me once again to Mark chapter
16. Mark chapter 16. And when the
Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James
and Salome had bought spices that they might come and anoint
him. And very early in the morning,
the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the
rising of the sun. And they said among themselves,
who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?
And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away,
for it was very great. And entering into the sepulchre,
they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in
a long white garment, and they were affrighted. And he saith
unto them, Be not affrighted. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, which
was crucified. He is risen. He is not here.
Behold the place where they laid him. But go your way, tell his
disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee. There shall you see him as he
said unto you. And they went out quickly and
fled from the sepulchre, for they trembled and were amazed.
Another, neither said they anything to any man, for they were afraid. Now, when Jesus was risen early
in 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 set 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. Last week, we looked at most
of these verses, which speak to us, of course, of the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This morning, I want us to look
at the three appearances that Mark mentions here of the Lord
Jesus when he arose. If you notice in verse nine,
now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he
appeared. He appeared first to Mary Magdalene,
and then in verse 12, after that, he appeared in another form unto
two of them, and then in verse 14, afterward, he appeared unto
the 11. We're going to look at the passages
of Scripture which speak of these three appearances. And I trust
the Lord will speak to us and minister to us today, whatever
our need might be. First, he appeared to Mary Magdalene. If you will turn with me now
to John chapter 20, and we will read about his appearance first
to Mary Magdalene. John chapter 20. beginning with verse 11. But
Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping. And as she wept, she
stooped down and looked into the sepulchre, and seeth two
angels in white sitting, 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 saith unto them, because
they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have
laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back,
and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus
saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the
gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence,
tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith
unto him, Rabboni, which is to say, Master. I want to point
five things out to us from those verses. The first appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ on that morning, he appeared first to
Mary Magdalene. The first thing I want to mention
is the tears, the tears of Mary. You notice in verse 11, we read,
but Mary stood without at the sepulchre, weeping, the tears
of Mary. The children of God, and there's
no question she was a child of God, the Lord Jesus Christ in
saving her had cast seven devils out of her. But the children
of God in this world are not exempt from weeping, from weeping. David, King David, the sweet
psalmist of Israel, described in the book of Acts as a man
after God's own heart. He was not exempt from weeping. In Psalm 42 in verse three, he
wrote, my tears have been my meat day and night, while they
continually say to me, where is thy God? Where is thy God? When trouble comes, when tribulation
comes to a child of God, The people of this world want to
ask, where's your God now? Your God that you've been praising?
Your God who you say is sovereign Lord over all things? Where is
he now? This had caused David to weep. And not only that, but in another
Psalm, Psalm 56 in verse eight, he even asked God to put his
tears in his bottle. Put my tears in thy bottle. And then he asks this question
of the Lord, are they, that is my tears, are they not in thy
book? John Gill commented that a believer's
tears are in God's book of purpose, his book of providence, and his
book of remembrance. I remember several years ago
reading, I believe it was a devotional, and it was entitled, A Bottle,
a Book, and a Bag. A Bottle, a Book, and a Bag. And every child of God knows
for certain that God has a bottle for him, for her, where he puts
your tears. And every child of God knows
that God has a book in which he writes your good works. Remember, even a cup of cold
water in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. And every child of God, God has
a bag. And this is taken, let me show
you this in Job. I remember reading that devotional
and this was such a blessing to think of in Job chapter 14. We think of our tears, the Lord
keeping our tears that we shed in this world in a bottle. And
remember in the New Jerusalem, one of the things that it says
God will do, He will wipe all tears out of our eyes. But in
Job chapter 14 and verse 17, we read, my transgression is
sealed up in a bag. The transgressions, the iniquities,
the sins of all of God's children are sealed up in a bag. And I
remember when I read that, I thought of pictures that I have seen
of men being buried at sea and their bodies being wrapped or
sometimes I believe now they have bags, they put them in and
then those bags are let down, they go down the ramp into the
sea and gone. And what a picture, I thought,
is that of every child of God to recognize that the Lord Jesus
Christ, when he was crucified, he was bearing your sins, if
you are one of his children, in his own body that day on the
tree. And they've all been taken away.
And it is as it were, they've all been sealed up in a bag and
buried in the sea of God's forgetfulness. They're gone. Every child of
God has a bottle, has a book, and has a bag. And don't we see
here in the case of Mary, the truth of that scripture, which
says weeping may endure for a night. As I said, every child of God,
no child of God is exempt from shedding tears in this world.
We weep. We weep with those that weep.
We weep when the Lord takes a loved one from us. We weep over many
different things in this world. No child of God is exempt from
weeping in this world. But don't we see here that passage
of scripture where David said, weeping may endure for a night,
but joy comes in the morning. She was weeping, but she would
not weep long. The second thing I point out
to us here is the thought of Mary in verse 13. First of all,
the tears of Mary, but now notice the thought of Mary. She thought
that someone had taken the body. Now she had witnessed, remember
that on the Friday before this, she had witnessed Joseph of Arimathea
and Nicodemus take the body of Christ down from the cross, wrap
it in the linen cloth with the perfumes and lay it in this sepulchre. She had witnessed that. She knew
where the sepulchre was, where his body had been laid. Now she
comes and she looks in and it's empty. And so her thought is
someone's taken his body away. Someone has come in the night
or over the weekend and they have stolen away his body. She would soon learn that no
one had taken away his body. He had raised his body. He had
raised his body. That body that had been crucified,
that lay dead for three days and three nights in that tomb,
The Lord God Almighty, the eternal Son of God, reunited that body
to Himself and He took Himself out of the tomb. Now I know there's
scriptures which speak of the Lord raising Himself, that is
the Son of God raising Himself. There are scriptures which tell
us that the Father raised Him. There are scriptures which tell
us that the Spirit of God raised Him. But remember, God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one. A trinity of
persons in the one Godhead. And so, yes, he raised himself,
the Spirit raised him, and the Father raised him. But no man,
no man had come and stolen away his body. And that's what she
thought. The third thing, the supposition
of Mary in verse 15. Jesus saith unto her, now she
didn't recognize him at first, but the Lord Jesus said unto
her, woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? Now notice,
here's the supposition. She's supposing him to be the
gardener. She was there weeping and the
Lord Jesus Christ spoke to her And she supposed he must be the
gardener. They were in a garden. That's
where the tomb was, in a garden. So she supposed that he was a
gardener who was speaking to her. Of course she was wrong.
But as I looked at this this past week, I wanted to mention
this fact. You know the Lord Jesus Christ
is the second Adam. You know that. The second man. He's the second man. The first
Adam, the first man, was a gardener. He was. When God created him
and God made his body from the dust of the ground and then breathed
into him the breath of life. And he was a man. He was a male. He was a man. And then God made him a helpmate
who was a female. And we're living in such crazy
days today that people want to think that you can be either
one, whatever you get up in the morning thinking you are, that's
what you can be. No, no. The scripture is very clear.
God made him a man and then God placed him in the Garden of Eden. It was a garden and it was a
beautiful garden. There were fruit trees. There
were vegetables, there were herbs, there was everything in that
garden that man would need to live a beautiful life. Nothing was missing, but God
told him when he put him in the garden that he was to tend and
mend the garden, to dress and to keep it. He was to dress and
to keep it. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is
the second Adam. He's the last Adam. God deals
with all mankind in these two men. Romans chapter 5. We were all in Adam. He's the
father of every one of us. And when he disobeyed God, he
fell, we fell. We don't come into this world
in neutral. We don't come into this world
as though it was a probationary period to see what we would do. Some people say we all come into
this world like a blank piece of paper, white paper. And whatever
we write on it, that's what we are. No, no. We come into this
world, my friends, dead in trespasses and sins because of the guilt
of the first man. He represented every man. The
Lord Jesus Christ is the second man. Read this in Romans 5. He's the second man, and all
that He represented, from Him we receive life. But He, too,
speaks of His church as a garden. In the Song of Solomon, I believe
it's chapter 5, The Song of Solomon, he says this, I am come into
my garden. Now listen, I'm come into my
garden, my sister, my spouse, I have gathered my myrrh and
my spice. You say, he says, my sister,
my wife? Are we talking about incest here? Of course not. When he confesses
to be, or the church rather, to be his sister, that reminds
us that he came into this world as a man. He's bone of our bone
and flesh of our flesh. He had to be our near kinsman
to have the right of redemption. And so he came into this world
as a man. But his church is his spouse
also. She was given unto him by God
the Father from before the foundation of the world. And here she is,
his bride, and what does she do? In her head, Adam, she falls. She plunges into sin. And so
what does a heavenly bridegroom do? Does he say, well, forget
about her. I have no use for her. Oh, no. His love. is an eternal love. And though
she failed in her father Adam, his love never ceased. And so
he came into this world, as the apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians
5, and gave himself for his church. Husbands, love your wives even
as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. So she supposed
him to be a gardener. I couldn't help but think the
Lord Jesus Christ, he is a gardener. He does have a garden and the
garden is his church. And we are plants of his planting. We don't plant ourselves. He
plants us. Our Lord was speaking one day
and he said something and his disciples came to him and said,
Lord, don't you realize that what you said offended these
people? These religious people, don't
you know you offended them in that saying? Let them alone. Every plant that my father hath
not planted shall be plucked up. The father is he who plants
his people in this church. Salvation is of the Lord. Now
notice the fourth thing. The call of Mary, here in verse
16. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. When he called her name, Mary,
immediately, immediately she recognized who was speaking. Her Lord, her master, Rabboni. She knew immediately who had
called her name. Our Lord Jesus Christ said this
in John chapter 10. He said, my sheep, my sheep,
hear my voice. And he calls his sheep by name
and they follow him. Have you ever heard his voice?
Has he ever called you? I'm not talking about an audible
voice. Has he ever spoke to you? Other
people hear the sounds of the preacher's voice. But has God
the Holy Spirit ever brought that home to your heart? The
gospel of Jesus Christ. I used to think when he called
sinner, sinner, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Is anyone here that's heavy laden? When a sinner hears that call,
then the sinner says, he's talking to me. He's speaking to me. That's me. I'm the one who is
heavy laden, burdened with my sins, cast down, heavy laden. I don't know which way to look,
which way to go. I know the wrath of God is over
me and deservedly so because of my sins. Sinner, have you
heard the voice of Christ? His sheep hear His voice, and
when they hear, they follow. They follow. Now the last thing,
the commission of Mary in verse 17. Jesus saith unto her, touch
me not, for I'm not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren
and say unto them, I ascend unto my father and your father and
to my God and your God. It doesn't read going to my brethren
and saying to them, I'm very disappointed in you. I'm very
disappointed in all of you. You forsook me. And especially
Peter, I'm very disappointed in you after you bragging and
talking about how if everyone forsook me that you sure wouldn't. Go to my brethren and tell them
I'm angry. Because of their conduct, oh
no, go to my brethren and say unto them, I send unto my Father
and your Father. I send unto my God and your God. And you know the only way that
he may be our God and Father is in Jesus Christ. He came into
this world as a man as a servant of the Lord to do the work of
redemption. And thus he knew God as his God,
my God. His father, he's always been
his father from all eternity. Never was a time when the father
did not exist nor the son or the Holy Spirit, the eternal
God. You go into my brethren, they're
my brothers. They're members of my family.
I love them. And you tell them I send unto
my father and your father, to my God and your God. What a Savior we have. What a
wonderful Savior we have. If we know him, if you know him
today, what a wonderful Savior. Now let's look at the second
appearance, if you will, in Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24, beginning with verse 13. And behold, two of them went
that same day to the village of Chaldamais, which was from
Jerusalem, about three score furlongs. And they talked together
of all these things which had happened, and it came to pass
that while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew
near and went with them. But their eyes were holden that
they should not know him. And he said unto them, what manner
of communications are these that you have one to another as you
walk and are sad? And the one of them, whose name
was Cleopas, Answering, said unto him, Art thou only a stranger
in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to
pass there in these days? And he said unto them, What things?
And they said unto him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was
a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,
and how the chief priest and our rulers delivered him up to
be condemned to death and have crucified him. But we trusted
that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. And beside
all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of
our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre.
And when they found not his body, they came saying that they had
also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.
And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre
and found it even so as the women had said, but him they saw not.
Then he said unto 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? And beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto the village,
whither they went, and he made as though he would have gone
farther. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for
it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went
in to tarry with them, and it came to pass, as he said it meet
with them, he took bread, and blessed it, break it, and gave
it to them, and their eyes were opened. And they knew him, and
he vanished out of their sight, And they said one to another,
did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by
the way and while he opened to us the scriptures? Now, there's
four things that I want to deal with from that passage of scripture. Three negative things and one
positive. First, the Lord's disciples may
experience sadness in this world. Are you ever sad? You say, well,
God's children are always happy. They're always on the mountain.
They're never down in the valley. Well, here's two disciples who
were down in the valley. Here's two disciples who were
sad this day. Our Lord, if you notice in verse
17, our Lord said, as you walk and talk one to another and are
sad, They confess that they were sad because what had come to
pass in Jerusalem. And they are speaking, of course,
of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. So the first thing we
see here is the Lord's disciples may experience sadness in this
world. I think As we see things around
us today, as we see things that are going on today, a person
would have to be calloused in heart if he wasn't sad. If he
didn't have some sadness, it seems like we're living like
it was in the days in the book of Judges when every man did
that which was right in his own eyes. And less and less do we
see of law and order. And I'll tell you something that
causes me sadness. I look at the churches in the
United States of America. A lot of the history that I have
read has come out of England. In the 1700s, George Whitefield,
Augusta's top lady, and many, many others, evangelicals preaching,
and hundreds, yea, thousands flock to hear them preach. And
they preach the truth. They preach the gospel. They
preach the sovereign God. And they preach the truth about
the success of the Lord Jesus Christ, what he came into this
world to do and accomplished. and where he is. And as I said,
hundreds and thousands flocked to hear the gospel preached.
But if you were to go to England today, you would be hard pressed
to find a group of more than 50 people where the gospel is
proclaimed, where people love Christ and the word of God is
still respected as the word of God. And I see the same thing coming
into our country. Oh, there's plenty of religion.
There's plenty of churches that are packed. But what are they
hearing? What is being fed? What is being
preached in most pulpits in our land today? The sovereignty of man. They build man up, and when you
build man up, the only result of that is God comes down. Big
man, little God. When you get into the Word of
God, if God opens your eyes, you see a big God, a sovereign
God, and little man. That makes me sad. And I pray,
and I ask the Lord, and I know you do too, oh, that God might
send a great awakening in our day where this so-called religion,
just more like a pep rally, try to cause men to believe in themselves
and your power and what you can do rather than to believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ. What did God do? God would send
such a time in our day. They were sad, these disciples.
And notice the second thing, the Lord's disciples may experience
ignorance in this world. They confess that they had trusted
that the Lord Jesus would redeem Israel. This has always amazed
me. Every time I read this passage
of scripture, I think, They trusted that their master, the Lord Jesus
Christ, this one that they had followed, this one that they
had seen perform miracle after miracle, they trusted that he
was the Redeemer. But yet when he was crucified,
when he shed his blood, they thought all was lost. All was
over. How did they think he would redeem
Israel? Every Old Testament type and
prophecy and shadow all pointed and all taught that redemption
is by blood. The first time the word redeem
is found in our English Bibles, it has to do with God redeeming
Israel from Egyptian bondage. And how were they freed? By the
blood of the Passover lamb. God's people, I know there's
many things about God because he's infinite that we don't know
and we don't understand. But I'm thankful that I understand
this, that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. Without a substitute dying in
the place of a sinner, there is no redemption. There is no
salvation. Number three, the Lord's disciples
may experience unbelief. All that the prophets had spoken,
this was a root of their problem, and this is the root of our problem,
and we have problems. It's unbelief. We're to run the
race that is set before us and set aside the sin which does
so easily beset us, and that sin is unbelief. so easily besets
us. Let's just believe God, believe
His Word. Has He ever lied? Has He ever
done anything that would cause us not to trust Him, not to trust
His Word? Of course not. Of course not. But the positive thing here is
The Lord's disciples may be blessed by his visits. Now, when they
came to the end of the journey, they went into an inn and wanted
him to stay and eat bread with them. And when he blessed the
bread and broke the bread, I assume they saw the marks in his hands
and they recognized who he was. And then they said this, did
not our hearts burn within us? The Lord visits his people. He
visits us, sometimes in a service like this. The Lord visits His
people, and that may be the way He visits us. Our hearts just
burn within us, the joy of hearing the truth about Christ, the joy. At the Lord's table, He visits
us. We may have his visits in this
world, but they're never for long. They're never for long. But one day, praise God, we're
looking for that day, one day when we will go to be with the
Lord, and there'll be no end to our visits with him. We'll
be with him forever and ever. One other place, if you will,
turn to John 20, the third appearance, and I'll be very brief here.
John chapter 20. He appeared to the eleven that
same day. Here they are in Jerusalem, and
they have the doors shut for fear of the Jews. John chapter
20 and verse 19. Then the same day evening, being
the first day of the week, When the doors were shut where the
disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus
and stood in the midst and saith unto them, peace be unto you. His first words to his disciples
was peace be unto you. We have peace with God, his disciples. We have peace with God and how
do we have peace with God? By the blood of his cross. That's
what we read in Colossians chapter two. He made peace for us by
the blood of his cross. He has finished the work of reconciliation. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God and we have peace in our conscience,
don't we? We have peace in our conscience.
Yes. We're guilty. We don't deny that. We've sinned. We've come short
of the glory of God. We don't deny that. But we have
a Savior. We have a Savior whose blood
cleanseth from all sin. We have peace. And we have peace
with each other, don't we? The Lord gives peace, and God's
given us peace in this congregation. I'm so thankful for it. In fact,
the scripture says he is our peace. Jesus, he is our peace. There'd be no peace with God.
There would be no peace in our conscience. There would be no
peace in our congregation apart from the Lord Jesus Christ and
his work. Peace, the first words were peace. He showed them his hands and
his side. The scripture says, then were
they glad, then were they filled with joy. When he showed them
his hands, when he showed them the mark in his side, there's
no doubt it cannot be disputed the same body that was nailed
to the tree, the same body that received that Roman spear into
its side and opened up, His side, and out came blood and water,
the same body that was laid in that tomb is now alive. Glorified, yes, but alive. He wasn't just a spirit. He wasn't
just a ghost that appeared, no. He has a body. And in another
place, he even showed he had a body by eating before then. And then the last thing, he sent
his disciples out to preach the gospel and power was given unto
them. And let me close by just saying
this. He appeared unto the 11. Now
the 12 were the disciples, the apostles. Judas was one, but
now he was gone, proved himself to be a traitor. So they're now
referred to as the 11, but there were not 11 there. There was only 10. One was missing. Thomas. And so he's been given
that name ever since, Doubting Thomas. Because you remember,
he said, if I don't see the marks in his hands, if I don't put
my fingers in those holes, I'm not going to believe. But I tell
you what, when the Lord appeared to them the next time, eight
days later, on the first day of the week, He didn't ask to
see anything. He just bowed down and said,
My Lord and my God. But where was he that first Sunday?
Where was he? Was it out of fear? Did he have
something more important to do? I don't know. But I know for
one week He missed a great blessing of knowing, having seen the resurrected
Christ. I pray the Lord would bless this
word to us here this morning.