Our scripture reading is taken from John chapter 20. John chapter 20. And we're looking at verses one through six, and then 11 through 18. So we'll read together the first six verses, and then I will read from 11. In unison then, John 20, one through six. Let's begin. Now on 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 cloths lying there, yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb, and he saw the linen cloths lying there." Okay, I'll read now, please follow. from verse 11. But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. Then they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? And she said, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Now, when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "'Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?' She, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, "'Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have lain him, and I will take him away.' Jesus said to her, "'Mary, She turned and said to him, Rabboni, which is to say, teacher. Jesus said to her, do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father and to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things to her. That is the word of our God. May he bless it to our hearts. Jesus Christ rose from the dead for us, his encounter with Mary Magdalene. Well, beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus' disciples had no expectation that he would be raised from the dead, and therefore they made no preparation for it. They were so certain Jesus would still be dead that some women went to take care of his dead body on the Sunday after his crucifixion to complete the preservation process. They couldn't do this because it was late on Friday when he was crucified and they were preparing for the Sabbath. But while they had no expectation of a resurrected Jesus, God showed them. God showed them that Jesus was raised from the dead for them. And this is the exciting message from the Lord today. Our headings are three. Mary Magdalene saw Jesus was raised from the dead. Second, Mary Magdalene heard Jesus was raised from the dead. And then third, Mary Magdalene meets Jesus who was raised from the dead. And her goals are that you will rejoice, that you will believe and that you will rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus Christ knowing He was raised from the dead for you. And then, that you will work to spread the message of the resurrection so that the world can be saved and that Psalm 72 can come true, that Christ will have dominion. First, Mary Magdalene saw that Jesus was raised from the dead. Now early in the morning, about sunrise, they would probably have left while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene and others, a bunch of other women, at least five, went to Jesus' tomb and realized that the stone that sealed Jesus' tomb was rolled away. Now these were women of courage, first to go out in the dark. That was not a safe thing to do. But while they were women of courage, they were also women who lacked knowledge. Jesus had prophesied many times that he would be raised up after the third day. These women in their zeal had forgotten that Jesus would be the deer of the morning, a picture of resurrection from Psalm 22, that he would be the bright and morning star That he will be the son of righteousness that Malachi spoke of, with healing in his wings. Therefore God's message to Jesus was living long before Abraham. Jesus said so in John 8, before Abraham was, I am. He was existing. He was a son of God from eternity. He and the Father were one. He made that claim very clear. He claimed that he was the resurrection and the life. He claimed that death could not hold him. And it was written about long before in the Old Testament. But because these women did not know this, or they did not remember this, they brought spices to preserve his dead body. to make the area smell better. But look at what Jesus said. Matthew chapter 17 verse 22 through 23, together, Jesus said to them, the son of man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men and they will kill him and the third day he will be raised up. Is there any unclear thing there? They knew Judas had betrayed him. Jesus told Judas publicly with his disciples there that Judas had betrayed him. Then they saw him die, just like he said. And yet they did not believe that he would be raised up on the third day. But they went there and they saw that the stone of the tomb was rolled away. Seeing this, seeing the resurrection, Mary Magdalene then went to Apostles Peter and John, declaring that she did not know where someone had taken his body. The tomb was open, but the body was gone. She assumed that someone had stolen it. She did not know that Pilate had sealed the tomb and put guards there to make sure no one could do that. And that it was therefore impossible for someone to steal his body away. You see the problem she got into because she forgot the words of Jesus that he would be resurrected. By the way, the women, the other women, went much later to the disciples to give this message. I know sometimes you read these accounts and it can be a little bit confusing, but the first one to go to the two apostles was Mary Magdalene, not the other women. They went much later. Now, continuing. When she went to tell them, of course, they wanted to see. So apostles Peter and John ran to the tomb. But John, being much younger, got there first. But he sees excitement. He wanted to see this so much, maybe he started to remember some of the words of Jesus. And he didn't want to wait to an old Peter hobbling behind. He ran ahead, his excitement being so great. He looked in the tomb and he didn't see the Lord's body. Apostle Peter finally caught up and went in after John. And all they saw were linen cloths and straps for his head, neatly folded. And why is that important? You see that in verse 7 that we didn't look at, but there were these cloths that were folded, and these were the cloths that were on his head. Now all this wild speculation that it was a handkerchief and the face was imprinted on that, and that's just nonsense. That's not what this was. These were cloths that were used for strapping of the head when you buried someone. So it didn't have any shroud of Turin or any of that that came out as people tried to make up today. What was important here is that this was nicely folded. And then the apostles knew, oh, this was not a theft. After all, no thief tidies up after he's done stealing. He just grabs what he could and leaves. But here everything was done. It was an orderly thing because this was a plan of God. See those cloths wrapped up neatly and folded was a reminder. This was the work of God. The resurrection had happened. The Lord was raised from the dead. And for Mary Magdalene, seeing the empty tomb, though, was not enough for her. What can we learn from this? First thing is a general principle that devotion to the Lord is seen in service, not just talk. You know, there's some people who are excited, yeah, I'm a Christian, I go to church, and what have you done for the Lord? You ever tell anyone about it? You have that ring, like that bride that shows that ring to the world. What have you done? See, that's when you know you're enamored with Christ. You've got to tell others about it. You have to do things about it. You have to sing His praise. What do you do with your family? Do they see you more focused on how much stuff you buy or how much you praise God in your home? And they hear you whistling, and it's a song of praise to God. Devotion is much more than talk. And that's why these women didn't say, well, we really, really love the Lord. They wanted to do something for Him to honor Him. It was the wrong thing based on the circumstance, and that's why knowledge is important. But there's another thing here. If Jesus were not crucified on Friday, then Mary and the other women would have come the following day to put spices on his body. And they would not have witnessed the resurrection, but because it was on Friday, the day before the Sabbath, They had to wait until the day after the Sabbath to go and touch a dead man's body. And therefore, they were able to witness this most remarkable event. In fact, there is no other event in human history after creation than this. because it witnessed our recreation, the resurrection of the dead, the removal of the sin of Adam. What a wonderful providence this was, that God would honor these women so that they would be the first witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus told his disciples many times that he would be raised from the dead, and specifically on the third day. This tells us something. Timely recollection of God's Word is always helpful to Christians. Remember Jesus, when he was tempted, three times he did what? He quoted scripture. He remembered the words of God. That's why we memorize scripture passages. That's why you read the Bible every day in our personal and in our family devotions. So you will remember the words of God. Look what happens when they didn't remember. They had their own ideas of what the scripture was going to be. It caused them to be in a state of disappointment because they were thinking one thing and they said, our whole world now has fallen apart. These men were hiding. They had witnessed these remarkable miracles and now they were hiding after Jesus died. See what happens when you don't remember the word, when you don't remember Christ shall have dominion, so you need to go out and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. You will be left disappointed if you move away from God's truth and hold your own ideas. Think of what's happening in our society today. Many people talk about being saved, but what they mean by being saved is that you imitate what other Christians do, or you kind of live a decent semi-moral life and that's what makes you a Christian. That's not recollecting the truth of Scripture that says it's a hearty trust in the life and death of Jesus Christ that saves you. Think about how we raise children. There's so many new ideas of how to discipline children and how to teach them and how to raise them. And many of them are so far away from what God's Word says. The Lord says you need to, if you don't spank your children, you don't love them. And the world says, well, we know of a better way. We will talk to them and we will give them stickers. or we will send them to their room. What punishment? That's not what the Scripture says. You see what happens when we move away from the Word of God? That's why they got in trouble. That's why they must have spent a couple of miserable days thinking, we give up everything for this man, now he's dead. They got in trouble because they forgot. They won't focus on what He said. That's an important lesson as a principle for daily life, but particularly here in the Scriptures. But here's the main message. Jesus was raised from the dead for you. He laid down His life, and He took it up again, and He did it for you. Praise God. Second, Mary Magdalene then heard Jesus was raised from the dead. She saw the tomb was empty. But it wasn't enough to convince her. Now she had to hear it. Now in tears, believing that others had stolen the body of the Lord Jesus, Mary Magdalene curiously stooped down and looked in the tomb. There were small holes and these were short people. They managed to get into the tomb. These were not like we have our tombs in our cemeteries where they're small and flat. This would be like a family place where you would have all the dead bodies put in there. When somebody died, you just open the hole, put the body in, seal it back up. So she went in and looked in the tomb. She had not gone into the tomb before as the other women did, because she had quickly headed out to the apostles to tell them that Jesus was missing. When she goes in, Mary Magdalene then saw two angels. One spoke, and that's where you see also Mark talked about one person and others talked about two. Well, there are two angels, one spoke. The angel reported on why the body of Jesus was missing. And based on the other accounts, the angels assured Mary that the Lord had indeed risen. He was not dead. And in fact, the angel said, you don't remember what he said? They were rebuked for not knowing or not remembering the words of Jesus. So she had no reason to be afraid. No one had stolen the Lord's body. No animal had eaten the body. Jesus was alive and she would see Him for herself. See, Jesus had to be crucified in that very shameful and painful way. But just as Christ had to descend to the grave, Christ would rise again. And then the angels told her, as he did to the others, go tell the world. Go tell these disciples, go tell the world that Christ was raised so the spiritually dead can be raised again. She had to see it, and she still doubted. She had to hear it, and she still had some trouble. What can we learn from what she heard? Well, first thing to remember is that the details of Christ's resurrection teach the truthfulness of Jesus' words that He had spoken before. See, Jesus had given so many details, and if they looked at what He said, if they listened to what He said, they would know that He was speaking the truth. And this is what preaching is. Preaching is a reminder of the details of what Christ did for you so that you could trust Him more. Don't think in details, right? That's how policemen verify if people are speaking the truth. They would say, where were you? What did you see? What were they wearing? What was the weather like? And then they will check these things to confirm that you were speaking the truth. And that's what the disciples were able to do, and that's what the angels reminded them they should be paying attention to, the details of what Jesus said, so they could verify it. And you see, when you could verify truth with someone, you then establish that person as a truthful source that you could trust. That's why the resurrection was so important. It was the biggest event in human history. And if you're truthful about that, you could trust him in other things. Second, you, like Mary, must speak of the resurrection. You see, the gospel is nothing without the resurrection. You could tell people, oh, you need to believe in Jesus, but what do you mean by that? You have to be able to say He lived and died and rose again for you. The Apostle Paul talked about this. Look in your sermon notes, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 13 and 14. But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen, and if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty, and your faith is also empty." So, you can tell people about, oh, you should be a Christian because it's nice, and you have lots of friends, and you live moral lives, and your children will be better. Well, that's not the gospel. That's just social. That's tradition. That's cultural. The gospel is Jesus lived, died, and rose again from the dead for you. And that's why you must speak of this. There are some things you can feel pressured, like, what do you mean a dead man being raised up? And people look at you like, there's something wrong with you. You're not very scientific. You're into superstition. Well, this is truth. verifiable truth, historical counts of truth, and then you've experienced the benefit of this resurrection in your own changed lives. Don't be ashamed of it. Pity the one who thinks you're superstitious because they will go with their superstition to hell and then tell them about Jesus. Third, don't rely on a crucifix or a bumper sticker to speak of Jesus. Use your words. Some people like to have the cross on their necklace and so on. And that's OK. That might be people like to wear those. Or a bumper sticker. That's OK. But that's not the gospel. You have to think about the meaning of the cross. the meaning of the gospel, and that's what you must get out. So yeah, wear your crosses, but wear them more on your lips than around your necks. Fourth, one of the benefits of preaching is to remind you of the words of Christ. So listen. Make notes if you have to. Take these notes and reflect on them at home. Talk about the sermon with others so the message will come back to you. And you notice why we always talk about the cross? Because that's the center of the Scriptures. It's the work of Christ in redeeming us. And we move to our final point. Mary saw that the tomb was empty. Mary heard that Jesus was raised. It still was not enough. Something more was going to happen. Coming out of the tomb, Mary saw Jesus, but did not recognize him. We don't know why she didn't recognize him. Maybe you're going in a dark tomb and coming out in the bright light of the morning, she couldn't see. Maybe he wasn't facing her. Maybe she had tears in her eyes and couldn't see him properly. Maybe he was dressed in a different way or his nature looked somewhat different. We don't know. It doesn't matter. What matters then is then Jesus asked Mary, why are you crying? And who are you looking for? She was obviously looking for something or someone. And assuming Jesus to be just a gardener, she supposed that he had taken the Lord's body because he was the only one around there. And he'd taken his body, and she offered to take his body back. But then Jesus spoke in a way that Mary recognized immediately. You know you hear that voice, and you know who that person is. Maybe you pick up your phone and you hear someone's voice, and you know right away. If it's somebody you really want to talk to, You get all excited. If it's the salesman from India trying to sell you something, you know what you do. But you hear that good voice and you say, oh, it's so good to hear your voice. And that's what she did. She heard her master speak. She had heard it many times before. She spent a lot of time listening to Jesus. And you know why? She loved Jesus a lot, more than most other people. And you know why? She had demons cast out of her. She knew the liberation that Jesus brought to her, so she loved him deeply. And then she tried to cling to Jesus, but he forbade her from doing that. Now, there are all kinds of weird speculation as to what this meant. People say, oh, Jesus didn't want her to touch Him because He had to do some switch with heaven and go back and come back down. But it's not really that complicated at all. We know that Jesus didn't Avoid being touched. He told Thomas, he said, come, doubting Thomas, come here. Put your finger here at my side. Feel. Look in the palm of my hands. Look at where the nails went through. Jesus wasn't the phantom of some sort. In fact, look in your sermon notes, Matthew 28, verse 29, this is later on, much later when Jesus would meet with the other women. This is what took place then, verse 9, together. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them saying, rejoice. So they came and held him by the feet and worshiped him. So he didn't mind being touched by Thomas or all of these people who bowed before him. The answer is simple. Why did he say, don't cling to me? Because Mary had work to do. She was going to be the one to go back and say, you know, I saw the empty tomb, I heard the voice of the angel, but more than that, I met him myself. I had a personal experience with him. The scripture says she was the one who first went to the disciples to confirm this. So Jesus wasn't saying, don't touch me. because of some mysterious thing. He's saying, you got work to do. It's not time for worship now. You know, there are times when it's not time to worship. If you worship and you should be doing something else, that's not good worship. And the Lord was saying, it's time to go. It's now time to speak. It was time to announce the resurrection. So men and women, could be saved. And then Mary did, verse 18, did as she was told, for the glory of the Savior and for the good of the disciples, and Mark confirmed this. Let me give you some lessons before we close. No one could stop God's redemption plan. God declared that this would happen in the Garden of Eden, and He fulfilled it in the cross, in the grave, and on Resurrection Sunday. Jesus is alive. All the ceremonies of the Old Testament, all the festivals of the Old Testament, all were fulfilled when Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. He is alive. And because he lives, you too can live. Now what's the implications here? There's some practical, very practical applications. First of all, are you worried that your spouse might die from cancer or some serious accident? Are you worried about your children dying from doing something dangerous, getting involved in drugs? Are you worried that you can die in a plane crash? Are you worried that the stock market can crash and the economic recession that's coming will devastate your retirement portfolio? Are you, are you, are you? You don't need to worry. You know why? Because you have eternal life. You have a resurrection that's coming. You can live victoriously. What a blessing that is. That means you must secondly believe in the resurrection. If you don't believe in the resurrection, you are pitiful. You should be pitied and you will have to answer to the one who lived and died for you as to why you rejected him. When you believe in the resurrection, be eager to jump out of bed on the Sunday morning to come and meet with Jesus and sing of His resurrection. Yeah, we call this Resurrection Sunday, but every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday in God's book. We gather to worship the Lord. This is what makes you excited to come, because though the body may get sick and die, though you may become poor in this life, it doesn't matter. You have everlasting life. And then you will always tell others about the resurrection. That's what happened to Mary. She knew the disciples needed that for their comfort. She knew the world needed that for their salvation. And that's what you have to do. The world needs to hear it so it can have hope. And you have the message. Let's conclude. The resurrection proved everything Jesus said. The resurrection guaranteed that everyone who believes in Jesus would be raised from the dead. Mary Magdalene saw it. She heard of it and she experienced it. So she had to speak. She had to tell. So brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, you've heard of the resurrection of Jesus. Rejoice. He rose from the dead for you. He rose so that you don't have to die eternally. He took death captive when He rose. Isn't that something? Revelation 1.18, I am He who lives and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. John 14.19, because I live, you will live also. And with this new life, keep fighting the devil, the world in your flesh. Live with confidence. You cannot eternally die, not from COVID or anything else. Even if you do die, and you all will, you will be raised up to be given that perfect body. Think of people who have struggled with loneliness and depression and cancer. struggle with the ailments of old age. You don't have to worry. Death's sting has been removed. These things can't take away your eternal life. And in fact, when these things take away your physical life, you'll have a more glorious one. Imagine one with no pain, no hurt. No betrayal, perfect body, perfect soul. Death was Adam's gift to you. Life was Christ's gift to you. He defeated death. And finally, if you don't believe in the resurrection but claim to be a Christian, you are pitiable. The resurrection saves you from hell. Jesus is alive, though he died. as punishment for the sins of the world. If you want Him to take away your sins and to give you new life, ask and you will receive. He will do a work in you that will amaze you. Let us pray. Thank you, Father, for these words. Thank you for the wonderful hope of the resurrection and what that means to us. but help us that the message of the resurrection, that it does not end with us, but that we will be the means by which it is proclaimed to the world so they can learn of you and live. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.