And the Spirit and the bride said, come. They say, come. Amen. Well, if you would, we're going back to our study in John, John 20. This is lesson number 60. God bless you for sticking it out with me. Goodness, 60 times. Y'all deserve a medal. So John, and let's go to the 20th chapter of the gospel according to John, and we'll begin here. John 20 verses 1 through 10 have titled this, The Evidence of His Resurrection. I wonder, does anybody remember the last title? The other time I spoke in the Gospel of John, it's been a little bit. Does anybody remember the title? It was titled The Evidence of His Death. Let's read the text that we'll be looking at, and then I want to give a bit of review to kind of set the stage again. Let's read in John 20, beginning in verse 1, and we'll read through verse 10. Now, 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 have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have 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 clothes lying there, yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb, and he saw the linen clothes lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but folded together and in place by itself. Then 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. Then the disciples went away again to their own homes." So, last time in our study here in this gospel, As I mentioned, we spoke of the evidence of his death and that was from verse 31 through 42. And it recorded the account of those who were at the scene of the execution and how that they were confirming his death. They were here, if you remember, The Jews wanted the bodies removed because of the Sabbath, and they asked Pilate that their legs might be broken. And so that's what this squad of four, I think it is. went through and broke the legs of the two evildoers. And then when they came to Christ, they just pierced him with a sword. This account here basically confirms for us And it was what they were doing is confirming his death as well. I wanted to just quickly look at Mark 15 in verse 44. It speaks to this as well. Mark 15, 44. I'll read this in 45. This was the account where Joseph came to Pilate and requested the body. So when he found out from the centurion, actually verse 44, Pilate marveled that he was already dead and summoning the centurion, he asked him if he had been dead for some time. So when he found out from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. So this in a sense was the official Roman declaration that Christ had indeed died. The pilot had sent, he went and sent the centurion who was responsible for the execution to make sure Christ was dead. And following that confirmation that indeed he was dead, the pilot granted Joseph of Arimathea the body of Christ. And we've seen that. We did not see that necessarily from our text last time here in John 19, but we did see that the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, making sure that Christ was dead. And then also we looked at the fact that Christ died in the manner that the scripture said he would. That is in verse 36, for these things were done, John 19, 36, for these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled. Not one of his bones shall be broken. And again, another scripture says they shall look on him whom they pierced. And then of course, John himself, the author here assures us that his information was firsthand. He says in verse 35, and he who has seen has testified and his testimony is true. And he knows that he's telling the truth so that you may believe. He saw the evidence of Christ's death. He testified of this truth that Christ indeed had died. It was not something that was recounted to him, but he personally witnessed the death of Christ. He testified of it. He assures us of the veracity of His testimony. And knowing that His information is critical to our faith. Do you see what He says there? So that you may believe that His information is indeed critical to our faith. It was of great importance. that we are committed and confident that Christ indeed had died, that it was not a fainting or anything like that. And somehow he wasn't dead, but now he truly gave his life for us. We have two prominent men of the community who were well-known in that day, Joseph and Nicodemus. who came forward and buried the body. That, I think, is just another detail that should help us to have confidence in this narrative. how they came and requested the body and performed a somewhat hurried burial due to the closeness of the Sabbath and all, of course, done under the watchful eyes of the women who loved him. That is a point I don't think I made the other time, but these women who were always there. They were right there. Yes, they had maybe removed themselves a little bit, but they were still able to see everything that happened to their beloved Jesus. They were watching. Chapter 19 ends with these words, so there they laid Jesus. because of the Jews' preparation day for the tomb was nearby." Aren't you glad that that's not the end of the account? Chapter 19 ends there on a very sober note of the death of Christ. And it stopped there, but now I'm glad to say that there are two more chapters to John's testimony. The record is not closed. The account is not finished. He is risen. And Jesus Christ made an unambiguous statement in John 10 that I want to bring in here. He explicitly said some things here that I want to bring in. In John 10, verses 17 and 18, he says this way. Therefore, my Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. this command I have received from my father." What part of that do we not understand? That his life was not taken from him. It was presented. It was given. And when he did give his life, what did he take? It says that he took it back. He literally had the power to take it again. because he is life. And that is something I think that Brother Neal brought out today is that it is not in the abundance of the things that we possess. Life is not that, but it is in the person of Jesus Christ. And when he makes this Explicit statement, I have the power to take it up again. I have power to give my life and I have power to take it again. That is an amazing statement because no one else could have made that statement. No other human being has that ability to make that statement. So Jesus appears to his own to prove his true identity. And by His physical return from death, He shows His people His divine power and authority over death. You see, the implications of this are so vast and far-reaching. It shows us, and if we read in 1 Corinthians 15 about the significance of the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ, specifically referring to the resurrection of Christ, then we know that we too will rise. That we too, just as we bore the image of the earthly, so we will bear the image of the heavenly man. If we truly believe that, then ultimately it translates into how we live our lives. It has to, because if you believe it, then you know that this little blip called time will translate into the vastness of eternity in just a little bit. You and I will be in the unending ages of eternity. And what has occurred in this time is the time of faith. And if you believe, then you will live your life in regards to the truth of the resurrection. And you will. Remember, that was what John was saying. in John 19, so that you may believe. So that you may believe. And of course, we have it here in John 20, I have to refer to it again, that Jesus truly did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written. so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." This was the reason for the record. It was the reason why we have this record, is so that you and I could set our confidence into it, and that it would affect how we live, and it would bring the realities of eternity to the here and now. it is more sure than much of what we perceive today. Much of what we perceive today. So the Apostle John records these appearances in these last two chapters in the Gospel here. He records these appearances of Christ as assurance to us of the true identity of Jesus Christ. But in our text, not yet. Not yet today. Here as we are looking at verses 1 through 10, He has not necessarily appeared to anyone here in this text. But we will see that, that as from verse 11 and following, all the way through the end of the book, John is showing us, is recording for us the appearances so that we, by many infallible truths, as it says in Acts 1-3, that he manifested himself by many unmistakable truths. that it would impact our lives just as it did in the book of Acts. It made men out of these disciples, didn't it? It set them on fire because the reality that this is not all we have invigorated them to give their lives in, to lay their lives down for the cross of Christ, to say, I will be rewarded in some glorious eternal future and I must not live like this is all it is, you see. So today's text represents, in a sense, the first glimmer of light that we see in the eastern sky of a glorious new day coming. You know, sometimes when we go out early and it's still dark, but in the east, there's already just over the mountain behind our house, we can see the eastern sky beginning to lighten. That's what this text is. It's the light that's just beginning to dawn on these disciples and it will burst forth in glorious day in just a little bit in our in this chapter because he's not dead and so this We see here in our text, they see something. They're not sure what it is. They're trying to figure out what's going on. Something is happening, but we don't know. We don't know. We're unsure. We're confused. But their understanding is about to encounter an earthquake of revelation when Christ first reveals himself to Mary Magdalene. Can you imagine with me the intensity of this passage and the intensity that was going on in their lives and how they had just lost everything that was meaningful to them? And here we are coming to this first realization that all is not lost. And so, notice here, we begin now the first day of the week. Have you ever wondered about how could Christ have been in the grave three days when He may have not been in the grave much longer than, let's say, he was buried on Friday evening before the Sabbath began. So the way the Jews reckon time, it was at sunset was the beginning of the Sabbath. We'll go to Luke 23 here in a bit. But this was the first day of the week, but he was buried Friday evening, rested on the and was resurrected on Sunday. Now, I want to show you in Luke 23, specifically, why, I mean, it was important here. Luke 23, 52 through 55, this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. This was Joseph. Then he took it down, they wrapped it in linen, laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock where no one had ever lain before. That day was a preparation and the Sabbath drew near." So we see here that It was a preparation. It was the day that they were preparing for the Sabbath. So as they were preparing the body, it's quite clear from, if you read all the various accounts here, all the four accounts, that one of the reasons that Mary Magdalene was returning to the grave that early, was because she wanted to continue the preparation of the body of Christ. She had spices with her. They were prepared to finish what they didn't get done Friday night. Now why was that such a big deal? They were trying to get done before the Sabbath. And the women here in Luke 23, 55, and the women who had come with him from Galilee followed after. They observed the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils, and they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment." Now notice, he was buried early enough Friday that the ladies, seeing where he was laid, They had time to return home and assemble all the spices and prepare them, knowing they had to get that done before the Sabbath arrived at sunset. So that's day one. The Friday evening is day one. The Sabbath, the next day, from Friday evening at sunset to Saturday evening at sunset, that was the Sabbath according to the Jewish way of reckoning time. So from Saturday evening at sunset to Sunday morning, that was the third day. Now it's interesting, I've kind of struggled with this sometimes. How do we say that he was in the grave for three days? He could have been in the grave for just a little over 30 some hours, maybe 35, 36 hours. But in Matthew 12.40, we have this pronouncement from Jesus himself. He says, an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, So will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Now, I'll read to you here what MacArthur, the note that MacArthur has, I think is helpful. Three days and three nights, quoted from Jonah 117. This sort of expression, was a common way of underscoring the prophetic significance of a period of time. An expression like 40 days and 40 nights may in some cases simply refer to a period of time longer than a month. Three days and three nights was an emphatic way of saying three days. And by Jewish reckoning, this would be an apt way of expressing a period of time that includes parts of three days. Thus, if Christ was crucified on a Friday and His resurrection occurred on the first day of the week, by Hebrew reckoning, this would qualify as three days and three nights. All sorts of elaborate schemes have been devised to suggest that Christ might have died on a Wednesday or Thursday just to accommodate the extreme literal meaning of these words. But the original meaning would not have required that sort of wooden interpretation." So we take into account that this was a bit of a Jewish way of speaking. three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, three days and three nights in the depths of the earth. And so I wanted to bring that in here as we talk about this day and the fact that this is important. I think that we recognize that he was in the grave according to Jewish reckoning parts of three days and therefore qualified it as saying three days on the third day he would rise again. Let's look here in our text here about this stone. I wanted to focus a bit on this stone. It doesn't say much here in John 20 about the stone. It just simply says that she saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Now, I just find it so telling. how that in Matthew, if you would turn back with me to Matthew 27, to this account, the same account in Matthew's narrative. Matthew 27, beginning in verse 62. On the next day, which followed the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together to Pilate saying, Sir, we remember, while he was still alive, how that deceiver said, after three days I will rise. Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away. And say to the people, he has risen from the dead. So the last deception will be worse than the first. Pilate said to them, you have a guard, go your way and make it as secure as you know how. So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting the guard." Now, compare this right here with the disciples. I mean, they were like, they had heard these same things, but the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees, they were like, He said he would arise in three days. Let's make sure that he doesn't. Can you imagine? Their logic, it just escapes me. I mean, if somebody has the power to take their life back up again, what are you going to do about it? What are you going to do about it? It's beyond the scope of your abilities, let me assure you. So we see here that they were very, very culpable. They knew what they were doing. They knew that he had made this prophecy. So they came to Pilate and said, look, we're really concerned that his disciples will come and steal him away. And he says, well, go for it. Just go ahead and put a guard around there and and seal it. Make sure that there's no question. So that's what they did. And so we come now, that is, remember that they didn't put the stone there. It was Joseph who rolled the stone against the door of the tomb and departed. It was the chief priest who came and put a seal on it. I'm not sure what that was like, but it basically would have meant that it would take an official act to have the permission to roll the stone back. And there was a guard there to ensure that that's what happened. Well, we see very clearly that that's not what happened. In chapter 28, verse 1 here, Matthew 28, now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door. And notice what he did. He sat on it. I love that. His countenance was like lightning and his clothes as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. Yes, it's interesting. All that man could do to seal the tomb and post a guard was to no avail. The guards were powerless and became as occupants of the tomb itself." It says they were like dead men. They were there to guard, but they became like those that they were guarding. Isn't that amazing? They became like dead men in the face of such power as the angel of the Lord. Now listen, brothers and sisters, if the angel of the Lord can bring such a reaction, imagine what it would be like to have the Lord himself. I mean, it's going to be amazing. It is going to be amazing. And so it is this sort of arrogance to think that man could have somehow guarded the tomb against... It shows us that they had no faith whatsoever in the deity of Christ and the promise that He would arise, even though they said, we're going to try to make sure. What kind of attitude is that toward God? When Christ makes the statement that He would arise, they think that they can put a guard up, just make sure it doesn't happen. It is this same futility that is going to be found in those who would rather not be resurrected. Think about that. There are plenty of people who have died hoping, against hope, that there is no such thing as a resurrection from the dead. There are plenty of those people. I just recently had a conversation with a guy who was talking about, who was talking about a conversation that he had with someone. And this guy was, He was actually our next door neighbor that we used to live alongside of in Kentucky. He was cremated, had his ashes scattered because he was an atheist. So this, my friend was recounting how that he had met and had known of another account where the guy was, he passed away and he had decreed that he wanted his ashes, he wanted to be cremated and he wanted to scatter his ashes just in case there is such a thing as a God so that he can't get ahold of him in the afterlife. This is the same sort of futility that we see here when the guards were sent to guard the tomb. You can do whatsoever you would like to do when, if you guard your own tomb. It's the dead watching over the dead. It is futile for those who would rather not believe in the resurrection in John 5. 28 it says this way. Marvel not. Marvel not 528 do not marvel at this for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice. And come forth. those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation." You know, it is a good thing that when Christ resurrected Lazarus, that He called him by name. Because if He would have just said, come forth, we don't know how many would have come forth. I mean, He called Lazarus, come forth. But there is an hour coming. when those who are in the grave will hear His voice, and you will come forth." It doesn't matter if your body is but dust and ashes scattered over half an acre. You will come forth. They will hear the Son of Man and come forth. What seems even more crazy to me is how these guards and those who appointed them tried to cover up this thing that they tried to do. Matthew 28 in verse 11 through 15. Now, while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened. When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers saying, tell them his disciples came at night and stole him away while we slept. And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will appease him and make you secure. By the way, if someone was caught sleeping on a, on an assignment, if a soldier was caught sleeping on an assignment, it was, it was a, It was an executable offense. They could have been killed for it. So here they said, we've got your back. Here's money. You just say what we want you to say. And if Pilot hears that you slept on his assignment, we'll take care of him. You see, this is so in your face. against believing, and then you try to cover up with money what is meant to be the grandest thing that ever occurred. And it is that. And if this comes to the governor's ear, we will appease him and make you secure. So they took the money and did as they were instructed, and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until the time of this writing. Isn't that amazing? And so we have this attitude, this stone represents the ceiling of the stone. It represents man's unbelief. Their hearts were just like this stone. It represents the desire to just, you know, go our own way and deny that these things are happening. But notice that in the Matthew 28 account, when the angel came down, Christ was already not in the tomb. He didn't roll the stone away so Christ could come out. No, he rolled the stone away so that the witnesses could get in. So that you and I could see the truth of the matter. So that we, the world, and actually, I need to rephrase that because the world did not see. It seems that he revealed himself only to his people. And there was an interesting thought that presented myself through, I think it was Matthew Henry's commentary, is that you would think that you would make his The death of Christ, a private affair. But no, it was a public spectacle. Everybody could see it. And then you would think that you would make His glorious resurrection a public event. But no, it was a very private affair. The ways of God are not our ways. That privilege of seeing the resurrected Christ was for the people and the disciples of Christ, for those who loved Him and cared for Him. It was reserved for them. And so we see that the angel there in Matthew said, come and see, come and see where he was laid. Mark tells us that the ladies were concerned about who would remove the stone for it was a very large stone. But with the stone removal, the drama began. With that removal of the stone, we see that it seems like She just simply seen, Mary here, Magdalene, simply seen that the stone was removed and she didn't even look into it. Not until verse 11 does she actually look into the grave, but she just turns around and runs back to Peter and John. It's interesting, even though Peter had denied, it was still where she ran to. She ran back to Peter and John, or the disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them. And what did she tell them? Well, she didn't tell them the truth. She told them what she assumed happened, because that's as far as her mind could go. She couldn't grasp the idea that Jesus had actually risen from the grave. No, she says, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. You know, I think Mary's reaction here shows the level of distrust that was going on between the followers of Jesus and the authorities and the religious people because her first thought was when she seen the stone removed, oh, somebody broke in and they took him away and we don't know where he is. It was that level, that reaction, is that level of distrust. We don't know who they are when she says, they, they have taken away the Lord. We don't know who she was referring to, but it would be logical to think that it was the authorities. And so she tells this story based, I believe, on her fears. She says, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb. And I want to just note here the prevailing mindset of Jesus' followers. Think about what they were going through. What was their mindset on the first day of the week? They'd just come from a very difficult weekend where their leader was crucified publicly as a criminal. Now, what was their mindset in regards to this? Well, Mary, This same Mary, in Mark, she runs back. The Mark account says when she got back to the disciples, what were they doing? In Mark 16, 9, it says, now when he arose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him as they mourned and wept. They were in deep grief and mourning on that morning. And when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe her. They did not believe her. The Luke 24 passage says in verse 11, Luke 24 11, it says that it was a group of ladies that came back. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, and their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them. Their words seemed to them like nonsense. I can just imagine Peter saying, you better go check on the leftover Passover wine. See what happened to that. It was like these ladies were discredited maybe for, I don't know, it was like nonsense what you were saying. That was the prevailing attitude of the disciples. They were in this place of deep gloom and despair, but notice we're beginning to see the light. Peter, therefore, went out." You know, he heard enough to convince him to go check it out for himself. He says, he goes out and the other disciple, and they were going to the tomb. So they both ran together. And don't you just love the very straightforward narrative here? I mean, we understand this passage. We understand what it would be like for you to get a report, and you're so excited. You're running. You're concerned about the realities of this, and you're running. And the older one just can't keep up with the younger one. And John outruns Peter, and Peter is huffing and puffing and behind, and he's trying to get there. Well, so they both run together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. And he, stooping down, looking in, saw the linen clothes lying there, yet he did not go in. Probably a little kind of according to his nature, he was not sure if he should go in or not. After all, it was a tomb. It was where they had buried him, but we don't see Simon Peter having a problem with that. He come running up past the man who was looking in and burst into the tomb and he immediately saw the linen clothes lying there. and the handkerchief that had been around his head, not lying with linen clothes, but folded together in a place by itself." Now, what would you think if you were wanting to steal the body of Jesus Christ? If you would come in and were interested in a conspiracy and propagating the fact that he would have been resurrected and you wanted to take the body and hide it somewhere where nobody else could find it, would you unwrap it? I don't think so. I mean, why would a grave robber want to unwrap the corpse? It would be much more convenient to leave all the linen clothes wrapped around with all the scents and the spices there. It would have been much more practical for them to... But, you know, the guards were going to have their say. Whatever they were going to say, they were going to say, even though... How could you possibly know what happened while you were sleeping? So that's what they were going to cover up. They were going to say, while we slept, they came and stole him. Some of these things are a little ludicrous, but here we see that he, I believe he came out, if you remember the Lazarus account, when he came out, he came out, I believe he came out shuffling because he was tidily enough wound that he couldn't hardly get astride. Well, they had to loose him. Take the wraps off of him. But here, when Christ arose, he came out of the linen clothes as he came out of the grave. He was in his glorified body, and he didn't have to unwrap the clothes. He came out, I believe, as he went into the closed door of that room, through the closed door of that room. He was in his glorified body. He didn't need to abide by the laws of natural physics. He could come and go at will. And so he came out, I believe that the linen clothes were probably were probably lying there neatly as if, maybe even as if he would have still been in them. Because I can imagine the spices and the things would have maybe made it stiff like a, but those are just speculations, but the handkerchief, the linen cloth or the face napkin, it was folded up and laid aside in a very orderly fashion. It was not something that was hurriedly ripped off and cast down. Now these details are here for us to consider and for us to just think about What happened when Christ arose out of the grave? We don't know specifically how that is, but the evidence for them is right here. And Peter looks at them. Then the other disciple who came to the tomb first went in also. And notice what it says, and he saw and believed. That doesn't say that about Peter. I'm not sure what Peter's reaction was, but yes, we do know in the, I think it's the Matthew account that he marveled at what he had seen. But the other disciple came to the tomb and when he went in and he saw and he believed. For as yet they did not know the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. They did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. That is in the Psalm 16 passage where the prophecy is that you will not leave my soul to see corruption. So we have Peter's response, now I just want to close with, as we look at this last, we have Peter's response also in Matthew 16, where if you remember, Matthew 16, 21 says this way, from that time Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day. Now it's interesting that the Word of God says that he began to show them that he must go. He must go to Jerusalem. And he must suffer many things and he must be killed. But he, and then this text, like over the weekend, following that, the crucifixion and the Sabbath, we see that Peter had not received this last part. He did not accept it. Or he didn't accept any of it, but it also says that he must be raised from the dead. And this is just as sure as he must suffer and must be killed, he must be raised. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him saying, far be it from you, Lord, this shall not happen to you. And we see that this fundamentally was Peter's problem. He did not want to see Jesus suffering and being killed. And it just went over his head that he would be raised, you know, far be it from you that this should happen to you. And we see this following right after his beautiful declaration of who Jesus Christ is. It simply tells us that he, Peter, even though he knew that Christ was the Messiah, he did not understand his work. He did not understand how that mankind was going to be redeemed and saved. He understood that he's the Christ, the Son of the living God. But then when it comes over here just a few verses later, and Jesus shows him that he must do these things, he must suffer and die and be raised again, that Peter says, oh no, no, we can't have you doing that. And Jesus turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You're an offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. And so we see that though he understood that he was the Messiah revealed to him by God himself, he did not understand his work. He did not understand his mission and how that it was by suffering and dying and being raised again that we have our salvation. It is therein that he misunderstood, as it says, for as yet they did not know the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again to their own homes. It's just kind of a fitting It's kind of an anticlimactic end to this. They just, hmm, they went home. They had not seen Christ. They had seen the light, I think of, we might say, there was a part of a revelation here, but it was not until they encountered the risen Lord Jesus. that they were just overcome with joy. And I think that we see that here in the next account where when he said the word Mary, she was just like, she was just all over him. and the joy that came forth from that. But this is, again, this is a picture of the light beginning to dawn for them. And they will soon see clearly. And it is a glorious reality that we might take for granted a little too much as we think about what they were going through. We've been taught the doctrine of the resurrection our whole lives. And for them to experience it and to live it out It is interesting to go through this account and to see where would you and I have been any different than these. Let's close with a word of prayer and we'll be dismissed. Father, we thank you for your blessing upon us today. Thank you, Father, for this passage of scripture and the glorious truth. of the resurrection and how it verifies the claims of the Lord Jesus and how it verifies to us your satisfaction, Father, with His work. Father, I just rejoice in these truths. And Father, we pray you would just bless this word to our hearts and go with us through the rest of this week. And we pray through Christ. Amen.