lord was traveling throughout the world, preaching and teaching,
doing miracles and showing who he was and teaching his children
and his disciples were with him. Verse two, and certain women
which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary
called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils and Joanna,
the wife of Chusa, Herod, Stuart and Susanna, and many others
which ministered unto him of their substance. The Lord was doing what he did.
He was saving his children. He was preaching the gospel.
But we see here three women and as examples of this certain women
that he's talking about and what these women did where it said
that they ministered unto the Lord. Now, I don't know exactly
what they were doing. I don't know if it meant they
were with him to worship him. I don't know if they were with
Him to help with things, whether they provided for Him, they helped
with the crowds, whether they made food, whether they found
food, whether they worked, they did whatever they needed to to
minister unto Him. And only one of these three has
any description about them. It says in verse 2, in certain
women which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities,
that's important, every single one of these women that were
following Him had a problem before they met the Lord. When they
met the Lord, they had no more problems. And it says specifically
that Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils. Mary Magdalene was a widow. And
descriptions of her by the old writers say that she was considered
an evil woman, an awful woman. She had seven devils. She had
seven evil spirits. But now that she has met the
Lord and He's done what He did for her, the end of verse 3 says,
they ministered unto Him of their substance. What that means is
they did whatever the Lord needed, wanted, or asked with everything
they had. Everything she had. She was a
widow. She was not married. And she
followed Him. And every single thing she had
was His. All her time was His. All her
effort was His. All of her worship was His. He
was her life. OK, turn over to Luke chapter
10. I'm very thankful for all that
we will see about Mary here, OK? Mary is an amazing example
for us. But it's important we put the
caveat on this, that Mary was an evil woman with evil spirits
until she met the Lord. And because the Lord healed her
and saved her, that changed who she was. That's the only reason
that any of the stuff we're going to read happened. Mary does not
deserve any credit here. Now, it's an amazing thing to
do good works. and to follow the Lord and all
that. And that's what we have to do. We must do that. And if
we love the Lord, we will, if he's willing. But Mary's not
who we're talking about, OK? Mary is not getting the credit.
This is glory to the Lord. Now in Luke 10, look at verse
38. The next time we see Mary, 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,
does not thou care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Bid
her therefore that she help me. In this first line, we see that
Martha received the Lord into her house. This is important
because it tells us Mary didn't have a house. Remember, Mary
gave up everything, but she was in Martha's house and that's
where the Lord was. And Martha asked the Lord, do
you not care that I'm doing all the work here and Mary's just
over there sitting at your feet? Look in verse 30. I'm sorry,
29. I'm sorry, I said that wrong.
39 and 40. But Martha was comforted
about much serving and came to him and said, Lord, does thou
not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Bitter, therefore,
that she helped me. And Jesus answered and said unto
her, Martha, Martha, thou were careful and troubled about many
things, but one thing is needful. And Mary has chosen that good
part which shall not be taken away from her. The Lord tells
Martha, Mary is exactly where she needs to be. And then he
says, Mary is exactly where you need to be. That's the beginning of where
we find out who we are and who he is. We sit at his feet. Now,
as that song said, bid me come, Lord, and then I come. He has
to make us come to his feet and we will definitely not fall at
his feet unless he breaks our legs. to fall. We will stand
defiantly until he breaks us. And usually that is based off
us finding out who we are. When he gives us a glimpse of
who we are, we don't even want to be on our knees. We want to
be hidden as far as we can away from whatever anyone's looking
at. OK, look over at John chapter 11. John 11. And the story we just looked
at, John 11, verse 30. Now, Jesus was not yet come into
the town, but was in the place where Martha met him. And the
Jews then, which were with her in the house and comforted her
when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out,
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. Where's Mary every time we find
her? She's falling at the Lord's feet. Mary has learned something. There's only one place to be.
And the Lord told her the last time she did it and someone tried
to rebuke her. The Lord said, no, she's where
she needs to be. There's one thing needful. If you take anything
out of this message, the Lord said in his own words, there's
one thing needful. And that is to worship Him. That's
all we need to worry about. The rest of it is just stuff
that's just going on. All right, let's continue. 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 you laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come
and see. And Jesus wept. Mary has come
to the Lord and through Mary, the Lord has used her to bring
all these other people. Mary, an evil woman, a woman
with evil spirits, the Lord has used her in the same way that
he has used so many of his children. Almost everyone we see in the
scriptures has at one time or another easily been called an
evil person or something about them. The Apostle Paul talks
about how he used to think he was so righteous that he casted
all as dung. So look what he uses Mary to
do in verse 45. Then many of the Jews, which
came to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed
on him. They followed Mary because of
the way Mary left. It says she left quickly. She
rose and hastily left. And you know she was emotional.
Almost every time we see Mary, she's emotional with these things.
And the Lord used this sinner to guide all those people so
that he could save them. All right, let's go to John 12. John 12, verse one. Then Jesus, six days before the
Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, which had been dead,
whom he raised from the dead. So this is taking place right
after he raised Lazarus. There they made him a supper,
and Martha served. But Lazarus was one of them that
sat at the table with him. Then took 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
odor of the ointment." Remember how we said Mary gave all that
she had to him? It seems that Mary somehow came
upon something of value. So what did she do? She immediately
used it for the Lord. This is not something that is
just a financial responsibility. We see Mary doesn't seem to have
a home because she wants to follow him. It seems she doesn't have
a lot of money because she wants to give everything to him. But
it's not just like that. It's not just about the money
and the things that we all think. We think, well, I'll give 10
percent or I'll do this and that's my part. There's one thing needful. Be at the Lord's feet, worshiping
him. Look at verse four. Then said
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 he said, not that
he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag
and bear what was put in it. We should remember, we see Mary
doing the right thing over and over again, going to the Lord's
seat. Every single time she does it, someone else tries to rebuke
her. Someone else tries to stop her
from doing it. It doesn't say anything about
Mary's reaction to this. As we get further in this, I
have a feeling Mary didn't care. I have a feeling that if someone
told Mary you need to be doing something else, she understood
at that point what she needed to be doing and wanted to do.
But we will always be fighting upstream if we're trying to get
to the Lord's seat. That's the way this world is.
If we're going to worship the Lord, things will get in our
way. There will be obstacles, there will be people, there will
be jobs, there will be fun, there will be things that will stop
us from doing those things. But the Lord tells us, come to
my feet. So what does the Lord say to
Judas in verse 7? Then said Jesus, let her alone. Against the day of my bearing
has she kept this. For the poor always ye have with
you, but may ye have not always, but me ye have not always. The
Lord tells them. He doesn't rebuke that you shouldn't
do things for the poor. He just puts everything into
perspective. He says all of the things of this world will he
have, but me, you will only have for a short period of time. He
is correcting them. What Mary is doing here. And
she may not even understand what she's doing. The Lord is getting
ready to go to the cross and Mary is using this ointment to
anoint the Lord Jesus Christ. In His death, we will see here
in a minute, that there was no time for that. The natural burial
that they did for people in this day was they would anoint the
body before they buried it. But the Lord, that was not going
to be done for Him. So Mary did it. He used Mary
to anoint His body. Okay, turn with me to Mark 15.
Mark 15. The three stories that I've said
where Mary falls at his feet and Martha is serving, where
Mary falls at the Lord's feet at Lazarus tomb and where Mary
falls at his feet, breaks the ointment and anoints his feet.
That was really the most I had of understanding of Mary. Those
are the three stories we hear a lot, but there's so much more
to her and it keeps going. So here in Mark 15, look at verse
39. This is when the Lord is on the
cross. And when the centurion, which stood over against him,
saw that he so cried out and 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 and Mary, the mother
of James, the less and of Joseph and Solomon. Mary, it seems,
never left our Lord. I can't imagine how difficult
this was. Mary looked at the Lord as her
everything. Every chance she had, she worshipped
Him. She wanted to be at His feet.
She was there looking on as He was being crucified. She watched
this. It was more important for her
to be by the Lord than it was any suffering, any emotional
pain or anything else that was going on. None of it mattered.
She still wanted to be there with the Lord. So now go on to
verse 45. And this is where Joseph of Arimathea
had asked for the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. 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 unto the door of the sepulcher. And Mary Magdalene,
and Mary the mother of Joseph, beheld where he was laid. So
he died on the cross. And Joseph of Arimathea took
the body, and went to go bury it. In a tomb that no man had
ever been buried, there was Mary Magdalene." In just more sadness,
And we'll see in a minute another part of this, that a lot of His
disciples and a lot of these people didn't really understand
what was happening. They had been told, but they
didn't grasp it. We have all this written Word.
We've been told of this so many times, and yet it still is hard
for us to understand what actually happened on the cross, and that
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is life, who is holy, bore our sins
and died. And so in this moment, I can't
imagine how difficult this was. Yet they followed to the tomb
and that's where they were. All right, now turn to John chapter
20. John chapter 20. We're picking
this up a couple of days later. And it says in verse one of chapter
20, John, the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early
when it was yet dark unto the sepulcher and seeth a stone taken
away from the sepulcher. Mary had gone back to the tomb
of where the Lord was. Now, my first thought when I
read this was that, well, she wasn't with him. Why was she
not there? And we'll see in a minute. It
was the Passover. Mary was obeying God's law. She had to go back home and she
had to rest. There were limitations on what
she could do. So in all this, the only time she left the Lord
was to obey the Lord, because His Word was what she needed
to do. So we keep going. Well, first, Mary, it says it
was dark. So when the Passover ended, and
I don't know exactly what time she was allowed to continue activity. You could only walk so far. You
could only do so much on the Sabbath. But as soon as the hour
came, it was dark. And she left the moment she was
allowed to do it. She wasn't going to break God's
law. And she left the moment when it was dark to go to his
tomb. So she walked in the dark all the way to the tomb. And
when she got there, the stone was gone and it was empty. So
we know how much Mary loved the Lord. And we know how she followed
him. And the only reason she left
him was because she had to obey his law. And in that time, she's
gone. He's gone. And she doesn't know
where he is. So what does she do? Verse two,
Then Mary runneth and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other
disciples whom Jesus loves, 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 sepulcher. They didn't
believe her. So they said, well, we'll go check it out. We don't
think you're right. That's impossible. Verse four,
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 cloth lying, yet he was not in. Then come
a Simon Peter following 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 in also that other
disciple, which came first to the sepulcher, and he saw and
he believed. For as yet they knew not the
scripture that he must rise again from the dead." So Mary left
and ran to get the disciples. The only thing she knew what
to do. I need help. I don't know where he is. I need help. So
they came back and they didn't believe her. It says a little
bit about Mary and a little bit about them, that they didn't
believe her. She said, I was there, I saw it, but they had
to go see for themselves. And look in verse 10, Then the
disciples went away again unto their own home. They saw what
had happened. They saw that his body was not
there. So what did they do? I don't know what to do. Let's go home. I don't know what
to do. Verse 11, But Mary stood without
at the sepulcher, weeping. And she wept. As she wept, she
stooped down and looked into the sepulcher. What did Mary
do? She stayed. She fell down and
started crying. She had nowhere to go. Remember, she had one thing.
She wanted to be at the Lord's feet and she didn't know where
he was. So she stayed there. All right. Look at verse 11.
But Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping. And as she
wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher, and she sees
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? She sayeth unto them, Because
they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they've
laid him. Two angels are in there, and
she doesn't probably understand who they are, but even if she
does, She still has the same problem. Even if those are angels,
it's all they've told her. They're saying, why are you weeping?
And she says, because I can't find my Lord. She's single minded. She wants one thing. OK, look
in verse 14. And when she had thus said, she
turned herself back and saw Jesus standing and knew not that it
was Jesus. Even though this woman had one
motive in her life, She seemed that every decision she made
was sitting at the Lord's feet, looking for Him and worshiping
Him. She still couldn't recognize Him in that moment. This shows
us the Lord has to reveal Himself to us in every way. This is why
we keep coming back, because on our own, without Him, we just
keep looking blindly. We can't find Him, even if we're
looking for Him, even if we turn to His word, which is what we
should do when we're looking for Him. We still need him to
open our eyes. The Lord came to her, but she
didn't realize it. All right, look in verse 15.
So Jesus said unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seeking
now? So now the Lord's speaking and
she doesn't recognize him. We know this woman has heard
the Lord's voice for a while. He's talked to her. And we recognize
the voice of those that we love, but she still doesn't hear it.
So it continues in verse 15. She's supposing him to be the
gardener said unto him, Sir, if thou have born him since,
if you've taken him away or done something with him, tell me where
thou hast laid him and I will take him away. She says, I don't
know what's going on. She thinks he works there. He
might know something. She says, if you did something,
I don't care. Just tell me where he is. I'll do whatever you need
to do. I'll pay you what I got to pay
you. Just tell me, give me something
about where my Lord is. And then in verse 16, Jesus said
unto her, Mary. He said her name, that's all
he said, one word, her name. And it's important he said her
name because that's how he speaks to his children. It's not a general
call. It's not a general thing. When
you're listening to the gospel preached and you're reading the
Word, it's not being preached to a group. The Lord speaks to
individuals, His own children, every single one. I don't know
how that happens. It's hard to understand. But
He can talk to all of His children at the exact same time. And He
knows what we need to hear and He says it. But He says, Mary,
in that moment in verse 16, She turned herself and said unto
him, Rabbona, which is to say, Master. He said, Mary, and she
had her back up to him because she's still trying to find the
Lord. And he said that word and she turned and she said, Master. That moment to her, that's all
she wanted and he gave it to her. Verse 17, Jesus said unto
her, Touch me not. Now, the Lord tells her not to
touch him. Why would he say that? Well,
here's why he said it. The moment he said, Mary, you
know what she did? She dove to his feet. That's
what Mary always did. She dove to his feet. She wanted
to be at his feet. And he said, touch me not, for
I am not yet ascended to my father, but I go to my brethren and say
unto them, but you go into my brethren and say unto them, I
ascend unto my father and your father and to my God and your
God. The Lord gave her a message.
He told her to do something. In verse 18 it says, well, let
me do something else first. So Mary has seen her Lord. That's all she wanted. I don't
know how long this morning was, but it's been a few hours at
least. Enough time for her to walk to the sepulcher, see he's
not there, go run to the disciples to find them where they were,
bring them back and see that he was not there. And then for
the Lord to speak to her. So all she wanted was to get
to his feet. And he says, touch me not. And
he says that because he's got an urgent message for her. Now,
what happens next is wonderful. Earlier in the day, Mary had
come to see the Lord and he wasn't there. And in a panic, in a moment
of fright, as if a young girl who can't find her father, She's
lost. She doesn't know where he is.
She doesn't know what to do. So she takes off running to someone
who might know. That trip to those disciples,
I promise you, was a difficult trip. It was in the dark. She
had to find her way to see them. She knew when she went, I don't
know if I'm going to get an answer. They may not know anything at
all. It was a very difficult trip. Now, this trip, she has
to go tell the disciples this message from the Lord. This was
a different trip. She knew where her father was. She was happy. She knew he was
OK. He told her it was going to be
all right. And this trip, as she ran, I promised the trip
was easier. She never got tired. She was
smiling. And I guaranteed you she was
running. OK, she had an urgent message. I don't know how far it was.
And I don't know where the disciples were. They were in a house together. I don't know if they were hiding
in seclusion. I don't know if they were in a village where
they were. But as Mary came, you know that that message was
burning her lips. She could not wait to tell them. So I don't know if she waited
until she got in the door. I don't know if the moment she
saw the door, she started shouting. But I promise, Mary started yelling. He's alive. He's alive. The Lord is alive. I saw him. And when he walked in there or
when she walked in that room and those disciples were there,
you know, they looked at her as if she was crazy. They didn't
believe her the first time she came in there saying something
that was kind of believable or not. Now she's walking back yelling
where they just left. There was no that he's gone.
And now she's coming back, not just saying I found him, but
he's alive. And they didn't believe. And
that was read in chapter 16, what was read earlier. Did she
stop yelling it? I promise she never for the rest
of her life stopped delivering that message. She said it. He's
alive. I've seen him. He gave me a message.
He told me to tell you guys that he was ascended. He was going
to see his father. And he called him my father,
our father, too. And that's God. He's our God.
And they still didn't believe. Mary kept shouting it. The reason
she did, because there's never ever been a message more urgent. There's never been a message
more important. And the disciples didn't understand
this because they didn't receive the message from the Lord. She
had seen Him and He told her. He said, she couldn't touch Him,
but she knew she wanted to. She was right there. And he said,
touch me not, deliver this message. And she was delivering the message.
And that is what we must do. We must deliver that message.
The Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, for the
sins of His children. You think what she was saying
to them. Think about this message. They were all in there confused.
They didn't know really what's going on. I bet she told them.
The Jews all told us that they won. They all told us that we
killed Him. That so-called Savior had He
died. We killed Him. We're never going
to talk about Him again. And she said, that's not what
happened. He did it for us. He died for us. That's why He
did it. All of this that we've gone through,
it was all a gift to us. So in all of this message, everything
we see, we find out that at His feet, we find out who we are. We find that we're wicked people.
We realize that we don't belong there. We're not even worthy
to be at his feet. And when we get to his feet,
we realize who he is. We realize how holy he is. We
realize he's the only one who can heal us. We realize he's
the one that we need to give us a new heart. He's the only
one who can save us, the only one who is willing and able to
save his children. And then we find out what he's
done for us. We see all through this example of Mary, what he's
doing, this whole thing. He's doing all of this stuff
for his children. His whole path was all saving
his children and then ultimately saving all of his children. And
then we see what he's doing now. She realized that it wasn't enough
for him to heal those people and to do all that stuff he did
on this earth. It wasn't enough that he lived
perfectly for 33 years. That's not enough. But he had
to be made sin, bear our sin and die, pay the sin debt for
us. And then he gave us his righteousness.
And through Mary, we see that where we need to be, we've got
to be at his feet. That's where we have to be. We
need to be where he is, whether it's in this place, whether it's
in this book, or where someone is preaching the gospel. We need
to be there. We do not have what Mary had.
Mary could actually go and listen to the Lord. She could be at
His feet. The amazing thing is that through
this book and through the messages of His preachers, we still get
to hear His voice. We may not realize that, but
when you actually hear Him speak, there's nothing like it. There's
nothing like it. Then we see what we need to be
doing when we're at His feet. We need to be worshiping Him.
We need to be bowed down. We're not at His feet so we can
get attention. We're not at His feet so people
can see where we're at His feet. We're at His feet because next
to the Lord is the place we must be. And then how do we need to
be doing it? We see that we need to be doing
it quietly. Through all these examples, did
we ever hear Mary defend herself? Did we ever hear Mary speak against
those that were speaking against her? We need to be reverent when
we do it, knowing our place. We need to be fervent about it.
We need to push towards it. We need to press towards the
mark. We need to get through all the other stuff to get to
Him. We need to do it like it's the only thing on earth that
matters, like Mary thought. And why do we do that? Because
it is the only thing on earth that matters. When we see these things, we
realize that at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ is where we
find salvation. It's where we find our only hope. It's where we find our only peace.
Everything in this world will pull us the other direction.
Everything. But if we're at his feet, He
bids us to come and we say, Lord, make me come unto you because
that's where I must be. All right.