Now, if you turn back to Matthew 27, there's just two verses we want to look at this morning and this afternoon. And it's these verses 55 and 56. Now, I wanted to pause and look at these women gathered around the cross. Recently, we had a big kerfuffle over International Women's Day. A complete waste of time, most of the women that were Honored were dishonorable women in International Women's Day. But there are women well worth honoring in the Bible and God honors them. And he wants you and I to focus on these women here in this story. And I thought it's helpful for us to pause and reflect on why the Holy Spirit put them here so that you and I could learn from them and from their lives. I was watching a program just this week or last week, of a lady in Taiwan who had a number of children and her husband was a gambler. And because he gambled so much, he lost all his money and then took all of her money. And when he couldn't get any more money from her, he took the children, imagine this, and he sold them off. into effectively slavery. And this poor woman, because of her loyalty and her love for her children, she went, she was uneducated, but she went to every place she could find to find work. And slowly but surely she saved and saved and saved every penny she could. And then she went back and bought the children one by one back from the enslavement. because of her love and loyalty to her children. But unfortunately for her, before she could purchase the last one back, another older lady adopted her and took her off to Canada to live at just five years of age. And this woman lost contact with her young daughter. And that young daughter grew up in Canada for over 30 years, got married, had children of her own. But she never knew where her mother was. She never knew why her mother had let her go. She didn't even remember what her mother really looked like because she was so young when she was snatched away to live in another country. But the lady who adopted her was Taiwanese. and at least spoke the language to her so that she could understand the language. And over 30 years later, she decided to go back to Taiwan. When she went back to Taiwan, providentially she was able to find her mother and her siblings. And she was able to learn for the very first time the story of how her mother always loved her. Her mother was always loyal to her. And how her mother worked so hard just to try to bring the family together, the children together. And that's the type of loyalty that women often have for others. Sad to say, women tend to be more loyal often than men. In the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve first fell in sin, it was Adam who was disloyal to Eve. Do you remember the story? And he said to God, the woman, her, she's to blame. But Eve never blamed him because nobody forced him to eat the fruit. He ate it himself. She never hurled an accusation against him. And women often are very loyal. Jesus Christ is hanging on the cross for six hours, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The last three hours are in darkness, complete darkness. And all his disciples have run away, including all the ones with the big mouths, like Peter. He said, I'll never leave thee. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. They all might forsake you, but I won't. And what did Peter do? He broke the hundred meter sprint running the other way. Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, all ran away. But the Bible tells us of a group of people who didn't run away. A remnant of the followers of Jesus who stayed loyal for the six hours he was on the cross. In fact, they weren't just loyal for those six hours. They stayed with him till he was placed in the tomb. They were the last ones to say farewell to him at the tomb. And then they were the first ones on the resurrection Sunday to go back to the tomb. to honor his death and thinking they would anoint his body to honor it. It was these women, these remnant group. And Matthew records them and the other gospels record them and their names because all the information Matthew and Mark and Luke and John have about the actual death of Christ and how his body was taken to the tomb, it comes from the eyewitness of these women, not the men. The men had run away, hiding like cowards. And these were the most unlikely people to be at the cross, the women, the more fearful ones, the weaker sex. And yet they were there. Unlike Peter, James, John, and the rest who talk big. It wasn't just Peter, if you remember, in the upper room who said, I'll never leave thee. The Bible says they all said it. Talk is cheap, isn't it? Talk is cheap. It's the old saying. There's a pastor in Germany who was arrested by Adolf Hitler for speaking out against the treatment of the Nazis, of Jews, and other Christians. He was put in jail. Hitler sent a pathetic chaplain, a weak individual, to go there to the prison to try and persuade this pastor to change his mind and apologize. This compromised chaplain came in to the prison and he looked at this pastor and he said to this pastor, why are you here? The pastor looked at him and he said, why are you not here? You should be here with me, standing for truth, standing for God instead of working for the Nazis, working for the devil's crowd. And the Lord Jesus Christ had the deepest respect for women. Women were not honored by the Romans or the Jews at this time. They were frankly treated with disrespect. But Jesus Christ always elevated the position and the thought of women amongst Christians. If you go to Mark's Gospel, chapter 4, 15, Mark's Gospel, chapter 15, we learn something about this group of women that followed the Lord Jesus Christ to the cross. And in Mark's Gospel, chapter 15, and verse 41, We are told this about these women, who also, when he was in Galilee, now when was he in Galilee? When did this incident begin? His ministry began three and a half years before the cross. So his total ministry seems to be between three to four years. That's recorded in the four gospel accounts. So when he was in Galilee, when he started right at the very beginning of his public ministry, A group of women began to follow him, become his disciples. Now sometimes we talk about the disciples of Jesus Christ and the names that always come to us is Peter and James and John and all the rest of them, but we forget there were also many women. who were part of the early followers of Jesus Christ. And in Mark 15 verse 41 says, who also when he was in Galilee followed him. They became disciples, followers of Jesus Christ. And then it says this, and ministered unto him. So what were they doing, these women, for three and a half years, following him around with the other disciples? They must have been doing tasks, practical tasks that he needed. Maybe his clothes washed. Maybe he prepared food for him so he didn't have to do that when he was healing the sick, when he was preaching and teaching. And this group of women followed him around and sought to be a blessing in his life. It's no wonder when Jesus was speaking about serving in his kingdom, he said, if you give a cup of cold water in my name, thou shalt in no wise lose your reward. I think he might have been thinking about these women as he said that because of how they had served him for three and a half years. Now, these group of women, we know three of their names. In fact, we know more than the three of their names because Mary, the mother of Jesus, is mentioned in one of the other gospel accounts. This group of women, including the four named ones, three here and Mary in John's gospel, These group of women didn't have any guns or swords. They didn't have an army. They didn't really have any money that we know of. They had no influence. They weren't politicians. They didn't have access to weaponry or soldiers. They couldn't do much for Jesus as he was hanging on the cross during those six hours. But here's the beautiful thing. What they could do, they did. And what were they able to do? They were able to show Christ, as He was dying in agony, that they hadn't run away from Him. That they were loyal to Him. That they still loved Him. And we're told that these women stayed with Him right to the very end. In fact, beyond the end. Never gave up. Never ran away. Never were intimidated. As I said, often women can be more loyal than men. I was reading, we read a lot in the news at the moment of Myanmar, Burma. A lot of trouble there. Many years ago, the first Christian missionary went to Myanmar from the United States. His name is Adoniram Judson. And Adeniram Judson met a very educated, beautiful, sophisticated woman in the United States. He said to her, I'm going to serve the Lord, first of all in India, and then eventually he ended up in Myanmar. And he said, if you'd be willing to marry me, our life is going to be difficult, hard. And it's going to have to go to a place that there's all kinds of diseases you don't have here. in the United States. And she said, I'm willing to go. I'm willing to pay the price. And she went with him on the boat, and on the way over, she was expecting their first child. But before she could even touch the shore, she died. And the infant child died. And he buried his first wife. Adoniram Judson married another lady who was a missionary also. Her name was Anna. Anna was tremendous at linguistics and she knew the Burmese language. And she worked with Adoniram Judson in translating the Bible. She became a great help to him as a helpmate, as an encourager, as a scholar. But when he was in Myanmar, he was arrested and put in jail. Now, Adoniram Judson was often tied up by the hands and left to hang there for hours and hours. And he was left in a tortured prison, tortured in prison for almost two years because he was a Christian pastor. And his wife was left penniless with nothing. And yet for two years, she followed him from prison to prison. working what she could to try and earn some money, to try and bring some food. And then she had to bring food to him because they wouldn't feed him in the prison. And she had to pay the guards to get food to him. And for almost two years, she lived this terrible life, but she never showed a moment of disloyalty to Adoniram Judson. And he survived because of her. labor of love to him. When he came out of prison, after almost two years, not long after, she passed away, died of disease. Loyal to the end. Faithful to the end. But the amazing thing, the story doesn't end there. Because if you go to Myanmar today, and all we hear about is the army and the tanks and all the rest of it, there are many churches there that were started by Adoniram Judson, still there. And one of them we have even in Singapore. If you go to Thompson Road to Thompson Road Baptist Church in the afternoon, one of Adoniram Judson's churches, a Myanmar church, meets there every Sunday. I know of it. And the legacy of his wife lives on throughout the generations. loyal, faithful, true to the very last. And women can be a tremendous help. If you remember when God created Eve, he said that she would be Adam's help meat. You remember that? She was to go be alongside Adam, and she was to bring something to the relationship that he didn't have. She was not to contradict him, She was not to replace him. She's not to be a man. She's to be a woman. He's to be the man. Of course, the devil is trying to mix that up today. But in that relationship, she's to complement him and to bring something missing from the relationship, from Adam. She's to bring balance to him. She's going to have a different temperament. talents than he has. She's going to see life from a different perspective from him. She's going to be able to do things he can't do. And they're meant to come together and work together as a family. And the Bible says they're to become one flesh. In other words, they're to behave and act together as a one single unit, not fight with one another, not compete with one another. That's what God intended the man and the woman to be from the beginning. And women are to bring that balance into the marriage, into the home. And that's what God intended from the very beginning. I read a story, an amusing story some time ago, of the help a woman can be. And this man who became very wealthy, and owned a large oil company, rose to the top of this oil company, and became the CEO of this very large oil company in America. Was driving with his wife one day when he was older in life, and they drove up to the petrol station. And this older man, the same age as them, came out to serve the petrol. And they recognized him. And this CEO looked at his wife and he said, do you remember him? She says, I do. He says, that's your old boyfriend. The guy you used to date before you dated me. He said to her, imagine how your life would have changed if you had married him instead of me. Thought he was making a very good point. And his wife, she was quite a wise woman. She looked at him, she said, yes, you're right. My life would have been very different. And that man's life would have been very different. Because if I had married him, he'd be the CEO of the oil company and you'd be serving the petrol. And the point she was making was that his success was because of her success in the partnership with them together. And often that's overlooked. And that's what God intended. Of course, the opposite is true. An evil woman can bring tremendous evil to a home. We saw that in the first service over the last few weeks with Jezebel, what evil she brought to the home of Ahab and how she encouraged Ahab to do worse things and how she became a catalyst for sin within the home. Herod, the same with his wife, became a tremendous curse to him and problem to him. Now, these women had been following Jesus for three and a half years. They had been serving him for three and a half years that we meet here in Matthew 27. Now, it's very easy to help somebody for a short time, isn't it? All of us are very good at that. We can fake it for a few minutes, for a few hours, even a few days. But it's very hard to serve a person for three and a half years. That takes determination. That's real faithfulness. That's why so many marriages fall apart because there's no commitment in the marriage. There's no faithfulness. When the couple stand before the church at the altar and they take the vows, what do they say? For better, for worse. But frankly, most of them don't even make it through the better days. Never mind the worst days. And that's what's to hold a marriage together, the commitment to be faithful, the promise, the choice to say, no matter how hard it is, no matter how difficult it is, no matter how things come and go, we will stay faithful. We will commit to it. Whether we feel like it or don't feel like it, we'll keep our vow. We'll be loyal. will be true. And if you want to be a servant like these women were, that takes commitment. It's easy to be a servant, as I said, for a short time. But for three and a half years, oh, that takes real commitment. That takes sacrifice. That takes dedication. Joshua, we're told in the book of Exodus and Numbers, was Moses' servant. We're not really sure how long that would be, but it could be as long as 40 years. Because Joshua grew up in Egypt, and he was with Moses seemingly right throughout the whole 40 years in the wilderness. And then he took over from Moses. So possibly for as much as 40 years, Joshua was a loyal servant of Moses. What a man he was. What integrity. What faithfulness. These women were told in Matthew 27 verse 55, there's many of them, and it says they were beholding afar off. The idea of this word beholding is they were watching him carefully, intensely. It's not just a glance. They were really focused on Jesus Christ. For the six hours he was on the cross. A very unpleasant sight with the cries of the two criminals beside him, of the agony and the blood and the gore and listening to all the mockings and the scoffings of those around the cross. And yet they stayed close to him. They stayed as close as they could get. Probably they couldn't get right up close at the beginning because of the soldiers and the chief priests. But as time went on, that number must have thinned out a bit, and they got closer. But they got as close as they could. We're told in John's Gospel, near the end, they got right up close. They couldn't do much for him. But what they could, they did. And we're told in Matthew 27, verse 55, that not only were they beholding him afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, so again, three and a half years with him, it says this, ministering unto him. What was this ministering unto him on the cross? He's dying. He's in agony. He's facing all kinds of spiritual assaults from the devil. He's facing all kinds of emotional assaults from those who are mocking him, as well as the physical agony. So how did these women minister, serve him as he was on the cross? Well, Luke tells us one of the things they did. In Luke 23 and verse 27, were told of these women that as they followed Jesus, it says, they followed him a great company of people and a woman which also bewailed and lamented him. So one of the ways they ministered to Christ was as he was suffering, they were weeping with him. They were weeping for him. I think they were also talking to him, praying for him. I think they may also have been singing maybe psalms to him, songs of encouragement to him, maybe shouting out words of blessing and prayers of love and affection to him as he was dying on the cross. And I'll go a little bit further. Just their very presence of staying there for six hours. must have been a blessing to the Lord Jesus Christ. Having seen Peter, James and John and the rest run away, to see these group of women refusing to be intimidated by the soldiers, by the chief priests, refusing to be put off by the shame and the smell and the sight of him dying there, but to stay so close to him for so long and refuse to leave. It must have been a great encouragement to the Lord Jesus Christ. And sometimes we overlook that. Just going and spending time with an elderly relative, just coming to church, your presence encourages others by your presence, encourages those who are in the leadership, encourages those who are serving in the various ministries as they see you there in your place. in worship. It speaks to others. It's a testimony. As your neighbors see you get dressed and instead of lying in your bed on Sunday, get up and bring your Bible and come to church. As they see you sacrificing your time and energy to come and worship the Lord, that speaks to others. That's an encouragement to others. And the fact that these women went and spent six hours in such a horrible place, surrounded by such horrible people, the soldiers and the scribes and the Pharisees, and yet refused to be intimidated, refused to be distracted, but kept ministering unto him love and affection and kindness, what they could do for him they did, right to the very end. and even beyond. That must have been a blessing to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we are given three of their names here in Matthew 27, and their names tell us a little bit, at least about some of them, because we're told in verse 56, among which, so not just these three, there are more, among which was Mary, Now, who was she? Mary Magdalene, we're told in the other gospel accounts, was a woman who at one time had seven demons inside of her, if it's the same Mary Magdalene. And Jesus Christ delivered her from those demons. Now, having one demon inside of you, possessing you, is a terrible thing. It can destroy you physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally. Someone who's demon-possessed has a terrible life. I've run into people like this. In fact, we had people who had come to our church before in Lucky Plaza, like this. And they have a terrible life. And when you talk to them, they can't sleep. Their faces, their eyes are sunken in their head almost. And they say to you, I'm tortured with this, demon possession. It's an awful thing. But this woman, Mary Magdalene, she had seven demons inside of her, seven. Imagine the terrible life she had. And then Jesus came along one day, and he touched her life. He changed her life. And he delivered her from this awful oppression, persecution she was going through. And he cleaned her up from the inside out. And she never forgot it. She began to be his loyal follower from that moment. And she stayed with him right to the end. In fact, she was the first one that went to the tomb that day on Resurrection Sunday. She loved him. She had been forgiven much. But she never forgot it. And that's the tragedy with many Christians. They have been forgiven much, but very quickly they forget it. Isn't that right? We quoted Isaac Watts last week, his famous hymn, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. And the last stanza says, love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. We're all very good at singing that, but we're not very good at living it. But this woman, Mary Magdalene, she really lived it. When she said, I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back, she really meant it. And she really lived it. She was 100% loyal to Him, focused on Him from the moment she became a believer. She was delivered from a great sin, but she never forgot it, never became complacent about it. And I say this to you today, what does Jesus Christ mean to you? There are people here, many people in this room who say, I'm a Christian, I have been forgiven my sins, I'm on my way to heaven, but Do you really think about it often, the greatness of His forgiveness? Does it wake you up? Does it make your heart respond in love and loyalty to Him? Or frankly, are you not really bothered anymore? Has your life drifted to the point where Christianity is only merely incidental, something you tag on to a few hours a week of your life? It doesn't really mean a lot to you. Well, Mary Magdalene, she wasn't like that. She wholly followed the Lord. She was a 100% woman. Now, she wasn't rich. She wasn't educated. She wasn't powerful in that society. But what she had, she used for the glory of God. Then we're told there's another woman, Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, or Joseph. Don't know much about her, but she's named. Why is she named? Because the Holy Spirit wants you to know these are honored women. God never forgot what they did. Never forgot what they did. And then the other lady is called Salome. Not here, but in the other gospel account, Mark 15, we're told she's the mother of James and John and the wife of Zebedee. Now, you have to ask. Where's Zebedee? Where's James and John? Why is the mum here? And the sons run away. The big strong fishermen, where are they? Where's the father? And this woman, Salome, loyal, faithful amongst this other group of women, right to the very end, not willing to compromise. And then in John's gospel, we discover that Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, was also there. And somewhere along the line, one of his male disciples came back, John. Don't know when. And near the end, they got closer to the cross. They were far off at the beginning. They all got closer in near the very end. Maybe the crowd thinned out. And Jesus spoke to them as he was dying. And he said to Mary and to John, he says to John, take care of her. Because the tradition was in those days that the son, particularly the eldest son, would take care of the mother when she got old. Joseph may well have died, the husband of Mary. He was seemingly an older man. She may well have been a widow, and according to church tradition, she was a widow. And as Jesus was dying there, he looked at his birth mother, and he said to John, who somehow had come back, got some courage to come back, and he said to John, take care of her, be a son to her. In fact, if you go to the land of Turkey today, go to the ancient city of Ephesus, there's a modern city built next to it, but the ancient city is there, And you go on a tour of Ephesus, they will bring you to a church there called the Church of John and the Virgin Mary, the Apostle John and the Virgin Mary. And you ask your tour guide, why is this church here, this old church 2,000 years of age, why is it called the Church of John and Mary? And they will tell you, the church tradition is that John the Apostle, before he went to the Isle of Patmos, which is just off the coast of Turkey, was the pastor of the church at Ephesus. And who did he bring with him while he was pastoring the church at Ephesus? Mary, the Virgin Mary. Brought her all the way there, even when she was an old woman, and took care of her like Jesus told him to do, right up to the time she passed away. And these are gathered around the cross. And these women deserve the highest praise. International Women's Day. Well, these are the women to honor. International Women's Year. These women should be honored every day. And Matthew is telling you and I, highlighting these names and this group of women, not to fill in some space, but the Holy Spirit has moved on the heart of Matthew to bring these women's names to your attention and this group of women to your attention to tell you and I of the importance of them, of how God sees them, how significant they are. Their names aren't as famous as Peter, James, and John, yet God wants you to know they were important to him. They were beloved by him. And they became the eyewitnesses of the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. And sometimes I wonder in the early church, many years later, when all the other disciples are talking big about courage, loyalty, and Jesus dying on the cross and his last words, these women must have smiled to themselves and thought, huh, you weren't there. We were there. We were there to the very end when you all ran away. And they must have been a rebuke. It must have been a very humbling thing for Peter, James, and John, and the rest of them, as they preached throughout the empire for the next 30, 40 years. that every time they preached on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the last words of Jesus Christ and the burial of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and many of the ordinary people probably said to them, where were you, Peter, when he died? How about you, James? Andrew? Where were you? Did you see him? And they would have to shake their heads and say, no. But Mary, she was there. Salome, she was there. Sister Mary Magdalene, she was there. She can tell you. She heard his last words. She saw his sufferings and she wasn't afraid to stand there with him, right to the bitter end. And what a rebuke it must have been for these disciples to have to tell that all, how humbling it must have been. for all the years of their ministry. And you know, the fact that these strong men, powerful men, physically they were powerful fishermen, big strong fishermen, three and a half years with Jesus Christ, theologically very educated now, trained by him. The fact that these men now called apostles would have to stand up and tell this message, for the next 30 to 40 years. Not only was it humbling, but it must have been used as an illustration for them to say to people, don't make the mistake of thinking you're a strong person, because you're not. Don't make the mistake of saying to yourself, I can handle this problem by my own wisdom, because you can't. Those are your famous last words, Peter will tell you, because I thought that. And down I went. James thought that and he ran away too. John and Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew, they all thought that they could be loyal and strong and courageous, but they discovered when the crunch come that they ran away. And the people who were loyal were the women. And I'm sure Peter and James and John and the rest used this as an illustration to tell people, keep humble. Keep prayerful. Keep leaning on the grace of God to get you through, not just the week, but every day, day by day. Let me finish by asking this question. There were many people gathered around the cross that day. And they all had different attitudes to Jesus Christ. But amongst those who professed to love him, There were really two groups amongst that group. One group ran away. One group were afraid of him, ashamed of him. The other group refused to be ashamed, refused to run away, stayed loyal to him right to the bitter end, refused to be intimidated, refused to be put off by anybody. And I have to just finish by asking this question. Which group are you in? Which group are you in? Only you can answer it. Are you loyal to him? Is he first in your life? Is the love of Christ an all-consuming passion? Or are you like Peter, James and John, if the pressure comes, difficulty comes, do you walk away? Do you even run away? Or are you like Mary, Salome and Mary Magdalene? You cannot be passive about the cross. You have to make a choice. That's what we learn from this story. Are you going to stay near the cross? The old hymn says, Jesus, keep me near the cross. Is that what you want to be, close to him? In the good days and the bad days? Are you a fair weather friend of Jesus? If everything goes your way, he's your friend. But the moment problems come, difficulties come, challenges come, trouble comes, are you a fair weather friend? Now only you can answer that. It's not for me to tell you yes or no. It's not for me to go and check your life and audit your life and say, I think that you might be a fair weather friend. Only you can know. But as you look in the mirror of God's word, the Bible says God's word is like a mirror. And as you look at the mirror of God's word today, what do you see in yourself? What reflection? Do you see yourself as a loyal follower, like Mary Magdalene, like Salome, like Mary the mother of Joseph? Or do you see yourself more like Peter, James, and Andrew, a friend when it suits you to the Lord Jesus Christ? The good news for you today is there's a way back to the cross. John found it, remember? John ran away, but he came back, came back. Peter eventually came back. After Christ had risen from the dead, he repented and came back. And the other disciples met him, you remember, in the room and saw his hands and the nail-scarred feet. And Jesus didn't say to them, huh, you left me. Leave me now. No, he brought them back. He restored them. He repaired them, the master potter. And he sent them out to be his chosen instruments of blessing to take the gospel to the rest of the world. Peter, James, John, the rest, all went out. and then sent out as stronger vessels fit for the Master's use. Which one are you today? If you're not even a Christian, get to the cross. Find forgiveness. And if you are a Christian who has wandered from the Savior, come back to the cross. There's room at the cross for you. Last week I made the statement, the ground is level at the foot of the cross. Rich, poor, black, white, educated, uneducated, old, young, strong, weak, all are welcome because the ground is the same at the foot of the cross. Come to Christ and you'll discover there's power at the cross to change your life. Let us pray. Father, we thank Thee for Thy Word today. It's a Word that rebukes us when we look at the lives of these women, the loyalty, the fidelity, the courage, the love they had for Jesus. Even when He was facing His darkest hour, when He wasn't lovely to look upon, they never stopped loving Him and serving Him and ministering to Him. We pray, Father, that the spirit of courage that they had and loyalty we will have, that we would be faithful to You in the good days but also the bad days. For we ask these things in Jesus' precious name. Amen.