Please turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 8. For those who are visitors, my favorite way of preaching is just going verse by verse through a book of the Bible. I've done a few topical, but my whole life I've wanted to do biographical, and we're in the 20th biographical series on women of faith, and we're up to Mary Magdalene. Luke 8, beginning at verse 1. Now it came to pass afterward that he went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, and the twelve were with him, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities. Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, and Joanna, the wife of Chusa, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for him from their substance. Father, we thank you for this, your word, and many examples you have strewn through the scriptures that we can indeed live by grace. And I pray that not just the women, but the children and the men, all of us would be encouraged to be more faithful and more consistent in our Christianity as a result of looking at what you have done in Mary Magdalene. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, with a number of the women of faith, we've had to clear away some false ideas so that if you've had them in your head, you're not going to get confused. And there have been quite a number of false ideas that have circulated about Mary Magdalene. identified her with Mary of Bethany. Now, if that was true, it would be kind of a cool identification, but it is absolutely not true. A close reading of the text shows that it is absolutely impossible to identify the two. One traveled all over the place with Jesus, and the other stayed at home. One is from way up north in the town of Magdala. The other is from way down south in the town of Bethany. And Daryl Bach gives seven detailed contrasts between the women on chronology, location, themes, and other circumstances. So if you've got books in your house that identify the two, you just need to make a note of that. There's a lot of attempted what is it, correlations of the Gospels that have inaccuracies in it. So that's the first thing. It is crystal clear Mary of Bethany is not Mary of Magdala. Others have mistakenly identified her with a synonymous, I mean the, you know, the sinner is just all she's labeled at in Luke chapter 7, the previous chapter, and Even though it doesn't say that that woman is a prostitute, they have assumed she's a prostitute, and therefore they have identified Mary Magdalene as being a prostitute. It's a very common viewpoint. Even in church history, some have identified her that way. And so many of the ministry's two prostitutes have named themselves after Mary Magdalene. And there If she was a prostitute, we'll just say there was nothing to suggest it in the text, and there was a great deal of biblical evidence that goes against it. And again, Daryl Bach is pretty helpful in the contrast. But just on the surface of it, I think it should seem very, very strange that he would spend so many verses giving a long description of this anonymous woman in Luke chapter 7, and then two verses later he would talk about Mary Magdalene in a different context, if it is the same woman, names her in a different context being saved from a different bondage to seven demons. Anyway, I've got about a dozen scholarly books that point out that this is really a slanderous identification with zero exegetical support. Others have mistakenly thought that she was the wife of Clopas, but we've seen in a previous sermon that in John 19, verse 25, it's actually talking about three women. If you look at the Greek grammar, you can't get away from it. It's not identifying them all as the same. They're three separate women. So she did work with Mary Clopas, but they are two separate women. Even blasphemous legends about Mary have been created, especially by Gnostics in later centuries, and recently there is a horribly blasphemous treatment called the Da Vinci Code that has amalgamated some of those Gnostic traditions and said that Mary Magdalene married Jesus secretly, and they produced a daughter through her. And there's been a lot that's been written that very clearly, accurately debunks that scurrilous charge. I won't get into those arguments. Plenty of neat stuff that we can get into without going down all of those rabbit trails. But we're going to start with Luke 8, the passage I read, and just look at a few facts about her life. First of all, by calling her Mary Magdalene, It is distinguishing her from other Marys by saying, okay, this is the Mary that comes from the town of Magdala. Magdalene is a distinguisher, it's an identifier, saying this is the one and only Mary in the Gospels, because there are so many Marys out there. This is the one and only Mary that came from the town of Magdala. Well, Magdala was a small seaside town way up north near the cities of Capernaum and Tiberias. And it's beautiful. I've given a little Google Earth photo for you there of where it is presently. But recent archaeological digs have shown that this must have been an incredibly wealthy town. We know from history that it was primarily, the residents there were primarily Roman and Jewish merchants. And just a few of the evidences, the synagogue that they have uncovered shows some of the features that rival those of the wealthiest synagogues in the empire. You know, the beautiful carvings and frescoes and mosaics. I put a picture of what they think is the base on top of which they would have a wooden platform, but the base for a preaching, what they call a Torah reading table, and it may actually have been the table that Jesus preached from when he was in Magdala. Capernaum, which is very nearby, was the center of his preaching and his activities. The houses uncovered by archaeologists appear to have been owned by rather wealthy people. One site said, with the archaeological evidence found so far at Magdala, it is clear the town was a wealthy Jewish town in the lower Galilee. No other town has this kind of mikveot, a synagogue with mosaic floors, or a complex hydraulic system with underground water flowing through the channels. Its biggest industry was fish, which Josephus said was of such high quality and so desirable that they were able to penetrate a good chunk of the fish market in the city of Rome. Now, that's pretty impressive for a small town in Galilee to be able to get a huge chunk of the fish market in the city of Rome. Now, maybe because Rome has such polluted sewage waters that they said, hey, let's get some from another country. And this is a very clean lake here. But who knows why they were able to do that. One site said, Magdala was clearly an influential and prosperous city in its time, as evidenced by the elaborately decorated buildings which have been found there. Several buildings identified as mansions, most likely the homes of Magdala's wealthy merchants, are located along a street south of the synagogue. These mansions were paved with colorful and intricate mosaic floors, which can still be seen today. Another impressive feature of the city are the four mikveot, or ritual baths, which are the earliest ever discovered in the country to use groundwater. The sophisticated plumbing of these mikveot is proof that Magdala was at the forefront of regional commerce and culture in the first century. So it sounds like Mary grew up as a pretty privileged young gal. She had the comforts of life. She had been protected from the pain and the poverty and the ugly side of the senior side of life. but she was not protected from demons. We're gonna be seeing a little bit later on, and no matter what your social status, if you're a non-believer, demons can take you anytime that they want to, and of course, demons, we'll see, can influence believers as well. The second thing that commentators have concluded from this passage is that Mary was a single woman at this point in her life. Otherwise, it is inconceivable that she would have been able to travel with Jesus and spend as much time with Jesus and the disciples as all four Gospels indicate that she had indeed done. She did not appear to be tied down with any family responsibilities. Now, this is not an absolutely certain conclusion, but it's very, very probable. One objection that could be given to this conclusion is that Joanna was also traveling with Jesus, and she was married, but that is not a serious objection for two reasons. First of all, Chusa, her husband, was Herod's steward, and as a steward would be gone from town quite a bit of the time, sometimes even having to travel to to Rome. And then secondly, this is the only trip that Joanna has mentioned as being a part of. And so the likelihood appears to be that she's friends with these women. They invite her on this trip. She finds this is convenient because he's gone to Rome. Out of town, she's got all kinds of servants to take care of things on the home front, and so it was not a huge sacrifice for her. In contrast, the Gospels portray Mary as constantly traveling with Jesus throughout Galilee and Judea. And so it appears she was single. Why? We don't know. You know, was she unable to get married because she was demonized? Did her husband divorce her because she was demonized? Did her husband die? We simply do not know. It just appears that she was single. And it appears that there were many, the word many is used in the Gospels, there were many other women who accompanied Jesus on these tours. And we'll have more to say about that a little bit later. But at least right now, we should be able to say that if circumstances are set up properly, which Jesus, of course, would do, that it can be okay for single women to work as missionaries or in other capacities without being married. Many times single women are criticized for doing so, and I've actually in the past thought this is probably not the most appropriate thing to do. There are dangers involved, but here they are doing so under Christ's auspices. So we need to be very, very careful about criticizing. But we're jumping ahead of our story a bit. The main point here is she's single when Jesus first met her. Third, given her hometown, it should not be any surprise to us that the third guess that we can make about her is that she was a woman of social status and a great deal of wealth. Now, we can't conclude that just from the hometown that she was in, though that factors in. But there are three clues that are given in Luke 8 verses 2 through 3 that have made people come to this conclusion. The first clue is the word substance in verse 3. That refers to their wealth, okay? Each of these women had money to draw on to help Christ and the apostles out, And they would have had to have been wealthy to be able to do that. Either they had huge reserves that they were drawing on constantly during the three and a half years of ministry, or else they had a constant stream of passive income coming in. The second clue is that these women all followed Jesus, which implies that they do not have duties at home. Now, they could have all been single. Joanna wasn't. Or it could be a situation where they're able to get away, at least for a time, because their slaves or their servants are able to take care of things on the home front. To have servants take care of things requires money. The third clue is that the only three women are named in this passage, and that, according to commentators, indicates their status, especially since one of the other women is known to be a woman of tremendous status. Joanna was the wife of King Herod's steward, Chusa. For Mary to be named together with Joanna and Susanna implies that all three women were women of social status and wealth. The wealth may have been used selfishly prior to coming to Christ. Once she came to Christ, she wanted to use her money as a steward to advance the kingdom of Christ. And it's a wonderful thing to have a steady stream of passive income. Such a situation has enabled many people to be able to devote themselves full-time to ministry. In fact, I know people I know pastors who don't have to take a salary because they've got a steady seam of passive income. Missionaries, the same. And I think it's a good thing for us to pray that God would raise up many millionaires and billionaires with a heart for the kingdom and who would not be ruined by that money, who can fund the kingdom, fund church plants, fund all kinds of things. When I have traced the history of the first thousand years of missions in the church, Many of these missions, movements, many scholars and others were supported by the equivalent of millionaires and billionaires who just had a passion to fund the kingdom. So that is a good thing. The fourth thing that we know about her is that she was delivered from the kingdom of darkness. Verse two says, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons. So all of these women had been delivered either from demons or had been healed of a disease or both. And once delivered, they just had a passion to serve the Savior who would deliver them. It was their joy and passion. Now, there are four things I want you to notice about the demons that had bothered her. First, Luke makes it clear that the phrase evil spirits is identical in meaning to the word demons. Believe it or not, there are commentaries out there that think that demons is just a metaphor for mental illness or for some kind of other illness. And they're very skeptical that there are literal invisible beings that can inhabit people. But here he's saying, Demons, evil spirits are the same. Then when you compare those phrases in other places, you see that those are exactly the same as fallen angels who followed Lucifer in his fall out of heaven. And, of course, these fallen angels, they hate God, and they hate his kingdom, and they're in a warfare trying to undo everything that they can about God's kingdom. And just as there are messenger angels, there are messenger fallen angels or demons. Those would be the seraphim. Just as there are mighty warrior cherubim angels, there are very vicious warlike fallen angels or demons. And I put some of the other names of demons into your outline. Well, anytime somebody is inhabited by a demon, he is going to begin to take on the characteristics of that demon. And actually the same is true of cultures. The more pervasively demonized a culture becomes, the more that culture is going to begin to take on demonic characteristics. They're going to begin hating anything in creation that reminds them of God. And so they either worship creation or they destroy creation in that culture. And you've seen both down through the last several hundred years. They also hate Christians and seek to nullify their work. They hate the image of God. And so they will try to undo rational or logical thinking. They will try to undo any other aspects of man's image. And so these are real spiritual beings organized into a kingdom under Satan, and they're at war with God. Notice also, this is the second sub-point, the phrase, out of whom? Out of whom? These demons were inside of Mary. Now, does that mean she was demon-possessed and thrashing around, foaming at the mouth, wild-eyed? Not necessarily. There are plenty of scriptures that indicate that demons can be inside of a person and they can seem sort of outwardly normal, even though their thinking and feelings and actions are not what they should be. Don't think that a person has to be out of control, thrashing, cutting himself, you know, like the Gadarene demoniac, in order to be demonized. Now, cutting is one of those indicators of demonism, but most demons, there are lower level demons, maybe they're not too intelligent, who knows, but where that aspect seems to grip the person that they are in, and they completely take away all intelligence. They control the person. But most demons are much more clever and sophisticated. And in my third classification here, I'll give some scriptures to illustrate that. Demons can make people have the illusion that they are in control and that they're thinking perfectly clearly when the whole time there's a veil over their minds and they are not thinking the way that they should. Now, these demons can tempt them to anger, lying, covetousness, lust, doubt, pride, any other sin. And we aren't told what kind of demons were inside of Mary Magdalene. It could have been. just like the demoniac where she's just foaming at the mouth, wild eyed and crazy. Or it could have been that she was just inhabited by demons who moved her to do things that were not right. All we know is that there were demons inside of her that needed to come out. And Luke 11 says demons love to inhabit bodies and they hate to go through dry places. Third, notice that verse two says that these certain women had been healed of evil spirits and demons. Now, we all know what it means to be healed from an infirmity, a disease, you know, but what in the world does it mean to be healed of a demon or of an evil spirit? The Greek word therapio means to heal or to restore something back to the way that it should be. Okay, so to be healed of an evil spirit implies that the evil spirit is making your mind or body or soul less than what it was designed to be. You're not right when you have demons. You might not be right in your mind or you might not be right in your emotions or in your social relationships, even in your body. In Luke chapter 13, it mentions a woman who was bent over like some kind of a physical malady. She was bent over because of the demon that had been in her for 18 years. And Luke identifies that demon as being a spirit of infirmity because the demon was creating the infirmity. So if you had an infirmity like that, you could go to a doctor, after doctor, after doctor, they're not gonna be able to heal you, guaranteed, because what you need is not medicine, you need this demon to be cast out, right? And so there are some sicknesses that you don't need medicine, you need the demons to be cast out. We need to be understanding there's many different facets of being demonized. But many demons make the mind, emotions, or social sensibilities not right, and those too need to be restored. Let me give you some examples from the scripture. Numbers 5.14 speaks of a spirit of jealousy that makes a person irrationally jealous. He has no reason to be jealous, but jealousy consumes him because of this evil spirit that is in him, the spirit of jealousy. Judges 9 verse 23 speaks of a spirit of ill will that does everything in its power to get people against each other, divided. There's ill will coming between them. If you ever run across people who used to be friends with you and they have distanced, they're mad at you and you can't understand why. Why is there constantly this division It may be a spirit of ill will. Isaiah 29 verse 10 speaks of a spirit of deep sleep that made the people utterly uninterested in the preaching of the prophets in the Old Testament or so drowsy they couldn't take that in. You might not have thought that demons could make people drowsy, but they can. I knew a woman, and we actually, she was delivered of this. Anytime you had her read a Bible or you got engaged in a spiritual conversation, she would become so overwhelmingly drowsy she could hardly lift her head up. Now, she was a believer, But she had a spirit of deep sleep that she needed to be delivered from. Hosea 4 verse 12 and chapter 5 verse 4 speaks of a demonic spirit of harlotry that constantly tempted people to cheat on their spouses. Luke 4 verse 33 speaks of an unclean demon that moves people to do unclean things that otherwise they would be repulsed by. Let's see here, Acts 16 verse 16 speaks of a girl, slave girl, that had a spirit of divination. 1 John 4, 6 speaks of a spirit of error that leads people into doctrinal error. In fact, 1 Timothy 4 lists some doctrines of demons. Demons can produce doctrine. They're interested in the Bible. They're interested in doctrine, but they want to make sure they twist it, and it's doctrines of demons. Other scriptures speak of spirits that lead to fear, bondage, stupor, addiction, many other sins. And even though God never lets us off the hook, our flesh can produce any of those sins without any help from demons. If we're not getting past these temptations and we're not getting a victory, we might consider the fact that we have not fought against every enemy that the Bible commands us to fight against, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Okay, we've got a fight against all three to gain full victory. By the way, a deliverance is not the end of the issue in a person because they still got many habits of emotions and thinking to undo. And so that's the beginning of now a fight that is victorious fight, right? That's what the deliverance is for, is to enable a person to continue this fight against the world of flesh and the devil. And if they're not fighting, it's very easy to get back into bondage. Now, the last thing I want you to notice about these demons is that there were seven of them inside of her. Demons seem to be able to overlap each other and overlap your soul. They're not limited by space the way our bodies are. So several can occupy the same space within a person. And notice it says that there were seven that needed to be cast out. Over the years, I have learned that demons can be very clever. When one is cast out, the other demons will lie low in the hopes that you will not notice them. Or they can change their names or temporarily leave so that they can come back later. So when we cast out one demon, we don't assume that everything is okay. We try to be systematic to determine that all possible demons that are present have been dealt with. It'd really be horrible for a person to be delivered of five demons only to discover there are two more that are still afflicting that person. Anyway, Mark 16 verse nine says that Christ cast out all seven, and this passage simply gives the result, they came out. And when they came out, she was so blessed by the change that she dedicated her life to serving Jesus. one sign that a person has truly been delivered from the demonic. is a renewed passion to serve the Lord and a renewed desire for holiness, a renewed eagerness for repentance. And when that is not present, then we are skeptical. We are skeptical that there truly has been deliverance. Now, in the case of the bent over woman, Jesus said she was a true believer, a daughter of Abraham. So even true believers can be demonized. But in this case, it appears to have been a conversion story. And from that point on, Mary Magdalene stuck with Jesus, just like the twelve apostles did. Now why on earth they put a verse break where they did, I have no idea. By the way, verse breaks are not inspired. In 1227, chapter breaks came into the Bible. Praise God, I love chapter breaks. And then in 1551 was the first time that a printed Greek Bible had a verse break. They're very helpful, generally speaking, for getting around in the Bible real quickly. But the sentence begins, in the end of verse one, and it says, and the twelve were with him and certain women. Both the twelve and the women were with him. So what does that mean? Let's look at that. First of all, it does not mean that they were being trained for the same thing that the apostles were. Okay, you can be with Jesus without being an apprentice for pastoral office. Contrary to feminist assertions, Jesus clearly distinguished between disciples, the word disciples, and the women in Matthew 28, verses 7, 8, and 9, and in John 20, verse 18. Whatever the word disciples means there, it is clearly distinguished from the women. Now, the way we use the word disciples today, we're all disciples, men, women, and children, right? But in those passages, it seems that mathetes is being used in the technical sense of being an apprentice. The disciples were apprentices for apostolic ministry. The women were not. Second, it didn't mean that they ministered in exactly the same way that Christ and the apostles did. The Gospels do not give any hint that they were involved These women here were involved in casting out demons, healing, teaching, and preaching. As we'll see, their role was a supportive role to the ministry of Christ and the apostles. And you'd have to look elsewhere to see, can women cast out demons? I think they can, but that's not what was going on here, okay? So we'll try to stick with what was happening with Mary Magdalene. But there's a second word for disciple that is used of the women. It is Akalutha'o, and it is translated as to follow. They were followers of Jesus. I mean, that's a kind of disciple, right? Matthew 27, verse 55 is one of several verses. It says, many women who followed Jesus from Galilee. Now, there are two ways that that word is used. two meanings inherent in that word. And the first one is they obviously had to travel with Jesus. You know, there were some women who traveled mainly in Galilee. And in case of Mary Magdalene, she not only traveled all through Galilee tours, she went on this huge tour all the way down to Judea. And so the word Akalutha'o means at least that they accompanied him for weeks on end. And there are some very significant applications we'll make from that later. But the dictionary shows that this word akalutha'o can also mean to be a learner, to comply with, to obey. It has a nuance of a lower level discipleship. While the apostles were learning the ropes of public ministry as apprentices, its translated disciples, The women were learning the ropes of general Christian ministry by following and imitating Christ where they could. And Mark 15 verse 41 uses two Greek words to indicate, okay, yes, there was physical presence. It's a Greek word, sunanabino, means they traveled with him. And then it also uses the word indicating that they were being discipled in Christianity, akaloutheo. And so they were with him as learners. But Luke 8.3 uses a third Greek word that is translated here as for provided for. The same word is translated as ministering and ministered in Matthew and in Mark. It's the word diakoneo, which literally means to set up tables, but it can be used for any kind of supportive service. They were a support team. And then Luke speaks of Mary and these other women helping Jesus out financially. So when you put all of those concepts together, you basically have a ministry team. She was a very faithful member of a ministry team that traveled all over Judea and Galilee and even into outside the country. There's no indication she engaged in apostolic ministry, but it's clear she was on a ministry team. What on earth does that mean? Recently I read a book that my daughter Elizabeth lent to me called I Still Believe. It's written by Jeremy Camp. And I cried on almost every page of that book as I saw, you know, how real he was about his weaknesses and his passion for the Lord and his mistakes and blunders and sins and how real God was working through his strengths and his weaknesses and through his sorrows. In any case, very moving story of his struggles and successes as he grew in using his musical skills to serve the Lord. I didn't really know much about his music before, but after reading the book, I was interested to start listening, and I've grown an appreciation for him. But what I was also thinking about the whole time that I read the book is that Jeremy would never have developed the Jeremy Camp Ministries without the ministry of his parents, his first wife, his friends, his team members, drivers, churches that encouraged him, his second wife, because his first wife had died, all the crew that goes into making a music ministry successful. Rarely do those support people ever get mentioned. And besides them, there are churches and individuals donating lots of money and effort and time and seeing him be a success. Most of those people, they're not on the band. They're not on the stage. They're not like Jesus and the apostles up there on the stage, right? No, they're behind the scenes And Jeremy Camp would never have been a success without that support team. And I'm sure it was gratifying to the countless people who have helped Jeremy Camp that it didn't go to his head, he remained humble, and having a servant's heart. Well, that's the way I see these women. They're the support team for Jeremy Camp, so to speak. These women labored tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure that Jesus and the disciples had what? They had supplies, equipment, food, water, mats, endless other things that would be needed to keep a complex ministry tour going. Everybody marvels, just as one little example. Everybody marvels at how Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fish, but did you ever wonder where they got those huge baskets to collect all the fragments at the end? Crowds don't carry around huge baskets like that just in case there might be multiplying loaves and fishes. No, they didn't think about that. Where did they get those baskets? Somebody had to be thinking about that, and I'm sure it was not the apostles, right? If you count how many people were fed, I can guarantee you that at that late hour, there wasn't enough time for the apostles to get around defeating everybody. There was a support team. It took additional people with administrative skills, financial acumen, foresight, and what contingencies would need to be planned for. There were no doubt donkeys and carts carrying all of the needed tents. Yes, they would need tents. And cooking utensils, equipment, and supplies for the ministry. Why? So that Jesus could focus on what he was best at, so he wouldn't have to worry about any of those things. And those baskets were no doubt a part of this equipment. Those ministry tours did not happen on their own. They were planned and labored over by the women, possibly some other men as well. Now, obviously there were times when the women were not there. There were short trips over the sea, short trip up on the mountain. But the word diakoneto literally means setting up tables and more broadly was used for any kind of support ministry that was needed. Let me just give a couple of other examples. When spices were needed for the preparation of Christ's body, it was Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joses who were able to locate those spices at a moment's notice. And it had to be at a moment's notice because it was nearing the Sabbath. and it was right at the end of the day, and boom, they were able to gather those spices to be able to bring them after the Sabbath on Sunday morning. When Mary asked the as yet unidentified man, whom she thought was the gardener, where the body of Christ was taken, she was the kind of can-do person who could get his body transported to the right place. She said, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. I will take him away." She's that kind of a person, right? I will take him away. And all ministries need this kind of behind-the-scenes support. You name just about any parachurch or large church ministry all over the world that has been successful, you will likely see women who were there, women who were ministering, and who were a part of a support team. for Jeremy Camp or Kevin Swanson or R.C. Sproul Sr. Women have been doing boatloads of work in this church behind the scenes. And even though they don't want to be in the limelight, and you know, it is pretty stressful to be at Jeremy Camp in the limelight. Most people don't like that. I'm, believe it or not, a shy person. I don't even like being up here. The Lord's forced me to be in the limelight to some degree. Most people don't like that, but I appreciate the men and the women who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure things run smoothly in the church. Do you know how much time it takes to set up equipment? and purchase equipment, and prepare music, and rework music so that various instruments can play them. They're not all in the same key. And various skill levels can play, and then the time to practice music, and prepare the bulletins. Most people don't even think about those things. They don't realize the amount of counseling that women in this church are doing for other women on their own dime. I think Mary Magdalene was part of that women, counseling women, who probably needed to be counseled and it would have been inappropriate for the apostles to do it on their own. And so she was a faithful person who did this as her language of love for the Lord. Now the last point on ministry that I want to mention is that though many people benefited from Mary, even the disciples, they benefited from Mary, and her ministry and her donations, Matthew 27 verse 55 makes it clear she was not ultimately doing this ministry for them or for applause or recognition for herself in any way. Let me read that for you. It says that she and the other women were, quote, ministering to him. to Jesus, right? She had a Christ focus that carried her through even when others did not give her thanks or appreciation. And you too can have a steadfast faithfulness, just like Mary did, if you will have your focus on Jesus, His applause, not other people's applause. Jeremy Camp started sliding from a Christ-centered focus at one point, and a pastor friend pulled him aside and asked, Jeremy, who's steering this ship? Is it the Lord or is it you? And Jeremy said, Jeremy said that that faithful rebuke hit him between the eyes and made him realize he had been gradually sliding into serving his job more than he was serving the Lord. Quoting from his book, my dad used to say, we can't get so busy doing the work of the Lord that we forget the Lord of the work that was me. Well, Luke is saying that was not Mary. She ministered to the Lord of the work and her love and passion for him never waned, even after his death. And you know, I can testify myself, it's so easy to transition from serving the Lord to serving your job. And one of the measures of that is do you love to worship him? Do you love to bow before his throne? Are you consumed with His glory, or does it bother you when you don't receive glory? And speaking of His death, I want you to turn with me to John chapter 19 and verse 25. I want to highlight the courage that this woman had at the cross of Jesus Christ. Now she obviously had courage before because she continued to follow him even when the crowds began getting hostile against Christ. That would have taken courage back then. She continued to follow him even when all of the crowds left Jesus in John chapter 6. But it was particularly dangerous to be identifying with Jesus when he was being crucified as a dangerous criminal. John 19. Starting to read at verse 25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother and his mother's sister Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing by he said to his mother woman Behold your son Then he said to the disciple behold your mother and from that hour that disciple took her to his own home so at that point Mary, the mother of Jesus, was out of the scene. She went home. Verse 25 makes it clear that Mary Magdalene stood right by the cross to give moral support to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and showing her devotion to Jesus himself, and Mary's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, they also gave moral support. Now, this was a dangerous thing to do because what they were doing was supporting a person that Rome was declaring to be a dangerous, treasonous person. They were disagreeing with Rome. They were identifying with Rome's enemy. And yet, They didn't care. They were right there by the cross. God's grace had wiped fear out of their hearts. Verses 26 through 27 indicate that she stuck by Jesus even when she was not provided for as Christ's mother was. Okay, so John is there to take care of Jesus's mother. He's there to provide for her, protect her, care for her. Who's going to protect and care for Mary Magdalene? Now, obviously, she didn't need the financial provision like Mary, the mother of Jesus, did. But I find it interesting that Mary Magdalene was not focused on herself or her needs. She was concerned for Jesus, and she hurt for Jesus. Now, another interesting characteristic that a few authors pick up on is the fact that Mary noticed where Jesus was buried so that she could come back after the Sabbath was over. Mark 15.47 shows Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Joses, that's also mother of James, James and Joses, They stood by the cross while Nicodemus took the body of Christ down. They then followed Nicodemus to the tomb. Mark 15.47 says, And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph observed where he was laid. If it had not been for these two Marys, the disciples might not have even known where Jesus was buried. They didn't know Nicodemus. Nobody had paid attention except for these two women. But they didn't just observe and leave. Matthew 27, 59-61 adds that they were at the tomb the whole time that Nicodemus was preparing the body. And it doesn't say this, but my guess is they were helping with this preparation for the burial. And then verse 61 shows that even after Nicodemus rolled the stone over the mouth of the tomb and went away, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary kept sitting by the tomb. They must not have been satisfied with the amount of spices that Nicodemus had brought because they go home that same day, buy a bunch more spices that they're going to put on the body on Sunday morning. Their love for Jesus extended past his death. Burial really is an act of love. And so the text indicates they were the last to leave the tomb, and they were the first to come back to the tomb. This shows the kind of devotion and dedication these women had. As soon as they left the place where Jesus was buried, they gathered spices to more fully prepare the body, and then they rested on the Sabbath days, plural. If you look at the text, I believe in a Thursday crucifixion. We won't get into that today, but Sabbath days, plural. According to the commandment, by Sunday morning, in the confusion, hurry, scurry of finding the body missing and hearing angels and running to and fro, God ordained to make sure that Mary was present at the first appearance of the Lord Jesus. It's kind of a complicated chronology to unravel, but I'm going to try to outline it for you. All four gospels mentioned that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early Sunday morning. Matthew 28.1 adds that the other Mary was there. The other Mary would be Mary, the mother of Joseph and James. Mark adds that Salome was there. Luke adds that Joanna and, quote, the other women with them were there. That's Luke 24.10, so that means a good chunk of the ministry team, support team were there. Their camaraderie and their support for Jesus continued long after the band had been disbanded, or the team had been disbanded. They still hung out. Now let's go back an hour. John 20 verse 1 says that Mary Magdalene started out while it was still dark, perhaps gathering the other women. Then the three synoptic gospels say the women arrived at early dawn when the sun had just risen. Mark and Luke mention that these women carried spices for the body. Mark mentions that the women wonder as they're traveling to the tomb who in the world is going to roll away the stone for them. And this is where it gets tricky in the chronology. There is more than one proposed chronology, so this is not gospel truth, the order I'm going to give. But I think it does away with all of the contradictions, and every other one has some contradictions in it. But let me quickly outline it for you. Before dawn, Jesus had already risen from the grave, passing through the walls of the tomb. He did not need, in fact, the stone that was over the mouth of the tomb, it was still there after Jesus had left. He did not need that stone removed for him to go through the walls of that tomb, right? The angel opened it up so that the people could come in and witness that there was a resurrection that had happened. The women start traveling toward the tomb in the darkness. As the dawn is just peeking through, before the women get there, an angel came down from heaven in front of the guards that were posted there. There was a massive earthquake that happened. The angel then rolled the stone away. He sat on the stone. This so terrified the guards that they all fainted. Having accomplished his purpose, that particular angel disappeared. The guards recover and leave to report what happened to the authorities. The woman then arrived and discovered that the stone had been rolled away, but they didn't see what happened. And so they assumed the worst. They assumed that the body had been stolen. Mary Magdalene runs as fast as she can to Peter and tells Peter, they've taken away the Lord out of the tomb. We do not know where they have laid him. Peter, John, and Mary run back to the tomb, with John taking the lead, Peter being next, and Mary trying to catch up, coming closely behind. But while John peered inside, Peter went past him, was the first inside, and then seeing the grave close, John and Peter appear to believe that he's risen, they're satisfied, they go home. But Mary stays at the tomb, with Mark 16 indicating that the other women were still at the tomb. So it was just Mary that had run. The women enter the tomb where they see two angels. John shows the two angels speaking first to Mary Magdalene, asking, woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him. I find it so significant. The angel singles out Mary. There's other women there, but they single out her first. The rest of the women are so terrified by the presence of these angels, they fall flat on their faces. They don't dare look at the angel because Luke says their faces are to the ground. So they're not seeing. This is not true of Mary. She is courageous. She does not fall down. She looks at the angels, and the angels say, why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he is risen. Remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and the third day rise again. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, he is going before you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he said to you. Mary is the first to turn around in obedience to that command from the angels. The other women are at this point getting up off the ground. And so Mary is the first to see Jesus, but she doesn't recognize him. Jesus addresses Mary first saying, woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? And I'll just read from John here, supposing him to be the gardener. She said to him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary, she turned and said to him in Hebrew, which means teacher. And to me, this is such a touching display of Christ's love for her and her devotion to him. As soon as Mary recognized Jesus, she fell at his feet and clung to him. Now, I find it very interesting. She did not fall down before the angels, but she falls before Mary's feet, before Christ's feet. And she did not fall down at his feet out of fear. She falls down out of love for him. Matthew adds that the other women then came over and also clung to his feet. They followed Mary's example. And though other women were there, I find it fascinating that Jesus once again singles out Mary Magdalene to talk to her first. Reading again from John, Jesus said to her, stop. And he said to her, okay, stop clinging to me for I have not yet ascended to the father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascended to my father and your father, my God, and your God. And though all the women pay attention to these words, John makes it clear Jesus primarily spoke these words to Mary Magdalene. These are all just hints and clues that I'm going to be drawing some applications from. Finally, Mark, Luke, and John all show that Mary Magdalene takes the lead in giving the announcement to the disciples. So she's telling them the message. They show skepticism. The other women all chime in and say, no, Mary's right. We saw this too. We're all witnesses. And they didn't believe those women either, showing Really, it's not a good tribute to their unbelief. Now some chronologies show Mary Magdalene be the first and the only one to witness the resurrection at the first appearance while the others leave. But really, if you carefully analyze, I think all of them were at this first appearance. with Mary Magdalene being especially singled out by the Lord to talk to and to explain things to. And for sure, she was the first one to see him. Now, from all of those scriptures that I've just summarized, we can deduce a number of things about Mary Magdalene. First, these verses clearly demonstrate that Mary Magdalene was a natural leader among women. She got the women together to go to the tomb. She was the first to speak. The angels speak to her first. Jesus speaks to her first. She took the lead in telling the apostles about the resurrection. All four gospels say more about Mary Magdalene than they say about any other woman in the account. She was a leader, if not the leader, of this ministry support team. Second, Jesus didn't have the same prejudices against women that the disciples appear to have. Despite these women constituting multiple witnesses to the resurrection, the disciples didn't believe them. But Jesus trusted the women enough to deliver His first and most important messages to the women. And we'll make another comment about that in a bit. Third, Jesus was comfortable around women, and women were comfortable around Jesus. He was safe to be around. He was approachable. And I think some of us men are not approachable to the women. And we could learn from Jesus. We ought to imitate Jesus, not the disciples. He treated women with respect. He honored them. There was obviously a very close relationship between Jesus and Mary without it ever becoming inappropriate. She valued his ministry. He valued her ministry. And really, he valued the ministry of all of these women on that team. They had a special place in his heart. So it was Mary and these other ones who had the privilege of being the first witnesses of the resurrection. So he's elevating really women in the kingdom. Fourth, Jesus entrusted the grand message of the doctrine of the resurrection to women before he entrusted it to men. Even though they were not being prepared to be apostles or elders—women should not be in pastoral office—they were still entrusted with this message. And since Jesus commanded these women to share this message with the men, We need to take this very seriously. This is something that is appropriate. We cannot discount Christ's command. Now, let me make some distinctions that will become more clear when we get to the story of Priscilla. This is not the same thing as discipleship, which I believe is better done men with men and women with women. Discipleship is really a transfer of your life into the life of another person, and there often is some idea of authority with it. Rather, what Christ commanded her to do was simply to share the truth with one another. Lord willing, I'll dig into the Greek of this a lot more when I look at Priscilla. But it's hard to escape the conclusion that women should not feel uncomfortable sharing in theological discussions with men. It happens in our home. It happens around these dinner tables. It should happen. Now, let me expand on that a bit. The Greek words for discipleship and teaching carry the idea of authority with it, but not the words for telling, sharing, and explaining. Priscilla and Aquila both engaged in explaining. The Greek word is aktithēmi. They engaged in explaining proper doctrine with Apollos and mildly disagreeing with Apollos. And these women in the resurrection account, they were explaining and disagreeing with the apostles on a most vital point of doctrine. As fellow Bereans, women have this right. And again, we'll look at this in more detail when we look at Priscilla, Lord willing. But I don't want you to miss the fact that they were commanded to explain these things to the apostles, even though Jesus, being omniscient, He knew that the apostles would disagree with them. This is a very important point when we're seeking to maintain a biblical balance between the extremes of feminism on the one side or hyper-patriarchy on the other side. I value the insights and feedback that women give on sermons and other forms of teaching, and I think husbands should value the insights that their wives give. The fact that the husband is commanded to wash his wife with the water of the Word does not mean that the wife turns off her mind or cannot be a Berean, or that she can't explain a thing or two to her husband. We should be just as comfortable relating to women theologically as Jesus was. Fourth, unlike hyper-patriarchy assertions, women don't always need to be mediated by their husbands. Yes, husbands should lead. They should disciple. They should wash their family with the water of the word, but that does not make the husbands or the fathers mediators. There is only one mediator between God and man, and that's Jesus Christ. And it doesn't do for Protestants to reject Mary as a mediatrix and then say, but all thinking needs to be mediated through the father or through the husband. That is hyper-patriarchy. We men should be moving our children to find joy and fellowship and learning directly from Jesus. We are not the answer, Jesus is. We need to be modeling how to go to Jesus, not modeling how to avoid Jesus by going to us. Okay, let me illustrate with my own counseling. People will sometimes tell me that I need to fix them. They've got a desperate problem and I need to fix them. I tell them, I can't fix you. I can't fix you. And if you think that I am the solution to your problems, we might as well quit counseling right now. My goal is to point them to Jesus and help them to get the tools so that they can dig these answers out for themselves and go to Jesus. I'm working my way out of a counseling job. Why? Because pastors are not the answer. Jesus is the answer. Well, in the same way, if we fathers and husbands are teaching right and we're leading devotions correctly, We should be pointing our family to Jesus, helping our families to develop a relationship with Jesus, showing them how to have personal devotions with Jesus without needing to recite prayers after us, right? We get them used to doing it. Yes, it starts with following our lead. But Jesus spoke to these women unmediated by other men. These women directly reasoned with him. This means that the husband is not in the place of Christ, as so many hyper-patriarchalists have written and said. Yes, there is a chain of command when it comes to authority, but it's authority in the Lord. And women don't need to turn their minds off when it comes to theology. We should desire our wives and children to become skilled theologians. I have just a few other details about Mary that may or may not be significant, but I think it'll give you a fuller picture of who she was. She was physically fit. I know some of you don't want to hear this, but she was physically fit. We know this from the previous passages where Mary followed Jesus for weeks at a time. This would have involved her in walking, standing, lifting, and serving. But there are also a couple of passages that indicate that Mary was able to run for quite some distance. John 20 shows her running quickly, is the word that is used, running quickly all the way from the tomb to where Peter and John were residing and then running all the way back with the two of them. And if they were inside the city, that is a long run. This is not a hundred meter dash. This is a long run. And for her to run fast enough on that second leg of the journey to have arrived back at the tomb shortly after Peter and John arrived shows he was definitely in shape. She has run twice the distance they did, but is almost able to keep up with them anyway. Other scriptures show her carrying spices. Luke says she was willing to carry Christ's body away if she could find it. To do all of this, she would need to keep her body fit. And I think in this, she is a role model for women today. Okay, while godliness is more profitable than physical exercise. Yes, Paul did say that. He did not say physical exercise is of no use. He said it profits a little. Okay, it does profit. So don't discount exercise. Now, I already mentioned the next point that Mary made sure to take notice of where the body was laid so that she could let others know later, so she could bring the spices later. What's the application of this point? she was a model of having an eye to the future. She was planning for the future. She did not allow sorrow to make her stop noticing, planning, and working. In fact, those three things actually help us to resolve and deal with our sorrows. She no doubt picked up this lesson, along with many other lessons from Jesus. I don't buy into Kubler-Ross's five stages of grieving, nor did Mary Magdalene, nor did any of the other saints of the Bible. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, if you read her biography, you realize she was demon-possessed, got messages from demons, and her counseling is a doctrine of demons. It has been so destructive. I have seen pastors ruined with this. I have seen so much destruction with her five stages. Do not buy into this doctrine. Next, it appears that Mary was not a loner. She was a team player, and she picked this up from Jesus as well. She was always in the company of others, and specifically, the company of other women, okay? Unlike female soldiers, which is an ungodly concept anyway, but unlike female soldiers, the modern U.S. army who sometimes have to tent with men, Mary was with the women. This gave testimony of propriety where none could accuse her or Christ or the apostles of anything inappropriate. It also gave division of labor, allowed various women to specialize, gave a synergy to their ministry efforts. She was a team player and we need to learn to be team players. But I want to end with seven comparisons and contrasts between Peter and Mary. that I think highlight all of the rest of the characteristics that she had. Both previously made a living from the fish industry. with Peter being involved in catching fish in the same general region of that part of the Sea of Galilee and Mary's hometown being involved in the processing and the international trade of fish. And it does seem like everyone in that town was involved in the fish industry. It wouldn't be surprising to me if Peter constantly sold their fish to the fish markets in Magdala. Now, if you were writing a book on economics, there are principles of societal economics that could be derived just from that little story. It's fascinating to me that God's providential control of even pagan people makes economies of scale work together beautifully without any civil government involvement. Imagine that. Civil governments only ruin things. And I love biblical economics. I'm not going to get into that this morning, but that's one of the lessons. Second, Peter fled from Christ and denied him while Mary remained faithful to Christ, even in the face of death, came right up to the cross, no doubt putting her arms around Mary, the mother of Jesus, and bringing her comfort. Third, Peter slept in the garden after being asked to watch and pray, whereas Mary stayed in the garden watching over the tomb and weeping without being asked to do so. Fourth, Peter was a natural leader in the Church, while Mary was a natural leader of the women. Fifth, Mary came to the tomb without being asked, while Peter came to the tomb after being prompted by Mary. Six, Mary met the resurrected Christ in His first resurrection appearance. And, at least on my chronology, Peter met with the resurrected Christ on the fourth resurrection appearance. Both of them, on all chronologies, met Jesus before the rest of the twelve did. And 1 Corinthians 15.5 is clear on that. Seventh, Jesus questioned Peter's love three times before restoring him, whereas there was no question of Mary's love and devotion to Jesus. And then last, so I guess these are eight, not seven. Last, Peter is a model of restoration and how restored people can strengthen and feed the flock. Mary is a model of a person whose passion for Christ never subsided and who never had to be restored after her initial conversion. She was faithful. She persevered with the same intensity of devotion. By the way, both are wonderful models that we can imitate. If you have fallen, imitate Peter, who got up on his feet, forgot about the past, pressed into Christ, was faithful even unto death. But Jude verse 24 says that you can imitate Mary who didn't fall. It says, now to him who was able to keep you from stumbling. Amen. Hallelujah. Now to him who was able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. Thank you, Father, for this model that we can imitate. And I pray that we would do so, do so by your grace, not in our own strength or flesh. Help us, Father, to raise up within our midst many models that can be imitated by the next generation and the next generation after that. May there be covenant succession. in a way, Father, that would best glorify your name. Do strengthen this, your people. I pray that you would bless us in the remainder of this day as we converse together. In Jesus' name, amen.