Do You Recognize His Voice?

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Amen.
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Would you pray with me this morning? Father God, as we now turn to Your Word and give our attention to the narrative of the resurrection as found in the Gospel of John, I pray first and foremost, Lord, that You would keep me from error, as I am a fallible man capable of preaching error.
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And for the sake of my hearers and for the sake of my own conscience, I don't want to preach anything that would bring shame upon the name of Jesus, anything untrue or unworthy of His name.
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I pray, Father, for the hearts of those who will hear.
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For those who are here today who know the Lord, I pray that for them this would be a moment of re-confirmation of the truth that is in their hearts and an encouragement for their spirit to continue to walk daily, following after our Lord Jesus Christ.
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And for those who know not the Lord, who live their lives apart from Him, that this would be a reminder that every man will stand before the Lord one day and give an account for his life.
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And the question of questions will be, what have you done with my son? And Lord, let it be that if we have not received Jesus Christ by grace through faith alone, repentance of sin and trusting in the work that He did on the cross, which was vindicated in His resurrection, may it be today that You turn our hearts toward the truth.
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I pray all of this, Lord, in Jesus' name and for His sake.
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Amen.
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You may be seated.
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Many of you are probably familiar with the expression, the traditional church greeting which accompanies resurrection morning.
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One person will go to another and say, He is risen, to which the other person will reply, He is risen indeed.
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One will say, He is risen, and the other will say, He is risen indeed.
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This is known as the paschal greeting.
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And the exact saying has been used in Christendom for hundreds of years.
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And yet it is a greeting where we don't really know the origin, we know that the similar words are used in Luke 24, verse 34, where the apostle said, He is risen indeed.
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But several theories have abounded about why that particular phrase has become entrenched in the history of the church.
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And one of those traditions surrounds the person of Mary of Magdala.
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According to a tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Mary Magdala was invited to come to a banquet at the feast of Emperor Tiberius in Rome.
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And while she was at the feast of Emperor Tiberius in Rome, she used that occasion to face the emperor, the most powerful man in the world, and say to him at that moment, He is risen indeed.
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If Mary Magdala is the source of this tradition, it is appropriate for this morning.
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For it is she that Jesus chose to greet first on the morning of His resurrection.
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Two thousand years ago, Mary Magdala was at the tomb.
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And she has been called since then the apostle to the apostles because she saw the risen Jesus and it was she who was told by Jesus, Go and tell my brothers.
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And she went and told the apostles and thus became the messenger to the messengers about the resurrected Jesus.
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So this morning I want to read the account of Mary Magdala as she met Jesus outside the tomb, beginning in John chapter 20, verse 1.
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Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene, Magdalene is simply a reference to where she was from, she was from the town of Magdala which was a Galilean town, came to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
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So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved and said to them, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid Him.
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Now verses 1 and 2 are condensing because if you read the other gospel narratives, you will realize that there was more that happened in this part of the story.
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It was more than just Mary who had went to the tomb, but it was several women who had went to the tomb.
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And when Mary was there, she actually had a visitation of angels once already and it was that visitation of angels that asked the question, Why do you seek the living among the dead? So she runs to tell the apostles and she goes and tells the apostles about the risen Jesus and now in verse 3 it says, So Peter went out with the other disciple and they were going toward the tomb.
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Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloth lying there, but he did not go in.
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Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb and he saw the linen cloth lying there and the face cloth which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloth but folded up in a place by itself.
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Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in and he saw and believed.
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For as yet they did not understand the Scripture that He must rise from the dead.
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Then the disciples went back to their homes.
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This is an awesome narrative and if you picture it in your mind what is happening.
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These two men watched Jesus die.
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These two men had walked with Jesus for three years.
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They had seen His life and ministry and they see Him hung on a cross and Peter had denied Him.
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Peter had denied Him three times to save his own life because people said, you were with Him, you were one of His disciples and He said no.
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He even cursed and He said, I do not know the man.
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And yet, here He stands in the tomb of Jesus and there are grave clothes there that used to be wrapped around Jesus.
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Now this is an interesting historical thing to put into the narrative because had Jesus been simply moved from one place to another there would have been no need to unwrap Him.
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Had Jesus simply had His body taken and placed somewhere else or stolen so as to hide Him and falsify some resurrection there would have been no need to unwrap the cloths.
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But because Jesus is risen He no longer is bound by the cloths of death.
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Those cloths were used, those linen cloths were wrapped around the body and they were poured with ointment so as to keep the body from putrefying too quickly.
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It was an early form of the embalming process that we use today to keep the body from rotting so quickly.
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And some people argue at this point, did Jesus when He rose from the dead unwrap Himself or did He simply go through the cloths? I tend to want to think He went through the cloth much like I think He went through the tomb.
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The tomb didn't open to let Him out.
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The tomb opened to let others in.
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To show that He was raised.
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Later on their disciples are there behind locked doors and the Bible says Jesus appears among them behind locked doors.
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You see Jesus in His resurrected body was not bound by the strictures of the hold of anything.
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And so I believe when He raised I believe He came straight through the cloths.
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And yet the cloth that had been on His head the text says was folded neatly and placed there.
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Again, for what reason we know not.
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Some have conjectured that maybe Jesus had a special way of doing something and this was a sign for Peter because he noted that it was folded a certain way.
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We don't know.
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The text doesn't go that far.
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We don't want to conjecture too far.
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But we know this.
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The cloths are there but the body is not.
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The tomb is empty and Jesus is gone.
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The men know not what to think of what has happened.
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But then in verse 11 and this is where we are going to continue.
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Mary didn't leave.
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Mary stayed behind at the tomb of Jesus.
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And I want you to consider why Mary wouldn't leave automatically.
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I don't believe that Mary stood there waiting to see a risen Jesus.
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Because Mary much like the other disciples didn't believe Jesus was going to raise.
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You have to understand we're here on this side of the resurrection and every year we think about the resurrection.
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The people, Jesus' disciples did not think He was going to raise and when they were told that He did raise they didn't believe it.
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They had a doubt in their heart.
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We always get on to Thomas.
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I'm going to preach on Thomas in the next service.
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Because we always give Thomas that title, Doubting Thomas.
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They were all doubters until they saw Him.
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No one automatically believed.
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But Mary wouldn't leave.
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She didn't have anywhere else to go.
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Do you remember when Peter was in Caesarea Philippi with Jesus? And all the people left.
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And Jesus said to Peter, Will you go too? And Jesus said, To whom shall we go? For you have the words of life.
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Where shall we go? It is you and no one else.
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Here Mary is at the tomb and has nowhere to go.
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She has come to do what she thought she could do and that is anoint His body one last time to give one more honorable act to the body of Jesus and now the body is gone and she is lost.
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She is collapsed.
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She knows not what to do.
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This is her Savior.
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And Mary Magdalene loved Jesus.
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She loved Jesus in a way that I wish I could say I love Jesus because I love Jesus.
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But Mary Magdalene saw His face and she saw Him as the man who saved her from a world of sin.
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Often times Mary Magdalene is considered in most narratives that we think about as a prostitute.
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You know the Bible doesn't say that.
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The Bible never says she was a prostitute.
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It says she was a woman who had seven demons.
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Now could she have been a prostitute? Possibly.
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But to say such a thing is to go beyond what the Scripture says.
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The Scripture says she was a woman who was demon possessed.
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Which means she was probably the crazy woman in town.
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The crazy woman of Magdala who just went about as out of her mind.
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No respect.
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No concern.
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No love.
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No one willing to embrace her.
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No one willing to love her.
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No one willing to care for her.
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Only this woman, this crazy woman in town.
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And Jesus loved her.
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Jesus loved her in spite of her demon possession.
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He loved her in spite of her apparent insanity.
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He loved her in spite of her sin.
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And He healed her.
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And there are people who think that Mary Magdalene had a romantic affection for Jesus.
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I don't believe that.
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The Bible gives no indication of there being any romantic connection to Jesus.
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She loved Jesus not as a husband to a wife.
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She loved Jesus as a Savior to a sinner.
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She was a great sinner.
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And she knew He was a great Savior.
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Oh that that were us.
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Oh that you and I would understand how great a sinner you are.
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So that we would love Jesus more.
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The more we understand how much of a sinner we are, the more we will love the One who died for our sins.
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The more we understand we need salvation, the more we will cry out to the One who saved us.
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And so Mary stands at the tomb unwilling to leave.
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Broken and confused.
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Verse 11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.
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And they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.
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See, she still doesn't know.
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She's still confused.
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Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing.
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But she did not know it was Jesus.
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And people say, well how could she not know it was Jesus? Didn't she know what He looked like? Yes, but you remember those two men on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24? They walked with Jesus for a whole day and didn't know it was Jesus.
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So somehow their eyes were not yet open to see Him.
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It was His prerogative to open the eyes to see Him in His risen state.
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Verse 13 Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Supposing Him to be a gardener? She said to Him, Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.
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Don't you know this? That it is the most wonderful thing in history that Mary's request was not answered.
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Because she said, Where is His body? And if you tell me where it is, I will go and get it.
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Wouldn't it be a terrible thing if He said, Oh, we've moved it over here.
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Wouldn't it be a terrible thing to say, Yes, He's still dead.
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He's just over here.
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We've moved His body.
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The most terrible thing in the history of the world would have been if that gardener would have just been a gardener and Jesus would have just been dead.
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But verse 16 Jesus said to her, Mary.
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She turned and said to Him in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher.
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And by the way, you notice most of the time in the Bible you see the phrase Rabbi.
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But in this text, Rabboni.
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Rabboni is the personalized use of the term Rabbi.
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If I say you're a Rabbi, that means you're a teacher.
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Rabboni, my teacher.
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There's only one other time that this particular word is used of Jesus and it's when He healed the blind man.
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And the blind man said, Rabboni, my master, my teacher.
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He who is mine.
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Jesus said to her, Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father, but go to My brothers and say to them, I am ascending to My Father and to your Father, to My God and to your God.
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Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord.
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And that He had said these things to her.
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Beloved, my focus this morning and my reason for preaching, my thesis is very simple.
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On the morning of that resurrection, Mary Magdalene didn't go to see a resurrected Jesus.
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She went to anoint a dead man.
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She went to anoint a man that she thought was dead and was going to stay dead.
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When she saw the empty tomb, she didn't believe that He had raised.
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She believed that His body had been moved.
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And when she finally saw His face, she didn't know Him, but she heard His voice.
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And when His voice said, Mary, she recognized the voice of her Savior.
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Do you know the voice of God? Do you recognize the voice of your Savior? And you might say, well, I've never heard the actual voice of God.
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And I will be honest with you, I have not either.
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I have not heard a thunderclap from heaven which is the voice of God.
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I have not heard the whisper of heaven which is the voice of God.
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But I will tell you this, Jesus Christ said these words in the Gospel of John chapter 10 and verse 27.
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My sheep hear My voice.
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I know them and they follow Me.
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And I will tell you this, if you want to hear the voice of God, it is in the Word of God.
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And I will tell you this, this is a truth that is so valuable and so important because there's a lot of people who say, oh, well, I think that I know God, but they deny His Word.
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If you do not hear the voice of God in the Word of God, you are not His.
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If you do not recognize the voice of God in the Word of God, you do not belong to the Savior yet.
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I hear people all the time say, I want to hear from God.
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I say, read the Bible.
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And they say, well, I want to hear God out loud.
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I say, read the Bible out loud.
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It's the voice of God.
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The Bible says that it gives internal confirmation to the believer.
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Romans 8.16 says, the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
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How does that happen? When you hear the Word of God, it will affect you.
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The Bible says faith comes by what? Hearing.
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And hearing from what? The Word of Christ.
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When I preach to you the Word of God, does your heart stir within you? When you hear the Word of God read, does your heart yearn within you that this is God speaking to you? And you say, no, I don't hear that.
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I don't know that.
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Have you come to Christ? Do you know Him as your Savior? He said clearly, My sheep hear My voice.
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I know them and they follow Me.
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Are you His sheep this morning? Do you recognize His voice when He calls? If He said to you, Mike, Rosanna, Dale, Ann, Dottie, Ashley, do you know His voice? Would you hear Him when He calls? Father in Heaven, I thank You for the Word of God.
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I thank You that Your Word tells us that our relationship with You is not a relationship that is based on a bunch of conjecture and mythology, but our relationship with You is based on the truth of God which comes in the Word of God and is verified to us in internal confirmation of the Spirit whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
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And we also, Lord, see the confirmation of Your truth in the resurrection of Your Son.
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When Mary saw the empty tomb, she didn't know.
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When she saw the risen Jesus, she didn't know.
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But when He heard her say, Mary, at that moment, she knew.
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Lord, that we might know.
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Lord, that we might know that He knows our name.
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We love You, Father.
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We thank You.
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I thank You for the Word.
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I thank You for this truth.
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I pray, Lord, that those who hear my voice today would not run from You, would not turn from You, but that they would turn to You by the power of the Spirit, that they would repent of their sin and trust in You by the power of the Spirit, that they would know that there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved than the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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To Him be glory, honor, and power forever.
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Amen.