Well, it's a privilege and honor to stand before you this morning and bring you the word. Ken kind of stole my thunder during his prayer, because our bulletin actually says, Reverend Tommy Myrick is bringing the word today. I'm not Tommy Myrick. I'm Oliver Jaramond, a ruling elder here. So this is your last chance to head for the exits if you're disappointed. But no, all kidding aside, I'm very thankful for what the Lord has done through his word to me this week as I was preparing and I pray and look forward to what he has in store for us and for you. So let's bow our heads as we give the prayer of illumination. Father God, we are gathered together to hear your word preached this morning. We humbly ask that you would show us the word who was with God and is God from the beginning. As we read and hear the Word this morning, help us hear Your voice, not the voice of the preacher. Help us to see a familiar passage in a new way that pierces our hearts and brings forth fresh life, encouragement, and understanding. We ask that You would remove all distractions from our hearts so we may drink deeply from the spring of life-giving truth. We pray these things in the name of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. If you turn to your Bibles with me to John 20, we'll be reading verses 1 through 18. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with a linen cloth, but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb, And she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher. Jesus said to her, Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her. The resurrection of Christ is the central event in the Christian faith. It is the fulfillment of the new covenant made by God through Christ. In other words, if Christ did not bodily rise after three days in the tomb, then Christianity is false, and all people remain dead in their sin. This singular event was frequently predicted by Christ as He taught during His earthly ministry, specifically that He would die and then rise again from the dead. Since this historic event, which all four Gospels bear witness to, is so crucial to the doctrine of salvation, regeneration, and glorification, it is one of the most scrutinized All four Gospels describe the events around the resurrection to provide evidence that it did take place. What makes John's account we just read unique is that John is an eyewitness of some of what was observed by those at the empty tomb of Christ. And as we've understood throughout our study of this book over the last year, that there are deep theological truths in some of the details that John records. which are not included in the synoptic Gospels. My hope and prayer while I've been preparing this sermon was that we would be able to see the resurrection story as told by John in a new, deeper way. This story in the Bible is probably one that we've heard the most aside from the story of Jesus's birth. We have specific Sundays set aside in the year where we focus on Christ's birth and His coming into the world, taking on human nature in the book of Luke typically. And then we have the resurrection story that we read on Easter Sunday when we celebrate Christ's resurrection. So I'm hoping that we don't sit back and think through, I've already heard this, or I don't really need to listen that closely because I know what happened. Instead, instead I'd like to focus on, again, Jesus's death first, what we talked about the last couple of weeks, and then move into the resurrection account. So the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus were all part of God's plan of redemption. This was the bitter cup that Jesus obediently drank in order to fulfill, once and for all, the old covenant requirement of shed blood for our sins. After the final cry of, it is finished, the redemptive work of Christ was done. The physical torment that Christ endured was finished. Jesus bore the full wrath of God for the sins of his elect on the cross. But he still had to descend into hell and remain in the grave to fill the prophecies of the Old Testament, which we read earlier in service. One example, after two days, he will revive us. On the third day, he will raise us up that we may live before him. So what happened during that period of time when Jesus's body was taken off the cross late in the tomb and the morning that Mary went to the tomb? It would be helpful to consider the condition of the 11 remaining disciples and their friends emotionally, physically. They watched from a distance as his body was removed from the cross, prepared for burial quickly due to the Sabbath coming upon them, and laid in a nearby tomb. They watched as a stone was rolled before the door of the tomb. And we learn from the Gospel of Luke that after the women who were present and saw Jesus laid in that tomb, that they rested according to the command. We don't know if the disciples and the women mentioned in the gospels account remain together as they went their ways to observe the Sabbath. All we can do is imagine the sadness and loss they must have felt. Their Lord was no longer with them. While Jesus was living, he predicted his separation through death. He shared in John 12 that his soul was troubled as he said that for this very purpose, he came to this hour, the hour of his tribulation. In John 13, 33, Jesus said his time was short and that where we are going, where he was going, they could not go. And finally, in John 14, Jesus makes it very clear that the path to the Father for Jesus was through the cross, And in verse 29 says, And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place, you may believe. But they had not yet seen what was to come after the Sabbath, the glory of what was to come on that next morning. So in a state of unbelief, fear and grief, Jesus' friends waited. Going to our passage today again in verse one, Now, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Here, the first day of the week, which is literally translated in the Greek as the first day of the Sabbaths, is noteworthy as all of the gospel accounts are establishing a specific time, a specific group of witnesses, and a specific place. They all take care to provide proof of the resurrection of Christ, As I mentioned before, as it is the most important article of the Christian faith, on which our hope for eternal life rests. Some commentators have pointed out that the use of the first day of the Sabbath, instead of referring to that day as the third day after Jesus' death, is a way to present the resurrection of Jesus as a new beginning, of something new. So on this specific day, this first day, very early in the morning, while it was still dark, the story unfolds. Being that it was still dark, one has to consider why Mary and the women would venture out. She loved her Lord dearly, and she saw that he was hastily prepared for burial and laid into the tomb. There's typically a second burial that occurs in the Jewish tradition or proper preparing of the body that was not yet fully complete, and the women, in their grief, were resolved to go out and to complete the task of preparing Jesus's body for his burial. So she was determined to take the spices that were purchased for this activity. I'd like us to reflect on how to respond in difficulties in our own lives. When we are faced with bitter providences, do we draw deeply on our faith, remembering that God loves his children, and that through the difficulty at hand, he will bring about something good This hope, built on a knowledge of God through his word, made bold through faith, helps us continue on in what God is calling us to do during moments of loss and of pain. It also helps us to be present with those who are suffering loss, to comfort them, to come alongside them. Let Mary's example in this case be an encouragement to those of us in bleak seasons when they do come into our lives. It was Mary's desire to honor the Lord that gives her the courage to walk with her friends through the pre-dawn dark streets of Jerusalem back to that tomb. When Mary arrives at the tomb and sees the stone has been rolled away, she is shocked. The first thing that comes to her mind is Jesus is gone. To give a better understanding of how she saw that and made that decision, deduction from what she observed. I'd like to talk about how tombs were constructed during the time of Christ's life and death in that time. Around Jerusalem, there isn't a lot of topsoil, so bodies were not buried in the ground. They were put in tombs that were hewn out of rock. So Matthew, Luke, and John tell us that after his death, Jesus' body was taken into a garden and laid into a newly hewn tomb. The tombs of this time consisted of several burial chambers, which had several niches called loculi cut into the sidewalls. So imagine a square room from floor to ceiling. There are cavities cut into the rock that are like beds, almost like the drawers in a mortuary where bodies are put in. So there's these cut openings in the rocks where bodies are laid. and then they're laid there and left to decompose. And then workers would then, to save space, cut archosolia, or arch niches, where small containers of the remaining bones were placed in ossuaries. These chests were then placed in the archosolia to make room for more bodies as they were brought into these tombs. So in this passage, as we'll see shortly as well, John could see the grave closed and face cloth of Christ from outside the tomb. These details support the account of Jesus being laid in a newly hewn tomb. These tombs were first, when they were first constructed, archaeologists have shown that initially workers would cut three benches, and they would excavate a pit in the middle. They would use these benches to work up higher to cut the loculi, or the cavities in the rock for future bodies to be laid. So in a newly hewn tomb, the deceased would be laid on the slabs on the benches that were used for workers and wrapped in grave clothes and left for about a year until the soft tissue decays and then the bones are put in an ossuary. Over 1,000 of such tombs have been excavated in and around Jerusalem from this time period, and very few had a rolling stone to close off the entrance. This is a feature that was reserved for the wealthy who could afford the luxury. Since Matthew, Mark, and Luke all report that this stone had been rolled away, and John, supporting the claim that that Joseph of Arimathea, who owned this tomb, was a wealthy man. The openings of the tomb would be low, about four feet high, which would require one to bend down to enter, just as John and Luke describe in the resurrection account. So now we have a picture of what this tomb looked like and what Mary encountered, but she didn't look in. She just saw the stone and immediately made an assumption that someone had taken Jesus's body. She runs to tell Peter and John of what she saw. The report was they, perhaps the Jewish leaders who plotted to kill Jesus. Perhaps Roman soldiers guarding the tomb had taken his body away. In verse two, she says, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. The we Mary is referring to are the other woman who set out for the tomb with her that morning. Now Mary likely left that group of women and ran back to tell the disciples what she had seen. It was shocking. So upon hearing this report, both Peter and John immediately go to see for themselves. They don't waste any time, and John makes the point of recording that he was the first to get to the tomb. And it's not that John is higher than Peter in any sort of ranking. I think John just includes this to make it personal to say, We raced to the tomb I got there first, but it's probably because John was younger is what most scholars believe. So he looked into the tomb from the outside. He hesitated upon going in. And he saw the grave clothes lying there on the hewn bench across from the opening. So as I just mentioned, that this would really only be possible in a newly hewn tomb where the body was laid directly across from the opening. Peter eventually catches up to John, and in classic Peter fashion, he impulsively goes right into the tomb, and he sees the entirety of the tomb and sees another detail. He sees the grave clothes that John saw from the outside, and also the face cloth that was on Jesus' head, not lying with the grave clothes, but folded up on the other end of the bench. John, perhaps gaining some courage after watching Peter duck into the tomb, also entered, And the text says in verse 8 that he saw and believed. What did John believe? Did he believe that Jesus' body was stolen? Or did he believe that Jesus rose from the dead? It could be the former, but it is more likely the latter. When John describes the arrangement of the burial linens on one end and the face cloth on the other, we can begin to understand the point that is being made. If Jesus' body was indeed stolen, the grave robbers would not have taken the time to remove the burial linens. The cloths would have also contained the burial spice that Nicodemus brought to Jesus' crucifixion. We recall last week, Tommy described the immense value of these spices, up to a hundred years' worth of wages that Nicodemus brought and offered up as a gift to honor the Lord of Lords. Anyone involved in grave robbing would have been motivated to do their work as quickly and clandestinely as possible. If the crime of stealing the body of Christ was motivated by the greed of petty robbers and not a further plot of the Jewish leaders whose goal was to murder Christ and disband his followers, then for sure the linen spices would have been taken and been resold. A second source of John's belief that Jesus rose from the dead is around the details of the face cloth. This article of clothing should not be confused with the famous Shroud of Turin. My goal here is not to provide a reason for the details John gives. My goal here is to provide a reason for the details, not to debate the authenticity of a specific icon in the Catholic Church. The Greek word here used is the sudarian, which literally translates to a sweat cloth. This would be a cloth used to wipe sweat off your brow when you're working. We would call it a handkerchief or a bandana. These claws were also used for wiping the face of a corpse during burial. So it is not out of place in the tomb. We have to ask ourselves, why is this detail provided by John? There are two reasons I'd like to unpack. The first is for those familiar with Jesus's ministry. As we studied earlier this year in John 11, Jesus showed his divine power by raising his friend Lazarus from the dead. In that account, Lazarus was commanded by Christ to rise and come forth from the tomb. And when he came out, he needed to be freed from the grave clothes that still bound his reanimated earthly body. I don't want to take anything away from the inquired immortal life. He could have easily passed through the grave clothes just as he passed through the locked door when he appeared to his disciples. Another point I want to make about the inclusion of the Sudarian in John's account is that the way it was folded is a personal, it could be viewed as a personal sign to John that his Lord left him there to convince him that he indeed was alive. Sinclair Ferguson recently provided a wonderful description of this scene and particularly the response of belief when John saw the face cloth neatly folded. Ferguson wonders if John saw something familiar in the way the face cloth was laid. He said, had Jesus' disciples seen the way Jesus took off his face and neck cloth some night and carefully folded it? Or had they perhaps been in his carpenter shop at the end of the day and noticed how he took off the sweat cloth he wore around his neck and on his forehead and folded it in a certain way and set it aside when his work was done? Perhaps John recalled that Jesus said his enemies would destroy the temple, his body, and that it would be rebuilt in three days. Ferguson reminds us that this is what Jesus had actually done, and it is as if he folded away the sweat cloth soaked in the blood of his labor. The labor being referred to here is what we heard these past two weeks from the pulpit. Perhaps this went through John's mind. Perhaps it didn't. But John saw the linens and the handkerchief as evidence that Jesus was risen from the dead and is alive. Again, Ferguson says, isn't this what Jesus does for us? He leaves little evidences of his risen presence in our lives. The encouraging word from a friend when it is desperately needed. The circumstances he sovereignly brings us that lead to both joy and sorrow to remind us that he is Lord. and he is working in us and through us to bring us to himself in glory. Turning back to our passage, John tells us that he believed and that both he and Peter, but both he and Peter not yet fully understood the scriptures that he must rise from the dead. When the events of the resurrection morning were written by John, his faith and the doctrine of the early church were not yet well established. They were well established. The risen Lord had appeared to many by the time John wrote his gospel. And Christ had taken the time to explain the scriptures related to his death and resurrection to the disciples so they can bear witness themselves after his ascension. The Holy Spirit has also been sent to help the fledgling church of Christ grow. In the same way, our faith may also start small. as the Holy Spirit begins to move in our hearts and minds. My own faith started with a profession when I was a young child. I learned about God through Sunday school and faithful parents. When the gospel of Jesus Christ was presented to me, my heart received it. My faith was not immediately strong, and my knowledge of God was about what you'd expect from a six-year-old boy. The point I'm trying to make is that it started small. It was something God was doing in me and continues to do in me as I am sanctified by the Holy Spirit and grow in my knowledge and faith in God. Calvin, in his commentary regarding John's belief without understanding, says, When Scripture speaks of the feeble beginnings of faith, it says that Christ is born in us and that we, on the other hand, are born in him. But the disciples must be placed almost below infancy, for they are ignorant of the resurrection of Christ. But yet the Lord nourishes them, as a mother nourishes the child that is contained in her womb. Formerly they resembled children and had made little progress in their understanding. But the death of Christ had rendered them so weak that they must be again begotten and formed, as Paul says of the Galatian church in chapter four, verse 19. My little children, for whom I am again in anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. Our understanding of Christ must be formed in us by him. So after John and Peter saw the empty tomb in neat order, they both departed to their homes. It's not clear if Peter believed the resurrection at this point, as Luke adds a detail in his gospel that he marveled at what had happened. Now John's resurrection account turns back to Mary. We read in verse 11 and 12, but Mary stood weeping outside the tomb as she wept she stooped in to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting there where the body of Jesus had been laid. There is a clear demarcation in John's account between the earthly circumstantial evidence, such as the stone being rolled away and the linen cloths on the gravestone, and the heavenly presence of angels and the risen Lord. We have been looking at the evidence provided by two men, and now the account changes to the witness of women. This is noteworthy that Jesus has not yet appeared to the apostles but chooses to appear to Mary first. God chose to show his power breaking forth on this earth to the lowly. In ancient Jerusalem, the testimony of a woman was not admissible as evidence in court. Don't we see a parallel to the heralds who broke forth at the birth of Christ when they proclaimed to the shepherds that Messiah was born and was lying in a manger? Here, God's angels announce the resurrection of Jesus from the grave to women. This is evident in scripture that God uses the lowly and the humble to exalt himself. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 27, Paul writes, The angels here are described as being clothed in white, which is to emphasize their other worldliness. Alvin makes the point that we know that white garments were an emblem of the heavenly glory as we find that Christ was clothed in a white garment when he was transfigured on the mountain. Luke and Matthew use the dazzling phenomenon of lightning to emphasize their origin. Lightning provides us a physical metaphor that we can relate to in our finite minds of what these angels must have looked like. The heavenly visitors ask Mary, why are you crying? Her response was consistent with her first claim, her instinct, when she saw the open tomb, that Jesus had been taken away and she does not know where they had laid him. The question of the angels is not one where they are asking or seeking information, but rather they are admonishing Mary. It's easy for us, observing this scene, to assume that the evidence of the missing body of Christ and the presence of angels would have convinced any witness that Jesus indeed had risen from the dead. In all four gospel accounts, the angels reference to this seeking of the women. Who are you seeking? Why are you seeking? The crucified Lord has risen. He's not here. The women were still focused on the task at hand. They wanted to complete the burial ceremonies, and in their grief, they were at a loss because their Lord was, Lord's body was no longer there. Mary turns away from the angels, and assuming that she had sensed the presence of someone else near the tomb, turns and sees it's Jesus, but she doesn't recognize him. Just like other post-resurrection narratives where people do not immediately recognize the risen Lord, Mary did not recognize him. Perhaps she was expecting Jesus to look like what she last saw him, bloody and bruised, hanging on the cross. He gently rebukes her with the same questions the angels asked, Woman, why are you crying? Followed by another question, whom do you seek? Mary was seeking a form of Jesus that was constrained by her earthly mind and the trauma she was facing. It was constrained by the reality that she knew or expected. Mary was seeking to dutifully serve her Lord, who in her mind was still dead, a corpse that required to be attended to in order to complete the proper burial rites of the Jewish people. How often do we seek Jesus through the lens of our own finite minds? We must take care to seek Jesus through the lens of scripture, not the culture. We need not to try to form Jesus in such a way to address our own personal condition. This is something we must take care to do in our own hearts. Why Mary didn't recognize Jesus is sometimes just explained away just through the physiological phenomenon that her eyes were full of tears. and she couldn't recognize that that was Jesus. But John's gospel is one with so many deeper meanings and so many signs. We want to focus on the heart of Mary, and this becomes clearer when we continue. In verse 15, Mary, supposing Jesus to be the gardener, asks him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. The word here used for sir in this exchange is a courteous way to address a laborer, as if he was the gardener, which Mary assumed. She was wondering if perhaps he was involved in moving Jesus out of the tomb at the behest of the garden's owner. None of these details matter once Jesus replies to Mary's plea with a single word, her name. At once, Mary, upon hearing her name, spoke as Jesus has always said it when she was with him during his earthly ministry, recognized him. Hearing Christ speak her name removed all blindness, all doubt. We have to recall that Jesus throughout the book of John establishes who he is, the incarnate son of God, and why he came to call his people out of darkness and into light. We have heard over the past year many of Jesus's I am statements. In calling Mary by her name, Jesus is reminding us what he taught his disciples in John 10 about who he is, the good shepherd. Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters my door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice. and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. The good shepherd calls his sheep by name and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. Mary, upon realizing it was Jesus who was before her, immediately addresses him as Rabboni, or teacher. Scholars note that this title is also a confession of obedience, Mary declares that she is a disciple of Christ and submits to him as her master. There is an immediate wonderful change applied to her human understanding when God enlightens... Oh, there's an immediate wonderful change applied to human understanding when God enlightens a person by his spirit to suddenly gain sight when they were formerly blind. Another way to view Mary's response to Jesus's calling her is that a person who is blind to God's holiness is also unable to recognize their own sinfulness in need of a Savior. An external action, which we in the Reformed tradition refer to as the calling, is the first act in a sequence of acts or activities, actions, driven by God that make up the ordo salutis. Those students in attendance today, this morning, who are taking or have taken Latin sometimes in the past, may be able to translate this for us. It is the order of salvation. The external calling of God in the heart of the sinner to cause them to believe the gospel, to believe in the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the cross for the forgiveness of sins, is made effectual by the Holy Spirit. The ordo salutis is not concerned with a temporal sequence of events but a logical order. Some of the steps happen sequentially, but some also happen simultaneously and instantaneously. I want to take a brief moment to touch on the next two logical steps in the Ordo Salutis after the calling. It's regeneration and conversion. When the calling of someone is effectual, made effective by the Holy Spirit, regeneration occurs in the heart of that sinner. This is entirely a work of the Holy Spirit. In our fallen, inherited by birth, sinful states, we cannot do anything in our own power to quicken our hearts spiritually. God must replace our hearts of stone and give us a heart of flesh. God must first transform our hearts so that we can respond to the call of the Savior. When we do, from a regenerated heart, we place our trust in Jesus through the repentance and faith. This is the conversion step of the Ordo Salutis. When I looked at this simple exchange in verse 16, I can't help but think that Mary's response to her call, Rabboni, is evidence of her conversion, where she exclaims her allegiance to her Lord through repentance and faith. These are the true marks of a convert. Repentance, the conviction of sin, confessing our sinfulness in need of a Savior, turning away from that sin towards Christ, and faith, the trusting of Christ as our Savior. As we come to the end of the passage today in verse 17, we encounter a second admonishment, further reason for the resurrection, and a command. The first admonishment, do not cling to me. In that moment, Mary was clutching to Jesus, holding on to his physical form. Perhaps she was on the ground, bowing in worship, holding on to his feet, as Matthew recounts the women responding in chapter 28, verse 9, when they encounter the risen Lord. There isn't a prohibition of touching Jesus in his post-resurrected form. We know he allowed himself to be touched after the resurrection. In just a few short verses, we will learn that he invites the disciple who doubts to touch him, to feel him that he is real, to see where the nails pierced his hands and the spear pierced his side. Here, in Mary's case, Jesus may be protecting Mary from her own eagerness to physically be near to him again and to keep him in the world. Jesus shares that his resurrection is not yet fully complete, that he must ascend to the Father. This purpose adds an additional clue to the admonishment. In pointing out the design of his resurrection to be received into heavenly glory, Jesus contradicts what might have been going through Mary's mind and the disciples as they have thought of his resurrection. Their lack of understanding may have led them to believe that the risen, living Jesus was raised to triumph over the physical world they knew and lived in. Perhaps their minds went back to the scene of Jesus riding on a colt triumphantly with crowds shouting and singing for joy that their Messiah had come to free them from the burden of Roman rule, and that Jesus would usher in a new earthly kingdom in which they would receive honor as well. No, this is not why Jesus was resurrected. Jesus was raised to sit on his throne in heaven at the right hand of God the Father, where he sovereignly rules his church and sends a helper to comfort and sustain his people until he comes again. Mary was not touching to remove doubt, but was clutching to him, wanting to keep his company and presence in the world. Jesus gently lifts up her head and points her to heaven, where he is going. Don't we all need to do that? What a blessed reminder tucked into this verse for us to raise our eyes towards heaven. There are so many things that capture our attention here on this earth. Good things that God has given us to bless us with. Let us not put our hope in them. Let us be reminded to look up, look at Jesus, behold him on the throne. Paul reminds us so well in Colossians 3.1, if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. where Christ is seated at the right hand of God the Father. And finally, we come to the command in verse 17, go to my brothers and tell them these things. So Mary did respond to Jesus. So how did Mary respond to Jesus's instruction? She went and she announced to the disciples that she had seen the Lord and she relayed what he had said to her. Final scene in today's passage has two main applications for us today. The first application is for those of us who have been called by name into the kingdom of God, those of us who in Christ have an assurance of our salvation. We can be comforted and encouraged by that fact that Christ has conquered death, and through his resurrection, we also conquer death by faith in him. This has also been fully bought and paid for by the punishment of sin that Christ endured leading up to and on the cross. We have heard that preach over the past year that the entire gospel of John is paving a path to the cross, which is the culmination of Christ's ministry for which he came to earth. Christ came, lived a perfectly obedient life, and bore the wrath of God because it is the only way that sinners like me and you can be reconciled to God. Perhaps there are some in attendance today, here, right now, that have not yet heard the living and reigning Lord Jesus call their name. and have not turned to Jesus in repentance and faith. Listen for His voice right now. Is He calling you by name? Do you hear Jesus Christ speaking to you through the darkness, through the tears that make Him difficult to behold? If so, look up. Behold the resurrected Jesus, the risen King of kings. Confess your need for His atoning blood shed on the cross for you, and live a new life born in faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. I beseech you as the psalmist does. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. The second application is that we ought not to hold too tightly to this world. While we live in the already but not yet, the time between Jesus's resurrection and ascension and his triumphant, glorious return, we need to ask the Lord to help us by the Holy Spirit to look up and behold the risen Christ on his throne. I don't mean to strain your eyes into the sky and literally look up, but to lift your hearts in gratitude and thanksgiving for what Christ has done and what he promises to do. He has purchased an eternal home for his people where there will be no sin, no sorrow, no pain, where we can live out the purpose of our created bodies perfectly for all eternity, to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Until that day, let us endeavor to live like Christ, humbly serving those around us, keeping Christ as a perfect example of humility, and as we seek to share the good news of Jesus Christ to the lost, so they too may come to hear his voice calling them. Let's pray. Father God, we give You praise and honor for Your power and might on display in the resurrection of Your Son. Help us to keep our eyes fixed on our Savior as we depart and enter another week of life. Allow us to hear the Good Shepherd call our names throughout the week, and give us the grace to follow Him. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.