Address—C. Hendricks
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Turn with me to John 20, John's Gospel chapter 20.
The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early.
When it was yet dark.
Unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
Then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them.
They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.
Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and.
Came to the sepulchre.
You see, Mary didn't understand the resurrection.
She did not interpret.
His.
His absence.
You didn't understand.
She sees the stone taken away.
She assumed that someone had come and stolen away that body.
She didn't understand the resurrection yet.
But she had such deep affection. This is not Mary of Bethany. She understood the resurrection.
This is Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast 7 demons. She had been under the complete power of the enemy. The Lord had set her free.
And she was so attached to him.
That to have lost him to her, for her, was to have lost everything.
They've taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they've laid him.
Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, which was John the writer of this gospel, and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together, and the other disciples did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying yet when he not in.
Then come a Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie.
And the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
Then when in also that other disciple which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw and believed, for as yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.
That's interesting, isn't it? He had told them repeatedly that he would rise. Son of man must suffer many things and be killed and.
And then rise. They didn't understand that.
That's a truth which is beyond the natural man to grasp truth of the resurrection. They went on, then went in also that other disciple which came first to the sepulcher, and he saw and believed. What did he see? What was the compelling evidence that he saw? When they prepared the body for burying, they wrapped it in linen clothes. They wrapped it, and they wrapped it and they wrapped it.
Now the lie that was concocted by the Jews.
That the soldiers came, and while they the disciples came, and while the soldiers slept, they stole the body.
Well, if they had done that, there would have been a scattering of the clothes. They would have had to unwrap it all.
Because the clothes were still there, but the clothes were in a perfect form, like a cocoon in which the body of the Lord Jesus had lain, and he rose right out of that. And the napkin had been taken off and laid in a place by itself, completely different than if they had heardly come in and unwrapped the body and stolen it and left the.
Grave clothes inside.
You remember when Lazarus was called by the Lord? Lazarus come forth, John 11 He came forth bound hand and foot in grave clothes.
And then they the Lord said, loose him, take them off, and let him go.
The Lord didn't have to be loosed from his grave clothes. There they lay in the tomb, and he rose right out of that.
And John saw, and he believed.
And then the next verse is sad.
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Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.
But not Mary.
She did not have a home.
He was her home.
And she had lost him. She had lost everything. He was everything to her. She's not marked by intelligence in the resurrection, but by affection for the blessed Lord. And she was rewarded.
For that affection that kept her right there at the very place where she had last seen him laid and placed. And now he was gone. They've taken away, my Lord. I know not where they've laid him.
But Mary stood without it, the sepulchre weeping. John and Peter went to their own home.
And yet John saw and believed.
They were lacking something.
That she had that deep affection we can preach to you.
Until we run out of energy to preach.
And tell you to love the Lord.
It can't make you love the Lord.
How do you love him? You get to know him.
You study Him, you read the Scriptures, you read the four Gospels, You trace his steps, you hear his words, you see his works, You see the compassion and the love of his heart and the severity of rebuke that He administered to the Pharisees and the Scribes.
You see the perfection of a man. They sent officers to take him and they didn't bring him. Why have you not brought him?
Never man speak like this man.
He didn't speak like the Pharisees. He spoke with authority and with a tenderness and a compassion for the the down and outers, the bruised Reed He would not break and smoking flax He would not quench. Precious Savior.
To know him is to love him, and Mary must have known him quite well.
Because she loved him with an intensity that exceeded that of the apostles.
Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping. Verse 11 And she wept, and stooped down, and looked into the sepulcher.
And she saw something which Peter and John didn't see.
She sees 2 angels in white sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain.
And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou?
She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord.
Not the Lord. Oh no, that wouldn't have done my Lord.
Is he your Lord? Can you say my Lord?
Have you made it personal?
Do you know him that well? That you can say, My Lord, she could say that.
They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. Still no thought of the resurrection.
Ignorance, yet deep affection.
And when she had thus said, she turned herself back.
And she saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was Jesus. Maybe the tears had blurred her vision. Maybe it was still dark.
And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Same thing that the angels had said, but he adds.
Whom seekest thou?
He knew who she was seeking.
He knew and that meant everything to him.
She's supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. That would have been something for that woman to have taken that body away.
Her affections were so strong.
That was the expression of her heart's desire.
Jesus saith unto her, Mary.
He calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out.
He was about to lead her out of Judaism, out of her Jewish thoughts. She wanted him back as Messiah.
He says no, Mary, you can't have me back that way. I'm risen now and I'm going to bring you into a new order of blessing that you've never heard of before and know nothing about. But you'll know and understand it one day.
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Larry she turned herself, and saith unto him her bone eye.
Which is to say, master.
And then he says touch me not.
Don't handle me. Don't cling to me, Mary. You can't have me back the old way.
I have entered into a new order of blessing and the head of a new creation. Now there is in Christ. Paul says it this way, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature or there's a new creation. All things are passed away, all things have become new, and she had now to learn of him in a new way.
In the power energy of the Holy Spirit, but he gives her a revelation because of her deep affection. He says, touch me not, I'm not yet ascended to my Father. You see, Christianity begins on the other side of the cloud when he enters the glory and sends down the Holy Spirit. And then we have the Christian testimony beginning.
It hadn't begun yet when he spoke these words. But the Gospel of John is the Christian gospel. It tells us Christian truth before it came to be, in fact, in history.
Tells us Christian truth, coming of the Holy Spirit, finished work of Christ. You read John 17, his prayer. He is in spirit beyond the cross. He says I finished the work which thou gave us me to do. He said that before the work was finished, but he was beyond the cross in his prayer. So as we read that prayer, we're reading what is true after the work was done and he's gone back to the Father.
Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Father, keep to thine own name, those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, and so on.
Touch me not, Jesus saith to her, For I am not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren, what a revelation, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and to your Father, to my God, and to your God.
Notice he puts my father first.
Because he was always his Father. He's the eternal Son.
He never ever became his father.
Jehovah's Witness translation. Very serious error. Others have followed them. In that thou art, you are my son. Today I have become your father. No, no, no. That's not right. That's not correct.
He never in time became his father. He was always his father, but he did become his God.
Thou art my God, even from my mother's belly.
He wasn't his God when he was in the form of God in the deity from all eternity passed, but he was his father. But as a man he was his God.
When he became a man.
And so he says, I ascend to my Father, and to your father. I'm putting you in the same place that I am in, as man before the Father and before God.
My God and your God.
Tremendous revelation. That's truth. Christianity that goes so far beyond Judaism. They never had any truth like that in Judaism. They couldn't go to call God their Father. They didn't know him in that way. And he says, he calls us my brethren. He says, my brethren.
So she goes back to the disciples, and she says, Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord #1 she'd seen the Lord, the risen Christ, and that he had spoken these things unto her. What he said? To what did he said to her? What did he say? He said, You go to my brethren and tell them, I ascend to my Father, to your Father, to my God, and to your God.
Tremendous, tremendous truth.
Something we know so well. Do we enjoy it?
The most privileged people on the face of the earth.
This truth, God being Father to us as he is to him, and a God to us as he is to Him.
The Epistles, the prayers and the Epistles are blessed be the God and Father of whom of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Highest place of blessing possible for the creature to be in. Better than that of angels? Far better.
They can't call God their Father.
They're sons of God by creation, but nothing more.
00:15:00
The same day at evening, verse 19, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, King Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. That's the fruit of his redemptive work. He made peace by the blood of his cross. Now he proclaims that the risen Christ to the assembled disciples, Jesus in the midst, and he says, Peace be unto you.
He showed them his hands and his side, the evidence of his sufferings.
And then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord?
Then said Jesus to them again, peace be unto you, this time not for themselves, but that they might carry the message of peace to a lost world, Peace be unto you. As my Father had sent me, Even so send I you. And so he has left us here. He's commissioned us to go forth with this message of peace, the message of reconciliation. Second Corinthians 5 He's given to us the ministry of reconciliation. How that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.
Not imputing their trespasses unto them. And we can now can tell men and women and children, God loves you, He wants you back. Come, come, come. He's arms are outstretched. He is a reconciling God. Peace has been made. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you. As my Father had sent me, Even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them.
And saith unto them, receive you, the Holy Ghost.
Only one other time in scripture did God breathe on his creature and that was in Genesis 2 when he breathed into Adams nostrils. The breath of life and man became a living soul. Here you have the same person, Jehovah God become a man, a risen man.
The risen Christ breathing into his disciples the breath of his resurrection life in the energy and power of the Holy Spirit, with a message to proclaim the reconciling the grace of God. What a what a chapter, what a picture.
Whosoever sins you remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins you retain, they are retained. The authority, the administrative authority to admit, to remit and to retain sins. We see that carried out in the Book of Acts.
The Book of Acts.
But the resurrection life of Christ has been communicated to us.
In the energy and power of the Holy Spirit.
It's a risen life. It's a life beyond this world. That's why Christians are are a heavenly people. We are associated with a man in the glory. He is the the head of this new creation and we're a part of it. New creatures in Christ. All things passed away. All things have become new.
Hey, God bless his word.