So we're in Mark chapter 16 and
reading from verse 9. Now when Jesus was risen early
the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene,
out of whom he had cast seven devils. And she went and told
them that had been with him as they mourned and wept. And they,
when they had heard that he was alive and had been seen of her,
believed not. After that, he appeared in another
form unto two of them, as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it unto
the residue, neither believed they them. Afterward, He appeared
unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with
their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed
not them which had seen him after he was risen. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. Our Saviour, made five resurrection
day appearances to his followers. And I just wanted to mention
the fact that he did not make any to unbelievers. Although there was doubt and
there was a lack of belief on the part of his disciples and
his followers, the Lord did not appear to those who were outside
of the group of believers. And I think that that is very
interesting. It's not my purpose to dwell
too much upon this single point today. But I would like to hear
those who preach up man's free will explain why the Lord did
not appear to any unbelievers. One would imagine that that would
have been an obvious thing to do in order to encourage them
to believe that he was risen from the dead. The world says,
of course, if we saw Jesus, we would have faith. If we had some
evidence, then we would believe. But you see, the truth is that
no, they would not, because that's not how faith works. When men crucified the Lord Jesus
Christ, that was the last time that they saw him alive. Now, only those who are given
faith in Christ see the Lord Jesus Christ. The next time that
they reprobate, The next time that unbelievers or the non-elect
will see the Lord Jesus Christ will be at the great white throne
judgment. By which time their eternal destiny
will have been a long time sealed. The Lord Jesus Christ appeared
to his little flock. He did not appear to the unbelievers
and those who had slain him. What if he had turned up that
morning, that resurrection morning at the temple in Jerusalem? Or what if he had visited Pilate
and his wife as they were having breakfast? Or walked in on that
meeting with the high priest when he was paying out the bribes
to the tomb guards? Do you think that those people
would all be in heaven today because they had seen the Lord
Jesus Christ risen from the dead? Not a bit of it. And here we
see this principle that the Lord Jesus Christ only visits his
church. And I think that there are lessons
that we can draw from these few verses that we have before us
today that can be applicable to us and extend beyond the circumstances
and the people involved at this moment. I mentioned yesterday
in the little introduction how that the Lord met with particular
individuals to address their particular needs. There was nothing
haphazard or random about these five encounters that the Lord
made this day. The Lord intentionally met with
certain people in a predetermined order with a specific purpose. And we're going to think about
those five visits that the Lord made in a few moments. Just before
we do that, I would like to make a few general points. And the first one is this. Did
you notice the astonishment of all the Lord's followers to the
resurrection? I think this is quite remarkable
actually. Not one of the Lord's disciples
nor Luke tells us, them that were with them. So there was
more than just the 11, there was more than just the immediate
group of the Lord's disciples there when the Lord made his
visit and when this information was conveyed to the larger group
of disciples. But not one of them had any notion
that the resurrection was about to happen. They had spent from
Friday weeping and mourning, consoling one another to the
best of their ability. But despite being within the
closest circle of the Lord's hearers and confidants for several
years, people who had received first-hand divine teaching, who
had witnessed who had personally performed amazing miracles and
heard glorious revelations about these very matters, not one of
them had any awareness of what was unfolding right before their
eyes. It's almost as if there was a
collective blindness And even when the first messages began
to come through of the open door at the sepulchre and the absence
of the Lord's body and the testimony of the women to the gathered
disciples, still it seems they did not consider who it was that
they were mourning and what Christ was capable of doing. The Lord
Jesus Christ had raised others from the dead. They were there.
They saw Jairus's daughter being raised. They saw the widow of
Nain's son. They knew about the way in which
Lazarus had been brought forth from the tomb some considerable
time after he was dead. They knew this. The Lord Jesus Christ had explicitly
said that he had power to lay down his life and take it again. And yet what do we find but that
these believers, for believers they were, these men and women
were faithful to the Lord, and yet these believers did not believe. And I want us to pause here for
a moment and reflect on something which I think is important and
something that is applicable to ourselves. I want us to reflect
on how privileged that we have been over the years to receive
godly teaching. just like these disciples had
received godly teaching. How privileged we have been to
hear the glorious truths of the gospel explained to us and to
have personally witnessed extraordinary evidences of divine grace in
our own lives and in the lives of others. How blessed we have
been to see the witness of God's power in the lives of men and
women and in the life of His church. And I want us to ask
the question, why? Why has the Lord shown me these
things? What has all this preparation
been for? What of these doctrines that
we have learned? What of these biblical examples
that we've studied together? What about the promises of God
that we've memorised and stored up in our hearts? Has not the Lord been teaching
us? And for what has he been teaching
us? What is the Lord preparing us
for? These disciples were being prepared
of the Lord for three years and saw wonderful things before their
very eyes. And yet here in this moment,
it seems as if they had forgotten everything. The Lord has been
teaching us as well and preparing us for what? For today and for
the days that lie ahead in our lives. And he has been preparing
us for the day of testing. He's been preparing us for the
time of struggle, for the hour of suffering, for the moment
of loss. And yet here were these disciples,
stranded and confounded despite so much effort going into their
preparation for this very moment. The Lord says of them, O ye of
little faith. And that, unfortunately, is a
testimony that well applies to us all. I don't think I would
have been any different but I do think that there is an admonition
for us here. Soon, we all shall have to face
challenges that are new to us, concerning which we have no experience. Maybe it will be sickness and
the failing of these bodies. Maybe it will be bereavement
and the loss of a loved one. Perhaps it will be a spiritual
crisis or a domestic crisis or a financial crisis that comes
upon us. And I want to say to you before
that happens, These days, these services, these occasions that
we have just now in coming around the Word of God, in being able
to fellowship together in the Gospel, in being able to read
together about the Lord's visitations to His people and the things
that He taught them and the things that He prepared them with. These
are for our edification too. These are our preparations from
the Lord for the challenges that we shall face as well. These Bible examples These Bible
doctrines, these revelations of the ways in which God works
and the things that he has spoken about. This is the Lord's way
of preparing you and me for the challenges that lie ahead and
the trials that we will face. Now I know that some of you are
already going through periods of trial that are new to you. And I hope that you are able
to draw upon the wisdom of past years and the things that the
Lord has taught you. And I hope that you will reflect
upon those lessons when you feel discouraged, when you feel new
feelings and new problems and new fears rising in your souls,
rising in your minds. Dark thoughts perhaps, lonely
thoughts, thoughts about paths getting narrower and narrower
and a hopelessness appearing before you. It is these occasions
where the Lord feeds us with the bread of the gospel and encourages
our hearts and nourishes our souls that are to be taken and
used in these days that lie ahead. So let us value these moments. Let us value these services. Let us value this gospel in this
day before that evil day comes. The disciples' comfort in this
moment, the disciples' joy and hope was compromised and curtailed
because they did not remember what the Lord had taught them,
because they did not trust what he had said. because they had
not faith to believe all things were under his control, that
all things were according to his purpose, that all would in
the end be to their blessing and to their glory. So may we
learn these things now, in this time, for the days that are yet
to come. But we could say that it was
even worse than that, because even when these disciples were
reminded and informed and received the good tidings from the first
witnesses, they suppressed the good news with their unbelief. They had no reason to contradict
these women, but they did. how prone we are to unbelief. Even when we are fed this diet
of truth and gospel mercy and the faithfulness of God to his
people week by week, how prone we are to unbelief. Yes, we hold the fact of God's
love and his grace and his mercy in our heads, but we fail to
exercise what we know because of unbelief, and the consequence
of that is that we lose our comfort, we lose our joy, and we don't
benefit from the hope that the Lord has given to us. Faith in
the Lord's ministry was likened to a mustard seed for its smallness,
and the Lord often speaks of those who have little faith.
Let us make it a prayer. that the Lord increase our faith,
and that the Lord stir up and exercise our faith, and that
the Lord give us more faith, and grow our faith, and prepare
us for the evil days that are yet to come, when our faith will
be tried, when it will be tested, when it will be stretched even
to its breaking point. I'm going to mention Christ's
appearances individually to the people that he met on this Resurrection
Day because I feel sure that there are lessons to be learned
here for us too. And so the rest of the time that
we have together today, I'm going to just look briefly, quickly
at these five individuals or groups that the Lord met. Our
Saviour made these five resurrection day appearances to his followers. I mentioned yesterday that there
were five on this first day and there were another five spread
over the next 39 days before the Lord ascended back to heaven. So half of the Lord's appearances
occurred in this one day. They were purposeful, they were
specific, they were designed for a reason. They were precise
and the Lord came to certain individuals who had a particular
need in that moment and therefore he made a visit to them. There's nothing random in the
Lord's visits to his people. Mark tells us expressly that
he appeared first to Mary Magdalene. And last week we noted that the
Lord had cast from Mary these seven devils. She was a poor,
needy soul in a dire condition when the Lord met her. Mary Magdalene,
perhaps soon to be driven to an early grave by these demons,
these devils that possessed her soul and ran her ragged. She was a woman who knew sorrow
and who knew shame and who knew distress in her life. But Christ
came to her and showed her great mercy. He came to a soul in great
need. And he brought grace sufficient
to Mary Magdalene and to her state at that time when he cast
out those seven devils. And because the Lord had done
so much for her, Because the Lord loved her so much, Mary
in turn loved the Lord much. The circumstances of this early
morning journey that she made to the tomb of Jesus spoke of
her great love of the Lord, as well as her deep sense of loss
at his death. As she stood there alone, weeping
at the entrance of the Lord's tomb, She saw a figure whom,
through her tears and her watery eyes, she assumed to be the gardener. And she pleaded with this gardener
that he might tell her and return to her the body of her friend,
that she might take that body away and bury it properly. You see, Mary loved the Lord. But in this moment Mary was bereft
of the one whom she loved. She was alone and she wept. She was confused and she was
perplexed. and the Lord Jesus Christ came
to this dear woman first. And I think there's something
deeply intimate and consoling here for us just to pause and
to think about. This visit was to mend a broken
heart. and so it would be the Lord's
first appearance, his first encounter with his disciples and his followers. The Lord Jesus Christ said, blessed
are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. And perhaps
you are mourning, and if you're not mourning now, you will mourn
in a day to come, because someone that you love will be taken from
you and you will be left alone. And this passage tells us that
the Lord feels the pain of his little ones and that the Lord
comes quickly to our aid at the first opportunity. He meets us
in our solitude, there where Mary was standing alone. He meets us when there's no other
one to comfort us. And amid our tears and our sorrows,
he comes to us in our confusion and our perplexity, and he speaks
tender words of comfort to our souls. We should admire the love of
the Lord in this encounter with Mary. Recently I spoke to a lady
who had lost her husband a short time ago. And how she told me
how that for years she had heard preachers talk about the Lord
and his bride. The Lord and his bride. And she
said, it's only now that I'm beginning to learn what a true
husband Christ is to his people. You see, she had lost the partner
of her life. She had lost her husband in bereavement. But what she was discovering
was a whole new dimension of her relationship with the Lord. at that time of the breach, the
familiar breach between her and her dead husband. Did the Lord
not say, I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you? And when our hearts are broken,
and when there is loss, and when there is confusion, and when
these things overwhelm our spirits and leave us isolated and alone,
Christ will visit us like no other can. That's the first appearance of
the Lord. And then the Lord appeared to
the other women. This was the second appearance
of the Lord. They were next, these other women,
we touched on them last week as well, they were next to be
visited by the Lord. Now his purpose with these women
was to strengthen their spirits and loosen their tongues. These
women were trembling and dumbstruck, they were paralysed with fear. because of the things that they
had seen that morning and the things that they had heard, to
such an extent that they could not fulfil their role as the
communicators of the great work which they were witnesses to. Now, I'm sure that with me, you
often feel inadequate and insufficient for the tasks that are before
you. They feel too great. They feel
too onerous. The responsibilities of the task
seems to be overwhelming and burdensome. Maybe you're not. Maybe you're a super confident
person who never finds anything like this a trouble. I do, and
probably many of us do. But here again, the Lord supplied
the grace and the strength and the encouragement that was needed
to send these women forth with confidence, boldness, not in
their own wisdom, but in the strength of having seen the risen
Christ. Yes, the angels had told them,
yes, we've heard the good news, but it took the company of the
Lord, it took the appearance of the Lord to strengthen them
and send them forth with this message. When the Saviour calls a man
or a woman or a boy or a girl into His service, He supplies
the courage and the resources required to meet that challenge. And we might think, oh I could
never do that, or I could never speak up for the Lord, or I could
never say this, or I could never confront that situation. David,
told Goliath, I come to you in the name of the Lord God of hosts. And likewise, you and I, we go
not forth alone against the foe. And when the women's courage
failed, the Lord met them and strengthened them. When they
lost the power of speech, he put the message of the greatest
story ever told upon their lips and sent them forth to his disciples
to declare it. Therefore, it was an appropriate
and timely visit from the Lord. The third visit from the Lord
that we have recorded to us is a visit that the Lord made to
Peter. Peter, the apostle, the Lord's
disciple, had a visit from the Lord on this day. It was a private
visit, it was a personal visit, and it was a visit that largely
goes unremarked upon by the Gospel writers. It's an encounter that
we wouldn't know about except that when the two that the Lord
met on the road to Emmaus, we're coming to those two next, returned
back to Jerusalem, the disciples were able to say that the Lord
has appeared to Peter. And that's the only way that
we know. Paul talks about it, but that's the only reference
in the Gospels of this visit to Peter. Peter needed a visit from the
Lord. Peter had sinned greatly. He had denied the Lord. He had
cursed the Lord. He had lied about the Lord. and he had betrayed his friend
and everything that he stood for. Now we spent some time on
this a few weeks ago and I'm not going to say any more about
Peter's sin. Peter's sin was his own sin and
your sin is yours and my sin is mine. But have you ever felt
so ashamed that you can hardly show your face. Have you ever
felt that you have effectively destroyed your testimony? You've broken confidences. You've
betrayed the Lord and you've betrayed man. You have acted
in a way which has brought the gospel into disrepute. You've shamed the testimony. of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the gospel. I don't know what the Lord said
to Peter on this occasion because it's not recorded for us, but
I know that he would have shown him that no sin is too great,
no betrayal is too great, but that the blood of Jesus Christ
can cleanse from it. Peter's shame, Peter's sin seemed
set to spoil his future service and even bring his ministry to
an end. What use would he be in the kingdom
of God going forward? But surely the lesson for us
is this, that there is always a way back for those to whom
repentance and faith is given by the gracious visitation of
Christ. When Christ comes and visits
us, he shows us that though we are the chief of sinners, Yet
there is mercy and recovery and restoration to be found by the
blood and by the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. And dare I
say that Peter's ministry was the better for the fall that
he had endured and for the forgiveness that he had experienced. And
then we are brought to the fourth appearance of the Lord. The account
of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is given to us in Luke
chapter 24. It's a long passage. We can't
possibly deal with all that it contains. It's verses 13 to 32. Too much for us to relate even
the story here. But let me just say, that these
two on the road to Emmaus, perhaps two men, perhaps a man or a woman,
we know that one was called Cleophas, these two expressed their doubts
and their disappointment and their discouragement to a stranger
that they met on the road. They were talking about the things
that had happened. And they were encountered by
the Lord, and yet their eyes were closed to recognise him. And as they spilled forth all
about the confusion that they were in and what had happened
over the past few days, thinking that they were informing this
stranger, this traveller on the road with them, the Lord said
these words to them. O fools and slow of heart to
believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ
to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? Don't you see how needful this
was that the Lord Jesus Christ should die and be raised again? Don't you understand that this
is all according to the plan? Don't you see that this is consistent
with God's purpose and with Christ's glory? And if we, like those two travellers
on the road to Emmaus, were not so foolish and slow to believe,
perhaps we too would see how that all our doubts and all our
disappointments in this world, many as they are, are but a failure
to trust what God has said. and a blindness to see the bigger
picture of Christ's glory in the redemption and gathering
in of his church. Now we can't spend more time
on this passage in Luke, though it deserves much more time to
be spent upon it. That's a service and a sermon
for another day. Suffice it to say this, that
what the Lord did in this resurrection visitation is recounted to us
in chapter 24, Luke 24, verse 45 and 46. It says this, then
opened he their understanding, that they might understand the
scriptures, and said unto them, thus it is written, and thus
it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the
third day. What are our local disappointments
in comparison to the great work of redemption and the glory that
is unfolding before our eyes this very day There is no comparison and all
the disappointments will instantly disappear if the Lord but opens
our understanding to believe the scriptures. What better encouragement
could we have to be about the business of hearing the Gospel
preached, of studying the Scriptures and the Word of God, and eagerly
looking for the visits of the Lord as we go along our own Emmaus
road? It is in having our understanding
of Gospel truth and Gospel doctrines open that we can properly put
the challenges and disappointments and doubts of our life in their
proper perspective. The fifth and the final appearance
of the Lord this day was to a large group comprising the 11 plus
others. Luke tells us, though importantly,
Thomas was missing from the group on this occasion. And the Lord's
words to this large group, to these straightened and introspective,
these inward-looking and fearful people was this. Peace be unto
you. He upbraided them for their lack
of faith and for dismissing the women, rightly so. But he urged
upon them confidence and assurance and a reliance upon God. He showed them his hands and
his feet. He showed them the piercings
and the bruisings. He confirmed that it was truly
him risen from the dead, their Lord Jesus Christ. and he told
them of the great task that lay before them to carry his gospel
to the ends of the earth. These five visits had a particular
message for a special need and were reminded how the risen Lord
still meets his people in the gospel to address our problems,
to comfort our hearts, to strengthen our courage, to equip us for
his service, and to lead us forth with this message of truth, even
yet for the gathering in of his people. And maybe in your life
you're a Mary mourning, or you're a Peter repenting, or you need
a word to inspire you to step out in the service of the Lord.
But whatever it is that is our need in this moment, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the risen Christ, comes to his people in resurrection
power and supplies grace sufficient for the day. Grace sufficient
for our need. May he visit us today in clear
and in ever-increasing appearances. And may he give us ears to hear
his words of comfort and eyes to see his pierced hands. And if, as he does, our own troubles
appear to crowd us out May they assume their proper place in
our estimations, knowing that this grand theme of Christ's
own suffering and the redemption of his church and the glory that
must follow will satisfy our souls and still our hearts in
time of trouble. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.