It's good to be with you once again. I planned to thank Greg, but he's not here, so for leading this morning, but Janet and I have Enjoy visiting with you. We've done it on a number of occasions during this year. And thank you for inviting us once again. Hopefully this time for a full Sunday. I don't know if you recall last time I was pretty sick. I hope none of you succumbed to whatever bug that was that I had when I was here last. As most of you know, on the occasions where I have been able to be here with you, We've been studying events shortly before Jesus' crucifixion. For instance, we looked at John chapters 13 through 17, focusing on Jesus' upper room discourse and his teaching on the way to Gethsemane, culminating with those blessed and comforting words of our Lord from John 16 and verse 33. The words, these things I have spoken to you. And what things was Jesus referring to? There were the things that were in chapters 14 through 16 that Jesus taught. And he said, these things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace, believing we are in blessed union with Christ. And what a blessing is that, that in me you may have peace. And then he says, in the world you will have tribulation, not might, will. And we all have been around long enough to know that that is indeed the truth. We will and have had tribulation. And then maybe we would expect him to say, therefore, you have a right to be despondent. But that's not what Jesus says. He says, but be of good cheer. And why? I have overcome the world. And as you abide in me, as he has been teaching them in the previous chapters, you also will overcome the world and persevere to the end of your days. Oh, the great blessing of our union with Christ. He who abides in me, Jesus said, bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." And you'll recall we also took some hours to consider Jesus' seven sayings from the cross. The first three sayings showing again the grace of our Lord and his concern for others. He began, Father, forgive them for his enemies, he prayed. and then addressing and comforting the repentant thief, and then seeing to the welfare of his mother. Then we hear those words of anguish from the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? As he experienced the forsakenness of his father, as he bore the sins of his people. Then we hear his cry of thirst, which was then quenched in some measure by that sour wine. So he could cry out with a loud voice, Tetelestai, finished. The greatest word ever uttered for the comfort of sinners who come to Christ believing. Tetelestai, finished. And then, Freely, he gave up his spirit to his father's care and keeping. As we just sang, the Holy One would not see corruption. And Jesus quotes from Psalm 31 and verse 5, David's words. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his last. And then we spent a couple hours considering Christ's remarkable burial. It was not at all what we would expect of one crucified. But in God's overruling providence, God raised up Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man. who asked the body of Jesus from Pilate, and he gave Jesus an honorable Jewish burial. We consider this, in essence, was the first fruits of his coming exaltation. For Isaiah tells us of Jesus' innocence, for he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. He was our guiltless, sinless Savior, and he was glorified. as such in his honorable Jewish burial. Not at all what we would have expected of a person crucified. Usually they were just cast into a pit and forgotten. Now we have come to the culmination of his redemptive work, his resurrection. As Paul declares in Romans chapter four, Christ was crucified for our transgressions and raised for our justification. We've looked at those first hour or two of that glorious resurrection day. And I hope we left with the impression that those first two hours were a time of frenetic excitement, runnings to and fro by the women and Peter and John. Some of the women saw and heard the angel's proclamation that Jesus had risen from the dead. We read that they left the tomb trembling, and astonished, and afraid, not having seen yet the risen Lord. But they obeyed the command of the angels, and they go to tell the disciples, and then they find the disciples not believing them, their words seeming to them like idle tales, as we read in Luke's account. No one was expecting a resurrection, no one. though Jesus had told them all plainly that he was to be delivered into the hands of men and be crucified and then be raised again on the third day. And so now I trust we're prepared to look at Jesus' first resurrection appearance to Mary Magdalene, as we just read in John chapter 20. So if you want to look with me there, beginning at verse 10 of John chapter 20, We read that Peter and John, after viewing the empty tomb, Mary Magdalene had come and said, the tomb is empty. And she hadn't seen the angels or heard them. That's all she knew. The tomb was empty. Peter and John ran. They viewed the empty tomb. We read that John believing, Peter wondering what it all meant. Yet they leave the tomb and they head to their homes. Now Mary, meanwhile, I believe, followed Peter and John to the tomb. And so she's arrived there now for the second time. And as we read in verse 11, she stood outside the tomb weeping. And then she stooped down and she looks in the tomb, where in verse 12 it says, she sees two angels sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. They ask her in verse 13 why she was weeping. Remember, she had come in one last act of love to help complete an honorable burial for he whom she calls her Lord, yet still not expecting a resurrection. Certainly a confused faith, yet still we see a fervent and steadfast love for her Lord. She says to the angels that she is weeping because they, she doesn't specify who the they might have been in her mind, could be perhaps the guards that had been placed to guard the tomb, could be the Jewish religious leaders she's referring to. Anyway, they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him. And this is where we left off in our last study, if I recall correctly. We considered those words of J.C. Ryle, who comments on this scene, a scene that only John was inspired of the Holy Spirit to give us, and which seemed clearly deeply affected the Apostle John. Ryle wrote this. Of all the accounts of the appearances of our Lord after he rose from the dead, none perhaps is so affecting and touching as this. He that can read this simple story without a deep interest must have a very cold and unfeeling heart. And I think I mentioned to you last time I was here, I remember even as a child when I was still unconverted, there were three New Testament narratives that affected me even then. And when the preacher would wax long, I would turn in my Bible to three New Testament narratives and I would read them because even then they affected me. One was the thief on the cross. The other, another was the road to Emmaus from Luke chapter 24. And the third one was this one, Jesus first appearance after his resurrection. And so let us continue with this touching narrative this morning of our Lord's first appearance after his resurrection to a woman, Mary Magdalene, out of whom Jesus cast seven demons. Certainly we see here the truth illustrate that the person who is forgiven much loves much. Mary will not go away until she knows what has happened to her Lord. So Mary's still weeping, and having responded to the angels as to the reason for her weeping, we read then in verse 14 that she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but did not know that it was Jesus. We can perhaps easily imagine that perhaps her weeping tears had blurred greatly her ability to see clearly. Possibility, I think we've all experienced something like that. And even she couldn't even hear clearly. And I know that weeping can have that effect on us physically, both hearing and seeing. But regardless of the reason, she looked on Jesus, but she did not recognize him. We also know, again, that a resurrected Christ bodily was not something she could imagine nor would have expected. But regardless of the reason, she did not recognize him by sight, and we see also she did not recognize him by voice either at first. As Jesus asks her, woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Mary, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, now she was hoping maybe the gardener would know what had happened to Jesus' body. She says, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him. and I will take him away." Interesting that she inquires of the person whom she thought was the gardener rather than the two angels, but perhaps she didn't even realize that they were angels. But we still see that right up until Jesus reveals himself to her, she still has her hope set on securing Jesus' dead body to bestow one last act of kindness and love and giving his body an honorable Jewish burial and embalming. And that's what all the women came with their spices to do. Despite a confused mind and a confused faith, we still though see her fervent and steadfast love. And again, that verse comes to my mind. He or she who is forgiven much, loves much. This was most certainly true of Mary. And our Lord chooses to reveal himself first to her. And then we have verse 16. where Jesus said to her, calls her by name, Mary. Wouldn't you have liked to have heard Jesus say that to her? Mary. But what an affecting scene that was. Jesus calls her by name, and then she recognizes him, and all her tears of sorrow are forgotten. Oh, might Christ's resurrection have that effect on us? As Matthew Henry puts it, the resurrection of Christ has enough in it to allay all our sorrows, to check the streams and dry up the fountains of our tears. How often we have to be reminded, as Paul does his readers, that we are not as the many who have no hope. John Calvin is comforted here by the words of John chapter 10 and verse 3, that the good shepherd calleth his sheep by name, and they hear his voice, and he leads them out and goes before them. And the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Here Jesus calls to her, Mary. She turns and says to him, Rabboni, which is to say teacher. And this name or title that Mary uses is a very strong one. My master teacher. Rabbis were called masters, teachers, and were considered great men. Sadly, few were that. But Jesus certainly was the great teacher who taught with authority, not as the common rabbis of the day. Mary, with this title, name and title, was essentially calling him my great master and teacher. As Calvin explains that in her use of this title, Rabboni, he says, Mary immediately renders to Christ the honor which is due him. For the word Rabboni is not only respectful, but involves a profession of obedience. Mary therefore declares that she is a disciple of Christ and submits to him as her master. The meaning is the same as if we were to say, my Lord, my master, my teacher. Before we then move to consider verses 17 and 18, I'd like to make one observation here. It's actually one that J.C. Ryle makes and blessed me very much. It's good reminder of this truth pictured here with Mary. And I reckon all believers would acknowledge this is sadly a picture too often of ourselves as well. Ryle observes that we see an example in these verses how that the fears and sorrows of believers are often quite needless. How often we are anxious when there is no just cause for anxiety. How often we mourn over the absence of things that in reality are within our grasp and even at our right hand. Two-thirds of the things, he says, we fear in life never happen at all. And two-thirds of the tears we shed are thrown away and shed in vain. And he says that let us pray for more faith and patience and I really like this next phrase and allow more time for the full development of God's purposes. I remember many such times. in my own life where I grew anxious about this or that. And in the end, my anxieties were ill-spent and what seemed dark to me at the time ended up being one of the best things that ever happened to me. I know you have all had such experiences yourself. One example which I think upon often and I can now think upon it with great thanksgiving, was when I was a teacher at a Christian school many years ago. I had a couple Bible classes, my fifth and final year teaching there at this Christian school. It's called the Christian Academy in Vacaville, California. I had recently become reformed, and so I began to teach the doctrines of grace, and it caused quite an uproar. They took away my Bible classes in the spring and made clear they didn't want me back at year's end. So I had no job, no place to live, and no idea what to do. But in a series of kind providences, a friend gave me a temporary job in the Bay Area, and I moved there and started attending the church where Bill Downing was the pastor, and what a blessing it was to be sitting under him. And there, in God's kind providence, I met Janet. And we ended up getting married. It's interesting that I rode in her brand new Toyota truck. helping somebody move before I even ever met her or even knew who she was, a truck that then I inherited, crashed once, and more or less drove it into the ground. But what a kind, kind Providence in all these things. Janet and I were married, Pastor Bill Downing married us, and then we moved up here to the Pacific Northwest. We had no jobs, barely a place to live, Yet I can look back now on my anxieties in those years as needless. God was truly working all things together for good. And what seemed at the time to be a dark trial, from it so much good came to me, to us. But oh, the needless anxiety that attended. And so J.C. Ryle says again, let us pray for more faith and patience, and allow more time for the full development of God's purposes. It made me think again, and that's why I had us sing this hymn this morning, the words, the hymn we just sang. We love to sing it. Oh, don't we forget the words all too quickly when we're in the midst of trial. The stanza that says, ye fearful saints, fresh courage take. The clouds ye so much dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. And do we not see this in as big a way as could ever be seen here with Mary's tears of sorrow turned to joy as she could not even have imagined possible? Ryle goes on to say, let us believe that things are often working together for our peace and joy, which seem at one time to contain nothing but bitterness and sorrow. One of my favorite Old Testament characters is Jacob. He's just, to me, seems like just a common, ordinary man. But oh, some of the statements he said are some of the most blessed statements in all of scripture. Remember at one time Jacob said this, all these things are against me, Genesis 42. Yet we know from the story that he lived to see God's goodness again in the land of the living. His son Joseph, whom he thought was long dead, was alive, rich and prosperous, and used of God to keep Jacob and his family alive in the midst of famine, and Jacob in the end giving thanks to God for all that had happened. All along, these things were working together for his good and his family's good, to which he once cried out, all these things are against me. So, if clouds be upon you even now, in this season of your life, rather than expend your energies in anxiety, remember, Remember to fully await God's purposes and to realize that oftentimes these clouds are working together for good. And as we wait upon God's purposes to unfold, to fully ripen, as the hymn says, Remember, we may yet see the abundance of his mercy soon breaking forth in blessings on our head. Now, I know this is easy to say, but it's hard to live, isn't it, in the midst of trial. So Lord, we would pray, increase our faith and keep us that our faith fail not. Jacob is a very good example of that, is he not? Giving thanks to God when at one time all seemed bitterness to him. Back to Ryle who closes his observation with this. If Mary had found the seal of the tomb unbroken and her master's body lying cold within, she might well have wept. The very absence of the body which made her weep was a token for good and a cause of joy for herself and all mankind. The exact opposite of what she thought was happening. The very absence of the body made her weep was a token for good, a cause of joy that we, even sitting here today, are greatly blessed. joy for herself and all mankind. Now, the next words, as we continue on in verse 17, have caused some difficulty. The American Standard Version and the old King James Version read that Jesus says to her, touch me not. And some have considered this a prohibition. Mary, don't touch me at all. Yet Jesus allowed and even encouraged the other women and disciples to touch him and to see that his body was indeed flesh and blood, Jesus risen from the dead bodily. However, I personally like the New King James Version and the English Standard Version translation where we read Jesus says to her, do not cling to me. and all the commentators that I most trust and respect agree that Jesus did not say, don't touch me at all, but rather do not cling to me. In other words, she was so over much taken with joy at seeing her risen Lord that she went over much in embracing her Lord's feet and clinging to them. To him, as we might say, and Matthew Henry does says for us, she forgot herself and did cling to him excessively and thus received her Lord's gentle rebuke. Do not cling to me. Calvin, Ryle, Henry, Poole, all agree with this picture, that her clinging soon became overmuch. And our Lord continues by reminding her of what he had also told his disciples, that after being raised on the third day, he was soon after that to leave them and ascend to the Father. But before I do, you first of all need to go to my brethren and tell them the good news. In Jesus' words to Mary, a summarized what he taught them in the upper room and elsewhere, as Calvin puts it. In short, Jesus is pointing out the design of his resurrection, not such as they imagined it to be after having returned to life, that he should triumph in the world, You'll recall the disciples in Acts chapter one, just moments before Jesus was ascending to heaven, they asked him, and we might be dumbfounded by this question, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? They still entertained hopes that the purpose of Jesus' resurrection was to set up an earthly kingdom with Jerusalem as the capital and Messiah reigning on earth. Jesus had told them in many ways that his kingdom was not of this world. Sadly, this misunderstanding of Jesus' purpose is still very much with us today. Calvin goes on to say that by speaking of his soon ascension to heaven, he should enter into the possession of the kingdom which had been promised to him and seated at the right hand of the father and should govern the church by the power of his spirit. The meaning of the words, therefore, is that his state of resurrection would not be full and complete until he should sit down in heaven at the right hand of the father. This is what he had taught them in his last words to them in John 14 through 16. And then we see throughout his high priestly prayer in John 17. In John 16, we read that Jesus tells them he is going away to his father in heaven. And with that news, the disciples were filled with sorrow. But then he tells them, this is to their advantage because he will send the helper, the spirit of truth, who will guide them into all truth. What a great blessing is this. Yet they could not see it or understand it at the time. But what a change we see when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost with power. All of a sudden, the disciples understood 1,000 things they never saw before. And I remember when I believed God awakened me and saved me. And I know we all have differing experiences of God's saving grace to us, but this was mine. I remember where I was sitting, and I remember what I was reading. I was reading Lorraine Bettner's The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination. Perhaps some of you have read that or are familiar with it. Now I had been very religious for a good many years and thought in my blind self-righteousness that I pleased God well. But also nothing was making sense to me about the gospel, about God, about his words. But all of a sudden, in a moment, as the author was opening up Daniel chapter 4, verses 34 and 35, I'm sure you know them well, where Nebuchadnezzar voices his understanding that God is God when he says, I lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me. And I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever. For his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain his hand or say to him, what have you done? And those who walk in pride, he is able to put down. In a sudden, I saw for the first time that God was truly sovereign and holy. And I was ruined and undone before him and in need of a savior to save me from my sins. For the first time, I understood that God was God. And a thousand things began to open up before my eyes that I never understood before, though I had read through the Bible numerous times and I had memorized great swaths of scripture. Oh, the blessing, sovereign grace that gave us brethren eyes to see and ears to hear. And we first heard the voice of our good shepherd calling our name, if you please. We can say, as Jacob said, truly, we don't deserve the least of God's mercy, mercies, and all the truth is revealed to us by his grace. Oh, the blessing of sovereign grace, brother. In Jesus' high priestly prayer, we read in verse 11, Jesus says, now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you, Father, Holy Father, keep through your name those you have given me, that they may be one as we are. Returning to verse 17 then in John 20, Jesus tells Mary, do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, we need to pause here and consider what is easily overlooked. the gracious words of our Lord, go to my brethren, my brethren, who shamefully forsook him and fled in his hour of need, who denied him with cursing and swearing, who left the women alone to walk in the dark to the tomb, who were incredulous and unbelief when the women announced to them that Jesus had risen from the dead, And they also had not believed the very word of our Lord himself, telling them exactly what was going to happen. As Matthew Henry said, well, might we have expected Jesus to send Mary away with an angry message, go to yonder treacherous deserters and tell them I will never trust them anymore or have anything to do with them. No, he forgives, he forgets, and does not abrade in the message Mary is to bring. No, in fact, quite the very opposite. Go, tell my brethren, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God. What, I am ascending to your father and your God after what they did? Surely Peter and perhaps others would have thought that God would surely disown them for what they did. But no, Jesus encourages them to the utmost. He is not ashamed to call them brethren still. I again, I always think of those words of John Newton's hymn that I love. Could we bear from one another what he daily bears from us? Yet this glorious friend and brother loves us though we treat him thus. Though for good we render ill, he accounts us brethren still. As J.C. Ryle so truly reminds his hearers, this was indeed a love that passes knowledge. To trust deserters and to show confidence in backsliders was a compassion which man can hardly understand. And he tells them that his father was their father and his God their God. The words of another favorite hymn of ours comes to mind. We'll plan to sing it next hour. Those words speaking of our Lord, thou hast the true and perfect gentleness. No harshness hast thou and no bitterness. Ryle finishes his thoughts, leaving his readers with the comfortable reflection that Jesus Christ never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. As he dealt with his erring, fickle disciples in the morning of his resurrection, so will he deal with all who believe and love him until he comes again. When we wander out of the way, he will bring us back. When we fall, he will raise us again, but he will never break his royal word. Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. The saints in glory will have one anthem in which every voice and heart will join. He has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." Aren't you thankful for that? He has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Oh, may our prayer be that of the hymn, make us to taste the sweet grace found in thee, dear Lord, and ever stay in thy sweet unity. A couple more thoughts on these words of our Lord that Mary was to carry to his brethren. He tells them his ascension is the next big event, if you please, in the completion of our redemption. Again, he told them he was ascending to his father to prepare a place for them. And also, what they probably did not understand fully yet, that he was to appear before the father as our advocate and intercessor. He points them heavenward as to where their hope should be, not in some earthly kingdom where Messiah would reign on an earthly throne. No, he is ascending to his father and his God. Note that Christ does make distinction here. He does not say, I am ascending to our father and our God. No, we have to remember he is absolutely other from us. He is the son of God by nature, by the eternal generation of the Father. We are sons and daughters of God by a gracious adoption, whereby we too can say Abba, Father, even as Christ did. The Father has adopted us as his beloved children. through his eternal and only begotten son who is fully God and fully man, our eternal mediator whereby we have received the adoption. Therefore his words, I am ascending to my father and your father and my God and your God. He is God's eternal only begotten son. We are God's children by gracious adoption. And is this not a greatest of comforts to us to consider these words speak of our joint relation to God resulting from our union with Christ. Christ says he is ascending to his father who is also our father and his God who is also our God. Calvin puts it this way, Christ declares that we, his brethren by gracious adoption, have this in common with himself, that he who is his God and his father is also our God and our father. I ascend, says he, to my father, who is also your father, and my God, who is also your God. This is the foundation of all the privileges and blessings we enjoy in Christ. through our union with him. He who is the God of Christ is our God, and he who is the Father of Christ is our Father. Therein is fulfilled that astonishing and gracious promise of the new covenant. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. So much more we could say upon what is stated and implied by these gracious words to his brethren from our Lord. In verse 18, we see that Mary carried this message to the disciples. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things to her. This was our Lord's first appearance after his resurrection. And remember, it's still early on the resurrection morning. In our second hour, we'll plan to look briefly at Jesus' second appearance after his resurrection. Again, oh, what blessed and gracious words we have from our Lord to Mary and his disciples, whom he still calls his brethren. Let us rejoice in the comfort of our Lord's resurrection and words of his grace to his beloved brethren. And then those words of Paul that we began with from Romans 4, 25, that our Lord was delivered up to death for our sins and was raised for our justification. Let us pray. Father, thank you for sending your son, who is God come in the flesh, to live a righteous life for us and die an atoning death for us and who was raised from the dead for us and who ascended to forever intercede for us at your right hand in glory and sent the blessed spirit of truth as our helper along the way. We marvel that you call us your brethren still, who so often for good render thee ill. Forgive us, Lord. Thank you for the comfort and grace of these words of our Lord. I ascend to my father, who is your father, and my God, who is your God. We thank you for our union with Christ. May we abide in that sweet unity by your preserving grace of us till we see the face to face in Jesus blessed name we pray and give our thanksgiving to the father. Amen.