RESURRECTION SUNDAY

Welcome! Welcome to Resurrection Sunday. Welcome to the gathering of the saints.

You actually can go ahead and be seated. That way people can look around and find seats as they come in.

But, hey, I'm glad you're here. You know, nearly 2 ,000 years ago, our

Savior rose from the grave. He rose from the grave and defeated death and now sits at the right hand of the

Father interceding for us. The saints, those that are in Christ, so that we can declare, just as Paul quoted in 1

Corinthians 15, he says, Oh death, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting? It no longer has reign over us.

Sin no longer has reign over us. Enslaving us, those that are in Christ because of Christ.

All other religions, as they meet, as they pray, as they gather, as they proselytize, they are proselytizing a dead leader.

A leader that is in the grave. Mohammed is in the grave, right? Those leaders did not rise from the dead, but Christ has risen from the dead.

We of all people have great hope. We will certainly have a resurrection like his.

That's the beautiful part. It's not just him rising from the dead. It's his rising from the dead so that we too may rise from the dead.

And we have a lot of reason to celebrate today, don't we? Amen, amen.

So I want to say a special welcome to all of our covenant members this morning as we do each week. Thank you for your faithfulness.

Thank you for bringing your gifts and using them for the glory of God and for the benefit and edification of the body.

I say it each week. I don't want you to lose sight of it. You are loved. We love you.

We love you dearly. This body loves you. The triune God loves you. God the Father who chose you.

God the Son who redeemed you and rose from the dead defeating death. And God the Holy Spirit who now dwells within you as a seal, a guarantee for that glorious inheritance and resurrection.

But I also want to say a special thank you to all of our guests that have joined us today. Thank you for being here.

We're so glad that you're here. For you too are loved by the people of God. We care for you deeply and we want you to feel welcome.

Our goal and our heart is that all of us, members, non -members, guests, every one of us, children, adults, would grow in the fear and knowledge of God today.

Amen. Amen. Well, if you are a guest today, I didn't bring one of the connection cards up with me, but we would ask that if you got one of those bags, if you're a first -time guest, it has a connection card in it, if you would please fill that out.

There's an area where you can ask for information about the church. You can ask for prayer. There's an area you can fill out a section of prayer.

And we meet every Tuesday, a group of us here, and we will pray specifically for that need for you.

And you can drop that connect card into the offering plate here in a little bit as it comes by. And so we're just thankful that you're here.

But let's go ahead and start our service this morning. All right? How about it? Y 'all ready to worship?

I am. Let's stand as a call to worship this morning, which comes from Isaiah 53.

It's the first six verses. And if you're not familiar, again, if you're a first -time guest, we take scripture and we have a read and response.

So I will read a section of this passage, and then as a people, y 'all will read the next section of that passage and response as a corporate involvement.

But Isaiah says, Who has believed what he has heard from us? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of the dry ground, he had no form or majesty that we should look at him.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces.

He was despised. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

And we have seen. But he was pierced for our transgressions.

Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. Hold on.

With his wounds we are healed? Let's declare that, church. Go back to that one, please.

Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

We just celebrated Good Friday just a couple of days ago, didn't we? We celebrate Good Friday. What makes

Good Friday so good is that he who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might become his righteousness.

That's good. It's good that the creator of all things, the second person of the

Godhead, became like man to represent us to be the true and better Adam and pay the penalty for our sins at the cross and take that punishment which was death for the wages of sin is death.

And he took it for us so that today we get to stand and celebrate in his resurrection as Christ was able to rise and say,

Death has no claim on me. It has no victory over me. I have victory over death.

Let's pray a prayer of adoration to our great God who has redeemed us in such a way. Dear Heavenly Father and Lord, we come to you this morning.

We bow before you humbly. We know that we have no righteousness of our own. We have no ability to be made right before a holy, a just and perfect God.

For we were at enmity with God. We were all stillborn in Adam. Our Father had brought us in through sin because of his iniquity and sin against you.

We were born in that and we had no hope. We were hopeless. We would not turn to you.

No one turns to you. All of us had turned to our own way. Oh, but God, you set out to redeem a people for yourself and you have accomplished it by sending your own

Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for us and to defeat death so that we may no longer feel the pangs of death.

We may experience a sleep, a temporal sleep in this world as we bury our loved ones, as we ourselves will one day go to the grave if Christ does not return.

But we know that that body will be raised and given a glorious body just as the glorious body of our risen

Savior who now sits at the right hand of the Father and intercedes on our behalf. We thank you. We are overwhelmed with gratitude and gratefulness to you for you are worthy of all praise.

And we ask this morning as we sing, as we preach, as we pray, as we read your

Word, Oh, Lord, I pray that you would be honored. Lord, set aside all of the thoughts and the concerns and the details and all the stuff that has gone on in our lives this week and let us be solely focused on you and your kingdom purpose today.

For your kingdom is the only thing that stands. We thank you. We pray that you are honored in it, that this worship will be a sweet -smelling aroma to you.

In Christ's name, amen. For the ones that Christ would die for me

His goodness, His merit, His righteousness The sinner's only

King Oh, through His body crucified The world is finished

All my hope is in Jesus All my hope is

His love The cross has done

Fully forgiven like I deserve With grace and undeserved

Oh, mercy that profound That sacred hope That praises now return

Rise up, my soul, and bless the Lord His words

In Jesus All my hope is

His love He's the one

Forever bless Him alone, my heart

And I will boast In nothing less

Than the love of Christ my Lord Sing that one more time

Oh, praise the one Forever bless

Him alone, my heart And I will boast

In nothing less Than the love of Christ my

Lord I boast not in riches and strength or might

But in the grace of God High glory and weakness to live is

Christ In plenty or in want That I may know, that all may see

His power is with me All my boast is in Jesus All my hope is

His love And I will glory forever

In what the cross has done Now I stand in His freedom

And some clean in His sight Oh, I cannot be ashamed

For my boast is Jesus Christ My boast is

Jesus Christ Forever my boast is Jesus Christ This we know

We will see the enemy run This we know

We will see the victory come We hold on to every promise

You ever made Jesus, You are unfailing

What You say or do

What You say or do You're good

You've always been so good to us Jesus Come on, sing it out this morning

Our hope is in You alone Our strength in Your mighty name

Our strength in Your mighty name

Jesus This we know This we know

We will see the enemy run This we know

We will see the victory come We hold on to every promise

You ever made Jesus, You are unfailing

Sing our God Our hope is in You alone

Our joy in the heavens Our joy When it seems there is no way

Jesus This we know This we know

We will see the enemy run This we know

We will see the victory come We hold on to every promise

You ever made Jesus, You are unfailing

Though we trust You Though we trust

You Your ways are higher than ours

Though we trust You Though we trust

You Your ways are higher than ours

We trust You Though we trust You Though we trust

You Your ways are higher than ours

One more time Though we trust You Jesus, we trust

You Your ways are higher than theirs

This we know We will see the enemy run

This we know We will see the victory come

We hold on to every promise You ever made

Jesus, You are unfailing Jesus, You are unfailing

Jesus, You are unfailing Under His foot, which is death

I want to read from 1 Corinthians chapter 15 as our scripture reading this morning I believe it will be on the screen

I'm going to read the first few verses and then skip down to verse 12 on through the chapter where Paul says,

Now I would remind you, brothers Oh man, we need to be reminded often, don't we? I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel

I preached to you which you received and in which you stand and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word

I preached to you unless you believed in vain For I delivered to you as of first importance what

I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

If there is no resurrection of the dead then not even Christ has been raised and if Christ has not been raised then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain

We are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that He raised

Christ whom He did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised for if the dead are not raised not even

Christ has been raised and if Christ has not been raised your faith is futile and you are still in your sins and those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished if in Christ we have hope in this life only we are of all people most to be pitied but in fact

Christ has been raised from the dead the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep for as by a man came death by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead for as in Adam all died so also in Christ shall all be made alive but each in his own order

Christ the firstfruits then it has come in those who belong to Christ that's us,

Saint then comes the end when He delivers the kingdom to God the

Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power for He must reign until He has put all

His enemies under His feet Christ reigns today, doesn't He? and He's putting the enemy under His feet the last enemy to be destroyed is death for God has put all things in subjection under His feet but when it says all things are put in subjection it is plain that He is accepted who put all things in subjection under Him when all things are subjected to Him then the

Son Himself will also be subjected to Him who put all things in subjection under Him that God may be all in all this is the reading of God's Word this morning our scripture reading and in light of that I want us to go to the

Lord in a prayer of confession and assurance as we do each week one of acknowledging that sometimes we fall prey to that flesh everyday we do

I say sometimes, I do everyday don't you? we fall prey to the flesh it wars against us we now have a nature that wants to serve

God and live a holy life but we still have the flesh that Jesus Himself is working on the

Holy Spirit is sanctifying us so we pray a prayer of confession and acknowledgement of that sin in our lives but it's not penance because Christ has paid for it and so we pray a prayer of assurance along with it that we are therefore now not under any condemnation so pray with me as we pray this prayer of confession and assurance this morning

Oh Heavenly Father we bow before you once again Lord we acknowledge our sin both individually, corporately as our flesh wars against us and often times wins the victory of that battle and draws us and our hearts and our minds away from our communion with you it wreaks havoc on our brothers and sisters our own sin does it causes disunity

Father my selfishness hurts my brothers and sisters but more importantly my selfishness had to be punished upon the cross my

Savior took it upon Himself so why should I go on sinning that grace may abound Oh Lord forgive us the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and we battle and we fight

Oh but Lord we we know that even still we get to come before you we get to come before you in righteousness and perfect holiness not because of what we do not because we were good and we went to church and we read our bible every day and we prayed every day not because we shared the gospel with somebody not because we know a bunch of theology and we know scripture and have a lot of it memorized not because of any of those things for none of those things are of any value if they're not done out of a love for Christ and we only have a love for Christ because of what

He has done for us out of His love for us it is

His righteousness that allows us to come boldly into the throne room of our Father now for you were our judge and executioner but in Christ you have become our

Father you have adopted us as sons and heirs joint heirs with Christ we thank you for your great mercy we thank you for the assurance that we get to stand in this morning knowing that there is therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus and all

God's people said Amen happy possessions mine says verse 2 for all those wide extended gates shines one eternal day and God the

Son forever reigns and scatters by the sky

I am a Baptist man

I am a Baptist man and shivering winds o 'er his beaches and hell for sure sickness sorrow pain and death are felt and fear no more

I am a

Baptist man Baptist man

I shall reach that happy place

I'll be forever blessed I shall see my

Father's face and hear His words of rest

I am bound we are bound we are bound for the promised land do you feel the world is broken do you feel the shadows taken do you know that all the dark can stop the light from getting through do you wish that you could see it all again

His own creation yearning a new creation coming is it glory of the

Lord to be light is it good

Is anyone worthy?

Is anyone whole? Is anyone able to break the seals

And open the scroll? The Lion of Judah Who conquered the grave

He is David's Root And the Lamb who died To wrestle and seize

Him And every people and tribe Every nation and tongue

Who made us a kingdom And priest to God Who breathed with the Son Is He worthy?

Is He worthy? Of all blessing and honor and glory

Is He worthy? He is

He is king and honor and joy

Is He worthy? The oceans in His hand

Kings and nations Tremble at His voice

All creation Rises to rejoice

Seated on His throne Come let us adore

Him Behold our

King Nothing can compare Come let us adore

Him Who has given counsel

Has given counsel to the poor

Who can question Any of His words

Who can teach The one who knows all things

Who can fathom All His wondrous deeds

Sing with us Behold our God Seated on His throne

Come let us adore Him Behold our

King Nothing can compare Come let us adore

Who has felt the nails upon His head

God eternal Humble to the grace

Jesus Savior Risen now to reign

Behold our God Seated on His throne

Come let us adore Him Behold our

King Nothing can compare

Come let us adore Him You will reign forever

You will reign forever Sing it out

You will reign forever Seated on His throne

Come let us adore Him Thank you so much

Father Lord we praise you this morning Jesus Lord you will reign forever

Lord what an awesome day to be in your house Lord And worship you and praise you

Our risen Savior You are risen

Lord and we have so much Lord We have so much to look forward to Lord Lord I pray this morning

Lord that you would just Lord that you would be with this Be with the remaining of this service

Lord I pray that you would be with Pastor Nathan as he As he brings your word this morning Lord I pray that you would just Anoint him give him the words to speak

Lord Open all of our hearts Open our ears Open our minds Lord Clear out any distractions we may have

Jesus Father Lord Lord I pray that you would bless this offering this morning Lord Father we love you we praise you

We ask all these things in your son Jesus precious and holy Holy name And all of God's people said

Go ahead and open up your copy of God's word To John chapter 20

John chapter 20 this is a familiar text If you have a copy of God's word with you

Whether on your phone or pad or A physical copy with you I Highly encourage you to be able to see it

For yourself as we walk through the text Is important for you saying to be able to Study God's word on your own and part of Sunday gathering

Is equipping you for that very purpose And so Those of you that are guests you may be accustomed to churches

Putting the passage up on the screen We do not do that on purpose because I want Our people and you to learn how to Delve into God's word on your own so John chapter 20

Familiar passage here I want us to read Starting in verse 1 we're going to read through this account

Where John writes now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early While it was still dark and saw that the stone

Had been taken away from the tomb So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciples

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 So Peter went out with the other disciples

And they were going toward the tomb Both of them were running together But the other disciple outran

Peter And reached the tomb first And stooped to look in He saw the linen cloths lying there

But he did not go in Then Simon Peter came following him

And went into the tomb He saw the linen cloths lying there And the face cloth

Which had been on Jesus' head Not lying in the linen cloths But folded up in a place by itself

Then the other disciple Who had reached the tomb first Also went in And he saw and believed

For as yet they did not understand the scriptures That he must raise from the dead

Then the disciples went back to their homes 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 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

Having said this She turned around and saw Jesus standing But she did not know that it was Jesus And Jesus said to her

Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the 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 And Jesus said to her Mary She turned and said to him

In Aramaic Rabboni Which means teacher And Jesus said to her

Now do not cling to me For I have not yet ascended to the Father But go to my brothers and say to them

I am ascending to my Father and your Father To my God and your God Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples

I have seen the Lord And that he had said these things to her This is the reading of God's Holy Inspired Word Let's bow our heads once again

Let's pray Please pray with me That the Holy Spirit would illuminate our hearts and minds To the truth of this Word O Lord, we humbly come before you once again

And we acknowledge our frailty We acknowledge that we often times

Read your precise scriptures wrongly We read ourselves into it

We read our preconceived ideas into it But we ask that you not allow us to do such a thing this morning

Lord, that we would be true to your Word Lord, help us Holy Spirit, illuminate our hearts and minds to its truth

To guard my lips from error And we do ask this morning That for those who are in here

Who may not be in Christ this morning Holy Spirit, we ask that you would awaken them That they would see the glory of the risen

Savior today And see the power of God in that great resurrection

And the substitution that Christ gave on behalf of his children

Lord, I pray that you would work in our midst today Be honored in Christ's name Amen Well, I'm going to go out on a limb

And I'm going to assume that if you are with us this morning You believe in the resurrection

At least a mental assent to the facts After all, there is far too much historical evidence

And even more trustworthy biblical evidence To the fact that this is true

For any sane person to try and deny The resurrection of Christ So the question is not whether or not you believe

The facts of Christ raising from the dead But whether you have experienced its power in your life

That's the distinction You can know the truth You can know the facts But have you experienced that power in your life?

I would like for all of us to be like the Apostle Paul When he said in Philippians 3 He said that I may know him

And the power of his resurrection That I may know him and the power of his resurrection

You may know of him You may know of his resurrection But do you know him? And have you experienced the beauty and power

In that glorious resurrection from the dead? Because the resurrection of Christ As most of you already know

Is very different than any other thing that's ever happened Now did Jesus raise people from the dead in his earthly ministry?

He did We have accounts of people in the New Testament Being raised from the dead

Here's the difference Those people then died again They were simply brought back to life momentarily

But this resurrection is something different This is a resurrection that claims death no longer has reign

Death no longer has a hold of him And have you experienced that power? I think there are many professing

Christians today Who are very committed to their Lord They're committed to their church

They may be committed to good deeds They may be committed to evangelism They may be very committed

Bible readers and studiers They may love theology You may have a whole library of old dead saints that you love to read

You may have all of Calvin's commentaries And you've gone through them all You may love those things

All of them together However, you may very well still be plagued by doubt, fear, and anxiety in your life

Many Christians are You are overcome by these things

There are a number of reasons why we struggle with this And one of those may be

That we have never truly experienced the power of the resurrection As I have said Or That we have experienced it

But we've lost sight of it We've lost sight Of that wonderful, powerful work of God And miraculous act of God We see a perfect example of this here in Mary Magdalene I love how

John focuses attention on Mary in this account Look at verse 1

He says, Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early While it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb

See, we know from other gospel accounts Over in Mark we see that there are two other women with her

Mary, the mother of James And Salome, I think is how you pronounce it These other two women are with him

However, John doesn't even mention the other two in this account Which leads some people to say the gospel accounts are not accurate

You see how they have differing accounts He doesn't even mention the other two That's not the purpose John, this is his way of writing

He strips away all other distractions He stays hyper -focused on what he wants us to see

In that very moment in his account And he obviously wants us to see the actions of Mary Magdalene here

But before we do that I think it would be helpful for us to know a little bit about this particular woman

That will help us see maybe why John is focusing his attention here There are so many

Marys in the New Testament It's hard to keep them straight, isn't it? It gets a little bit confusing

There's a lot of Marys A very common name of that day And Magdalene was not her last name

They didn't have last names during that day They probably called her this because she was from the city of Magdalene That's probably how she got that nickname

That's how they would differentiate the Marys Hey, where are you from? We're going to identify you with where you're from She's commonly associated wrongly with the woman

That washed Jesus' feet with her hair in Luke 7 But this is not her She gets confused with the woman that Jesus saved from stoning

But Scripture does not say this But we do know something about her past As a matter of fact, over in Luke, in chapter 8

In the first two verses, we see her We see, where Luke says, soon afterward

He went on through cities and villages Proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God This is

Christ, of course And the twelve were with him And also some women who had been healed

Of evil spirits and infirmities Mary, called

Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out So Mary Magdalene is here

And we do know that she apparently had seven demons This tells us two things about Mary, I believe

Number one is before Jesus She had the seven demons, right? So we know this

We don't get a lot of detail about what life was like for Mary With those seven demons But from the accounts that we have of other people who have demons

It probably wasn't very pretty It was probably a life of torment Very miserable terror

And slavery That she had undergone for her life

But the second thing that we see Is that once Jesus had freed her from this torment

Had freed her from these seven demons She dropped everything And followed him

You can imagine why, right? You can imagine living a life of torment You have seven demons that are just tormenting you day and night

And destroying your life And wreaking havoc on everything good in your life And then here comes

Jesus And he immediately gets rid of them

Delivers you from that torment From that point on She was one of the women that used all of her resources

Used her giftings to support the ministry of Jesus To support the other disciples

In every way that she possibly could This was true commitment, wasn't it?

You can see why She knew she wasn't going to get any position Or accolades

She knew she wasn't going to be one of the twelve apostles She knew she wasn't going to be given any kind of position

Or authority She gladly served from the shadows All the way to the end

All the way to the end when it seemed most bleak I want you to think about this for a second

This is what Mary had been delivered from Peter had been delivered from his sin, hadn't he?

Peter had been delivered, and all the other apostles had been delivered From being fishermen This woman has been delivered from seven demons

That had tormented and destroyed everything Everything even remotely good in her life

And so when things get most bleak When the mighty Peter runs and hides

And denies his Lord three times This woman stayed close to her

Lord As close as she possibly could She stayed close

She watched him beaten and humiliated She stood right near him during the crucifixion

Seeking to comfort him When the men were cowards

She stood right in the midst of the enemy Seeking to serve her Lord And now on the first day of the week

Here she comes to the tomb early She comes while it's still dark We see a bit of a

Proverbs 31 woman in that, right? It's still dark, she's gotten up early to go handle business And what does she do?

She goes and she sees the stone had been taken away from the tomb Even after all that she had seen

She is still committed to her Lord, isn't she? Mary is still committed to her

Lord She and two other women set out early Not knowing if the guards were going to move the stone

That was a heavy stone There's no way those women could have moved it They don't know if they're going to be able to move it Knowing that they're going to be mocked and ridiculed

Not expecting anything in that tomb But a lifeless corpse But it's the corpse of their

Lord And they desire to care for him This is commitment, is it not?

She loves her Lord But just as they get there Look there at the second part of that verse in one

And they saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb Right? Mary's first thought was not

He's alive! It's not her first thought Even though this had been clearly told to all of them by Jesus He was pretty clear about it, wasn't he?

Even in the midst of that they don't know Look at verse two So she ran

And went to Simon Peter and the other disciples Resurrection didn't even cross her mind

She immediately runs Notice the panic response The other two didn't even react this way

We don't even have an account of the other two doing the exact same response as Mary Mary's responding out of trauma

Think about it Think about her past Again, this is why we want to look at her past Demon possession, torment

Just ridicule, shame and guilt Her entire life The reality of this broken world

And of our own brokenness Drove her to be blinded in a moment of reaction

She has this desire to serve her Lord But she doesn't even see the spiritual realities in the midst of it

She panics She just sees the tomb open and she runs

She doesn't think about resurrection at all, does she? Because she's overwhelmed by the realities of her position and her current reality

Look at the passage then What does she do? She runs to the other disciples The one whom

Jesus loved Now, as a side note Everybody kind of makes a joke about this

That what he's doing is saying Kind of bragging like Jesus really loved this disciple

That's not what it is I think he's writing this in a way of humility He has to tell the story of what's happened And he's telling the story in a way where he doesn't even mention himself

He's wanting to hide behind the fact that Jesus loved him Not because he loved

Jesus, right? I love that But he says and said to them They have taken This is what

Mary says They have taken the Lord He's her Lord, isn't he? Master He's her

Lord And they have taken him out of the tomb And we do not know where they have laid him And then in verses 3 through 8

We see Peter and John run to the tomb, of course And when they see for themselves

Look down at verse 9 For as yet they did not understand the

Scripture I said it a moment ago, right? Jesus had already warned them The Scriptures had attested to this The Old Testament had even prophesied of this

Jesus himself had told them that this was going to happen But they didn't understand it It says that he must rise from the dead

Then the disciples went back to their homes Typical guy thing, right? Here's the facts

Here's what we know Let's go home, guys Nothing we can do Nothing we can do

We see the tomb is empty They must have taken his body I guess we lost

Alright Let's go home Regroup Let's figure out what's going to happen

But not Mary I'll thank the Lord for the persistence of women, right? Look at verse 11

Oh, but Mary stood weeping Outside the tomb She feels hopeless, doesn't she?

She's devastated All she wanted was to care for the body of her

Lord And now the one that she loved so dearly Who delivered her from her past Who delivered her from torment

And hell and damnation And all of the things that even in this life had crushed her

Is being desecrated, at least in her mind They've taken his body The hopelessness that has plagued her

That ruled her That fear and anxiety comes rushing back over her flesh

And her flesh takes over Over the past few days She has watched the one that she loved so dearly

That has redeemed her, her Lord She saw him arrested She watched him be wrongly arrested

Taken in by those that hate him She stood and watched him get beaten brutally She watched him ridiculed and spat upon And ultimately crucified and killed

She has seen his lifeless body The one that she had hoped in And had followed

Had given the last few years of her life to And now she can't even care for his body

She must have been overcome by emotion We can't read scripture and detach from this

There is human emotion All involved in this narrative Of a historical truth of what happened

This woman is weeping She feels the weight of all of it And it's overwhelming her

You know that feeling, don't you? Of the hopelessness

And the anxiety of this world When all seems dark You're being crushed under the weight of your perceived reality

Notice how I said that You're not being crushed under the weight of the reality You're being crushed under the weight of your perceived reality

And this is her perceived reality In the moment She feels it

And it's weighing down on her And it says that she's As she wept

She stooped to look into the tomb She's standing there, she's weeping The men have already looked in the tomb

They've already gone in there She looks in the tomb I can only imagine her grieving

And her grasping for hope For something Thinking, hoping Maybe we missed something

In verse 12 it says That she saw two angels in white Sitting where the body of Jesus had laid

One at the head and one at the feet This is how grief stricken this woman is

She doesn't even see this miraculous thing in front of her Think about that for a second

She sees the angels She obviously knows they're angels All of the sudden

There are these two angels wearing white Casually just sitting in the tomb And she doesn't even think twice about it

She's overcome by anxiety and fear That she does not even notice

Something miraculous in front of her Not for what it is

Her perceived reality Is distorting the reality in front of her eyes

That she sees God working It's kind of like us at times isn't it? Now be careful

We're not reading ourselves into the text But this is a narrative That is showing us a human response To something happening

And all of us Have a propensity towards that same human response Don't we? We become so distracted by our anxiety

And our fear That comes from sin Paul's told us

Be anxious for nothing, right? That fear doesn't come from the Lord That's our flesh

That we don't even notice God working in the midst of it We don't see God's providential caring hand at work

We just don't see it Even when it's obvious Look down at verse 13 These angels, they said to her

Woman Now this is a term of endearment, right? In our day If I walked up to one of you and went

Woman You'd be like You'd probably slap me, right? Rightfully so But in this day

This is a term of endearment This is Oh, hey, woman Created by God This is a good thing

They say, woman, why are you weeping? Huh? It's almost like this The spiritual realm is setting there going

Man, these guys These guys are kind of dumb Like We've told them

We've told them again We've written it It's like it's all there It's out in the open They don't even see it in front of them

Like here's two angels set in a tomb Talking to you And you're still like Distraught and don't get it

Why are you weeping? She said to them They have taken my Lord There's that My Lord again, right?

Just like in verse 2 And I do not know where they've laid him This word Lord Krios Means master

She's claiming him as master They've taken him He may be dead He may be in the tomb But he is still my

Lord He is still my master He is the Lord The master over all things But here in verse 13

She makes it very personal Doesn't she? He, even in death

Is my master He's not just the king

We've sang songs this morning About Jesus reigning as king Haven't we? That's all good and well

And we should Jesus reigns as king But you don't realize that he's your king Even the lost pagan world out there

That rails against him And runs over his laws And his goodness

He's their king He's king over all But here she is She's making it very personal

He is my master He's my king And I don't know where they've laid him

He's her master He's her Lord He's the Lord of all Yet she is distraught By anxiety and fear

Look at verse 14 Having said this She turned around And saw

Jesus standing Here again But she didn't even know That it was Jesus And we don't know why

I don't know if it was her anxiety The same situation with the angels We just know that He hadn't revealed himself to her yet Look at verse 15

And Jesus said to her Now hold on Some kind of blindness going on here

It's gotta be Because If she loves him so dearly She's been with him for long enough She's gonna recognize his voice

Wouldn't she? But she doesn't And he says the same thing That the angels said Woman Why are you weeping?

A term of endearment of course And then he says Whom are you seeking? Almost as if Jesus is thinking

Mary Mary And why would I be in there? Why would

I be in there? But Christ knew He knows the heart of man He knows the heart of woman

He knew she didn't have the power to see him He knew she didn't have the power to believe At that moment

And she made assumptions Based on her limited perspective Didn't she? It says supposing him to be the gardener

She said to him Sir if you've carried him away Tell me where you've laid him And I will take care I will take him away

Her commitment to the Lord Though short sighted

And burdensome She's still carrying that out She was willing

To go get his body herself To bury it herself Notice something in the midst of this

I will do this For my Lord I will care for him

I will honor him I think many

Christians live like this Don't we? What can

I do for God? We've been redeemed

We've been saved Not by our own merits or work But now on this side of salvation

We have a propensity to think What can I do for my Lord? What do

I need to do To take care of my Lord? What do I need to do? Me, me, me

I, I, I And in the midst of doing this We find ourselves in despair Don't we?

When I do this I find myself exhausted And overwhelmed And doubting Every time

I become burdened down With I need to do this for God But look what

Jesus said to her Verse 16 In the midst of In the midst of her saying

I'll go get his body I'll bury him I'll, I'll Let me take care of the Lord Jesus in that moment

He reveals himself to her And he exposes that Mary, you

You don't have to do anything for me I'm doing it for you I'm the one doing it Right?

What does he say? He just says Mary He says her name This woman who's been blinded by grief

Sees clearly now He says her name And she turned

And said to him An Aramaic Rabbi Which means teacher Why?

Why does she see now? Why was she blinded before? But now she sees How is this possible?

Because Jesus The risen savior Called her by name Jesus Revealed himself to her

Jesus had said already In his earthly ministry He says my sheep hear my voice And they Come to me

They follow me My sheep hear my voice A moment ago She was planning on Finding her lord's body

And caring for it And now She is in the presence Of the risen lord You can imagine

How she responded That grief just turned to Overwhelming joy

And she's probably She's probably trying to Just Fall at his feet And hang on to his feet

Hug him Love on him In verse 17 Jesus said to her Do not cling to me For I have not yet ascended to the father

She doesn't want to let him go I'm sure She's like It's finally Being revealed to her

The beauty of this And he says But go to my brothers Go to the men Those men That just went home

And they're just I don't know If they're giving up I don't know He knew what was going I don't know

But whatever was happening He says Say to them I am ascending to my father And your father

To my God And your God Jesus reminding them Of their oneness with him This oneness

That he has bought That he has brought them into And in verse 18 Mary Magdalene went And announced to the disciples

I have seen The Lord You can imagine What that scene

Must have looked like Busting the door in Screaming Going crazy The men are like What's this crazy woman

Talking about now What is happening But she's seen the Lord And that he had said

These things to her The atmosphere of that day Had changed Hadn't it The whole of the

Of the day That was doom and gloom Has now changed It was covered in anxiety And fear

Overwhelmed And now It's rejoicing And celebration And thankfulness In a matter of hours

She has gone From they have taken his body To now I have seen The risen Lord And this changed everything

For this she was committed To her Lord Wasn't she Gotta give it to her She was committed

Probably far more Than the rest of the disciples The men But in the midst of her commitment

She was plagued by fear Anxiety And overcome by the flesh Her perceived reality

Crushed her All the disciples Before the resurrection

They were afraid That Jesus would be Taken away They thought that they would

Take their body Take his body They loved him They served him But not with the power

And the certainty That each one of them had Once they saw the power Of the resurrection

You realize that right Everything changed In that moment Just as Paul said

In Philippians right That I may know him And the power Of his resurrection That's what

I need to know I need to be reminded of I need to see it I need to know it

Experientially Because otherwise I am overtaken By the flesh Because I don't see

The power of God At work in front of me They loved him They served him These are the people

Mary Magdalene included That we see Boldly proclaiming The risen savior

Throughout the book of Acts These Are the people

Particularly The men Who were willing to go And die

For this fact Again that's more Historical evidence right It's hard to deny

That you can understand One or two of them Being crazy And loopy enough To go and die

Over Over a scam That they had made up That the risen That the lord had risen But all of them

All of these men Peter Who denies Jesus Three times And is afraid To go

Be with his savior In his moment of need Is now the Peter Who Who says

Don't crucify me Like my savior I'm not worthy of it Crucify me upside down I'm willing to die

Because I've seen the power Of the resurrection I've seen that he has risen

And just like that passage In first Corinthians 15 We read a moment ago We too Now will share In that resurrection

Once we see the power That God resurrected Christ from the dead Oh now we have

We have nothing To be anxious about We have nothing to fear We're not the ones

That are doing All the things for Jesus Jesus did all the things For us And we get to rest in it

And we get to walk In the good works That God had prepared Beforehand Just as Paul said In Ephesians right

It's not up to us When we try And live the Christian life Upon our Our works And us doing things

For our savior Even though it's coming From a heart of goodness Because our savior Has redeemed us

Just like Mary Magdalene Had been delivered From the seven demons But yet the weight

Of that You cannot bear I cannot bear Our flesh will overcome that It will bear down on us

And the anxiety And fear of this life The exhaustion Of all of those works

Will crush you You can't But once you've seen

Tasted that the Lord is good And you've seen the power Of the resurrection And you are constantly Experiencing the power

Of the resurrection Now His burden is easy

And his yoke is light Now you're walking

In the power Of God The Holy Spirit That is within you

Convicting you of sin Drawing you into Walking in these good works

That God has prepared you Beforehand Doesn't mean That you don't strive But your striving

Now comes With the proper Perspective of reality Before you had

A distorted perspective Of reality But in light of The resurrection Oh now You see reality

Now you see The final enemy Will be put Under King Jesus But He has defeated it

It's already A done deal He's just waiting To gather all of his sheep And then he's going

To do away with it And it's certain And just like the song We sang earlier

This we know We will see the victory come It is most certain

And the power Of the resurrection Guarantees that So this Easter This resurrection day

Do not be content With just Acknowledging the facts About the resurrection Now if Jesus Has called you by name

You have And can experience This power And it's no longer

What I can do It's wow Look what he's done Look what he defeated Death no longer

Has dominion Oh death Where is your victory Oh death Where is your sting I can rest In that freeing power

We can rest Because we have Experienced the fear And anxiety

Of this world But we can We can experience It with hope This is

Paul said In Romans 6 5 He says For if we have been United with him In a death like his We shall certainly

Be united with him In a resurrection Like his We of all people

Have Ultimate hope Amen Amen In light of this

As we do Each week Let's Let's prepare To go to the Lord's table As we are reminded

Of what Our savior Has done for us As we partake Of the wine

And the bread There's significance In all of this I try to remind you All the time

There's a reason Jesus prescribed wine For the Lord's supper There's imagery

In it It's pure There's no impurities In it Just as his blood was pure There's also more imagery

In it There's a bitterness To wine Is there not It symbolizes the bitterness Of what

Christ Had to undergo With the cross Does it And we

Are reminded Of that That bitter cup That That Christ said

If this cup could pass for me He's speaking of the bitterness Of that cup That going to the cross

But he willingly did so But there's also a sweetness To wine And a beauty

Of bringing us in And being part of The glorious The glorious resurrection of Christ The unleavened bread

That we partake of today We don't eat wafers And crackers here We eat actual unleavened bread As Jesus prescribed

There's no leaven in it A little leaven Leavens the whole lump Right There's imagery there There's beauty there

Of the perfect Spotless body That was given over For us Christ Jesus The The God man

Whom God the Father Poured his wrath upon And he took Our sins

There's so Much Beautiful imagery there But also It's a taste

As we partake And as you come to this table As you walk around here And gather those elements

And go back to your seat And partake You can look around You can see brothers and sisters Partake You know what Those brothers and sisters

Are proclaiming to you And you're proclaiming to them I stand firm Acknowledging That my savior

Has paid for me And I am in him And he is in me And I am following And obeying

King Jesus He is my lord He is my savior But you're also proclaiming

And because of that We are unified in one Because of that We There's a reason

We do this communally On the lord's day Right You don't take the lord's supper At home with your family This is here

For the body To come in and declare Oneness in Christ It's a beautiful picture

This is not penance This is not your time To go Oh man I gotta get rid Of all my sins I gotta Now be careful

Don't come in an unworthy manner If you have unrepentant sin If you know you're in sin Against God And you refuse

To repent of it Don't come to the table If you're not in Christ Or you're not sure If you're in Christ Then come talk

To one of the pastors Do not go to this table Paul said in 1 Corinthians He said He said some of you are sick

And some have even died For coming to the table In an unworthy manner There's something Uniquely special About this table

That is more than Just a remembrance You don't You don't get sick And die over Just a remembrance

This is beauty This is a beauty And we see the beauty Of the cross In this table Don't lose sight of that Not let it become habit

Just because we do it Every single week Remember This is focusing Our attention And our affection

And our hope And our rest And all On Christ And Christ alone Amen If you are in Christ today

You are welcome to this table If you are in good standing With a local Evangelical church Then you are welcome

To this table The way this works Is there'll be Pastor Jeremiah You'll be on this side

Pastor Keith Pastor Keith will be over here You will come up Take of the elements Come back through here

And go back to your seat You can pray Individually You can pray as a family You can pray as a group And then partake

In those elements And then we will We will join back together And close in singing

Let's pray for our time At the table Oh dear of my father We thank you

For your great sacrifice Of sending your son To be To be the propitiation

For our sins To make an atonement For our sins

For us That could not atone For our own sin I pray as we come to the table

That you would be honored in it Do not let us lose sight Of this Beautiful picture

Of the gospel And the oneness That we have in Christ And the oneness That we're brought into The triune

God The oneness that we have together As siblings in the faith Adopted children

We thank you We pray that You would guard our hearts From unrepentant sin Lord if we are living

In direct rebellion Against you today Do not allow us To partake of these elements

But allow us To then lay it At the foot of the cross Repent Turn from it

Run from it And then boldly Come to this table We thank you

For this ordinance We ask that you Would be honored in it We ask that you

Would express your presence With us in a unique way As you do each week In Christ's name