Well, let me ask you to open your Bibles to the gospel of John chapter 20. We're gonna read the first 18 verses. John 20, verses one through 18, although a good bit of our attention will be given to verses 11 through 18. But we're gonna begin reading in verse one for context. This is the true word of the living God. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early. while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, they've taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they've laid him. Peter therefore went out and the other disciple and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloth lying there, yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb, and he saw the linen cloth lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around his head, not lying with the linen cloth, but folded together in a place by itself. And the other disciple who came to the tomb first went in also, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. And the disciples went away again to their own homes. But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. Then they said to her, woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, because they've taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they've laid him. Now, when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? She, supposing him to be a gardener, said to him, sir, If you've 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, Rabboni, which is to say teacher. Jesus said to her, do not cling to me for I've not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father and to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things to her. There ends the reading of God's holy and inspired word. May he bless it to our hearts this morning. Dearest congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, celebrating the resurrection is not an annual event, but a weekly one. The Lord Jesus finished his work on the cross that Friday evening where he paid the full wages of our sin. He died. And with him, our sin dead died. His body rested in the grave on the Sabbath day of the old covenant. And then on the eighth day, he arose, was the dawn of the new creation. His resurrected body was the first fruits of the new creation. And so every Lord's Day, every first day of the week, we rejoice in his resurrection and celebrate it as a Christian Sabbath. But much of the church throughout our history has given special emphasis to our Lord's final eight days of ministry, calling it a holy week. And the capstone of that week is our Lord's resurrection. And both inside and outside the church, it's an occasion for wonderful celebrations. We do all sorts of special things on Easter, don't we? Buy foods we wouldn't ordinarily buy. Never in August do we buy chocolate bunnies, for example. I would imagine that just about everyone here who has children has at some time bought them a special outfit just for Easter. A new bow for their hair, a new dress, a new shirt, a new tie. And of course, you're going to need a thousand pictures of these little ones on this special day. After church, lots of people will get together with family and loved ones to enjoy each other's company. And these kinds of gatherings often include the partaking of a feast. All in all, it's a day of much celebration, both inside the church and outside the church with our families and friends. And let me say, these are all great things for which we can praise God. We get to participate in. But we have to understand that the sense of rejoicing and celebration and expectation that we have for Resurrection Sunday was not at all what Jesus' followers experienced between the afternoon of his death and the day he arose. After that Friday, when they saw their Lord hanging on the cross where he died, the disciples didn't begin to joyfully anticipate what would happen on the following Sunday. They didn't go out and buy a new outfit for Sunday. They didn't buy a spiraled ham, which is really good because they're Jews. That would have been awful. Quite the opposite. They were consumed with despair. To be sure, Jesus had clearly taught them about his resurrection, but they didn't understand it. And because they didn't understand the reality of the resurrection, their hearts were filled with pain and anguish. When Jesus had died, it seemed as though all their hope had died with him. And none of his disciples seemed to experience this sorrow more deeply than Mary Magdalene. She was overcome with grief. and heavy heartedness. Now before we look more closely at Mary Magdalene, I want to take a couple minutes and just sort of reconstruct some of the events of that first resurrection Sunday. Help us get a sense of what's going on in the backdrop and perhaps a better understanding of Mary's overwhelming pain. Jesus was crucified and died on Friday. A prominent Jew known as Joseph of Arimathea got permission from Pilate to take Jesus' body and to give him a proper burial. So Joseph retrieved Jesus' body, took it to the tomb to prepare the body for burial. And we know that the Jews had a very elaborate burial process. They wrapped the body up in linen and used various spices and aloes and myrrh. But Joseph wasn't able to finish the process. He ran out of time because the Sabbath was drawing near. But we know something. When we look at all the gospel accounts, we know that Joseph was not alone when he carried the body of Jesus to the tomb. Following him at some distance were a group of women who had been at Golgotha, who had watched the Lord Jesus die on that cursed cross. And these women apparently decided that if Joseph couldn't finish the burial process, they'd gather together all the stuff they needed, and then they would return to finish the burial rites after they observed the Sabbath. Well, the Sabbath was over and it was early Sunday morning before dawn and these women headed off to the tomb to finish the burial process. And we know there were at least four women, probably more, and Mary Magdalene was among them. And they made their way to the tomb. And they were perplexed because they didn't know what they would do about that massive stone. that was placed at the tomb's entrance. And they wondered how in the world they would be able to move it. But when they reached the tomb, they were astonished to find the stone had been rolled away. And we have to imagine at first these women were again perplexed. What's going on here? Who'd done this? Had the body of Jesus been stolen? What's fascinating, utterly fascinating, is not one disciple, male or female, saw the empty tomb and immediately said, resurrection. That ought to cause us to praise God. The reason we can do it is because we live on the other side of it. We now have that as a category to think in. We live on the other side of the Holy Spirit. He illumines these things to us. They heard Jesus talk about it, and yet that didn't even enter their mind. Has his body been stolen? So the women send Mary Magdalene to go and find some of the disciples to tell them something had happened. Something quite unexplainable was going on. Of course, none of them could imagine that Jesus had simply been raised from the dead. Well, while Mary Magdalene runs off to find the disciples, the other women grow bolder, they look in the tomb and they see the angels, and one of the angels said, don't be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He's not here, for he's risen, as he said. Now, while this is happening, Mary Magdalene, arrives back at Jerusalem, where she finds Peter and John, and in John 20, verses 1 and 2, it tells us that Mary said to them, they've taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they've laid Him. And when Peter and John hear this, they immediately start running for the tomb. And since John was younger, he outran Peter. When John got there, he stooped to look through the narrow entrance of the tomb, But he was tentative, he didn't initially want to go in. And Peter showed up, probably out of breath and never tentative. He pushed John aside and plunged into the tomb and John followed behind him. Once in the tomb, the disciples saw that Jesus' clothes were still there with the head cloth folded neatly and lying in a place by itself. That in and of itself is probably a little mini sermon. that would have had special import to Jews. When you gathered for a meal, you know how you knew the meal was over and that it was done and you guys wouldn't be together again until the next time there was a meal? The master at the table would fold up the napkins. So it was a way of saying, guys, I'll be coming back. Anyway, when John saw this, he understood that the only way to explain the way they found these grave clothes was that Jesus' resurrected body had passed through them. John believed, and Peter and John returned to their homes. Now, where was Mary Magdalene at this time? Well, she was making her way back to the tomb. With each step, the sheer weight of her hopelessness increased. Her steps must have been heavy and slow, each one magnifying her emotional distress. You see, there was no one that Mary loved more than Jesus. And in the past couple of days, he's been arrested, brutalized by the Jews and the Romans, hung on a cross. where she looked upon him in his agony and watched as he died. It had been her intention to go to the tomb to perform some last rites on the body, what would be a final act of devotion and love, perhaps hoping it would maybe give her some sense of closure. But now she's even denied that, there's no body. The other women had sent her back to find John and Peter, which she'd done. And now when she gets back to the tomb, she is all alone. The other women are gone. John and Peter are gone. And the burden seemed almost unbearable to her. Jesus' body is gone. And verse 11 tells us she stood outside by the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb. She must have felt so very alone. Her grief is so overwhelming. The word that used here for weeping means she's wailing, she's sobbing. It's even a kind of ritual sorrow. Her heart was broken. And that was reflected by the intense depth of her mourning. And when we think about Mary at this point, we have to walk a bit of a tightrope, don't we? On the one hand, we don't wanna just let her off the hook. Like all Jesus' followers, she should have understood what it meant that Jesus' body wasn't there, that he had risen. She had heard that over and over in the final months of the Lord Jesus' ministry. He had told them what would happen when he got to Jerusalem, who was going to do it, that he was going to be crucified, and on the third day he would rise. And she should have known that. And the Lord's going to drive that home to her, as we'll see in just a moment. But at the same time, we don't wanna miss the extent of her love for Jesus. That's what makes this biblical scene one that is so very poignant and precious to recount. Old J.C. Rowl said, anyone that can read the simple story without a deep hearted interest must have a very cold and unfeeling heart. And I think he's right. Because this passage shows us Mary's heart. And what we see is that she had a profound love for her master. And perhaps that's why Jesus was pleased to first appear to her after his resurrection. What a remarkable thing. Now, we don't know a lot about Mary Magdalene. And we need to be careful that we confine our knowledge of her to the things that are actually taught in the Bible. A large segment of church tradition has said that Mary was a prostitute, but there's no real biblical evidence to support that idea. What we do know from Luke 8 is that Jesus cast seven demons out of Mary. Some have suggested since seven is the biblical number for completion and perfection, it may be that she was under total domination of demonic power. Again, we can't say for sure, but here's what we can see. We do know something of what it was like to be a demoniac in that area, the kind of reign and influence that demons had. And so we read in a variety of passage of scripture about demoniacs who roamed around half naked, shrieking and screaming, demoniacs that would cut themselves and inflict pain on their own body because the devil so hates human beings and his demons so hate human beings. Demoniacs often had incredible strength and they'd be chained up like wild animals. And the people were desperately afraid of them. They were complete outcasts. We don't know what gruesome and fearful combination of torments this woman experienced from these demons, but Jesus saved Mary Magdalene from their oppression. And she so loved him for it. And now that love is seen in the tears that are pouring out of her eyes. So through tear soaked eyes, she looks into the tomb and we get a record of the exchange that took place in verses 12 and 13. She saw two angels in white, sitting one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. Then she said to her woman, why are you weeping? She said, because they've taken away my Lord and I do not know where they've laid him. I wonder if this is supposed to be just a glimpse of the fulfillment of the Ark of the Covenant as she looks in and sees two mighty glorious angels sitting over this space. No descriptions given of the angels, except that they appeared white. One of the angels was positioned where Mary would have expected to see Jesus' head and the other at his feet. One of the things that ought to be remarkable to us is she seems unfazed by the presence of these angels. Think about every time you have a human being encounter an angel in the Bible when they know it's an angel, what happens to them? They either fall on their face or the angel has to immediately say, don't fear, I'm not here to kill you. Her love is so consumed, so directed toward the Lord Jesus, she's unfazed by the presence of angels. Her heart is so grief stricken, it doesn't even seem to register. There's so much love for Jesus, there's just no place for any kind of fear. So when the angels ask her why she's weaking, she sobbed, because they've taken away my Lord and I do not know where they've laid him. But almost as soon as she spoke these words, Mary turned and she saw Jesus. But verse 14 tells us she didn't know it was Jesus. Of course she didn't. She thought he was dead and someone had stolen his body. She didn't have the categories to understand the resurrection. She should have, yes, but she didn't. And so she made the assumption that that must be the gardener I'm talking to. And in verse 15, Jesus poses two important questions to Mary. The first, the repeat of the question the angel asked. Woman, why are you weeping? And then Jesus asked her a second question. Whom are you seeking? And Mary answers Jesus, thinking he was a gardener. Sir, if you'd carried him away, tell me where you've laid him and I will take him. Now there's something we have to remember at this point. The Lord sent an angel who asked Mary a question. Then the Lord himself asked Mary two questions. And we have to remember the Lord never asked questions because he needs us to give him information. Right? The Lord asks questions to teach us. The Lord asks questions to expose our hearts and our motivations for what they truly are. that's what's happening here. Mary loved Jesus in a way that's a wonderful example for us, but the source of her overwhelming pain is tied to the fact that Mary didn't believe and understand the reality of the bodily resurrection, and these questions are given to begin to move Mary's heart in that direction. To be sure, Mary had experienced an emotional trauma and she had every right to grief, but her grief was rooted in the fact that the tomb was empty and that should have caused her to weep for joy. So these questions, why are you weeping? In whom are you seeking? These are to get to the heart of Mary's suffering. Do you understand something this also tells us about Jesus? Do you see how tender he is here? Do you see how patient he is at this point with her? Can I just tell you something about my sinful heart? How many times did you hear me? I've told you this 400 times. I don't want to have to tell you this again. I am so glad that Jesus doesn't deal with me or you the way we tend to deal with others. He is so tender. Never compromises truth, but he's so tender. And these questions are to move Mary's thinking tenderly and gently in the right direction to help her and us process our sorrows in light of the resurrection, to see our heartache in light of the resurrection. So Jesus puts these questions out there to say to Mary, I know where you are now, but in light of the empty tomb, what should be your response? Now Mary's experience here reveals several different reasons why God's people experience sorrow. And the way we find hope and joy through those pains and sorrows is by dealing with them in the reality of resurrection hope. I want to consider a few of them. First, one of the main causes for Mary's sorrow was a deep disappointment. Of course, there was a sense in which this was legitimate. It's perfectly proper to grieve. That's why God gave us tear ducts and emotions. Grieving's not wrong, and it certainly wasn't wrong that she grieved the loss of Jesus. But Mary's disappointment, in part, stemmed from the fact that she wanted to finish the job of embalming the body. She's on mission, she's on task. That's why she desperately seeks his body. She's thinking, if only God would let me know where they laid him, I could finish my job, I could go ahead and embalm that body. And that very mindset is cutting her off from the hope and the joy and the glory of the resurrections. She's so focused on getting her task done, she can't see what God is doing even though God has told her what he's doing. And I think we often respond to situations like that. We have a preconceived notion of what we think ought to be done and then necessarily think that that's what God ought to be doing. Or said a bit differently, we think we can see things clearly and begin to wonder why God doesn't see these things like we do. And it's a kind of unbelief that can easily enough flow from great disappointment and pain. And sometimes we think we're going to be able to find relief to that disappointment and pain if we just stay on task. But that can blind us to the goodness and glory of the Lord's work in our lives. Maybe what we need to do is not stay on task, but to stop and look and listen to what Jesus has to say to us. I mean, Mary's desire was out of love for Christ, but she was so consumed with trying to find his corpse to finish the burial rites, she missed the most glorious reality of all. The one she loved is alive. He's a living savior. He arose. He conquered death. A second cause for sorrow we see in these verses can be the evil deeds of evil men. And that can be a tremendous cause for sorrow, because there's a lot of evil in the world, right? But again, we need to process even these things through the reality of the resurrection. Because that says something about our God and His power and His sovereignty, that even death couldn't hold Christ. Mary was convinced that evil men, the Jewish religious leaders and Romans, had somehow triumphed over God's sovereign purposes to usher in a messianic kingdom. They had not only killed Jesus, now they had somehow managed to steal his body and deprive her of closure. Twice in this passage she laments, they have taken away my Lord. They have done it. But it's an ironic complaint, isn't it? I mean, if Jesus is Lord, and she confesses, no one could take him anywhere without his consent. Mary should have remembered the messianic prophecy of Psalm 91, where God said he would give his angels charge to watch over the coming Messiah and to guard him in all his ways. Surely Mary should have understood something of God's sovereignty and of God's character. and to know if God ordained the crucifixion and God ordained the death of his only begotten son, that no one's gonna be able to steal Jesus' body against God's sovereign will. And beloved, we often find our sorrows magnified because we forget God is really Sovereign. And not even the most powerful and wicked men can do anything apart from his sovereign will. Had Mary understood the reality of the resurrection, she would have known that suffering always has a purpose. That suffering is never arbitrary. God is in control. The love of the Father for the Son would never have permitted Jesus to suffer for anything without a glorious purpose. And yet, we should acknowledge this. If Jesus had not written from the grave, if he had remained dead as Mary supposed, his suffering on the cross would have been meaningless. When God called his son to suffer in ways we can't imagine, it was for a purpose, but it was a purpose that only makes sense in the context of the resurrection. And behind this is a reality, a principle that's applicable to all of us in all ages. When God calls people to suffer, his people, it always has a purpose. He never calls his children. to arbitrary or meaningless suffering. And you see, no matter what evil men do or what we might imagine they'll do, God's still in control. I think this is such a comforting word for us who are drowning in overexposure to media. I sometimes wonder how historians will look back on our generation, say 100 years from now, I bet they'll say, wow, they made a lot of incredible discoveries, scientific, technological. Oh, they were moving at breakneck speed. But boy, as they developed all those communication devices and all that media, they didn't understand the great danger it could present by overexposure to everything at every moment of the day. And so we live in this context now of constant fear being propagated to us, right? The North Korean dictator is going to get nuclear weapons, and if he does, it's all over. And then there's that crazy guy in Iran. And if he does this other thing, oh, it's all over. And then look who we've got in Washington. And then, oh, it's so bad. Listen, those are real issues. I don't take any of them for granted. And there are occasions for real concerns. God knows what's happening. The one who has the power to bring Christ up out of the grave is not going to let any crazy man do anything outside of his will. Because of the reality of the resurrection, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God or are called according to his purpose. A third cause for suffering, and it's perhaps most obvious in our passage is the suffering associated with the death of somebody we dearly love, except for maybe a handful of those among us. Every one of us knows what it's like to mourn the loss of somebody that's precious to us, and it's never wrong to weep over those. But we have to remember, as we're told in 1 Thessalonians 4.13, we don't grieve like those who have no hope in the world. The hope that Jesus is risen and he's coming again to take us to be with him as well as our loved ones who fell asleep in him. It sustains us through our tears so we can take heart with Psalm 116.15 that teaches us precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Whatever our losses, no matter how painful they may be, we process our sorrow and the reality of the resurrection. Because Jesus has risen, his promises are true. And those promises give us hope, sure hope. Well, Jesus asked Mary those questions. Why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? To move her heart in the direction of understanding the resurrection. But it wasn't until she heard his voice, it clicked. We read that in this glorious exchange in verse 16, Jesus said to her, Mary, and she turned and said to him, Rabboni, wishes to say teacher. It's interesting as you read how scholars make sense of this. Some say that Mary might not have recognized him, because of her tears or any other host of issues. But I simply don't think she had eyes to see him at this point until she, excuse me, until he spoke her name personally. And he does, doesn't he? He doesn't call her woman anymore. By the way, that was a term of respect. Mary, that's a personal term. And the only way we ever see Jesus is if he calls us by name. See, I think what we see here with Mary is to bring to mind Jesus' earlier teaching in John 10, 27, where Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. By the power of sovereign grace, Mary heard her shepherd's voice And in that moment, her sorrow faded, her grief subsided. She came to understand the reality of the resurrection and her frustration was transformed into hope and her weeping into joy. And this is the power of the reality of the resurrection. And Mary now having her eyes and her heart open to it, responded with even greater love. She clung to Jesus. She didn't want to let him go. Jesus said lovingly to her in verse 17, don't cling to me, for I've not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I'm ascending to my father and your father and to my God and your God. Again, this is an interesting passage, not the easiest passage to interpret. When all else fails, I take it at the simplest possible understanding that we can make. And this is what seems simple to me. Jesus is saying, look, I know I was gone. I know I was gone in a tomb. I know you didn't get to see me in a broken heart, but I'm not going anywhere right now. He's not ascending right then and there. He's going to be with them for 40 days. I think it's as simple as that. And he's saying, so you don't have to panic. but he's doing something much more important than that. He's helping Mary understand the new dynamic of the relationship she and the disciples have with God, that he's their heavenly father, and they're adopted and brought into that family. Let me quote Rick Phillips here. Through union with Christ in faith, the relationship that Jesus has eternally with the Father is conveyed to us by adoption. Not only now is Jesus his God, but he's your God. God relates to us in the same relationship as he does to Jesus. He ascends to my Father and your Father. By different means, Christ by eternal origin and we by adoption, Christ's people now stand before God in the same familial position occupied by Jesus. Jesus is now our elder brother, bringing us into his relationship of love with the Father. Mary doesn't get this. But I hope we do, because it's precious. Let me conclude with just a couple final thoughts. First, seek the risen Savior, and seek Him honestly. Don't try to cover your tears or get yourself together first. Mary didn't. Jesus knows your struggles. Come to Him just as you are, tears and all, and He will deal with you tenderly. And I know, since most of us are Calvinists, we believe that, where salvation is concerned, or at least initial salvation. But I'm not sure we believe it in day-to-day living. How many times are you in the midst of some kind of great pain, and you're like, oh, I just gotta get my head right so I can pray. No, no, no, no, no, no, pray so you can get your head right. But we do that, don't we? I'm such a mess, I gotta pull myself up a little bit before I call on God. No! Call on God and tell Him to pull you up. Come to the risen Savior honestly. Second, seek Him diligent, diligently. Mary was the first at the tomb. She stayed there after everyone else had got home. And the reward, the Savior rewarded her desire to find Him. She's the first one. who saw Him in His resurrected body. Much could be said there, but it's really a stunning thing. She wasn't a woman of prominence. She probably wasn't a prostitute, but she was a woman of low esteem. And we see something of God's grace at His first resurrected appearances to her. And she so loves Him. She seeks Him diligently. Third, seek him personally. Note verse 13, my Lord, my Lord. The closeness of Mary's fellowship with Jesus comes to her in the way she recognized him the instant he spoke her name. The only way you'll ever find hope in your sorrow is to seek Jesus personally. There is no group plan. You have to cry out to Him. Well, dear friends, I'll just close with this question. Whom are you seeking this morning? If through your tears you'll seek the risen Savior, He'll turn your sorrow to hope. If you seek Him honestly, diligently, and personally, he'll put you on a path from sorrow to joy. Cast yourself wholly on Jesus. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Because of his resurrection, we can embrace the promise that Jesus made back in John 16. I will see you again. and your heart will rejoice and your joy no one will take from you. That's the certainty of resurrection joy. May it delight our hearts this day. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that the marvel of that tomb is that it was empty. And that was your plan. And we pray, O God, that the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus fills our hearts with joy and delight this day. We ask all this in his precious name. Amen. Well, as we prepare to come to the Lord's table, the invitation to come is for all those who are trusting in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation, who are members in good standing of a Bible-believing church, that you come feast. If not, just let the elements pass right by. As we prepare to come to the table, we confess what we believe using the Apostles' Creed. Again, that's printed in your bulletin. So Christian, what do you believe? I believe in the Father Almighty. maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sitted at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. For our words of preparation, I'm gonna read from Romans 6, verses 1 through 4, and then verses 8 through 11. These are printed in your bulletin if you'd like to follow along. The Apostle Paul writes, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death. That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, Even so, we should also walk in the newness of life. Verse eight. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin. but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We gathered on Friday evening for a Good Friday service with Covenant. And we sang a hymn, I think it's an old Negro spiritual. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? And you know, there are basically four stanzas. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? Were you there when he rose up from the grave? It's a wonderful hymn. What Paul's asserting in Romans 6 here is that if you are identified with Christ, it's as though you were there. That's really what we're getting at when we talk about union with Christ. We have real participation in those events, if we are identified with Christ. Now, this passage, just to put this in perspective, D. Martin Lloyd-Jones had been telling his congregation for a couple of years he was going to preach on the Book of Romans. There was one dear saint who kept coming to him and saying, when are you going to start? When are you going to start? And he finally said, damn, I'll start when I understand Romans 6. You know what Lloyd-Jones was saying? This is sort of the heart of Romans. but he understood how complex it is here. So there's complexities I can't touch on, but let me just mention a couple things quickly. One, the language of baptism. Without getting into all the difficult discussions of mode, should you dip or dunk or who should get it, what is baptism? What is baptism? We have theological language for this, but what is baptism at its core? It is a naming ceremony, right? It tells you who your identity is. When you are baptized, you are baptized what? In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. That's your identity. That's your name. And if you're in Christ, then that's your identity. You died with Christ on the cross. And here's what we mean when we use that language. We're saying when Christ hung on that cross and he died, all of the old man, all of your sin, all of your transgression was truly there. Were you there? If you're saved, your sin was surely there. He paid for it. And then he went into the cross. He died for you. And then he rose. Were you there? Yes. If you're trusting in him, you were. You so share in those events, it's as if you were there. So when we come to this communion table this morning, on one level, It's a meal of identity. It says we belong to the triune God through Christ who gave his body and his blood so we could be adopted into his family. We have real participation in his death. and we have real participation in his life as new creations in Christ Jesus. Let's pray for the Lord to bless this ceremony.