predicted his death, but he had
also foretold his resurrection. However, the disciples then,
as us disciples now, were dull. Don't you find yourself dull
sometimes? That kind of hard of hearing,
hard of learning, not quick to pick up on spiritual things.
That's the way these men were, but that's the way we are too,
because we're all cut from the same cloth. We all fell in Adam,
and though we have been quickened by the Spirit, and indeed we
have been robed in the garments of God's salvation, we're still
in this flesh, we're still sinful people, and there are many things
we don't catch on to real quick. And we're thankful that our Lord
is very patient with us. And we ask him to give us teachable
spirits. These disciples of our Lord,
they were very, very slow in grasping spiritual truths. And the death of the Lord Jesus
brought them great sorrow and tears. Death always does that. And so it was with the followers
of our Lord. In John chapter 13 and then on
into chapter 14, when the Savior said he was going away, it broke
the hearts of the Savior. And he then told him, he said,
let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. It was the thought of death.
Yes, he had told them one of them would deny him. One of them
would then sell him out. But that which did the most damage
to them as far as their own thinking was concerned and their own attitude
was that he said he was going away. And the idea of him going
away, the idea of him dying, greatly troubled them. In fact,
when our Lord Jesus, back in Matthew chapter 16, the very
first time he was very outspoken about his death, it just did
not sit well with the disciples. And Peter pulled him aside, and
Peter's attitude was, don't talk of this. How can you have a kingdom
if you're dead? How can you rule over Israel
and sit on the throne of David in Jerusalem if you're dead?
We don't want to hear any more talk about death. That was Peter's
attitude. And of course the Lord came down
pretty hard on him because any time a person would say anything
negative about the Lord's death, he's attacking the very glory
of God. This is a child of God and poor
Peter, he didn't grasp the necessity at that time of the death of
the Lord Jesus that that was absolutely required that God
might be just and justify the ungodly. Death, it brings sorrow. It broke their hearts. When our
Lord met the funeral procession of the only boy of a widow woman, Scripture says she was crying.
And he met the funeral procession and he told her, he said, weep
not, weep not. And he came and he touched the
beer, he touched the bed. The men were carrying the body
out to the cemetery to bury it. And when he touched it, they
stopped. And our Lord Jesus, he raised that young man from
the dead. And then the crying ended. The
ruler of the synagogue, his 12-year-old daughter, was sick. The ruler
went to the Savior, and while he was talking with the Savior,
then another person came in, and the Lord ministered to that
woman, and then messengers came from the ruler's house and said,
it's no use to trouble him anymore. She's dead. Your daughter's dead. And the Savior said, She's not
dead. And they go to the man's, go
back to his house. And everybody's crying. Oh my,
it's an awful, an awful scene. People are tore all to pieces.
And the Savior, the Savior said to them, He said, She's not dead. And they mocked Him. But He raised
her from the dead. They were weeping though, they
were weeping. When Lazarus died, Mary was weeping. In fact, shortest verse of the
Bible, John 11, 35, says Jesus wept. There's always weeping
when death arrives. Death brings sadness, death brings
tears. You remember when our Lord Jesus
was carrying his cross and he passed by some women and they
were crying. They were lamenting, they were
brokenhearted. And he said to them, daughters
of Jerusalem, weep not for me, weep for yourselves, weep for
your children, but don't weep for me. Death always brings weeping. We've wept in the presence of
death. And here in John chapter 20,
we have one of our Lord's followers, Mary Magdalene. And she, in verse
11, is weeping. She's weeping. You know, she
was the last one at the cross, first one at the grave, at the
tomb. She had, as she came up and approached
the tomb, according to the first verse, she saw the stone rolled
away, and she immediately reached this conclusion, somebody had
stolen his body. Go back to verses one and two.
The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it
was yet dark under the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away
from the sepulcher, Then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them,
they have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher, and we
know not where they have laid him. When she saw the stone rolled
away, her thought was not, he has risen, as he said, That which
went through her mind and through her heart was not, bless his
name, he has done what he said he's gonna do, he conquered death. He has crushed the head of the
serpent. No, she immediately concludes
his body has been stolen. It never even entered into her
mind, according to the scripture, that he had risen from the dead. And when we get down to verse
11, Peter and John, of course, the two men that she told, they
have now left. They've left. And she just stands
there here in John 20 and verse 11. She couldn't move. She couldn't
leave. But she finally stoops down and
she looks into the sepulchre. We don't know too much about
Mary Magdalene. You best ignore the blasphemous
words of some people. They've concocted in their minds
an illicit relationship between Mary Magdalene and our Savior. That's absolute blasphemy. don't
even entertain that thought at all. What was she? She was a sinner saved by the
grace of God. That's what she was. We know
according to Mark chapter 16 in verse nine, she was a woman
out of whom the Lord cast seven devils. And many writers, and
I agree with them, believe that This is the woman that Luke wrote
about, that I read to you about there in Luke chapter seven. She had been forgiven very much,
and she loved much. She was one of those women who
followed the Savior. And it says in Luke chapter eight,
immediately following that passage I read to you, It mentions Mary
Magdalene, a woman who was a sinner, and that she and some other women
ministered to our Lord Jesus of their own finances. That is,
she supported our Lord's ministry. She is a woman who was special
to Christ Jesus as all of his children are. She honored him. She worshiped
him. She had wasted a good bit of
her life serving the devil. And then the Lord came to her
in sovereign saving grace and cast the horrible demons out
of her. And she believed him and she
followed him and she sought to honor him. The shepherd had called
her. She was one of his sheep. He
said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow
me. And consequently, this sheep
loved him and believed him. Now love is patient and love
will persevere. And love led this woman to stay
right there at the tomb. I'll tell you this. The more
fully we understand our sinfulness, the more we recognize our own
depravity, the more aware that we are of our miserable condition
in sin, the more appreciative we will be of God's great salvation
through the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, people who have no use
for sovereign grace, people who have no use for saving grace,
who believe that salvation is something you do to accomplish,
they're people who do not know the extent of their sinfulness.
Because if you're ever convinced by the Spirit of God that you
are nothing, and you know nothing, and you can do nothing that will
be pleasing to God, then and then only will you really appreciate
and thank God for His marvelous saving grace to you. And this
is Mary. This is Mary. She knew the Savior
had saved her. He had cast demons out of her.
The demon of unbelief. The demon of selfishness. The
demon of pride. All of these demons He cast out
of her. And she's been brought low and
then lifted up by His grace. She's been stripped of her self-righteousness
and clothed in the righteousness of Christ Jesus. He has killed
her and now He has made her alive in Him and she's oh so thankful
and then she goes to the tomb fully expecting His body to be
there and with the body not being there, she just stays there as
it were just frozen in her steps. She wasn't going to leave. She loves the Savior so. Now, I readily acknowledge that she
has a love for the Savior. But we must also readily acknowledge
the weakness of her faith. Because she thinks his body has
been stolen. Oh Mary, what about the Savior's
words? And she doesn't remember those.
She only knows the last time I saw him was right here. Right here. When Joseph and Nicodemus
put his body in this sepulcher, and I watched them roll a stone
across the mouth of the grave. And that's where he was. And
I came back here fully expecting he'd still be there. He's not
there. I'm broken hearted. Brokenhearted. You see, as the Savior said,
he used that illustration of Simon about the two debtors.
She's the one who loves the Savior. She loves him more because he
has forgiven her of so much. Poor old Simon, he didn't think
he's just a 50 pence in debt sinner. He'd done a few wrong
things, but not much. But she knew, she's head over
heels in debt to the justice of God. And Christ Jesus paid
her debt. She's debt free. And she loves
him. She loves him. Do you ask What can I do for
the Lord? Do you ever ask, how can I serve
my God? Well, I'll tell you what, you
can honor Him and worship Him in your heart. Yeah, but I want
to do something. Well, I'll tell you, that's doing
something. That's doing something. It's
like with Mary and another Mary and Martha, whose brother Lazarus
had died, you'll remember. But Mary was sitting at the feet
of Jesus. Martha, it says, she is cumbered
about much, doing busy. And I think that's the way, you
know, some of the people of God, they think, well, what can I
do for the Lord? I'm gonna be busy here. Well,
there is a time to do some things, but the Lord said, Mary has chosen
the best part. She's doing the wisest thing.
Well, what's Mary doing? She's sitting at his feet, worshiping
him. Just honoring, that's what she's
doing. So what can I do? What can I
do in service to the Lord? In your own heart, meditate upon
his greatness. Think about the value of the
cross of Calvary. Of Mary, we read very little
of Mary Magdalene. We'd read very little except
this. She always wanted to be near
the Savior. She always wanted to be near
Christ Jesus. Verse 11, the end of it says,
she looked into the sepulcher. She looked into the sepulcher,
and what does she see? Verse 12, and seeth two angels
in white purity, the one at the head, the other at the feet,
where the body of Jesus had lain. This was the last place she saw
him, and this is where she came back to. I tell you this, wherever
it is, that you last saw the Savior spiritually and with some
understanding in your heart. The last place you saw Him, I'll
guarantee you, that's where you're gonna come back to. And I'll tell you where we see
Him is right here meeting together with the children of God, with
the Word of God open. We're looking for Christ Jesus.
We're looking for Him. If you see the Lord here, if
you've heard his glorious gospel here, if your heart has rejoiced
in the goodness of the Lord through Christ Jesus to you here, I guarantee
you, you're gonna come back. Well, she's blessed to see two
heavenly messengers dressed in white, which neither Peter or
John saw. You see, angels, they can be
seen or unseen. They can be visible or invisible. I don't doubt, but what they
weren't there when Peter and John were there. When Peter went
rushing in, I feel sure those two angels were in there then,
but they were just invisible. They, Evidently, the Lord did
not deem it necessary that Peter and John see these two messengers,
but the Lord of sovereign grace deemed it necessary and beneficial
that Mary see them. You see, the Lord knows exactly
what we need, and this is what she needed. This is what she
needed. The scripture says the angel
of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth
them. You see poor Lazarus sitting
at the gate of the rich man begging for crumbs. When the rich man
walked by and looked down his nose at him, he only saw the
poor beggar. He didn't see the angels who
were there. because they were invisible to him. But the angels of God were there
surrounding him, just like they're there surrounding you, wherever
you are. And you won't see them, but I'm
telling you they're real, and they're right there with you.
Well, look at verse 13. And they say unto her, woman,
why weepest thou? Now her weeping, as I said, it
showed her affection, but it also showed her unbelief. She wept as if there is no comfort
to be found here at the empty tomb. And the angels, the angels ask,
almost in maybe surprise. Woman, why weepest thou? Ye ought
to be rejoicing. Ye ought to be happy. All of
heaven's glory is singing hallelujahs. The Savior has triumphed over
death. He's conquered sin. He's crushed
the head of the serpent. He's brought in everlasting righteousness. He's put away the sins of His
people. Why in the world are you crying? You ought to be rejoicing. But she was crying. I tell you this, if His body
had still been in the tomb, that'd been the time to cry. Is that
right? That's right, isn't it? If the
Savior's body was still in there, that'd be the time to weep, because
if Christ be not risen from the dead, your faith is vain, and
our preaching is vain also. There's one angel sitting where
his head was, and one sitting where his feet was, and I don't
think they argued over who's gonna have which position. It's
just an honor to be there. You know, it's the only place
in the Bible where you find angel sitting. It's kind of a by the
way sort of information. The presence of these two messengers
was proof that the Savior's body hadn't been stolen. It'd been
raised, been raised. And here's something, I give
you this to think about, and I know y'all, you love to study
the scripture just like I do. I think of this, there's an angel,
and there's an angel. It puts me in mind of the mercy
seat on top of the Ark of the Covenant. And there's a seraphim,
and there's a seraphim. as it were, guarding, guarding
the mercy seat. And here they are, here they
are. And when they asked this question,
I'll have to go quickly now. Woman, why weepest thou? She
goes back to the answer that she continually gives, because
they've taken away the body of my Lord and I don't know where
they've laid him. She always comes back to that.
But watch this. In verse two, look at verse two. She runs and she comes to Simon
Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and saith unto
them, they have taken away the Lord. But now look down here in verse
13. And they say unto her, woman,
why weepest thou? She saith unto them, because
they have taken away my Lord. My Lord. Oh, this is personal
now. My Lord. It's like David said,
the Lord is my, my shepherd. The Song of Solomon, my beloved
is mine. My beloved is mine and I'm his. It's like Thomas. says, and we'll
get to this, the Lord willing, next Wednesday in verse 28, Thomas
answered and said, my Lord and my God. And then before I move on, I
had this thought today. Mary, fully expected to find
the Savior there and not finding him, she weeps. If you ever, ever go to a house
of worship and the Savior isn't there, he's not preached, his
gospel is not set forth, you have every reason to weep. You
have every reason to weep. And if anybody was to ask you,
why are you crying? Just answer like Mary did. because
they've taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they've laid
him. And it's true of most pulpits in this country. They've taken
away my Lord, and I don't know where they've laid him. But 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. Now here's another example of
divine sovereignty. Who do you think the Lord Jesus
is going to reveal himself to first? Now we know he made several
appearances after his resurrection. And maybe next Wednesday night
we'll go over those. I'll just mention them briefly.
Several people. In fact, Paul says in 1 Corinthians
15, he appeared to over 500 people at one time. But who's first? Who's gonna have the honor of
seeing the resurrected Christ first? I'm sure the Catholic
Church would love for it to have been Peter. But it wasn't. Or John, or another one of the
apostles, no. It's Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene. It's an illustration of his sovereignty.
He reveals himself to whom he will. To whom he will. And so in verse 15, Jesus saith
unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? And
she, supposing him to be the gardener, said unto him, Sir,
if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where they have laid
him. Thou hast laid him, and I'll take him away. Once again,
this is what's on her mind. If you took his body, you tell
me, and I'll go get it and bring it back. I mean, she's a very
brave woman. Here's a stranger standing before
her. She does not recognize him, and
she says, in her mind, well, he's the gardener. And she says,
now if you've taken his body, tell me. I'll go get him. I'll bring him back. But in verse 16, Jesus saith
unto her, and I wonder if maybe he spoke with a little different,
something about his tone was different. And He spoke to her
like He had spoken to her by effectual grace, by the call
of mercy, by the times that He addressed her. The first time
He addressed her as the Creator would to a creature, He says
woman. But this time He speaks to her
as the Savior, to one of the sinners that he had saved. After
all, he calleth his own sheep by name. And he saith unto her,
and I suspect speaking to her like he had spoken to her many
times, he said, Mary. And she turned herself and said
unto him, Rabboni, which is to say master or master
teacher. The Jews had three names for
teachers. Rab meant teacher. Rabbi meant
great teacher. But they rarely ever used this
because this was a name reserved for the Lord. Rabboni, great
master teacher. And notice this. She had turned away from the
angels toward Christ. You know what, the generation
we're living in, it's like every generation that has proceeded.
They're crazy about angels. They're gonna worship angels,
gonna honor angels. Mary turned her back on angels
to worship the Savior. That's what you'll do because
those angels, they're just messengers sent from God to be the ministers
of those who'll be the heirs of God's salvation. She knew his voice. And Jesus saith unto her, verse
17, touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my father. Literally, stop holding on to
me. Stop clinging to me. There'll
be ample time for this. I have other things to do. And
I'm going back to my father shortly. But he says, this is what I want
you to do. Go to my brethren. That means
my brothers, my family. a family, and say unto them, what an honor she had here. And the Lord says, give them
some good news. And it is, I ascend unto my Father
and to your Father, and to my God and your God. Let me say this. Mary, there in the presence of
the Lord Jesus, she did not recognize Him as being the Savior, though
He was, but she didn't recognize Him. But He's always there with
His people, whether you recognize Him or not, whether you're aware
of it or not, whether you're thinking about the fact that
He's with you or not, He's still there. He said, I will never,
No, never leave thee, nor forsake thee. And when your heart is
empty, he's nearby to fill it. When your heart is cold, he's
nearby to warm you up. When your soul is languishing,
he's nearby to revive you. When you're weak, He's nearby
to strengthen you. And when you're falling, He's
nearby to lift you up. And He says to her, go to my
brethren, my brethren. Hebrews 2, 11 and 12 says, for
both he that sanctifieth and those who are sanctified are
all of one. for which cause he's not ashamed
to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto
my brethren, and in the midst of the church will I sing praise
unto thee. He's our elder brother. How long has he been our elder
brother? From old eternity. He is our
powerful brother. He's the omnipotent God. He's
our protective brother. None can harm us, for Jesus is
near. And He's our brother born for
adversity, Proverbs 17, 17. He's born to bear the affliction
of our sins, to bear the punishment of our sins, to save His brethren. And that brings us to the last
verse we're gonna consider tonight, verse 18. And Mary Magdalene
came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that
He had spoken these things unto her. She went forth rejoicing,
and she shared good news. Good news. It's always a delight
to give forth good news, isn't it? I'm the bearer of good news. Now, some people like to spread
bad news. I'm gonna be the first one to
tell you what happened. That's the bad news. No, we want
to tell the good news. Proverbs 25, 25, as cold waters
to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. And
she goes to where the disciples are meeting and she just rushes
in and she says, guess what? I saw him. I saw the risen savior. He's alive. And he said for me
to tell y'all that he's ascending to his father
and to your father. to His God and to your God. And then, that same evening,
they'd meet together for worship. And we'll see what happened,
the Lord willing, next week when we get to the next verse in John
chapter 20. The Lord is, He's always with
His people, whether we perceive His presence or not. Sometimes
we're more aware of His presence than other times. I promise you
this, where two or three are met together, gathered together
in the name of Christ, gathered by the Spirit of God, I promise
you Christ Jesus is here. No, not my promise, that's His
promise. That's His promise. He stopped
being in the midst. So we had someone with us tonight. And I'm so thankful. He blesses
us with His presence every time we meet. And I'll tell you the
key, exalt Him. Because He will honor those who
honor Him. We've got His word on that.