“the Women’s Tale” Jesus Sightings Part 1
“Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.” John 20:18 NIV
Intro: We are starting a new Sermon Series titled “Jesus Sightings.” There are at least 11 different places where Jesus appeared of Jesus after His Resurrection. We are going to take just a couple of those today as we begin with a sermon titled “the Women’s Tale.” There are many fascinating women in the bible. In fact there are at least 188 different named women. Some were queens, some were prophetess, some were deaconess, and some were leaders in the church. Others were women of bad reputation, some met grace and faith and their lives were changed and transformed and they went on to live a very changed life.
The Gospel of Mark 16:9 tells us about Mary Magdalene before she believed in Jesus. Mary Magdalene is an example of how God’s power can change a person’s life, how that God can take someone and just transform them into a new creation. The bible describes Mary’s situation. The bible describes her situation using the prime number here. It uses the number 7. It says that she had many problems. In other words she didn’t just have one demon. She didn’t have just one problem. She had 7 demons. She had a prime multiple of 7 she had many problems and many demons in her life. Which means she didn’t just have a few problems she had an infinite number of many problems? Hers’ is a story of a radically changed life.
We know that because of the status of women in ancient days she is not listed nor any of the other women and not listed with the men as disciples but she should have been none the less.
Women were the last one’s mentioned to be at the cross and they are the first ones to be at the empty tomb. Mary Magdalene is the first one to see the risen Easter Jesus. She saw him in the garden near the empty tomb. She is the very first person to speak to the risen Christ.
Let’s take a moment and really drill down on the phrase, “he had said.” The bible simply uses three words “he had said.” “Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.” John 20:18 NIV
That makes me wonder what where the things that Jesus had said to Mary Magdalene? At the center of the Greek interlinear transliteration of the phrase “he had said.” When you look at the Greek it uses the word: λέγω legó: (it almost sounds like “let go.” (Strong's Concordance) 3004 légō means to say "laying aside the argument. It is putting the argument to rest, bringing a closure; (see Curtius, Thayer) moving to a conclusion.” So when you look at those three little words. And you really understand, it doesn’t seem like they would mean very much, “he had said.” But what it really meant was that Mary had finally removed all doubts are fears from her life this woman had concluded that the things that Jesus had said before his death were true. “He had said” these things and she believed them and so she finally brought the argument to rest in her mind and in her heart. She could bring closure finally to all the things that Jesus said and taught. So she had moved to this conclusion. Jesus had done everything he said he would do and I have truly seen the risen Lord as proof! She carries this message to the disciples. I have been to the grave of Jesus. I have seen the stone rolled away. The tomb is empty. I went to the garden to pray. There I met the risen Saviour. Jesus called me by my name. I believe everything “he had said,” I have no doubts. I have no fears. I believe in the Easter Jesus! All of that meaning is wrapped up that tiny little phrase, “he had said.”
There is story about a woman who had lived way back up a holler. She came down out the holler and joined a local church and became well known for her prayer. She always prayed the same simple prayer. She would always pray the same simple prayer, "O my Lord, thank you Jesus.” When she was called on in Sunday school class she to pray the prayer she would always say that same simple prayer. "O my Lord, thank you Jesus." When asked to say the blessing food for a meal she would pray the same simple prayer. "O my Lord, thank you Jesus." Finally somebody asked her, "Why do you just pray that same little prayer?" She said, "Well, what I am doing is really combining the only two prayers I have ever known. We said, I live way back up in a holler. Some nights there would be people come up there and cause trouble. Maybe they were trespassers, or moon shiners and my husband would go out on the porch and he would take a shotgun while he was out there I would pray, 'O my Lord.' But when I wake up the next morning and everything was calm and would say, 'Thank you Jesus.' She would say it was a long ways for my daughter to walk in the dark to the end of road for me to take her to meet the school bus a pretty good ways down the holler so that she could go school. So, when I would take her to put my daughter on the bus I didn’t know what might happen that day I so I would always pray, 'O my Lord.' But when she would come home safe in the evening I would pray, 'Thank you Jesus.'" She said, "Those are the only two prayers I have ever known and when I got to church and saw how good God is and that I had found a community of faith filled with loving people I just put the two prayers together, "O my Lord, thank you Jesus."
I want to ask you a question. How is your prayer life?
The real enemy is not where you live, it is not your neighbors or it is not your family, it is not your spouse, the enemy is not your boss. The real enemy is Satan. Satan does not want you to find your footing in your relationship with God. The devil wants to try to deceive us. Trick us and keep us from strengthening that relationship with Jesus. You cannot have a prayer life that is a 2-3 on a scale from zero to ten, 0 being I don’t pray at all and 10 my prayer life is best. You can’t have a prayer life 2 or 3 and expect to be living in a 7 or 8 world. Let’s think about that. Let’s apply that for a moment. Let’s think about our prayer life. What does it take to move our prayer life maybe from that 2 or 3 up to a 4 or maybe from that 4 to a 5 or 6 or 7? What would it take to move our prayer life one step forward?
If you give the devil an opportunity he will take it. What is the old saying, give somebody an inch…, they will take a mile. The devil is the very one try to deceive. He will try to work his way in. If he can get just an inch of his way in then before you know it you will be a mile deep in trouble. He will attack you. He will fill you with doubt, and put fear inside your heart, and he will put bitterness inside your life. He is a liar. The Bible says the father of lies. But the simple answer and defense against Satan is that Jesus took a few nails, he took a few pieces of wood. With an old rugged cross, Jesus built a stronghold so that we can resist the attacks of the enemy.
What do you need to do to move to just move your relationship with Jesus up just one step, up one notch, a little bit higher?
There were several women who came to the tomb that Easter morning. They were myrrh-bearers. They were carrying this myrrh in order to anoint the body of Jesus or embalm the body of Jesus. Myrrh was a type of spice it is a kind of resin that would dry and it had a kind of yellowish look to it. It would have this aroma, this flower perfume aroma. When Christ child one of the three gifts the wise men brought was myrrh. When Jesus was on the cross they dipped gauze in vinegar and myrrh tried to get Jesus drink it or sip it but Jesus refused. He did not need it on the cross. He certainly did not need it the tomb. These women went to the tomb. They are bringing this spice they had prepared. The stone has already been rolled away from the entrance of the door. While they were standing there trying to figure out what had happened. Behold, two men suddenly in dazzling clothes stood near them; and as the women were terrified and these women were frightened, they bowed their heads and face toward the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen.
Then, they remember Jesus words, and returned and went back to report all these things to the eleven disciples and to all the rest. Now there is something that happens here. It is not exactly clear but there is kind of separation between Mary Magdalene and the other women. In fact the ending of Mark chapter 16:8 “the other women fled, they were bewildered, they would not say anything, they told nobody what they had seen because they were so frightened.” And then there is a longer version of the ending of Mark 16. This longer version tells a little bit more and indicates that there has been some passage of time. Then it says, “After this they were sent out by Jesus to the east to the west to proclaim the sacred eternal salvation.” There is the possibility that Mary Magdalene either went part of the way back to meet Peter and John and the other disciples that were running to see the empty tomb. Or she may have just gone on into the garden to pray. Either way we know that there is some division there of the women.
Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them are telling these things to the apostles. Now I want you to know had these women never saw the risen Jesus. Had they just went to the tomb and all they saw was the empty tomb, then that is all that would have been. It would have been a “Woman’s Tale.” It would have been a fairy tale. People would have written it off and ignored it as gossip. Just idle women talking. It is because the witness or testimony of women in those days was not of equal weight of that as a man either in personal matters or matters of the law. And so if all they had told was about an empty tomb. It would have been laughed off. Nobody would have believed anything. But something else happened. Later these same women told they had seen the risen Jesus. They had experienced the Easter Jesus. They met him. They saw the risen Lord. And now they are proclaiming the sacred eternal salvation before the men and world.
There was a church pastor; he had made a horrible blunder on Easter Sunday. He was supposed to preach the sunrise sermon but failed to set his alarm clock instead he slept right through the early service. The congregation forgave him. All except one older lady who for the next six Sunday’s of the Easter, she would proceed to call him at 4:00 in the morning. When he answered the phone she would say “It's Easter Season! Christ is risen! You should do the same!"
It is the Easter season. Christ is risen, we should do the same. Let us proclaim the glorious news. Let us preach this wondrous Gospel. It is a Gospel of blessings and hope. It is a Gospel of joy. It is a powerful news. It is not political power. It is not energizer bunny power. It is not nuclear power. It is not even will power, not some fairy tale, It's is the power of the Resurrection.
The Apostle Paul tell the church at Ephesus 1:19-20, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty power and strength that was exerted when God raised Christ from the dead."
I want you to think about that for a moment. Paul was telling the church at Ephesus you have within you the same power that God used to raise Jesus from the dead. That’s power.
You have within you, the same power that God exerted to raise Jesus from the dead.
You have within you, THE SAME POWER that God exerted to raise Jesus from the dead.
You have WITHIN YOU, the same power that God exerted to raise Jesus from the dead.
Born in the late 1800’s a man by the name of Robert Lowry wrote over 500 hymns. Only two of which are really familiar to almost every church. “Nothing But the Blood of Jesus.” “Low in the grave, he lay, Jesus my Savior." All of us who accept Christ experience a radical change within. Nothing But the Blood
Low in the grave he lay, but Jesus is my Saviour. I want to encourage you to allow that radical change to take place your life.
I want you to know as pastor my primary purpose is Kingdom growth. Winning the lost for Christ. My second primary purpose is growing this church. I think that is so important for us to understand. All of us have the same mission. One we are to win new people to Christ. Kingdom growth. Weather they become Methodist or not Methodist. We want to win em’ to Christ. But let’s not forget the second part. Church growth. You know, we need to have church growth. We need to have new people coming to this place. So we have to learn a balance of these two.
In fact it is when we don’t have a balance of these two that we are not growing and we are not healthy.
So I want to try harder to raise the standard. To get up earlier in the morning to spend time with Jesus. To raise the level of your commitment to church and service. To reach for a higher standard of self giving and duty. To volunteer more. To push harder for Kingdom growth, and also to grow this your home church. To dig deeper and plant more seed. To work harder to produce more fruit. To love louder and be stronger. Pray more often. Pray longer. Claim the victory that God has for you.
Mary Magdalene had experienced something wonderful. Her experience with Jesus is our experience with Jesus. For we too have sighted the risen Lord. And now we have a story to tell. It is not just a fairy tale. It is not just some made up story. It is not about an Easter bunny. But it is about a risen Saviour.
Will you deliver that message? Will you spend the rest of your life going from east to west being sent out by God to share the same story that these women told? The story, “I have seen, I have sighted, the risen Christ.” Amen.
