Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.highlandparkbaptist.net/sermons/98374/from-gloom-to-glory/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] This morning, I want us to experience the resurrection through the eyewitness of a particular woman.

[0:18] ! In fact, I would say it was a woman who was granted to be the first person to see the woman.

[0:29] To see Jesus alive after his death. I'm talking about a woman by the name of Mary. And so, let me read the text. John 20, starting with verse 1.

[0:43] 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.

[0:55] Then she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, that would be John, of course, one 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.

[1:11] 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.

[1:22] 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.

[1:38] And the handkerchief that had been around his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also, and he saw and believed.

[1:55] For as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again to their own homes, but Mary stood outside by the tomb, weeping.

[2:09] 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.

[2:22] Then they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.

[2:33] Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping?

[2:47] 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 laid him, and I will take him away.

[2:58] Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him, Rabboni, which is to say, Teacher.

[3:10] 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.

[3:25] Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things to her. Interesting story. Possibly, in fact, I would say very clearly, for my part, of the various accounts of the resurrection, what happened on that very, very resurrection morning, John's account is my favorite.

[3:51] And, of course, it focuses on a particular Mary. And it seems clear from Scripture, even a casual reading of it, that the name Mary was a very popular name in the New Testament days.

[4:05] I think that's probably why it's very popular still today among Christian cultures. And you may know this already, but there are at least six Marys mentioned in the New Testament.

[4:17] Six of them. And nearly all of them, exception of maybe a couple, were directly connected with Jesus, connected with His ministry.

[4:30] There was, of course, Mary, the mother of Jesus. She would be the first Mary in Jesus' life. Next, there was Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. Remember Lazarus, who was raised from the dead.

[4:41] Then there was Mary, the wife of Clopas, the mother of James, one of Jesus' apostles, known as James the Less, to kind of distinguish him from James, the brother of John.

[4:54] Remember? And next, there was Mary, the mother of Mark, the author of the Gospel of Mark, also called John Mark. Then there was a Mary in Rome who served the Apostle Paul.

[5:08] And you can read about that in Romans 16 and verse 6. All right, so that's five of the Marys in the New Testament. I said there were six. I guess I missed one, skipped one.

[5:19] Who was the sixth Mary? Mary Magdalene. Thank you very much. Mary Magdalene. The Mary here in our text for this morning.

[5:33] Now, understand that Magdalene was not her last name. Okay. That simply identified her kind of hometown, where she was from, which was Magdala, a city on the western side of the Sea of Galilee.

[5:50] And so Mary Magdalene was a Galilean, as was Jesus, and as were most of Jesus' first disciples. And the second only to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

[6:06] Mary Magdalene is mentioned more often in the New Testament than all the other Marys combined. She was a very key Mary in Jesus' life. Again, second only to His mother.

[6:18] And you probably remember that Jesus had healed Mary Magdalene and had cast out of her seven demons, the Bible says. Mark 16 tells us about that, and also Luke 8.

[6:29] In fact, in a few weeks we'll be looking at Luke chapter 8. And so from that day forward, Mary devoted herself to the Lord and to the apostles and traveled with Him and with them and cared for His needs throughout His earthly ministry.

[6:46] And you also know that she was there when Jesus was crucified. And she was also there when they took Jesus' lifeless body down from the cross.

[6:58] She was there when the women, several women came early that Sunday morning to anoint the body of Jesus with spices. And she was the first one to report to the disciples that Jesus was indeed alive because she had seen Him.

[7:14] And so she was the first one to see the risen Lord Jesus. I think that's interesting. Considering that the two women who were blessed by God above all other women both were named Mary.

[7:31] I mean, think about it. The first Mary, of course, was there when Jesus was birthed. She witnessed His birth. I mean, up close and personal. Both Marys witnessed the death of Jesus.

[7:43] And the second Mary, Mary Magdalene, witnessed Jesus' resurrection. She was the first one to see Him alive from the dead. Now, I'm not saying that because I want to press into the text and into your minds some divine significance of that, that maybe she was divinely chosen by God to be the first human being to see Jesus alive after death.

[8:10] You know, you can call it luck if you wish, though I wouldn't call it luck. You can call it circumstantial for Mary. She just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

[8:21] You could call it providential. I think that's probably getting closer to the truth of it. You can call it whatever you wish. But I would press upon you and propose to you very dogmatically that Mary Magdalene's encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ that morning, reveals to us one of the key features of Christianity.

[8:46] And a feature, by the way, that makes Christianity unique from all the other religions of the world. And what is it? Well, stick with me and find out this morning.

[9:00] As we walk through the text, the first thing I want you to notice is this. The gloom that preceded the resurrection.

[9:10] That's the first thing we see. The gloom. The gloom in Mary's life and the life of the other apostles prior to the resurrection, or at least prior to their witnessing of the resurrection.

[9:28] And let me just kind of put the events in their order as best we can. And we have to kind of piece together not only what John includes in his gospel, but bits and pieces, fragments from the other gospel writers.

[9:40] And we just kind of put it in a chronological order. It was around 5 a.m., 5 a.m. possibly, early that Sunday morning when Mary Magdalene, now John only mentions Mary, but the other gospel writers mentioned that there were two other women with her.

[10:02] So it was 5 a.m. early in the morning on Sunday when they, these three women, came to the tomb in hopes of putting spices on the body, as was the custom.

[10:15] And of course, you know, on the way, the Bible says they weren't really sure how they were going to do that, who's going to roll the stone away, and so forth. But when they got there, they immediately noticed that the stone had already been rolled away.

[10:29] Mary Magdalene immediately, as soon as she saw that, we're not told whether she actually looked inside, but she may have peered inside, but immediately she leaves the other two women behind, and she goes to seek out Peter and the other disciples.

[10:48] Now Matthew tells us that the other two women stayed behind, and they had an encounter with two angels, and then after that happened, they too left the tomb. A little bit later, Mary returns with Peter, and John returns to the tomb, and after an examination, a quick examination of the tomb, Peter and John also leave the tomb and leave Mary behind.

[11:11] And so Mary Magdalene is there, all alone. Well, not really. But she's there in the garden, the garden tomb, and verse 11 says that she was weeping.

[11:24] Now that's an understatement because the very word means she was wailing. Bitter tears.

[11:36] She was crying. And John describes it so vividly. As she wept, wailed, cried, she stooped down and looked inside the tomb.

[11:47] You see, you get a sense of the gloom that preceded Mary's encounter with the living Lord Jesus.

[11:59] And Mary had endured a lot. Mary had actually endured about all she could stand. As I said, she was there and watched as they drove the nails through her Lord's hands and feet.

[12:14] And she listened as His enemies were jeering and taunting Him as He hung there upon that cross. She witnessed all of that. She watched as they thrust the spear into His side.

[12:27] And she was there when they removed the lifeless body of her Lord and her Master whom she loved dearly. She was there when they lowered His body off of that cross.

[12:38] And she participated in the kind of embalming or preparing of the body of Jesus for burial. And she was there when they placed His lifeless body now prepared in His tomb and possibly was there when the stone was rolled in front of it and it's all over.

[12:58] And yet now, the last straw. How could she take anymore? Someone has stolen His body. Or so she thought.

[13:08] The gloom, see, that precedes the resurrection. Now I want you to notice something, a point of inspiration here.

[13:20] And notice how John conveys this atmosphere of gloom. Not just in Mary's life but in the lives of all the disciples really. And he does this with the use of a single word in the text.

[13:35] And it's the word dark. Do you see that? Verse 1 says, Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early. And then he inserts this bit of description.

[13:47] He didn't have to. It's assumed but he wants to make sure he inserts this. And what does he say? He says, While it was still dark. You say, Well, big deal.

[13:59] I mean, 5 a.m. It's usually dark at 5 a.m. What's the big deal about that? Well, the thing we need to understand is that John, more than any of the other gospel writers, John liked to use descriptive words like dark and night and darkness to identify certain spiritual conditions.

[14:24] For example, in John 3, verse 2, John wants his readers to understand the darkness of unbelief. And so he introduces us to Nicodemus and Nicodemus is an unbeliever and he's unsaved, of course, and his heart is dark with unbelief.

[14:43] And so John mentions that Nicodemus came to Jesus when? By night. He came by night. And it's interesting that John mentions Nicodemus two more times in his gospel and all three times he always adds that bit of information that Nicodemus was the one that came to Jesus by night.

[15:08] The darkness of unbelief. And in chapter 13 and verse 30 in John, John also highlights the darkness of unbelief in the heart of one of Jesus' apostles, Judas.

[15:21] Remember? And Jesus is having his last Passover with his apostles before he would be crucified and so forth. And Jesus reveals to Judas that he will betray him.

[15:35] Remember? And then John adds this bit of detail. He says, He, Judas, went out immediately and it was night.

[15:47] It was night. He's describing the darkness or fortifying a reality in the heart of Judas that he was an unbeliever. Judas should have remembered what Jesus said in John chapter 11 and verse 10.

[16:03] He said, But if a man walk in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him. See, again, using the word night as a description of a spiritual condition.

[16:16] The darkness of unbelief. But John uses the words night and dark to convey other spiritual conditions. In chapter 6 and verse 17, the disciples are in a boat.

[16:28] They're out in the midst of the Sea of Galilee. They're in a storm, a raging storm. And the Bible says they are afraid, sorely afraid. I mean, they're at their wit's end. And John wants his readers to have a kind of heightened sense of the darkness of fear.

[16:46] And so he includes these details. And it was now dark. And Jesus had not come to them. The darkness of fear. Also in John chapter 20, verse 3, John wants his readers to have a sense of the darkness of disobedience.

[17:03] And you may remember that Luke gives us this bit of information that after the resurrection at some point, Jesus ascends back to the Father. But before he ascends back to the Father, he gives his disciples some strict instructions.

[17:17] He says to them, Terry, here in the city of Jerusalem, don't leave the city of Jerusalem until when you are endued with power from on high, which is a reference to Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit.

[17:30] He said don't leave the city until that happens. So what did they do? Did they obey? Well, John tells us that Peter said, I'm going fishing. And the other disciples, he said, we're going to go with you also.

[17:45] And then John adds these details and that night they caught nothing. And then, by the way, in the very next verse, John reveals the stark contrast.

[17:59] You know, while they're out there fishing, he fished all night, haven't caught anything. And then he says that Jesus was there on the shore. And when was that? John says, when the morning had come.

[18:12] See the contrast? See how John is describing, using these descriptive words, to highlight certain spiritual conditions. And so, if that be the case, then what is John trying to convey through this use of the word dark here in our text?

[18:30] The darkness of grief. Of grief when someone you dearly love is now absent. And what is it we need more than anything else when, for various reasons, life seems so dark?

[18:49] What is it we need? We need the same thing Mary needed. And what did she need? She needed an encounter with the living Jesus. His body would not have sufficed.

[18:59] Now, she was hoping his body would still be there. She's very distraught that possibly in her way of thinking, in her assumption that someone has stolen the body. But she really is desiring an encounter with the living Jesus.

[19:13] Now, if that is what we need in all times, but especially in some of the darker times of life, if that's what we need, then that is what we should desire.

[19:26] And so, that is what we must seek. Jesus. The living Jesus. So, you see, the gloom that precedes the resurrection.

[19:39] Next, I want you to notice the guesswork that perverts the resurrection. The guesswork that perverts the resurrection.

[19:51] see, if you're not careful, the gloom, whatever its source, whatever the circumstances, whatever the substance of it, the gloom will lead to unhelpful guesswork.

[20:09] Coming to wrong conclusions. A guesswork that perverts the truth. And that's what happened to Mary. She had gone to the tomb. The stone had been rolled away.

[20:23] She immediately runs off to find Peter. And probably on the way, she's kind of putting all this together, coming up with conclusions. And so, she's thinking the stone has rolled away.

[20:34] That means someone has violated the tomb, which means that someone has stolen the body. probably the Jewish leaders did it.

[20:45] The authorities, yes, that's it. The Jewish authorities stole the body of Jesus. They've stole His body and taken it away. And so, Mary's guessing, isn't she? She's coming to a conclusion.

[20:56] She's making an assumption. And yet, it is a false assumption, isn't it? The authorities did not steal the body of Jesus. So, she's come up with a false assumption based upon what she saw.

[21:10] An immediate conclusion that was false, was an error. She's guessing about this. But now, listen to me. Mary's false assumption that the Jewish authorities had stolen the body of Jesus was based upon, now listen to me, a far worse assumption.

[21:33] And what would that have been? That Jesus is still dead. Before she came to the conclusion that the Jewish leaders had stolen His body, a little bit later, she's even going to accuse the gardener of taking the body.

[21:51] Long before she came to those conclusions, she had already settled, or maybe not even considered, another very important issue. And so, it represented a very false assumption, a far worse false assumption, and that is that Jesus is still dead.

[22:05] That Jesus could not have been raised from the dead, even though He said He would be. Let me ask you something. Why was resurrection not Mary's first guess?

[22:21] Have you ever thought about that? Based upon some of the things that Jesus had said prior to, that she should have did here and should have understood, based upon even a number of Old Testament passages that prophesy the resurrection, her first conclusion should have been that Jesus is alive.

[22:43] But it was not. Why? Well, John tells us in verse 9, for as yet they did not know the scriptures.

[22:55] Now, they had heard them, they had read them, they had memorized many of them, but when it says they did not know them, they didn't put these things together. What the scripture says, and what has occurred here on this Sunday morning, they didn't connect it, because they didn't know it.

[23:17] And you know, that is always the cause of error, isn't it, in our lives. That is always at the heart of false assumptions, and ignorance of the Word of God, and ignorance of the truth.

[23:32] And so, like Mary, we will let darkness, a gloominess overtake us, based upon some circumstantial thing, or whatever it may be based upon.

[23:45] We'll let it overcome us, and then we say Jesus is gone from us. We might not articulate it in those words, and yet we do sometimes come to that conclusion that He's just nowhere to be found.

[24:04] He's gone from me. So we start guessing. He doesn't care about me. Or maybe He's angry with me. You know, I'm not perfect.

[24:19] So He's angry with me. Or maybe He's judging me. That's why He's gone from me. We start this guessing game. And we say He's abandoned me. And what do we do? We pervert the real truth of the resurrection.

[24:34] We pervert it. That is, we fail to see the living Jesus who promised I'm the resurrection and the life. The living Jesus who promised I will never leave you, nor will I ever forsake you.

[24:46] We pervert the resurrection. How ironic that we who most strenuously believe in and support the resurrection of Jesus Christ would so quickly forget that He is alive.

[25:00] Now we sing about it and we praise the Lord about it and we say He is alive and especially on this day. He is risen. Indeed.

[25:11] Yeah. We say that and yet we're hard pressed at times based upon some set circumstances or some season of dryness or whatever may be the source of it.

[25:25] Some major loss in our lives and we're hard pressed sometimes to see that He is alive. How ironic that is. That we somehow just don't see like we ought to that He lives to make intercession for us.

[25:43] That He lives to be a very present help in trouble. I could go on and on with some of the promises that are articulated in the Word of God. And we pervert the resurrection that He is alive.

[25:58] So the gloom that precedes the resurrection. The guesswork that perverts the resurrection. And next, the grave cloths that prove the resurrection.

[26:14] the grave cloths that prove the resurrection. Now picture this. Mary returns to the tomb accompanied by Peter and John and they look inside the tomb.

[26:31] John looks first because he's young and he got there before the others did and he looks inside and then Peter second, he's bold and he doesn't even break stride, he just runs right on into the tomb, probably huffing and puffing.

[26:47] And then Mary, a third of all. But they all see the same thing. They see Jesus' grave cloths. Now I know that what we have here is just a little snippet of information.

[27:03] But even in this little snippet of information, we can deduce a very incredible thing. So they all see the same thing.

[27:14] They see Jesus' grave cloths and then Peter and John anyway leave. Mary certainly walks out of the tomb if she ever went in to begin with. We're not sure about that. But Peter and John then leave. All right, they leave and not really considering the evidence.

[27:31] Apparently, let's consider the evidence. In the first place, the scene inside the tomb is orderly.

[27:47] It's not a mess, not chaotic. There's no evidence of grave robbers in the tomb. No matter what conclusion Mary came to and the others came to, there's no evidence of it.

[28:01] It's not based upon what we're told. I think you'd have to admit that if the Jewish leaders had taken the body, they would not have taken the time to unwrap its cloths.

[28:15] They would have just grabbed it, the body, cloths and all, and run out with it. I even suspect that if the Jewish leaders had done this, they would roll the stone back where it was.

[28:29] second though, the grave cloths were undisturbed. From the description here and understanding some key words in the description, we know that things were undisturbed.

[28:52] Look at verse 6. the linen cloths lying there. That's what they saw. The linen cloths lying there. Aphanion is the Greek word and it means strips of cloth.

[29:09] The strips of cloth that would have been wound around the body of Jesus in preparation for His burial. What else did they see?

[29:23] the handkerchief. Some translations have the word napkin. It is, by the way, the same word that's used elsewhere in Scripture to describe turbans.

[29:39] And so they saw this that had been around His head. Now, pay close attention. We're looking at the evidence.

[29:52] Alright? around His head. Literally wrapped, twirled around His head.

[30:03] And it's not lying with the linen cloths, but folded or enfolds together in a place by itself.

[30:16] Alright, separated. Why? Because the burial cloths consisted of two parts, apparently. Cloths for the body and the cloth for the head.

[30:31] And so they're separated. There was the evidence. That's what they saw. The evidence is right there before us.

[30:43] What do you see? What do you deduce from the evidence? Well, the body is gone. No doubt about that.

[30:55] No body there. It's not laying over in a corner someplace. Some have said that actually Jesus kind of revived a little bit in the tomb and unwrapped Himself and then later died over in some corner, some other part of the tomb.

[31:10] Maybe it was one of these tombs that has multiple places for bodies and so He was just misplaced. Now, there's no body.

[31:21] So, from the evidence, no body. No evidence of vandalism. Everything is orderly. Everything is in its right place except, of course, for the body.

[31:33] It's gone. But the grave cloths are there. And the head cloth is there, set apart from the rest of it.

[31:50] It is based upon the evidence. It is as though the shape, form of a dead man was preserved, but the body itself was gone.

[32:07] It is as though Jesus' body, had simply passed through the grave cloths. Now, I'm not making a case for the shroud of Turan, okay?

[32:19] I think it's bogus, but that's the scene. That's the evidence. That the body just passed through. And so the cloths are laying there in their folds.

[32:31] The cloths had been wound around his body and the cloth that was wound around his head were just laying there in folds as if the body had just simply passed through. That's the evidence.

[32:43] Not, by the way, like Lazarus. Remember the story of Lazarus? Lazarus died and they put him in his tomb and then Jesus got there and he said, Lazarus, come forth.

[32:54] See, Lazarus was restored to a mortal body. I mean, he was raised, yes, raised from the day he really was dead, but he was not raised to a glorified body.

[33:05] He was raised to a mortal body and so he hopped out of the tomb, still wrapped up in his great cloths, and Jesus said, unwrap him, you know, so he can breathe. Basically, what he's saying, so he can eat and take sustenance.

[33:19] That's not the case here. The evidence points to the fact that Jesus' resurrected body just simply passed through his burial cloth, very much like he did a little bit later when the disciples are locked behind closed doors and Jesus just simply appears, he just walked through the wall.

[33:38] You can do that in a glorified body. So the evidence was there. But they didn't see it, did they? They didn't see it.

[33:50] But they should have. That should have been their first conclusion. All right, yeah, maybe they should have gone a step further to verify some things and get all together and verify the evidence, but their very first conclusion should have been, he is risen just like he said he would.

[34:06] In fact, they could have turned to a number of Old Testament passages and I'll give you one, Psalm 16, 9, where the Bible says, Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices, my flesh also will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in Sheol, the grave, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption.

[34:27] This is a messianic prophecy, a messianic psalm. the proof of the resurrection. We need to see that. Not only here in the text to bolster our faith, to confirm our faith, it's the truth.

[34:49] He is raised from the dead, but we also see the proof of his resurrection in our own lives. And especially in those times, during those times when we are struggling for various reasons.

[35:04] See, even in the gloom of darkness, that darkness that often creeps into our lives, listen, don't ever fail to see the proofs that Jesus is alive.

[35:16] And there are many. Look for them. The gloom that precedes the resurrection, the guesswork that perverts the resurrection, the grave cloths that prove the resurrection, empty tomb, empty grave claws.

[35:30] He is alive today. And then one more. The gift that is provided by the resurrection.

[35:43] The gift that is provided by the resurrection. There's something about Mary that all those who experience the dark times need to learn. And that's all of us.

[35:57] And so I would say that there's something about Mary magnifying that reveals the single most important truth about Christianity. Follow the narration, starting with verse 11.

[36:11] But Mary stood outside of the tomb weeping, wailing, and as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb. I guess apparently she thought, well, maybe, just maybe, I missed something and his body is still there.

[36:27] But instead, what did she see? Verse 12, 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?

[36:40] And she said to them, because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him. Now watch this, verse 14. Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus.

[36:57] I don't know how you explain that. Maybe Jesus supernaturally hindered her from recognizing him very much like he did the two guys on the road to Emmaus, remember? They didn't recognize him.

[37:08] Maybe in his glorified form, that glorified form maybe just not as easy to see with mortal eyes, maybe Mary was just crying so much that she couldn't see very much.

[37:21] I think that's probably the better answer. I don't know though. But let's read on. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?

[37:36] Which is, by the way, an important couple of questions that we should answer when we're struggling. Why are you weeping?

[37:50] That is, what is the real reason for your heartache? That's a good exercise, a good thing to answer. What's going on in your life?

[38:01] Are you hurting? Depressed? Burdened? Are you in darkness? And you need to ask yourself, what is the real reason for it?

[38:12] And then the second question is important too. He says, whom are you seeking? So ask yourself, who or what is the true answer to my problem? How did Mary answer?

[38:24] Verse 15. She, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away.

[38:36] And then Jesus applies his mercy, doesn't he? He says, woman? No. He says, Mary.

[38:48] Calls her by name. Mary. And that's all it took. That's all it took. Her eyes were open. And she said, Rabuni.

[39:01] Master. She knew who he was. Her eyes were open. And then Jesus said a curious thing, but it's not hard to figure out. He said in verse 17, do not cling to me.

[39:12] I think there's little information left out. It's assumed. Mary took hold of him. Maybe around his legs. I don't know. You can just guess what you want to.

[39:24] But he said, don't cling to me. That is, and this is, by the way, a command. He is saying, stop holding on to me. And he gives a reason.

[39:34] Because I've not yet ascended to my father. I can't stay. I've got business to do for you. and for all those who believe in me. Because I'm going to the father.

[39:47] I ascend to my father. But you go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father and to my God and your God. Now, here's what we need to get from this.

[40:01] Mary had boiled everything she wanted in life down to one thing only. Jesus.

[40:18] Which, by the way, is the single most important truth about Christianity. That what we want more than anything else, more than anything this world has to offer, more than anything we could accumulate here, more than anyone else that we may love here, we love others, we want more than anything else, Jesus.

[40:51] We want Him. Mary had very likely been present when Jesus preached His famous sermon on the mount.

[41:04] And she was there when He gave this particular beatitude, He said, blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

[41:16] They will see God. And I think maybe that explains why God granted that Mary be the first one to see Jesus alive from the dead. She had a pure heart.

[41:28] A pure heart is a heart that wants one thing, just one thing. And for us, as it was with Mary, that one thing is Jesus.

[41:40] To embrace Him, to know Him, to worship Him, to love Him, to experience Him, to talk to Him and have Him talk to us, to learn at His feet, and on and on.

[41:51] One thing only, Jesus. She loved Him. We love Him. We love Him.

[42:03] We don't love His memory. That's not what we're loving. We love Him. We don't love His memory as we would of a dead loved one or a dead Hebrew or a dead leader of great repute.

[42:18] We love Him because He lives. Jesus lives. And that is what makes the resurrection unique among all other religions of the world.

[42:35] Our Lord and Savior lives. Not just lives in a spiritual sense as some would believe that Allah lives or Muhammad lives or Buddha lives or Confucius lives or any other spiritual leader.

[42:51] Not just lives in some spiritual, mystical sense. But our Lord and Savior lives literally lives in His body.

[43:04] And we love Him. And this is the gift of the resurrection. To have the living Jesus know you and call you by name.

[43:22] Are you listening? listening? This is the gift of the resurrection. That Jesus would know you and call you by name, especially in the gloomy darkness that often enters into our lives for seasons and so forth.

[43:43] That He would know you and call you by name just to hear in my spirit in those special times just to hear in my spirit, Don, I love you.

[44:02] This gloom is not meant to destroy you. I am here. I am alive.

[44:15] And I am alive for you. that is what turns gloom into glory for every true believer to experience.

[44:31] In John chapter 10 verse 3, Jesus identifies Himself as the Good Shepherd.

[44:43] He's the Shepherd. Shepherd. And He says in that verse, He says, He, the Shepherd, calls His own sheep by name.

[44:58] Then He says, and the sheep follow Him. And they know His voice. dear people, has He called your name?

[45:20]  Do you know Him? Do you follow Him?