Highland Park hosted a concert by the Williams Baptist University Singers during the morning service. Instead of a full-length sermon, Pastor Mike gave this devotional.
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Earlier this week, I came across a quote from one of my favorite authors and pastors and pastors! His name is Timothy Keller.
! And he's talking about John chapter 20. And if you remember, in John chapter 20, Jesus has resurrected from the dead. He'd been buried in the grave in the tomb for three days after being crucified on the cross in our place for our sins.
And if you remember that story, it's the women who go to the tomb, and they're the ones who first discover that the stone has been rolled away. And they go back and they report to Jesus' disciples what they've seen, and it's Peter and it's John.
And they race to the tomb, and they go in and they discover that the body is gone. And they're trying to process all of this information. They're not sure what to think. And they're trying to piece together in their minds all that Jesus told them before and what they're perceiving now in the empty tomb.
And they leave. And the very first person that the Lord appeared to after his resurrection was Mary Magdalene. And if you remember Mary Magdalene, the first time she had met Jesus, the Bible said that she had been possessed by seven demons.
This is a woman who didn't have much to offer the world. This was a woman who was very much on the outskirts of society. This is a woman who the rest of the world would have seen as somebody who would be so completely and totally unworthy of being the first person in all of history to see the risen Son of God.
I share that story with you because Timothy Keller says of that interaction between Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ, it's symbolic of the entire Bible.
The entire Bible can be summarized in that one interaction. Because there you have Mary Magdalene, very much a sinner, very much somebody who the rest of the world sees as, again, being worthless nobody.
And Jesus appears to her. She's lost. She doesn't know what to think in that tomb.
She doesn't know really what to believe. And Jesus goes and finds her. And Jesus reveals himself to her.
And he calls her by name. And she recognizes who he is. That's the gospel right there. That's the Bible. We are sinners. The Bible says that we all have fallen short of the glory of God.
Every single one of us. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. We are born under the curse of sin. And as a result of that, we are born spiritually dead.
Wanting nothing to do with God. And you've heard the song sung in John 3.16 and going beyond. That God so loved the world that he sent his son.
Not to condemn, but to show them that he was the way, the truth, and the life. That they must be born again. And how are you born again?
Well, the Bible says by believing in your heart that Jesus is the Christ, the risen Son of God, confessing with your mouth that very truth. And the Bible says that if you believe that, you're born again.
You're saved. You'll have everlasting and eternal life. You have peace with God. Because when you believe that, the Bible says that your sins are placed on Christ, on the cross.
Every single one of those sins that you've committed. And his righteousness, his sinlessness, his perfectness. The Bible says God places that on you.
And so now when he sees you as a believer, he sees you as a child. He sees you not only as not being guilty of your sin, but being innocent of sin.
That's amazing grace, is it not? That's good news that the world needs to hear. Thank you.