Sunrise Service
When Confusion Clouds
March 31, 2002
John 20:1-18
Intro:
A. [Christ’s Alive and at Church Today, Citation: Peggy Key, Portage, MI. Today’s Christian Woman, "Heart to Heart."]
While driving to church on Easter Sunday two years ago, I told my children the Easter story.
"This is the day we celebrate Jesus coming back to life," I explained.
Right away, my 3-year-old son, Kevin, piped up from the back seat, "Will He be in church today?"
1. I believe Christ has risen from the dead!
2. I believe Christ is alive!
3. And I believe that Christ will come to church today if we invite Him and make Him feel welcome!
B. [Prayer to ask Christ’s presence in our services today; that we will look for Him; that we might see Him in a specific way.]
C. Today on this resurrection morning, I want us to turn our thoughts to Mary Magdalene at that first sunrise service on Resurrection morning.
1. Jesus conducted that sunrise service Himself.
2. Mary was not expecting to see Jesus that morning and nearly missed Him.
3. Lets read through John 20 and see if we can learn anything about how to see and recognize Jesus…
I. Mary saw confusing things.
John 20:1-9, Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!" 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
A. Early on that first resurrection morning (probably earlier than our 8:30 AM service), Mary went to the tomb.
1. Mary was a Godly follower of Christ.
2. She loved the Lord for Jesus had freed her from the torment of seven demons.
3. The Lord had truly changed her life.
4. She had traveled with Jesus during His last days of ministry.
5. Matthew 27 and Mark 15 tell us that Mary was present for the crucifixion as well as the preparation and the burial that was done by Joseph and Nicodemus.
B. Why did Mary go to the tomb?
1. Mark 16:1 tells us that Mary and two other women were there to bring spices for the body.
2. They were going to the tomb early that morning to anoint the dead body of Jesus with spices.
3. Mary assumed He was dead. Mary had witnessed His burial.
4. It was done in a hurry and perhaps they were going to finish the job after the Sabbath that the two men didn’t have time to finish before the Sabbath.
C. But when Mary and the others arrived, they found the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.
1. This was probably pretty confusing for Mary.
2. She wasn’t expecting the tomb to be open.
3. She was expecting to go open the tomb and embalm the body of Jesus.
4. But when she got there the tomb was already open and this very much surprised and confused her.
5. So verse 2 tells us that she ran back and told Peter and John what she had seen.
6. Peter and John raced each other to the tomb and Mary followed them.
7. This just tells about the race that Peter and John had, but verse 11 tells us that Mary is back at the tomb again.
8. Peter and John race to the tomb, go inside and see the empty burial clothes while Mary stood outside the tomb weeping.
9. Mary saw some very confusing things, and…
II. Mary thought confusing things.
John 20:10-13, Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11 but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13 They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don’t know where they have put him."
A. Now the text tells us that Mary saw two angels and didn’t realize what she was seeing.
1. She was very confused.
2. Evidently Peter and John never saw the angels; there’s no mention of them noticing them.
3. But after Mary sits there and weeps, she bends over to look into the tomb and she sees two angels in white seated where Jesus’ body had been.
4. One angel was sitting where Jesus’ head had been and the other was sitting where his feet had been.
5. Now you would think she would have started wondering what was going on here.
6. Surely she had to have realized they were angels: Peter and John didn’t say anything about them being in there, she never saw them go in, and they were dressed in white.
7. But Mary is so distraught about this, she doesn’t know what to think.
B. Her conversation with the angels gives us some insight into what kinds of things she was thinking.
1. When they asked her why she was crying, she told them that she didn’t know where they had put Christ’s body.
2. She was convinced that someone had stolen Christ’s body.
3. She had seen what people had done to Christ when He was alive and now she just could not believe that someone had stolen His body.
4. I wasn’t there, but I can tell you that reading about it, I’m thinking that if I was going to steal a body, I would have left the body wrapped up.
5. Surely after three days in a sealed tomb, it was going to be stinking by now.
6. Why would someone unwrap the body and steal it?
7. But Mary was clearly very confused and not thinking straight.
8. She saw confusing things, thought confusing things and…
III. Mary heard confusing things.
John 20:14-15, At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15 "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."
A. As she’s bending over speaking to the angels in the tomb (that she evidently didn’t recognize), Jesus appears behind her and begins speaking to her.
1. Now Jesus asks her why she is crying.
2. And He asks her who she is looking for.
B. She evidently didn’t recognize the angels and now that she doesn’t recognize Jesus.
1. Verse 14 tells us that she didn’t recognize Him.
2. And verse 15 tells us that she thought He was a gardener.
3. She was looking in the tomb, so she didn’t bother telling Him who she was looking for; she assumed it was obvious that she was looking for the body of Jesus which had been buried in that tomb.
4. She just wanted the man to quit playing games with her and tell her where Jesus’ body was.
C. Jesus was speaking to her and she didn’t even realize it.
1. She was hearing Jesus’ voice and she didn’t even realize it.
2. She was so confused by the things she had seen and thought that she didn’t even recognize the voice of Jesus when He spoke to her.
D. Confusion can do that.
1. We wonder sometimes why we don’t recognize Christ’s voice when He speaks to us, while Mary had Christ standing right in front of her and didn’t recognize His voice.
2. Confusion can so cloud the mind that we have a hard time recognizing the voice of Christ.
3. One thing we must always remember when we our minds are clouded with confusion is: God is not the author of confusion.
4. Confusion doesn’t come from God, but from the other side.
5. When confusion clouds our minds, we must ask God to burn those clouds of confusion away with His light.
6. Just as the brilliant sun will burn away the clouds from the sky, so too the light of God will burn the clouds of confusion from our minds so that we can recognize the voice of truth when He speaks to us.
IV. Mary recognized the Person of Truth.
John 20:16-17, Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ’I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’"
A. Now the clouds are burning away.
1. When Christ called her name, Mary recognize His voice.
2. She realized that it was Jesus and not the gardener.
3. She realized that it was the One who had freed her from the torment of the seven demons.
4. She realized that He was alive.
5. Peter and John had believed when they first saw the empty tomb and the empty burial cloths.
6. Mary was still confused, but now she understood.
7. The clouds of confusion had been rolled away.
8. And Mary believed.
9. She had heard Christ say that He would be crucified and then resurrected, but she had been confused.
10. And now she understood and she believed.
B. She had asked for answers and that is exactly what we must do.
1. When we are confused, we must ask God for wisdom.
2. James 1:5 tells us that if we ask God for wisdom, we will receive it.
3. When the clouds of confusion are clouding our vision and our hearing, we must ask for answers; we must ask for wisdom.
4. And God will answer.
V. Mary felt an outburst of relief!
John 20:18, 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.
A. By-the-way, for those who think women have no ministry in God’s church…
1. Who was the first person that Jesus appeared to after the resurrection?
2. And who was the very first person that Jesus told to be an evangelist and spread the good news that Jesus is alive?
B. Jesus told Mary to go back and tell the others that Jesus is alive!
1. The Scripture says that she ran to the disciples when she saw the empty tomb and I believe now she could have entered the Olympics with the speed that she moved this time!
2. Mary was no doubt ecstatic that the Man who had changed her life was ALIVE!
Conclusion:
A. And when Christ destroys the clouds of confusion in our lives, we will be ecstatic as well!
1. When Christ sets us free from the torment of confusion that enemy creates, we will want to tell others as well the we have heard from Jesus.
2. We will want to tell others what Christ has done for us!
B. On this resurrection morning I pray that we will all seek for Christ to reveal Himself to us.
1. I pray that we will ask God for wisdom during the day.
2. I pray that we will look for Christ in this place.
3. I pray that we will experience the resurrected Christ.
4. I pray that Christ will be in this church today!
