We find ourselves back at Mark chapter 15, one last time I think in this chapter. Going to give a little introduction which will explain why we choose a topic we do for today. Hope you're all doing well. Look forward to opportunity to open up God's Word. We have been looking at the chronology of the death of Christ. I'd like to review what we have seen. It starts, of course, with them disrobing the Lord Jesus and then nailing him to a tree, which is one of the most remarkable, awful things even to say. They would nail him to a tree like you'd nail a poster to a wall. this hand, that hand, these feet. The first words that we hear from him once that he is crucified He cries, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Ultimately, the Lord Jesus is going to speak seven times. And again, a number of perfection. We saw in the Gospel of John how seven times Jesus refers to himself as the I Am. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the light of the world. I am the gate. And the last one, he says, I am. Very, very saintly. Before Abraham was, I am. Seven sayings there, recalling himself to be the Lord and God. And here on a cross, seven cries. First one, Father, forgive us. First words are words of forgiveness. Then there is the party of garments, as is prophesied in Isaiah chapter 53. They cast lots for his garments. The one thing they did not divide up was the seamless robe, which represented the sinlessness and sufficiency of Christ, death for our sins. Then you see this painful, remarkable, callous, hatefulness of the Jewish leaders. who one would think when you see someone so miserably suffering and tortured, nailed to a tree, as was the Lord Jesus, that they could refrain, but they couldn't restrain themselves. And so they mock the Lord Jesus. There also were two other, two criminals, one to the left, one to the right. crucified with the Lord Jesus. And the Bible tells us that first they both railed against the Lord. Then there's a remarkable conversion. What was it that that one thief saw when he looked on Longinus? The way he was responding? Or something in his countenance? It's a movement of the grace of God whereby one thief then believes and says, Lord, remember me when you come in your kingdom. And the Lord Jesus, this is his next cry, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Then the third cry, see, this is a remarkable account, the women there at the cross, and the other three gospels are said to be at some distance, but here at this moment, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and John are near, and I think Mary then recedes and goes at a greater distance. But Jesus says to his mother, woman, behold thy son. And then to John he says, behold thy mother. And so we are under the impression that Jesus' four half brothers, James and Joseph and Jude and Simon, are not believers at this time. And so the care of the mother is placed in the hands of a believer, his dear apostle John. So he's commending care for his mother into the hands of John. Then, this is at 12 o'clock noon, for the next three hours, darkness covers the land. Some of the commentators believe this is associated with an eclipse of the sun, which could be. The Lord uses natural occurrences, or maybe it's totally miraculous. But here, there's the whole earth grieving over what is happening. the slaying of the Creator, darkness over the land for three hours. Then the fourth cry, here Jesus is quoting the beginning of Psalm 22, which is very prophetic. And he cries out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The stunning expression of bewilderment as he finds himself, as never has been and never will be again, separated from God the Father. A horrid, horrid thing for him. Then comes the fifth cry. He says, I thirst. We see his humanity here, a reminder of his capability to suffer physically. Then comes a sixth cry where he says, it is finished. His work of dying in our place and the substitutionary death work is completed. And then he himself chooses to die. He says, Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit. Then, what we studied last time, Jesus cries loudly, remarkably loudly, stunningly loudly, such that this centurion, who is a Roman, whose job it is to torture and to overlook the torturing and capital punishment of people, who must be as hardened as hardened can be, who has seen who knows how many deaths, maybe scores, maybe hundreds, maybe more, But this person died as none other ever had. One gets weaker and weaker, then finally expires. But here's one who cries out in full strength. as if his life and his death were totally, and his power were totally within his control. And then he dismisses his spirit. At that time, we're told that the temple veil, which is some three to four inches thick, tears from top to bottom as though God were tearing it. It starts with God's will from the top going down. Of course, it represents access, one, for us to come into the very holy of holies and fellowship with God. But it also, I think, is a communication of tearing of the garment in grief. What has happened is that the things that were made have nailed to a piece of wood and killed their maker. It is the most stunning and awful thing. At that time, the earth quakes. At that time, the graves of many saints, Old Testament believers, open. And many bodies of those saints arise and enter into the city of Jerusalem, I believe, after the Lord Jesus rises, because He is the author and finisher of our faith. It is He who rises first. It is He who descends into the dwelling, the boat of the dead, and goes to the saints and leaves captivity captive, and rises, and then this train follows with Him. It's the most remarkable thing. Graves of the saints open. And these could be Old Testament prophets, could be bodies of people such as Elisha and Elijah and Jeremiah and Isaiah. Who knows? Enter into the city of Jerusalem and are seen by many. It's the most remarkable thing. Now I think one feature remains unstudied. And I think we should focus on it. That is the women. You see, it's a rare thing in the Bible where something is recorded in all four of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. This is one of the very few where that happens. All four of them tell us about the women. And I think it is recorded, we are to note this record of their being there at the cross. They stay at the cross, they don't run away like did the apostles, but they stay there to the dismal end death of Christ. And I think what they're modeling is devotion. I was thinking, it's a little bit, perhaps you've heard this account of a dog known as Hachika. Hachika was a dog over in Japan. A gentleman owned this dog and he would go to the train each day and would go off to work and then he'd come back and there was his faithful dog always waiting for him there at the railroad station and the dog and he would go home. This went on for a long time and then one day this gentleman passed away when he was gone. Well, that faithful dog would come to the railroad station every day, three o'clock, as he always had, and wait for his master to show up. Didn't come the first day, didn't come the second, didn't come the first week, second week, first month, first year. The dog, Hochika, kept coming back every day, they say, for over nine years, until finally he died. The dog died, too. Devoted. Dogs can be very faithful, very devoted. What does devotion mean? It's when people are dedicated, consecrated, solemnly set apart onto a particular purpose or person. Dedicated, consecrated, solemnly set apart onto a particular purpose or person. And that's what we see here. So here's our text. We'll read this and pray. It's Mark chapter 15, 40 and 41. There were also women looking on afar off, among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the mother of James the Less, and of Joses, and of Salome. who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him and ministered unto him, and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem. May we pray. We thank you, Lord, for the word of God. Every word is true, and every word is powerful, and everything is recorded for a purpose. It is God-breathed. It is infallible. is powerful, quick, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. We come as a people who want to know what we can know as the Holy Spirit speaks to us through this word. Guide us, please. Guide us from where we are to where you would have us to be, the right heart, the right deeds, the right purpose, the right eternity. In Jesus' name, amen. So the topic today is devotion. There are many illustrations of devotion in the scriptures of the women. Who do you think, what comes to mind? Paragon of devotion. I would think one person would have to be Ruth. When my wife agreed to marry me, and she had special music at our wedding. It was of this verse, 2 Samuel 21, 10. Ruth said, entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee. For whither thou goest, I will go. And where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me. Ruth. And a poignant, painful, wondrous, memorable incident of devotion is found in Rizpah. You familiar with Rizpah? She was a concubine of King Saul. And when the Gibeonites had a complaint concerning Saul's way of dealing with them, the upshot of it was the Lord led where the Gibeonites could take seven descendants of Saul and hang them, and then the Lord would remove the judgment that he had on the land. So Rizpah had two sons, and then there were five other men. These seven were hanged and left hanging there. through the whole time up to harvest, which the books tell me was like six months. And here's Rizpah, the mother of two of those who, well, the scriptures explain it here. She took sackcloth and spread it for her upon the rock that set up sort of like a shelter, maybe a tent. from the beginning of the harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day nor the beasts of the field by night. It is hard enough, it's terrible enough to have your son's bodies hanging for a six-month period displayed for all to see. But then here come the vultures or the ravens and here come the wild dogs and other kind of beasts. And she stayed there and fought them off. would not let them come near her sons for half a year. She was devoted to them, as was Ruth devoted. And it's not just, of course, devotion, something that only men are seen in the scriptures. There's some great examples of the men. Idtai is a good illustration. You might recall that Absalom was rebelling against his father, King David, and he was taking over the city and David was getting out at odds while he was still able. And here comes Ittai and his people and says, we'll fight with you, we're gonna go with you, we're gonna stand right by you. And David says, look, you don't have a dog in this fight. You're from somewhere else and you go on and be saved, don't get tied up in this. And Ittai responded as follows in 2 Samuel 15, 21. Itai answered the king and said, as the Lord liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be. I'm not leaving you. Good illustration, of course, is Paul, Philippians 1.20, another illustration of devotion. according to my earnest expectation, my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now, also, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. Paul is devoted to his Christ. That should be the case of all of us. Every person here is a believer. We have devoted ourselves to our Savior. Luke 14, 33. Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. The Spirit is memorialized in mothers. There's a poem I've had a hard time quoting for you in the past. I find it very moving, but it's not Mother's Day, so I think this Rudyard Kipling poem really kind of catches the picture of a mother's devotion. It goes as follows. If I were hanged on the highest hill, mother of mine, oh, mother of mine, I know whose love would follow me still. Mother of mine, oh, mother of mine, if I were drowned in the deepest sea, mother of mine, oh, mother of mine, I know whose tears would come down to me. Mother of mine, oh, mother of mine, if I were damned of body and soul, I know whose prayers would make me whole. Mother of mine, oh, mother of mine, How did these women at the cross come to be so devoted? You get the picture? Christ has been crucified. Earthquake, darkness over the land, crying out, the mocking, all this chaos, all this blood, all this awfulness. Disciples all flee. Yet here are these women, and none of her name, Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, Mary the mother of Jesus, Salome, and a whole bunch of other women, they stay. Why did they stay and all else go? I understand it's not exactly comparing apples with apples, what was going on with the men, what was going on with the women, and we don't understand the whole culture, but I tell you what, this is recorded in the Bible for a reason. These women stayed. And if nothing else, they're a tremendous picture of devotion. And we've seen where devotion is what you and I should be known for. Anybody here is a believer, you must be devoted. That's what it means to come to Christ. If any man will come to me and not forsake all he has, cannot be my disciple. Devotion is our middle name. We've forsaken all to follow. Well, what do we learn? We know it's the right thing to be devoted. How do we become devoted? As I've thought on this, I think what we find consistently in these women, and as we find consistently throughout the scriptures, there are three common marks of devotion, three common features. The first one is this, devoted people ponder. That is a biblical word. The very important part, you may not use that word itself often, but this practice, pondering, exceedingly important for any believer. Devoted people ponder. The word ponder comes from ponderare, and it's Latin for to weigh. To ponder something means to weigh it. You have all these different things, there's different weights, different importances, and you line them up and place them together. and you weigh what you've heard, and you weigh what you've seen, and you weigh what you have read. Ponderare. So it means to consider and compare the implications. We're guided to do that in the Book of Wisdom, Proverbs 4.4. Let thine heart retain my words. And in the New Testament, 1 Timothy 4.15, Paul says to Timothy, meditate upon these things. That means to ponder them. Meditate upon these things. Give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear unto all. This is the key to progress. Pondering these things. We read in Genesis 37.11, Joseph's brethren envied him, but his father, he's learned something. Jacob has learned something. His father observed the saying. He didn't let it fall to the ground. He thought this through and kept rolling it over. Jacob did what Joseph had said. We read in 1 Samuel 21.12, it's a mark of King David. David laid up these words in his heart. He heard what the soldiers of Achish said, and he was sore afraid of Achish, the king of Gath. He laid up these words in his heart. It's part of the heritage of true, sincere, mature, wise believers. Jesus says in Luke 9.44, let these sayings sink down into your ears. where the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men. Do you hear me? He is saying. And that leads us to Mary. Mary is our woman illustrator of this first mark of devoted people, and that is pondering. We read of Mary in Luke 2.51, but he went down with them, Jesus went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them, his parents, but his mother, that's Mary, kept all these sayings in her heart. and then Luke 2.19. Simeon has explained that a sword shall pierce her soul. And he said that her son was set for the falling down, the rising up of many. He's the watershed issue. Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. You need to ponder. She was a ponderer. Think about what she has seen. I mean, she grew up in Nazareth, for crying out loud, a military town, crudeness and vulgarity and suffering and abuse. She's seen that. But think of all in her own brief married life at this time. Mary, she's the one who, well, what they end up doing is circumventing a certain city because the governor has decreed for all boys two years old and younger were to be killed in that whole area. That's the kind of people human beings can be. And I was thinking this week, I should have observed this a long time ago, but John the Baptist would have been Mary's cousin, right? Because John the Baptist's mother is Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Mary are cousins. So maybe John the Baptist is a second cousin. I don't know how exactly you count that. But the point is, she saw her own son, Jesus, escape death because of the revelation of a dream that people were trying to kill her son. And then in this instance, they took her cousin's head and severed it from his body and put it on a platter. People are wicked. And she could see that people were wicked and capable of the worst sorts of things. She has seen a lot. And she has pondered if this, her son, is going to be the one who's going to reflect and expose what is true of sin of others. Who knows? Look, they tried to push him off a cliff on one occasion, wanted to stone him on one occasion, many other awful things they did. And so now here she is in this sewer, of awfulness, where there's the moaning and crying of tortured people, and there's a flow of blood and muck and who knows what all else. And don't think that there wasn't cursing by some people. Awful vulgarities, where here's this sweet, virtuous young woman, and yet she's exposed to this, and she's in the muck in the middle of it. But this is not all a shock to her, a shock to her sensitivities. She is a woman who has pondered this and seen a lot and lived a lot already. She has thought through the implications, as must you and I. We must ponder. See what might Mary have pondered such that the cross should not shake her devotion? Oh, I think there are several things, as there should be for you and for me. What are we saying? We are saying that there is a heaven and there is a hell. We are saying that some people are going to find themselves suffering for eternity and others in unending bliss. We're saying that the Maker who made us all is calling upon us to respond to Him. There's so much there. How can we not think on these things and have it not rearrange our entire lives? Well, if we're going to be a devoted people, we will be ones who have pondered what needed to be pondered. The second word is project. You ponder and you project. Projectum. Jectum is the Latin verb for to cast or to throw, and pro means forward. So projectum means to throw forward. Hence, it means to cast one's thoughts into the future. We ponder the reality of the world in which we live, and then we project where this is going. We project what's going to happen in the future, which should govern, then, how we live in the presence. That's what the godly do. We read in Hebrews 11 and verse 13, these all died in faith. These are people of saints who are nameless, but they have this record in the scriptures. Not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off. And we're persuaded of them and embrace them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. You know how you and I will stay devoted? Is if we project ourselves in the future, know what the promises are, and we embrace them. And we'll suffer whatever happens here now because we have cast ourselves into the future. We have projected ourselves into what's before us. Job did that. In Job 19, starting with verse 25, Job says, For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins be consumed within me. Paul says, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans 8, 18. Now I'd like us to consider, as we saw Mary, the mother of Jesus, as a ponderer. Let's take another woman who's there at the cross, Mary Bethany, and so how she was a projector. How did Mary Bethany show her devotion by projecting into the future? Well, we read about it in John chapter 12, starting with verse 3. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Other people did not understand what she was doing. This didn't make any sense to them, we were told. And again, it's a different culture, so it's not exactly a clear comparison. But they say that this pound of this kind of ointment was worth a year's wages. So if you make $20,000 or $50,000 or $100,000 a year, we're talking about a costly thing that she did here. And the disciples say, what a waste. But Jesus says, let her alone. Against the day of my burying has she kept this. is so witty. She's contemplating. She's a ponderer. She projects herself in the future. She's the one who heard Jesus to say that he would suffer for the sins of others, that he would die. But then he says, and I will rise again. Many people missed that. She didn't miss that. So she's thinking if she could communicate somehow to Jesus, she's with him, she's supportive of him. She knows that here comes the terrible torture of the cross, but she also understands he will rise again. She fully believes it. So if he's going to die, there won't be a chance to anoint his body for the burial because he's not going to stay dead. He's going to rise from the dead. So she's going to anoint him for his burial before he dies. It's really witty, really encouraging. and very insightful, and Jesus sees it, I think it's very encouraging to him. See, she projected. You and I, the decisions we make all the time, we should be projecting ourselves into what impact will this have on my eternity, on other people's eternities, on the testimony of God, when I see the Lord face-to-face. I was going to share something this afternoon. I'll mention it briefly now. I got a call this week from a chaplain from one of the homes here for people who are preparing hospice care. And somebody asked for me. And I said, sure, I would come. And I thought, have I ever seen this person before? I didn't recognize the name. And I studied his face and thought, I'm not sure. I was told the name of the person. We talked, we've been visiting now. I go and see him. He has a short time to live. And I think as I look upon him, I think I don't recognize him. Now, it would have been 50 years ago when I lived in Vermillion that I would have known him. Maybe he's changed a lot. I've changed a lot. But I was thinking as I looked upon him, one day I will look upon Christ. And will I know him? And will he know me? I must project myself into that day, that great day, that very important day when all this is done. And it's all not to be kind of worthy to be compared to what happens there. He wills that this happened in my life and that happened. Small potatoes, nothing to be compared to what is before me. Devoted people ponder and they project. And I want one more P word. We say we ponder, we project, and plunge. Plunge. You take the plunge. You pull the hammer. You go. You commit with everything. You jump in and you say, I'm in totally. Devoted people plunge. Plums comes from plumbikare, and so we get the word plumbing. It means to thrust the lead. I know that sounds a little archaic, odd, but the idea is they would take a rope that was coated in lead, it was a heavy rope, and they would drop it off the side of the ship and determine how deep the waters were. or they would take that kind of lead and attach it to a net when they wanted the net to sink. And so it became a saying, to plunge means to thrust the lead line into the water, to push it down. The idea is to immerse decisively. Take it and push it down in the water, weight it down, even violently immerse. Immerse yourself fully, decisively, even violently, nothing hesitating, no limits. You have pondered what the story is, you have projected what is going to happen, and you say, I am in, and you plunge. Elijah did, 1 Kings 19.21, when Elijah called him to serve him as prophet. Elijah had been a farmer. He took a yoke of oxen and slew them and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, like the plow, and gave unto the people, and they didn't eat. He burned the bridge behind him. He burned his equipment and cooked his cattle and said, I'm gone. I'm leaving that behind. I'm moving on to this. So he went out to Elijah and ministered unto him, 1 Kings 19.21. Same thing we can read of Levi, tax collector, also known as Matthew. Luke 5.27, after these things he went forth and saw a publican named Levi sitting at the receipt of custom. He, Jesus, said unto him, follow me. And he left all, rose up, followed. Jesus says to the twelve, after he's been abandoned by some thousands of people, he said to them, except you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. And the people respond, these are hard words, who can hear him? And they leave. Jesus looks to the paltry few who stay behind. And he says, will you also go away? Simon Peter answers him, Lord, to whom, not to what, but to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. And in Matthew 19, 27, Peter said, behold, we have forsaken all and followed thee. By the way, did you notice something in the following texts? We're going to read about the women here and then we'll be done. Matthew 27, starting with verse 55. Many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him, among which was Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee's children. Go a little farther, Matthew 27.61. And there was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary sitting out against the sepulcher. Matthew 28.1. At the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher. Mark 15. We could go on and on with this, but here's one more example. Mark 15, verse 40. and 41. There were also women looking on afar off, among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Lesser, Joseph, and Salome, et cetera, et cetera. We know who is named first every time in every list of the women. And in this list are some very impressive Marys. We're talking about Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha, the sister of Lazarus. We're talking about Mary the mother of Jesus, and about a half dozen other Marys, a very common name then. But of them all, Mary Magdalene is listed first every time. There is a law of first mention. You might notice that with the disciples, every list of the twelve disciples always has the inner circle first. It's always Peter. Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, St. Alpheus, Thaddeus too, Simon, Zealot, Judas. Always Peter first. the inner circle Peter and Andrew and James. Here it's always Mary. And notice her name is Mary Magdalene. Most women, when they are named in relationship to the wife of so-and-so or the mother of so-and-so children, She's called Mary Magdalene, which means she's from the town of Magdalene, which was on the coast of the Sea of Galilee. I don't think she's got a husband. I don't think she's got children. I think she lived a very, very wicked life. I think she was possessed by seven devils until the Lord delivered her. And the Lord Jesus said, he who is forgiven much loves much. And I think Mary Magdalene is the quintessential illustration of full devotion. Wherever Jesus was, she was. Down in the muck and mire and blood, at the burial, at the resurrection, there she was. She took the plunge. She's all in. She has no life but her life with Christ. It's always Mary Magdalene, the one who is starkly completed, devoted. And so here's the question. You all know, it's surely biblical, that you and I are to be fully committed to our Lord. And we've seen something of the way for that to occur. Ponder what the story is here. Project yourself into what you can be and what the Lord would have you to be and what is going to happen. And plunge. May we pray. Only by the grace of God, only as the Lord opens the heart, Can a soul throw himself, herself completely into the care of God and leave this world? Is this vile world a friend of man to bring us on to God? Oh God, are there people today whom you would have to say, here I come, I burn the tools, plowing, I offer up the oxen for a banquet. I'm leaving it all behind. I'm following the Lord fully, completely as He would have me to. I believe Christ died for my sins. To whom else should we go? He has the words of life. Lord, if there is a soul here not reconciled yet to Thee, may that person see there is no hope save but to call upon the name of the Lord and to believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins. Repent of one's wickedness. We ask this in the name of Christ. Amen.