RESURRECTION SUNDAY

The Saints you actually can go ahead and be seated if you for that way people can look around and find seats as they come in. But but hey I'm glad you're here. You know nearly 2 ,000 years ago our Savior rose from the grave rose from the grave and defeated death and now sets the right hand of the Father interceding for us the Saints those that are in Christ so that so that we can declare this as Paul quoted in 1st Corinthians 50 says.

Oh death where's 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 as they proselytize they are proselytizing a dead.

A leader that is in the grave. Mohammed is in the grave. Right that those leaders did not raise from the dead but Christ has risen from the dead and we of all people have great hope we will certainly have a resurrection like his.

That's the beautiful part is it's not just him raising from the dead it's his raising from the dead so that we too may raise from the dead. And we have a lot of reason to celebrate today. Don't do we come on guys.

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 notification 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 son 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 to 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 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 as 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. We're just thankful that you're here. But let's go ahead and start our service this morning.

Isaiah 53 and the Meaning of Good Friday

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 is 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 from whom men hide their faces. Surely he has borne our grease and carried our sorrows 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. 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 just a couple of days ago didn't 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 the creator of all things the second person 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 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 our father had 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 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 sets the right hand of the Father 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 as we sing as we 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 the 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 and your kingdom purpose today.

For your kingdom is the only thing that stands. We thank you. We pray that you were honored in it. That this worship would be a sweet smelling aroma to you in Christ's name. Amen. Jesus every promise you ever made those promises don't we because we do experience we talked about the resurrection.

We we know it's power. We know that that our Christ our Savior has risen. But yet we still see the death around us. Don't we. We still see sin around us. But we hold to the promise that he has defeated it and that one day he will return and put the final enemy under his foot which is death.

I want to read from first Corinthians chapter 15 as our scripture reading this morning I believe it'll be on the screen. I'm gonna read the first few verses and then skip down to verse 12 on through the chapter where Paul says.

Now 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 what you received and in which you stand and 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 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. But there is no resurrection of the dead. But there is no resurrection of the dead. Then not even Christ has been raised.

And if Christ has has not been raised and 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. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

If in Christ we have hope in this life only we are 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 each in his own order. Christ the firstfruits. Then it has coming those who belong to Christ that's us. 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.

When I when it says all things are put in subjection it is plain that he is accepted put all things in subjection under him and 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 and a prayer of confession and assurance as we do each week one of acknowledging that sometimes we fall prey to that flesh.

Right. Every day we do I say sometimes I do every day 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 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 as 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 this morning Oh Heavenly Father we bow before you once again. And Lord we acknowledge our sin both individually corporately as it as our flesh wars against us and oftentimes 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. It causes disunity. Father my selfishness hurts my brothers and sisters. But more importantly my selfishness had to be had to be punished upon the cross.

My Savior took it upon himself. So why should I go on sending 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 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 we know a bunch of theology and and and we know scripture and having a lot of it memorized. Not because of any of those things. For none of those things or 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 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 this song's again I'm Jordan stormy banks praise you this morning. 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 or 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 knowing him give him the words to speak. Lord open all of our hearts open our ears open our minds or carry 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.

The Empty Tomb and Mary Magdalene's Witness

People said 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 had 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 gonna read through this account where John writes.

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early. Well it was still dark and 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 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 out ran 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's 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 she stooped to look into the tomb and she saw two angels in white setting 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.

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.

Jesus said to her Mary. She turned and said to him in Aramaic Rabboni which means teacher. And Jesus said to her I 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 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.

Oh Lord we humbly come before you once again and we acknowledge our frailty. We acknowledge that we oftentimes read your your precise scriptures wrongly. We read ourselves into it. We we read our preconceived ideas into it.

But we ask that you not allow us to do such a thing this morning. Or 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. They would see the glory of 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 the Lord.

Experiencing the Power of the Resurrection

I pray that you would work in our midst today be honored in Christ's name. Amen. Well I'm gonna go out on a limb and I'm gonna 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 of 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 do you 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 reigned.

Death no longer has a hold of him. 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 were 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 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 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 different accounts. He doesn't even mention the other two. That's not the purpose John. He's just 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 to know a little bit about this particular woman that will help us see maybe why John is focusing his attention here.

There's so many Mary's in the New Testament. It's hard to it's hard to keep them straight isn't it. It gets a little bit confusing. There's a lot of Mary's a very common name of that day and 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 different differentiate the Mary's.

Hey where you from. We're going to identify you with where you're from. She's commonly associated wrongly with the woman that washed Jesus's feet with her hair and 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 a matter of fact over in Luke in chapter 8 in the first two verses we see 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 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 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 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 and wreaking havoc on everything good in your life. And then here comes 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. Right. She knew she wasn't going to be given any kind of position or 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 have 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 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 the tomb early.

She comes while still dark. We see a 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 have 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 and 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 our 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 2. 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 that the other two.

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 wanted to look at her past demon possession torment. Just a 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. 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 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 that what he's doing is saying that that 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. Is any 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 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 that 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 we we see the tomb is empty. They must have taken his body. I guess we lost all.

Right. Let's go home. Re regroup. Let's figure out what's gonna 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 loves 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. 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 loves 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 her 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's 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.

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.

It 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 had already taught Paul's told us be anxious for nothing. Right. That 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 went one.

You'd be like you probably slap me right. Rightfully so. But in this day this is a term of endearment. It's it. This is ah a 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 her going. Man these guys yeah they're 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. That just like in verse 2. And I don't know where they've laid him. This word Lord Krios means master. She 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's 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 he's your king. Even the lost pagan world out there that that that rails against him and 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 our master. He's our Lord. He's the Lord of all.