The Son of God's Triumph

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John 20:1-18

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I'd like to speak to you this Lord's Day. The Son of God's triumph.
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The Son of God's triumph. And the text I'm going to use will be from the
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Gospel of John chapter 20. We're going to look at the first 18 verses. This is not the first I've preached this message.
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But again, I went down into it, and for my own soul, to feed my own soul.
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And as it's been said, you know, as we go through this, we'll see that the interpretation never changes.
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There is only one true interpretation. It's like the old hymn says, tell me the old, old story of Jesus and His love.
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That story will never change, it is the same. And it's the great story of the good news of the
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Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it would not be complete without the resurrection.
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The resurrection is the completion of everything that Jesus has done.
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So we're going to look at that, at that glorious story of the empty tomb and the risen Lord Jesus.
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But first of all, let's bow in prayer as we go to the Lord and seek His face during this hour of worship.
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Our Father and our great God, Lord, we come, we do give thanks for You alone are worthy to receive, as it says in Revelation, as all the saints would sing, the church that's glorified in its glorified state, and we sing it just the same and say it the same to You, O Lord.
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Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving, honor and power and might belong to You.
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Salvation belongs to You, O Lord, who sits on the throne and to the
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Lamb. Lord, I pray this morning, help us by Your Spirit, Lord, to behold the
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Lamb of God who has taken away the sins of the world. The one who
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You raised from the dead, the one You have highly exalted above all rulers and above all principalities.
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And today, that He who reigns with You, Lord, at Your right hand of power is our great high priest.
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And majesty and glory forever make an intercession for all saints. And Lord, as we sung last
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Lord's Day, reminds us once again, a hymn writer that penned it years ago,
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Let me like Mary through the gloom come with a gift to Thee. Show me now the empty tomb.
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Lead me to Calvary. Lord, help us, I pray. Help us to see this.
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Your glory, Your victory over death, hell,
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Satan, the grave. And we will be careful to give
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You all the glory and the praise. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. First of all,
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I'd like to say the Apostle Paul, I want to pick up a little bit from what Brother Jordan read from Scripture reading today, to bring this great truth that has already been spoken of, but to help us get the focus of what is being said from the
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Apostle John chapter 20. But the Apostle Paul said if Christ was not raised from the dead, the believer's faith is useless, it's in vain.
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I want you to think about that. Preaching would be vain. We'll be false witnesses.
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Those also who have fallen asleep, meaning dead in Christ, are lost. In other words, no hope.
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And if only for this life we have hope in Christ, we're of all people most to be pitied.
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But verse 20 is really a turning point, and this is not the text today, but I'd like to start an introduction with this.
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The Apostle Paul says, but, very serious transition, but, the open door opens with a great revelation here,
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Christ has indeed been raised from the dead and the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Verse 21, for since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.
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For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
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As one commentator said it so wonderfully, the resurrection was the father's amen to the son's, it is finished.
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The resurrection was and is the exclamation point of the father's joy and celebration for all that Jesus did for us in his dying.
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Therefore, without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the son's death would have been in vain, but we know better.
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He has risen from the dead. Not because we felt it or experienced it, but because the
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Scriptures has proclaimed it. That's where our faith is.
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That's where our faith is established. That's where our faith lies.
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Beloved, this is the very reason why the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest of all miracles.
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Everything hinges on that resurrection. Everything. Everything that we believe from Genesis to Revelation hinges on the great historical fact, the great truth that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead.
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Now, in the Gospel of John chapter 20, to the end of the book, is all about the risen
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Lord Jesus Christ. We're not going to have time to go through all of it, of course. That's a lot of territory.
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It's absolutely important and critical for us to understand that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is just not another feature, so to speak, in Christianity.
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But it is the main event. It is the main event. It is central to the
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Christian faith. The incarnation, how our Lord entered into the world, became flesh, to His point of humiliation, all the way to the death of the cross and His crucifixion, were absolutely necessary events and critical for Christ's mission to fulfill and to obey the will of God in this one command that Jesus received.
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And He did. He did fulfill that command all the way to the very end.
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But the resurrection is the keystone, I would say, of Jesus' ministry.
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And again, Christ's resurrection is the greatest event in redemptive history and all of history.
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There are four major events described to us here in chapter 20 of John's Gospel.
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First of all, and this is what we're going to look at today, I just have two points. The first is
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Mary Magdalene discovered the empty tomb and Peter and John confirmed her finding.
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Second, we will look at Mary encountered the risen Lord Jesus. We'll look at those two.
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But if you read on in your devotional time in John chapter 20, you also see, third,
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Jesus appeared to the disciples when Thomas was absent. And fourth, you will see that Jesus appeared a week later to the disciples with Thomas present.
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But today, we're only going to look at and gaze at the first two points
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I mentioned to you, which are major events in this wonderful chapter, John chapter 20.
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As we look at John chapter 20, verses 1 through 18, the two major points will be this.
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First of all, the event is the great discovery of the empty tomb.
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That is found in verse 1 through 10. The great discovery of the empty tomb.
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Second, we will observe that the second event is the great recognition.
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The great recognition that Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene, which is found in verses 11 through 18.
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So in saying that, let's hear what the
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Scripture says on the first point. The great discovery, the great discovery, and what is that great discovery?
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It was the empty tomb. The tomb is empty. The tomb was empty.
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Mary Magdalene's unquestionable discovery of the empty tomb, it was unsealed.
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This is found in verse 1 and 2. Now on the first day of the week, the Scripture says, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark and saw the stone already had taken away from the tomb.
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Verse 2, So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom
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Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.
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There are several important facts that we need to see here in her discovery, this great discovery that the tomb is empty.
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The first one is very critical that Jesus arose on the first day of the week, which would be our
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Sunday, which is called the Lord's Day. And we're going to prove this through Scripture why it is the
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Lord's Day. Gospel of Matthew, Matthew actually says in Matthew 28 .1,
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the end of the Sabbath. The end of the Sabbath, meaning between 3 to 6 a .m.
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Mark says it was very early and the sun had risen.
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Luke says it is early dawn. And Matthew again says it began to dawn, while John says while it was still dark.
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Here we see pure honesty, beloved. And don't you love this?
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There's no editor that is saying, Well, this is a little bit different here, so we might want to harmonize all these together some way.
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No, the integrity of Scripture is maintained in the honesty of those statements
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I've just read to you. Clearly, all of the gospel writers placed the arrival at the same time.
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And I want you to see this. It's daybreak. And when it's daybreak, it's very early.
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And when it's daybreak, as Mark says, the sun has risen. And as Luke says, it is early dawn.
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And Matthew says, it began to dawn. And John says, there's still a dusk darkness that's happening.
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You see this? There's no contradiction whatsoever. So beautiful, simple credibility in the pure Scriptures that is given to us of the account from all gospel writers.
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That's untampered with, pure, clear perspectives by each of the four gospel writers that we have.
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This tells the same story from their perspective, but they still say the same thing.
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John tells us it was still dark. So when Mary Magdalene came to this tomb, so why is this so important?
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Why is this fact so important? And I want to tell you why it is important. Because as the text says,
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Mary Magdalene was the first one to arrive at the empty tomb.
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She's the first one to arrive. Dawn happens rapidly. But when she came to the tomb beginning the first one, it was still on the dark side of dawn.
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So now according to Matthew's account, Mary Magdalene didn't start out alone. But according to chapter 27 of Matthew, another
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Mary, and the Mary, the mother of James and Joses, was with her, so she wasn't alone.
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You have to read that in context, as was being said here in John.
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But we know that she got there first. She was the first one to arrive.
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So important to note here that there were women at the foot of the cross, and the same women who were at the foot of the cross were there on Friday when
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Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who were basically burying the body and preparing the body of Jesus for burial.
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And you see this in John chapter 19. Let me read a few verses previously in John chapter 19.
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Look at verse 38 to 42. After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for the fear of the
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Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission.
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So he came and took the body of Jesus, and Nicodemus, and we know by now, see,
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Nicodemus is a believer. In John chapter 3, he had a lot of questions. Now he's a believer.
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He's with Joseph of Arimathea. And then Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night,
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John refers to that, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh, aloes, about a hundred pounds.
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And then they took the body of Jesus and bound it in strips of linen, with spices, as the custom of the
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Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden.
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And in the garden, a new tomb in which no one had yet laid. So there, and there they laid
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Jesus because of the Jews' preparation day for the tomb was nearby.
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So we see here, and now let me read Luke. Luke chapter 23, verse 55 says,
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Now the women who had come with him out of Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid, verse 26,
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I'm sorry, 56, when they returned and prepared the spices and perfumes and on the
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Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. Now, according to this text, they have seen, they have
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Jesus' body placed in the tomb before sunset. Why?
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Because the Sabbath has began.
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It began. They were not able to finish preparing the body.
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Now this is very important because Mark 16 .1 says, which says they purchased more spices when the
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Sabbath was over. So after sundown, Saturday, then they returned
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Sunday morning with the spices, Luke 24 .1 says, But on the first day of the week at early dawn they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared, verse 2, and they found the stone rolled from the tomb, verse 3, but when they entered they did not find the body of the
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Lord Jesus. They did not at that moment have a clue where he had gone, where his body had gone.
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So here according to the fact that it was recorded to see here is another reason the
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Sabbath is over. So this basically gives us another very important fact recorded in Scripture.
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What would be that? That would be for the reason Jesus arose before dawn.
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Stay with me. Before the sun arose on that Sunday resurrection morning, and again, there's very grave importance for this because the early believers broke away from the common division of the week which began with the
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Sabbath or their Saturday. They began to count their days beginning with their
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Sunday. So the day of the resurrection of the Lord, that's why it's called the
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Lord's Day because of this central fact that happened in history.
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It's the Lord's Day and we call it the Lord's Day because of his resurrection.
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That's why we Christians, believers call it that. And as I read earlier at the opening, when
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John, now he was exiled on Isle of Patmos, and you know, alone, he was in the
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Spirit on the Lord's Day. That's significant. And here there's no longer, see, the transition has been made.
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This is a very interesting transition. So these women actually awakened on the morning of the first day of the week,
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Sunday, and the first thing we were thinking about, that they were thinking about, was getting back to the tomb.
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So the Sabbath was over. They have on their mind to go back and pour more spices on the body of Jesus.
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Now, in that scene, as we come to verse 1, John chapter 20, the important fact is that Jesus arose the first day of the week on the
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Sunday. This means that he had been in the tomb, just as he said, for three days.
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Just as he said. And you go through these accounts and these gospel records, it's all accurate.
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I mean, the witnesses, and we're going to talk about these witnesses in a minute, how important this is.
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So his arising from the dead was a triumph. It was a conquest over death, for death has lost its sting.
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Aren't you glad? Death doesn't have a stinger to it no more.
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Jesus took the stinger out. We all have to face death. But the pain of that stinger is taken away.
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That's why, as a believer dies in Jesus Christ, this will be his or her greatest moment.
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To transport from this side of eternity to eternity, eternal bliss with the
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Lord, because he is the first fruits of that resurrection. Because of his resurrection, beloved, there's going to be another great resurrection he's going to raise, because he is the resurrection in life.
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All he has to do is speak the word, and all will come out of the grave. Someone said when he spoke, when he was at the tomb of Lazarus, he said,
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Lazarus, come forth. If he didn't speak Lazarus' name, everybody would have came forth. And that's the truth, and that's what's going to happen at the great resurrection day in the future.
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Well, it's glorious, because without this, we have no hope. We have no future hope.
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But Jesus has secured this for us. And we can believe and rest in that.
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Another important fact is about the resurrection of Jesus as he arose from the first day of the week.
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Sunday morning, he was in the grave on the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was being over, it was over.
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Well, what does that tell us? Well, the fact tells us that they could not observe the laws of governing the great season of the
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Passover and the Sabbath. Jesus has fulfilled that. Jesus fulfilled it all.
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Jesus Christ completely fulfilled the law of God in his life. He now, in his death, and in his death, which is once and for all, we identify with him as believers, we become dead to the laws of the observance of the
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Jewish ceremony law, so we don't have to observe that no more, beloved. Jesus has fulfilled that.
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Now, I didn't say we didn't have to observe the Ten Commandments, but Jesus has obeyed the
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Ten Commandments fully. How many of you have seen these bumper stickers that says,
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Keep the Ten Commandments. I dare anyone to try to keep the Ten Commandments just in one day.
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People say, Well, hold on, pastor. I do my very best in doing that. But how many times in your mind have you thought thoughts against your neighbor, against someone else?
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And as Spurgeon says, your thoughts are as words before God. And immediately, your heart convicts you.
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Have you thought a bad thought against someone else within the day?
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Or have you had a lustful thought against someone else in that day? Somewhere along the line, within them
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Ten Commandments, we have broken, beloved. And this is the point I'm trying to say. Jesus has fulfilled and kept those laws of God, his holiness, his character, which that's what it is, to every detail.
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So in keeping the Ten Commandments, sure, we should love the law of God. It's our delight. But only
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Christ can keep it and fulfill it. Not a one of us here can honestly say,
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I have loved the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, even though that is the first and great commandment.
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So isn't it wonderful? Jesus has fulfilled the law. Let me read a few scriptures Paul says in Romans 8, 1 and 2.
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Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, but the law of the
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Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.
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Romans 7, 4 says it very well. Paul says, therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit unto
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God. In other words, in response by faith alone and believing in Jesus Christ and obeying the
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Lord Jesus Christ, which, by the way, obedience is the fruit of salvation.
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It's not the root. The faith is the root. The obedience is the fruit.
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That's sanctification. The believing sinner in Christ forever is dead to the condemnation and the penalty of the law because Christ has fulfilled it.
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That's basically what happened here when Jesus arose from the dead. Now, I will tell you something else
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I think is very important for the evidence of the resurrection of Jesus is the empty tomb.
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The empty tomb in reality, as I said earlier, the stone was rolled away to let
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Jesus out. Did you ever think of that? It was rolled away to let the witnesses in.
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Isn't that wonderful? Look at the witnesses. Look at how many witnesses.
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If you read, like, if you heard very instinctively of what
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Brother Jordan was reading from 1 Corinthians 15, that great resurrection chapter, there were many, many witnesses there.
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Many, many witnesses. Hundreds that saw the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is according to the
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Scriptures that the Scriptures was written. And that's why we believe. Not on our experience, but according to the
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Scriptures. The resurrected Jesus doesn't need a stone to be removed. So, as Mary Magdalene arrives, she sees the stone taken away from the tomb.
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This is very strong evidence of the resurrection of Jesus. The stone wasn't rolled back to let
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Christ out, but to let the witnesses in. Look at verse 2. Mary runs to Peter.
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So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John, and said to them, they have taken away the
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Lord out of the tomb. She thought, obviously, that someone stole the body.
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We do not know where they have laid Him. He's gone. But a resurrection was the least thing from her mind at this moment.
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She just doesn't know where the body of the Lord is. That was a concern for her. In verses 3 through 5, the witnesses come to the empty tomb to see the truth.
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Look at verse 3. So Peter and the other disciples, speaking of John, went forth. They were going to the tomb.
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Verse 4, the two were running together and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter.
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And probably because John was a little younger than Peter. Younger guys could not run.
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Older guys, when it comes to jogging and running. And here he says, it came to the tomb first.
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So John comes to the tomb first. Verse 5, and stooping, looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.
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That's interesting to see. The interplay here between Peter and the beloved
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John. And in verse 4, they were running. Again, like I said, the younger outruns Peter. Verse 5, notice stooping down and looking in.
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Speaking of John, it is very likely that the empty tomb was low. It was where he could stoop down, look in.
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It's obvious there as the scripture tells us. Requiring one to stoop, to enter and to look in.
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John saw the linen clothes lying there. And then in verse 6, and so Simon Peter also came following him and entered the tomb.
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He saw the linen wrappings lying there. Verse 7, and the face cloth,
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I'm sorry, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but it was rolled up in a place by itself.
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Now, there's three important functions that tells us about this in scripture, about the grave clothes they serve.
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Number one is most obvious, is that they provide to us a visual evidence of Jesus' resurrection.
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The body's gone, but the grave clothes remind us that Jesus' body wasn't there.
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He's not there. Second, they also provide evidence that Jesus' body was not stolen.
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And I'll tell you why. Grave robbers would not leave behind valuable linen cloth and neither grave robbers nor Jewish authorities would take time to remove clothing from a body delaying their escape and increasing the risk of being caught.
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Third, they serve a theological function here.
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That for example, when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Lazarus emerged from the tomb still wrapped in his burial clothes.
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He was actually wrapped up like a mummy. He's almost like a mummy. He came hobbling out. He couldn't walk because he was still wrapped up.
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And Jesus had to tell those beside him, lose him and let him go.
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Jesus commands bystanders to free him. It might resume his normal earthly life, but we read this in John chapter 11 and you can read that in your devotional time.
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But however, when Jesus emerged from the tomb here in John chapter 20, he did so unencumbered.
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You see this? Unencumbered. No grave clothes was binding him.
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Verse 8 says, So then the other disciple who came first to the tomb, that's John, also entered and he saw, and the scripture says, and he believed.
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He believed. John the apostle entered that tomb and saw the orderly arrangement of the linen.
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He saw and believed. He believed that Jesus was raised from the dead. This means more than just a physical sight.
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It means that he comprehended, he understood, and I really believe, by faith he knew in his heart that Christ rose again from the dead.
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In his heart. They showed him before him were the evidence of Christ's resurrection.
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They showed him what had happened. He believed. Verse 9, For as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again from the dead, the scripture says.
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Up until now, the disciples did not understand the Old Testament scriptures which stated that the
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Messiah must rise again from the dead. The Lord himself had told them repeatedly time and time again, but they did not take it in.
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They did not understand it. But according to verse 8, the apostle John was the first to believe.
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Verse 10, Now the disciples went away again to their own homes. Basically, this verse tells us they returned to their own homes, speaks of their uncertainty about what they should do next.
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They just went home. They didn't know exactly what to do. They were baffled.
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Now we come to the second point found in verse 11 through 18.
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I'll do my best to get through this and make application as we go. But the great recognition is that Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene here in verse 11.
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I want to say something here to this wonderful verse. Why would it that our
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Lord would first make his first resurrection appearance to Mary Magdalene?
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You know, this is beautiful. This is so beautiful. There was a commentator by the name of Gerhardus Voss from his commentary from Glory and Grace.
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Let me give you his quote here. He says, this is beautiful. The first appearance of the risen
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Lord was given to Mary for no other reason than she needed him first and needed him most.
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Listen to how warm this is. And what more appropriate beginning could have been set forth for his ministry of glory than this very act?
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Nothing could better convince us that in his exalted state he retains for us the same tender sympathy, the same individual affection as he showed during the days of his flesh, end quote.
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How beautiful that is because he sees that Mary needed to see him first.
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Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping. The Scripture says, and so she wept and she stooped and looked into the tomb, verse 12, and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been lying.
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This is beautiful. The first two words are striking. But Mary.
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The other two disciples, Peter and John, went home. But Mary, here she is again.
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We have the deep, deep love and the devotion she had for her Lord. She's weeping.
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Remember, she was the one that had been forgiven much. Therefore, she loved much,
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Scripture says. But Mary was standing outside the tomb. She was weeping, weeping.
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And let me say here, the idea of weeping here is not just a tear or two. She's literally pouring rivers of water, as the
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Psalmist says in 119, down her face because she cannot find the body of the
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Lord. She loved Him so much. It's a constant, unrestrained sobbing.
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That she has, that's pouring from her heart, overflowing and she's weeping.
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She gives full course of her pain and her sorrow and her affection that is helpless at the moment.
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And her love sobs uncontrollably. Out of control.
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She's sobbing. And it makes me think like Hagar in the wilderness. She's a well of water.
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She's there pouring out. But yet she's in despair.
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She doesn't know where is the body of the Lord. But she couldn't have had eyes to see it.
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She expects the worst. I want you to think of this. She's in despair. And Jesus said that He had to cast a devil, demons out of her.
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She thinks someone has stole the body of Jesus. J .C. Rowell says this. Two -thirds of the things we fear in life never happen.
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Two -thirds of the tears we shed are thrown away in vain. But her tears are for the tears of a broken heart forlorn.
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Frustrated, lonely, not understanding anything that has happened. Having lost the object of her pure love.
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So she looks in and she saw two angels in white sitting and one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been lying.
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End quote. That's the story. After Mary stooped and looked into the tomb now she sees two angels in white sitting there.
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Matthew 16 says the angels one of the angels was a young man.
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That's what it says. Luke 24 .4 So there were two young men as Luke says.
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Some details there. Luke is a physician. He gives details. So these angels who are spirits took on male form.
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They didn't come in a feminine form. They just chose to come in a male form.
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And they were always messengers by the way. The messengers of God. And you notice they had a message to give.
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Mary is sobbing. She's weeping. Her eyes are blurred with tears. It's early in the morning.
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It's probably in the darkness of the tombs. Inside would make things very hard to see.
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So she sees what the angels are in human form and doesn't know why they're there. She's probably thinking why are these men here?
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John mentions these angels also for a reason to demonstrate that no grave robbers took the body of Jesus.
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None. All this is a result of the mighty power of God that God raised
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Him from the dead. Two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been lying.
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This carries us to Exodus 25, doesn't it? Where the Lord gave instructions to build the
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Holy of Holies in the tabernacle. He identified a place called the mercy seat. Beloved, that was the place where God met men in mercy.
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Isn't this beautiful? Listen to this. That's the place where the high priest would go on the day of atonement, sprinkle the blood to satisfy a holy
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God to make that sacrifice. It was the mercy seat. It was pure gold.
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It was inside the Holy of Holies. And at each end of the mercy seat make two cherubim of gold, one at each end, two ends of the mercy seat.
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Make one cherubim at one end and one cherubim at the other end. And then it says,
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God says, I will meet you there. There I will meet you between the two cherubim.
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I will speak to you. I will meet with you. And here is
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Mary. She looks in. She stoops down. Two angels.
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One end and another angel at the other. And the analogy is this, and I love analogies, but this is a beautiful one.
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God will meet you in the empty tomb. God will meet you. I will meet you, he says.
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I will speak with you. Once God met in a tent, in a tabernacle, once in a building, once on a golden mercy seat with two angels.
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But now God meets men in an empty tomb. You see, this is how the
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Lord comes. Verse 13, And they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping?
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Why are you weeping? And she said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord. Just sense her love toward the
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Lord here. And I do not know where they have laid him. The angels address Mary with a dignity.
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And notice, the angels do not call her by name. They don't call her
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Mary. Verse 14, When she had said this, she turned around and saw
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Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. Matthew Henry says here,
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The angels ask her, Why weepest thou? I have caused enough to weep. She says, For they have taken away my
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Lord. And like Micah, what have I more? Do you ask why
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I weep? My beloved has withdrawn himself, and he is gone. Note, Matthew Henry says,
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None know, but those who have experienced it, the sorrow of being deserted, a deserted soul that has had comfortable evidence of the love of God in Christ and hopes of heaven, but now lost.
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And walks in darkness. Such a wounded spirit can bear. Such a wounded spirit can bear.
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And he says, Christ is appearing to her while she was talking with the angels and telling them her case.
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Before they had given any answer, Christ himself steps in to satisfy her inquiries.
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For God now speaketh to us by his Son. None but himself can direct us to himself.
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Mary would fain know where her Lord is, and behind he is at her right hand.
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Those that will be content with nothing short of a sight of Christ shall be put off with nothing less.
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He never said to the soul that sought him, Seek in vain. It is
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Christ that thou wouldest have. Christ thou shalt have.
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End quote. That is so true. Such a beautiful, warm story here the gospel account gives us.
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And even though Mary thought Jesus was still dead at the moment, she still calls him my
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Lord. My Lord. And here we see nobody. Mary was a nobody.
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She was like a reject. As I said earlier, Jesus cast out seven demons out of her.
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She lingers, not recognizing Jesus, the first witness, the eyewitness, this poor woman,
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Mary Magdalene. And here is Jesus standing, does it, and she doesn't recognize it's
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Jesus. She doesn't recognize him yet. But her tears again are blinding her.
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She cannot see quite who it is. She cannot recognize that this is Christ.
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She just sees a blur. Her doubts are blinding her. She has no reason to believe in a resurrection at the moment, like I said, and it's the least thing from her mind.
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Her vision is clouded. Possibly God might have prevented her from recognizing the Lord. I've looked up many commentators.
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They don't know exactly why she could not recognize Him, but it could be very well that only God can open the understanding of us really seeing, and as Mary, who
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Jesus is, only God can remove the scales. Verse 15, notice the
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Lord speaks. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping?
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And then supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, she still doesn't recognize this is the
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Lord. And she says, Sir, if you had carried Him away, tell me where you've laid
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Him, and I will take Him away. Jesus repeats the question that the angels just asked.
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In her devotion to Jesus, Mary seeks to learn where she might find Jesus' body so that she might take
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Him away, a task that would be very difficult emotionally, physically for a woman.
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Beloved, there is something lovely and beautiful about Jesus here making His first resurrection appearance to Mary Magdalene.
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We would think that He would grant this glorious honor to one of the inner circle disciples or to His mother, but He didn't.
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I want you to think about this. But God's ways are not our ways.
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His thoughts are not our thoughts. Personally, none of us would have picked Mary Magdalene, would we?
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For this honor. What an honor. She's going to be the first one to see the
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Lord Jesus risen from the dead. But what would we have picked? Would we have picked, let's just say,
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Jacob to carry on the promise of a great nation? A liar and a deceiver?
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I don't think so. Or would we pick someone like a lowly shepherd boy in the backside of a field to slay a giant?
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I don't think so. Would we have picked a terrorist that was persecuting the church of God, Saul of Tarsus, to being an apostle?
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I don't think we would. But God had better plans, didn't He? He picked those.
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He picked and planned a purpose for those that were the least in people's minds.
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You ever think why God picked you? To come into the kingdom? It sure isn't nothing of us.
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As the children were singing, it's all because of God's amazing grace. Grace alone.
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God's favor. And as Scripture says in the reading of 1 Corinthians 15,
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Paul says, I'm the least of all the apostles. And I am what I am by the grace of God.
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And that is such as us as well. Well, the story continues.
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Verse 16, Jesus said to her, Mary. Calls her by name.
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It was at that instant, at that moment, she turned and said in Hebrew, Raponi.
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Isn't that beautiful? Raponi. You know what that says?
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That is the original. Again, Gerhardus von says this,
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The evangelist takes the pains to preserve for us the word she uttered in its original Aramaic form.
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Because he would have us understand that it meant more at this moment than could be conquered by ordinary rendering.
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Teacher or master. But Raponi has a special untranslatable significance, he says.
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It was the personal response to the personal
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Mary. You see that. There was something intimate. As Jesus said,
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Mary, she says, Raponi. To all intents and proper name, he says, no less than the other.
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By speaking it, Mary consciously re -entered upon the possession of all that as Raponi had meant to her.
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It's personal. How personal is it? Jesus said it is this personal. John 10 3 and 4 says this,
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He calls his own sheep by name. He leads them out. Wherever he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them.
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And the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
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That's the words of Jesus. That's how personal it is. We are the sheep of his pasture.
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He is the great shepherd, the good shepherd. The good shepherd laid down his life for his sheep, his own sheep.
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And yet, the scripture says he's the great shepherd. He's the chief shepherd. There's no one like him.
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No one can compare to him. Jesus said to her, Stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended to my
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Father. But go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, my
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God and your God. How wonderful it is to hear Jesus say this. Mary had known
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Jesus personally as a man, but now she had seen a miracle after a miracle when he was bodily present.
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Now she could conclude that if he was not with her in a visible way, she could have no hope of a blessing.
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She was clinging to Jesus. She was clinging to Jesus like limpets to a rock.
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And study that. Brother Keith did a wonderful study. He looked up about what
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Spurgeon said about that. Limpets literally cling. They got teeth that bite down on the rock so clutchingly they become like part of the rock.
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And it's like when the waves hit, it doesn't move the limpets. The rock of ages.
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It's a death -like grip. But here Jesus tells her, Do not cling to me. He corrects her way of thinking lovingly.
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Do not cling to me. I have not ascended to the Father. She was clinging to Jesus for her dear life.
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It's interesting that Puritan Richard Sibbes said this about Mary clinging to the
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Lord. Mary was so much addicted to the Christ's bodily presence, it is this that men labored from the beginning of the world to be too much addicted to the present things and the sense.
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Listen to what he says here. They will worship Christ, but they must have a picture before them.
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An image. They will adore Christ, but they must bring his body down to a piece of bread.
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Where is he going? Listen to this. They must have a presence. So instead of raising their hearts to God and Christ in the heavenly matter, they pull down God and Christ to them.
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This is very true. And therefore says
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Christ, touch me not in that manner. It is not with me as it was before.
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We must take heed. And I love this warning and this admonition. We must take heed of mean and base conceits of Christ.
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Amen. May we all take heed of this. Lift our hearts to the risen
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Christ instead of trying to pull down something ourselves, a picture, an image, to say this is
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Jesus. How many people in their sincerity now post these pictures of Jesus on the internet?
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Beloved, that's not Christ. That is a false image. Now people do it sincerely, but they do it sincerely wrong.
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But the Bible still says, have no other graven image before me. But see what he's saying here, we don't need something visually.
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We go by faith and the naked, uncompromising, all -sufficient word of God.
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And when Jesus is risen from the dead, said he rose from the dead, he is risen from the dead. We don't pull him down.
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We raise up and he lifts us up. You see that? And this should strengthen our faith.
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That's why it's so important for us to stay in the Scriptures and that's why it says, by faith man lives, by faith he dies, by faith, even if we don't have a picture of Jesus.
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Be careful of that, beloved, because somehow we can get this image of Christ, what we think
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Christ is in our mind, but that's not Christ. You see that? You want to see how
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Christ is in visual, read Revelation chapter 1 as I read in the opening. That's the way he is, his eyes is like a flame of fire, his voice is as the sound of thunders like Niagara Falls.
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And he has such power and glory, and his countenance shines greater than the strength of the sun.
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Try looking at the sun and see how long you keep your eyesight. You see, that's the
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Christ of God. I like what R .C. Sproul says, give me the Christ of God or give me nothing.
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And I say amen and amen all the way. Well, she was clinging to Christ, but Jesus tells her, don't cling, don't cling.
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This is an excellent question in reference to his ascension to heaven because to the Father, he would only be with them physically temporarily for a short time, then he has to go to the
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Father. Why? Because he's the one that said, I'm going to send to you another comforter.
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I'm going to send you another paraclete. See, Jesus is that paraclete, but he says,
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I'm going to send you another one. And that's the Spirit of God. See, isn't this sufficient?
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I mean, today in our Christian entity and Christian circles, we want somehow to add this and that and something, do this and make it greater and greater.
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Isn't the sufficiency of the Word of God enough? Isn't faith in Christ alone enough?
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Isn't the gospel enough? It's more than enough. We don't need to be adding or subtracting.
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The Holy Spirit, another paraclete, another helper will come. Jesus said it's the promise of the
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Father, and he's the one that sent the Spirit of God. That basically means that he arrived at the right hand of the
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Father when the Spirit of God came on the day of Pentecost. And when fires, the tongues of fire was above their head, and they were set on fire, beloved, when they went forth and witnessed.
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And this brings me to this. I don't think I can finish all this, but I'm going to try to get to an application very quickly.
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He says to her, but go to my brethren and say to them, I send to my Father, your
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Father, my God, to your God. Right here is the first time, I want you to think of this, the first time that believers have been called brothers in the gospel.
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This is new, beloved, a new and living way, Jesus says. And it says, the writer of Hebrews speaks that Jesus made a new and living way for us.
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He is that new and living way. We are called as the disciples, in a sense, friends, slaves, but never brothers.
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How did we become brothers of Jesus Christ? You ever think of that? The cross of the
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Lord Jesus Christ is what makes us brothers. That has reconciled us to God. The cross made it possible for us to become children of God.
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Brothers and sisters in Christ, Hebrews 2 .9 says, Jesus suffered death so that he could bring his own to glory, because he's not ashamed to call them brothers.
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Heirs of God, join heirs with Christ. Isn't that wonderful? Verse 18,
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Mary Magdalene came announcing to the disciples, I've seen the Lord. Here's the application.
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This should be applicable to us. We should be set on fire to witness and tell the world about the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Because I tell you, beloved, it reminds me of the woman at the well in chapter 4.
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Remember? From that city, many, after she met Christ and who
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Christ was in the city, from that city, many of the Samaritans believed in him.
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And because of the word of the woman who testified, he told me all things that I have done.
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So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking him to stay with them. And he stayed there two days.
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And verse 41 says, many more believed because of his word. But she was the first to go like a forerunner and tell that whole city of who
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Christ is. And they were saying to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, but for we have heard for ourselves and know that this one is indeed the
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Savior of the world, and that's the way it should be with us. That they don't see us. We tell them and tell them the good news, but it's not because of us, it's because of Jesus.
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That's the goal. And here's Mary Magdalene. She's evangelistic.
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She goes to the apostles and tells them, I've seen the Lord. Mary Magdalene comes announcing to the disciples,
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I've seen the Lord. And one commentator says, it's almost like she's an apostle to these apostles.
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I've seen the Lord. She obeyed the command. She obeyed immediately.
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She gives witness to that I have seen Jesus Christ. And they didn't believe her at first.
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Can we dare doubt that this great privilege was given to her as a reward for her deep devotion to Jesus Christ?
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I think so. I think so. Well, there's much can be said.
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Now, in Luke 24, 10 and 11.
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Now, they were with Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and also the other women with them and telling these things to the apostles.
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And how did they respond? But these words appeared to them as nonsense. The apostles thought it was nonsense that they would not believe them.
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That's what the scripture says. Even the apostles at that particular time did not believe in His resurrection.
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They did not even believe when somebody knew, said, I have seen the Lord. They didn't believe her. So I ask the question, just because someone doesn't believe us about the gospel of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, should we give up? God forbid. God forbid.
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We should still continue to obey our Lord and preach the good news and tell people of the good news.
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As Brother Self said, last Lord's Day, well, but previously, that this is too good not to share.
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It's too good. And we should never come into despair because, look, the apostle
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Paul himself preached on Mars Hill and many doubted him. Even about the resurrection, they said, even some mocked.
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You're going to have rejecters. But there's that one soul out there that will believe.
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Don't give up on that. The end of the story was not that they didn't believe.
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Jesus comes. He appears to them. And He knows exactly what to do.
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Well, there's so much here. But I want to quote one verse of Scripture here and take you a little bit to Luke in closing.
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To Luke 24. Verse 16 is a key verse.
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In the beginning, Jesus appears to two strangers on the road of Emmaus, beginning with Moses and with all the prophets and explained,
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He exposited to them the things concerning Himself. And all the Scriptures, can you imagine the
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Son of Man, the Son of the living God, going all the way in the
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Old Testament, going through the prophets, Moses, beginning with prophets, Moses and the prophets, and He explained, exposited all the
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Scriptures concerning Himself. And what was their response?
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Did not our hearts burn? They burned. You're talking about heartburn, beloved.
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They had heartburn. God is the one who prevents people from seeing and recognizing who
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Christ is and He can open, He can keep their understanding closed.