Passionate love

And some of the same ideas, and I'm in the same boat you are, with regards to those kind of things. Of course, my wife and children are here, and we can ask them how they feel. But I'd like to look here at John chapter, oh my, we're in John chapter 20 now.

John chapter 20, for some of you who are visiting, we're teaching through the book of John. I think we've been on it now for two years, and we've come now to the closing story. Crucifixion, we looked at that a few weeks ago, and three messages on the crucifixion.

And last week, we spent some time on Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, these two aged, older men, honorable men, rich men, who stuck their necks out, and praise God for that, and they got up on that cross, don't know how high it was, but still trying to figure out how they got those nails out, and those nails out of the feet. And it was probably a very gory, difficult situation to get down that body off that cross. And they did it before the Sabbath, and got it into the tomb.

And I shared with you last week, just look here in John 19 verse 42 again, just to remind you, it says, there laid they Jesus, therefore, because. In other words, he was put into this tomb, Joseph's tomb, that he had hewn out here with his own hands, it says, he was laid there because of the Jews' preparation day. And I read that to say that they probably had some other place prepared for him, maybe a mile or two away, but because the Jewish preparation day was about to happen, six o'clock was upon them, they had to find a place close by, and Joseph says, I got a tomb, it's my own, let's just put him in here, and possibly he'll come back Sunday morning, get him, and we'll move him to a final resting place or location.

Therefore laid they Jesus, because of the Jews' preparation day, for the sepulcher was nigh, or it was near at hand. And I shared with you last week, there's a good, I guess when you read that verse, there's a good indication that these two guys, after they got the body together, they look at their watches, if they had watches, and they said, we've only got ten minutes till six. Let's just lay him in my tomb right here, nearby, and then we'll come back.

And so we left it there, we left Jesus' body laying in this tomb near where the cross, his crucifixion was. So now we come to John chapter 20, and I'm just going to walk down through it, I don't want to read down through it, we're going to take a pretty big chunk, from John chapter 20 verse 1 down to verse 18, and I'd like to just pray before we do, and then we'll talk about this resurrection, what happens, and especially Mary Magdalene and John, and these two individuals are mentioned here and specialized, and let's bow our heads and we'll pray. Heavenly Father, we do desire, as we heard this morning, to be changed.

Lord, we've been challenged, but we need to be changed, and our life needs to take different courses, and we need to be set at liberty in areas of life, and our thought processes need to change. Lord, it's good to hear the word of God, but let it change us, and that we would take it to heart, and that we would be different people, and allow it to transform us from the inside out. So Lord, now as we look at these verses, this beautiful story of the resurrection, may you minister grace to each one of our hearts, Lord, help us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, I want to start off here with this story by saying that the resurrection is a central tenet to the gospel. I mean, if you take the resurrection out of the gospel, we have Jesus on the cross, and His suffering, and His cry, it is finished. We put Him in the grave, and if that's the end of the gospel, it's not a gospel.

It's not good news to leave Him laying there in the grave. And so there is a need for the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and so Paul said it this way in 1 Corinthians 15, he said this, and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain. All that I do this morning is vanity.

It's all vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are also found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised, and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, and here's an important thing, you are yet in your sins.

Meaning, Jesus took your sins and went down into the grave, and death overtook Him. He did not overtake death. The wages of sin is death.

But He went down into the grave, and He didn't come out. What kind of hope is that all for you? When I go to that grave, I'm not coming out either. Death's going to swallow me up too.

And then he goes on to say, then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. And so that's how important the resurrection is. And Jesus, if He's still in the grave, then our sins have overcome Him.

And maybe, you know, most of sin is not paid for. And so when we go into the grave, we have no hope. Here's a beautiful verse I thought about with regards to the resurrection.

It's in Revelation, the same John. He sees a vision of Jesus, and then in Revelation 1, verse 17, it says, And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead, and He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last. I am He that liveth.

Listen to this. I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen.

And have the keys. I have the keys of hell and death. I don't know if He had something like that.

I'm sure He didn't have that. But I have the keys right here. What do you mean by that, you have keys? See, I have keys.

I have the keys to let people in and out of hell and death. Because of my resurrection, I have the keys. You don't want to go to hell.

You don't want to die, go to hell forever. You need to go to someone who has the keys to it. He's got the keys.

And that's beautiful. The key is the gospel. Well, another thing I'd like to bring out regarding the resurrection is that the resurrection is a fact.

Some of you young people need to realize that the resurrection was validated by many witnesses. Many, many witnesses. We're going to see just a couple of them here this morning.

John addresses a couple of them. But in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul also talks about this. He was buried.

He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. And that he was seen of Cephas, that's Peter, then of the twelve. After that he was seen of about 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

And after that he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last of all, he was seen of me also as one born out of due time. There is a lot of people who saw Jesus after the resurrection.

Now here's something that I think some of you young people, and even older ones may not realize, but this book was not written all at the same time. It's not one book. This book is many books.

It's many testimonies of what people saw and witnessed. Do you remember when Jesus stood up in Nazareth to preach? It was delivered unto them the book of Isaiah. It wasn't given in an Old Testament book.

It was a single book. This is Isaiah's testimony. And so we have the privilege of all these books were put into one book.

So you have many, many testimonies. You see the Gospels. Matthew has a testimony.

Matthew walked with Jesus for three years. He saw the resurrected Christ. He wrote it down.

It's a historical document. Here's what I lived through for three and a half, four years. I'm telling you, I'm an eyewitness.

Mark says the same thing. Luke says the same thing. John says the same thing.

We've been studying John's testimony. Paul, Paul is testifying of what he saw. These are real people who had real experiences.

He even says there was a time when Jesus appeared to 500 people all at once. He said some of these people, I mean it's 30 years later, but some of these people are still alive today. If you want to talk to them, I'll go and introduce you.

They'll tell you. So there is testimonies. And this Bible is a book of testimonies, people who walk with Jesus and what they experienced and saw.

All right, let's look at John's testimony here in John chapter 20, starting in verse number one. I want to teach a few things, but I want to specialize here in Mary. She's the center character here in this story.

Verse number one of John 20, the first day of the week. Now that would be early Sunday morning. You remember the timeline.

Probably Jesus was crucified Thursday. He was a full Friday, day and night in the grave, a full Saturday, day and night in the grave. And if you take those two full days and add Thursday, a part of a day, and Sunday, a part of a night, you get this idea of three days and three nights.

So the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early. There's a lot of adjectives here that they're going to add up after a while. Here Mary is.

She's up very early in the morning when it was yet dark unto the sepulcher and sees the stone taken away from the sepulcher. Now we're told in another account that there was an earthquake and some angels came down and they removed the stone from the sepulcher. And I just did a little research and come to find out that Jerusalem, in the last 365 days, they've had four good earthquakes and three to four on the Richter scale.

It's not uncommon for those in Jerusalem or that area, Judea, to experience earthquakes. Actually, Jerusalem is 17 miles from the Dead Sea Falls, and so there's earthquakes there on a regular basis. So you can maybe picture these women.

By the way, Mary was not the only one that came. There's a few other women walking in the dark, carrying lanterns, heading maybe two miles to where this gravesite is from their home. And the lady's saying, well, there's another one.

Didn't we have one two months ago? And so there's an earthquake. And the angels come down and they roll away the stone. So Mary and these ladies, John doesn't mention the other ladies, the other Gospels do mention a few other ladies that come with Mary.

Verse number two, then she runneth. There's another word that I think is important. Mary, I'm going to express this this morning, Mary is a woman of passion.

And her passion is born out of her love for Jesus. She runs, you can imagine. The stone is rolling away, you know, and she runs.

Something going on in Mary and in her heart. I'd like to talk a little bit about this Mary, Mary Magdalene. Who is she? The Bible says she's a woman who had seven devils cast out of her.

She was a very wicked woman. She was an immoral woman. Most people believe that she's the woman that came to Simon's house.

And Jesus was there and Simon was feeding him. And this woman came and wept at his feet and bathed his feet with her tears and dried his feet with her hair. And then you remember when Jesus looked up to Simon, Simon was critical and Simon had this law mindset that, well, you know, this woman is a sinner, and Jesus, if you only knew this woman was a sinner, you wouldn't let her touch you.

And Jesus says, listen, Simon. He gives him a little parable of a man who had a great debt and one who didn't have a great debt. And they were both forgiven.

Who do you think loved more? And, of course, Simon got the message. You know, this woman, she's a great sinner. But, you know, she's loving me.

She loves me. Look what she's doing. You know, Simon, I came into your house and you never even gave me a kiss.

Never even told me you loved me. Amen? This woman has been kissing me all these last 15 minutes. Simon, you know, you have no love.

So that's Mary Magdalene, a woman who has forgiven, who has forgiven much. And some of you can put yourself, I can put myself in that position. And she's probably been, well, she was demonically possessed.

She was involved in sexual immorality. And let me just say this, young people especially don't get involved in sexual immorality. It's one of the ways to give place to the devil.

She was immoral. She was sexually perverse. She was involved in all kinds of immoral practices.

And, therefore, she gave place to the devil. And I can look at the Bible, I see a number of ways we give place to the devil, but Ephesians says don't let your wrath go down with the sun. You know, make sure you take care of your bitterness and your hatred and your anger.

Anger. And there's a lot of things we could talk about there, but Mary was a wicked woman. I think we all have some wickedness in us.

Amen? But she had some real issues. Verse 2, Then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved. Now, that's John.

John's kind of too bashful to mention it. And saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid Him. Now, I don't know what's going on in her heart, but she's thinking somebody, the they, have taken the Lord out of the sepulcher.

She might think it's Nicodemus and Joseph who've come back to move Him. She might be thinking it's the Romans who are guarding the tomb. She might actually be thinking it's the gardener.

If you look down to verse 14, And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was Jesus. And Jesus said unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing Him to be the gardener, saith unto Him, Sir, if thou have borne Him, hence tell me where hast thou laid Him, and I will take Him away. So she's perplexed.

She gets there with these women, finds the stone open, and she takes off running. Somebody has taken the Lord. That's her concern.

Now, it's easy for us to read this account. I mean, I read it and say, why can't you people understand what's going on? Jesus is raised from the dead. He told you He was going to be raised from the dead after three days.

But hindsight is always 20-20. It's always easy for us to look back and say, why can't these people understand? But they struggled with that. You know, even in the Jewish system of religion, the Sadducees were ones who supported this idea that there is no resurrection of the body.

And they promoted that. The Bible teaches that. The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection.

So there's a lot of confusion. Let's keep reading here. Verse number 3. Peter therefore went forth.

He hears this. She runs to him. I don't know how far he lives.

Maybe a mile or two away. She's a good runner, I'll tell you. Peter therefore went forth and the other disciple and came to the sepulcher.

And there's something else here about running. Look at verse 4. So they ran both together, and the other disciple did outrun Peter and came first to the sepulcher. Now, I look at that and say, why does the Lord mention to us that one guy was faster than the other? Maybe he had on Nikes or something.

You know, John writes this and says, by the way, we both ran to the sepulcher, but just for eternity's sake and the Word of God, I want everybody to know I outran him. You know, it was my track training in school. That's not what it was.

Why is it even mentioned? Is it important for us to know that John won the race? That John got there first? You know, as I read down through this and thought about it this week, this whole passage, it bleeds one word, passion. Everything you see here is passionate. You see running.

You see weeping. You see some impassioned statements that are going to be made throughout the Scripture here. And John and Mary Magdalene are passionately in love with Jesus Christ.

And the Bible teaches us that. This woman loves much. And so I'm going to spend a little time on this idea of passion, because passion is all over the place here in this account.

And that's what I saw as I was reading. Well, John is a man of passion. You remember? If you go back and look at the story, John is still at the cross.

Remember? Mother. Jesus says, John, there's your mother. Mother, there's your son.

Where's the other disciples? They're gone. The Bible says they forsook him and fled. John is at the cross.

Who else is at the cross? Mary Magdalene. As a matter of fact, John takes the mother home. Mary Magdalene stays at the cross until Nicodemus and Joseph come.

She watches them take down. She follows them to where they bury Him. She knows where they put Him.

I think of Mary as being one of these who are the first one there and the last one to leave. Notice the passion of Mary. She runs.

Verse 2, she runs. Remember, I thought about that story where that woman who... well, I won't tell you about the woman first, but there was a crowd gathered around a big tree. Probably a fable or a story.

And there was a little boy out on a limb way out, way up. And everyone was standing around trying to figure out ways to get that little boy down. Trying to come up with an idea to get that poor boy who's crying up there and got caught out on a far limb.

All of a sudden, all this crowd is standing there. A woman breaks through all the people. Gets onto that tree.

Climbs up the tree all the way up. Goes way out. Grabs the child.

Brings the child back in. Comes down. And the crowd says, How did you do that? She said, He's my son.

What nobody else could do, love could do. Passion could do. And I see that in John here.

And I see that in Mary. She's going to make some amazing statements in this passage. Far above her strength and ability.

But love will breed passion. In verse 11, it says, But Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping. You see a woman who is passionate about the body of Jesus.

She loves Him so much, she doesn't want to lose sight of where His body is. You've seen people at funerals who are so in love with that person they just reach down into the casket and grab it. They're passionate about this person.

So Mary is the first to the tomb here early in the morning. And she's also the last one to leave. I don't mean to be picky here this morning.

I'm not a meddler. You all have been here for a long time. I don't meddle.

I think we ought to be first to the church and the last to leave. Uh-oh. You mean we get to worship Jesus today? We'll be first there and last to leave.

You know, people have passion. Let me just throw this out. We've been having a problem lately of people getting here late.

I'm not a stickler on things, but if Jesus were here in person every Sunday, I guarantee you'd be here on time. But He is here. Where two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst of it.

Am I wrong there or what? This is important. It's important. Mary was up early because she wanted to go and minister to that body.

Here's an amazing statement Mary makes. I'm jumping ahead. Look down to verse 12.

And she sees two angels in white sitting, 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? And she saith unto them, Because they have taken away... I love this. My Lord.

Not the Lord. They've taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. Now notice what it says here.

And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus said unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Yes, sir. Here's an amazing statement.

If thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Think about that lady. Gardener.

Just tell me where you laid him, and I'll pick him up and take him. Here's a woman going to pick up a man that Nicodemus and Joseph had to carry. I'll take him.

I'll do it. I'll get the strength somehow to take him away. I'd like to meet Mary someday.

Do you know something? And I thought about this. Whatever you love is what makes you passionate. Passionate.

Jesus said, The zeal of thine house has eaten thee up. It eats me up. When I see people defiling God's house, I mean it eats me up.

There's a passion that stirs in me. Oh! You know, a good way to tell where you're at spiritually is what really gets you stirred. I saw just recently a day trader.

These day traders are trying to make a lot of money right now in the stock market, and this guy, he got hoodwinked by the government, and he was giving a testimony, and he started talking about how he could have made all this money. You can just see the passion in the guy. I'd love to see a lot more of that in the church.

Wouldn't it be something? People passionate about Jesus and the work of God. Well, Mary was a passionate individual. Let me ask you a question.

You know, good preaching always makes application. Where is your passion? Brother, Eccles mentioned, and I'll get to this here in a little bit, Eccles mentioned, ask your wife and children. You ought to ask your family, Where do you see me as being? Where is my passion for life? What areas of life do you find me to be passionate? It might surprise you what they say.

I hope they say, Your love for Jesus and your desire to serve Him. I see the passion in your life. Let's hope they don't say to make money.

Let's hope they don't say things of that nature that really get you stirred. What causes you to rise up early like Mary and stay late? To run? To weep? What causes you to have these things happening in your life? So our passion is the overflow of our heart in love. And what happens in the church when love waxes cold? Do you know what happens then? There's no passion.

And as Brother Eli, who's not here this morning, would say, we just become a form. Come. Sit.

Listen. And then we go out and do the things that we really are passionate about. So let me ask you this, and we're not having a revival meeting here this morning, but what is the passion of your life? When people look at you, or you look at your own heart, what really gets you motivated? Some people couldn't get out of bed to come to the grave that morning.

Somebody was up early. What gets you up early in the morning? Where is your passion? Now I will say this, that that passion that Mary had was definitely honored by the Lord Jesus. You know, Mary was the first human being to see Jesus after the resurrection.

And it's recorded throughout history and eternity. Mary, the wicked Mary, who was converted, gets to see Jesus first. Well, let's keep reading verse 5. And he's stooping down.

By the way, the graves then, they had a hole, or it's like a cave. It was kind of low, maybe come up three or four feet. So if you want to look in, you had to kind of stoop down.

And then it would go in and open up. You could stand probably in it. A number of places here in the Bible, it says they stooped down.

He's stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in. That's John. Then come a Simon Peter following him and went into the sepulcher and sees the linen clothes lying.

Now these linen clothes, what does the Lord have us... Why does He share this testimony? What's about these linen clothes? Well, it is a testimony because there is some confusion that maybe the Lord was stolen. Remember the guards? They ran back to tell what's happened and they gave them a large sum of money. What did they tell us? You say that His body was stolen.

That's what we're going to say. The devil is a liar and the father of it. Is it getting a little warm in here? It's just me.

Is it warm? Maybe it's my... Do you want to check to see if it's getting a little hot in here? If you're not hot, that's fine. Maybe I'm just getting a little too passionate. No.

It was at 74 when I came in here this morning. It was awful hot. So if you're going to... Let's say we're going to go steal the body of Jesus and there are guards outside sleeping.

Are you going to walk into that grave and unwrap Him and spend the time to fold the head garment to the side? Or are you just going to go in and get the thing and go with it? You're going to go. But they come and they see the napkin folded. And what happened was the Lord just kind of raised up and left the whole thing right there.

Verse 8, Then went in also the other disciple, whom came first to the sepulcher, and saw, and he saw and believed. Now it doesn't mean he believed in the resurrection. He believed Mary's words that Jesus was taken.

And he's not there anymore because verse 9 says, For as yet they knew not the Scripture that he must rise again from the dead. They knew not. They couldn't see that.

And it gets back to this whole idea. They rejected the idea of Him suffering. Certainly they're going to reject the idea of Him dying and being raised again.

So their eyes were blinded because of their own personal wants and desires. Verse 10, And then the disciples went away again unto their own home. So John and Peter, they returned back to their house.

But Mary... I like that. But Mary. Mary.

What a lady. Mary stood without. She doesn't even see yet the resurrection.

Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping. I don't know how many tears she must have wept during that three-day period. She's at home probably a miserable two days, Sabbath days.

She can't get out to the body. Finally, she's able to get there early in the morning and she's there weeping. Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping.

And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher. She wanted to get a good look herself. And she sees two angels in white sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain.

Mary not only gets to see Jesus, she gets to see these angels. By the way, these guys don't get to see anything. These angels appear to the women.

Actually, Jesus appears to Mary, then he appears to some of the women who came with Mary who are returning back to the city. I'm going to get to you ladies here in a minute. But the ladies have a prominent part.

She sees two 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? Now, here's some questions. Jesus asked the same questions.

And Brother Cleat, I'm going to pick up on what you shared here. Why weep? Do you think the angels knew why she was weeping? And if I was there, I'd say, I know why you're weeping, Mary. Why weepest thou? She said unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.

There's a lot of love here. There's a lot of, even for a dead carcass, a dead body, she's brokenhearted that someone has taken the body of Jesus and have laid him somewhere and she doesn't know where it's at. And she's weeping.

Verse 14, And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was Jesus. Her eyes are filled with tears. It's early in the morning.

Maybe it's just dusk. And Jesus said unto her, O woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? Now, Jesus, why would you ask that question? Why does he ask that question, Brother Cleve? You ever had your wife say to you, You love me. You brought it up today.

But it's in my notes, so I don't know. Why do we ask that question? For example, I know my wife loves me, but sometimes I'll just say, Do you love me? Why do I ask that question? I know the answer. You know why I ask that question? Especially us men.

Come on, why do we ask that question? Because we want to hear them say it, don't we? I sometimes will say to my wife, Honey, would you please say these words to me? Am I weird or something? I'd like to hear you say this to me. You're such a great man, Jerry. You know, men are different.

I mean, maybe I'm different than some of you men. Brother Cleve, he and I, we agree on this, I'm sure. Some of you are visiting.

I pick on Brother Cleve a lot. He's okay with it. But, you know, I think the Lord is like us men in the sense that sometimes we don't really need to have it even come from your heart.

Just say the word. Ladies are different. I can say to my wife, I love you, I love you, I love you.

She says, I don't know that you mean that. And I say, honey, just say I love you, I love you. It doesn't matter what you mean or not.

I just want to hear it. You know, I think of those beasts around the throne saying day and night, holy, holy, holy Lord God almighty. Does God need to hear that? You know what I think is happening here? The Lord says, woman, why are you weeping? I think He wants to hear her saying, I love Jesus, He's God, I love Him.

Don't we love to hear people just say it? Brother Cleve, just say it. Whom are you seeking? I'm seeking the Lord Jesus. You know, the Bible says that God wants to be praised, glorified.

And, you know, we do that when we open our mouth and we say things and God knows our heart. He could have just said, keep your mouth quiet. I can see your heart.

I know you love Me. I know you want to sing praises to Me. I already know your heart, so you don't have to say anything.

No, I like to hear you say it. I really do. And most of you men like to hear our wives say it.

So, verse 15, She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou hast bored him, hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Oh, he'd love to hear that statement. You love Me so much that you're going to go and get My body and take yourself.

I love hearing that. So, if our life is to give pleasure and praise and glory to God, we ought not to say, well, Jesus knows I love Him. Why don't you tell Him? Amen? You say, well, the Lord knows I have a song in my heart.

Why don't you get it out of your heart and into your mouth? Because He would like to actually hear it, even if it's just a joyful noise. Well, we men like to hear it. And I think the Lord likes to hear your expressions of praise and worship and adoration.

So, I know in marriage we say, Honey, you already know I love you, but do you need to hear me say it? And everyone, husband or wife, would say, Yes, I really need to hear you say it. And so the Lord is saying to Mary, Mary, I know you love Me. I can see it all over you, your passion, but I just want to ask you a few questions.

I want to hear you say it. Well, let's keep reading verse 16. It says, Jesus said unto her, Mary.

That resonated with her there. She turned herself and said unto Him, Rabboni, which is to say, Master. And Jesus said unto her, Touch Me Not.

Now, here's some interesting theology. For I am not yet ascended to My Father, but go to My brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father and to My God and to your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that He had spoken these things unto her.

Now, I understand this to mean that Jesus had just been raised and that He, as our eternal High Priest, was to take His own blood. Hebrews says He took His own blood into the Holy of Holies, which is the real Holy of Holies in heaven, and He placed His own blood at the mercy seat there in the presence of God. And before going and taking that journey, He needed not to be defiled in any way as a High Priest entering into the Holy of Holies, and He needed not a sinner, a human, to defile Him or to touch Him.

So He says, Don't touch Me. And here's why. I have not yet ascended to My Father.

But Mary, you go. I'm going to ascend to My Father and your Father. By the way, that's a beautiful statement there.

My Father and your Father. You know what that makes Mary and Jesus? Brothers and sisters. He is not ashamed to call us His brethren.

My Father, your Father. And she goes. It's interesting, and we don't have to turn there, but in Matthew 28, verse 9, about a half an hour later, 45 minutes later, He appears then to the women who are walking back from the grave site, and they grab Him and touch Him.

So I understand that somewhere between this point and that point, the Lord has ascended, and He placed the blood that atones for all of our sin on the mercy seat in heaven. And I believe you're going to get to heaven someday, and you'll see it there. The blood of the everlasting covenant.

That blood that Jesus shed, He placed it there, and He makes us brothers and sisters. Look down here once too. Verse 26, a few days later, Thomas.

Verse 26, and after eight days again, His disciples were within, and Thomas with them. And then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said, Let peace be unto you. Then He said unto Thomas, Reach hither thy finger.

Totally different. Touch Me. Behold My hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side, and be not faithless, but believing.

So when Jesus says, Touch Me not, for I have not yet ascended, the idea of Him ascending up to the Holy of Holies and applying His blood as the high priest would every year is what He's talking about. I don't want you to touch Me right now, but when I get back, you can touch Me. So it's amazing to think, and this is hard for me to fathom, but of course He is the light of the world, the speed of light, but He went to the presence of God and came back.

20 minutes. We've been sending spaceships out there at incredible speeds, and we can't even get to the end of our galaxy. Well, here's something else I'd like to just bring out.

In verse 18, it says, Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things unto her. What did He speak unto her? He says to Mary, Go to My brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father and to My God and your God. Now, for some of you who are a little bit tight on this one, Jesus says to Mary, Mary, go and be a messenger for Me and tell those male disciples, here's what I want them to do.

See how that fits in some of your theology. Yeah. Mary, I've got a message for you to send.

Go. Go, Mary. And you talk to those men, and you tell them, here's what I said for them to do.

I hope there was nobody in that male discipleship group that said, well, we shouldn't receive any instruction from a lady. Well, that wouldn't have fit well, would it? The Lord would have given a little correction there. And yes, I know the Bible says that women are not to teach or usurp authority over the man, and she's not doing that, I believe.

She's just conveying a message. I just saw the Lord, and here's what He said. But here's something that concerns me with regards to this whole thing.

Where are the men? Where is the John and the Peter and the James and the Nathanael and all these disciples? Where is their passion to be up early on the resurrection morning and to be standing there and to be weeping over the missing body of Jesus? Where are they? Don't they have the same right to love Him in the very same way that Mary did? But it was a woman. Maybe if Peter was first to the sepulcher and last to leave, and he wept and had passion like Mary, he would have been the first to see Him, and he'd have been sent by Jesus to go and tell the rest of them. But he wasn't, which brings up another interesting point.

I used to write articles in Shoppers Mart here in this area. Every week I'd write another article, just about 200, 300 words. I tried to write on subjects that would stir up interest, all kinds of Bible subjects at one time.

And our church name was on it, so people would come and visit our church because they read these articles. So one day I wrote an article on women preachers. And maybe I didn't write it in a spirit of love.

I probably didn't have all the right things. But I used the Bible, and I taught the Scriptures, and I tried to be gracious. A few days later, I'd get people to call me, write me letters.

We had our address and everything. I got a call from a dear lady, probably 75 years old, just real quiet, dear lady, respectful. She said, Sir, I want to ask you something.

I saw your article about women leading in the church. And, Sir, what do you do in the situation that we have, our little church out here in the country, and there are no men who are willing to take responsibility in our church? What should we do? And it just hit me like a light bulb. There are churches where there are no men who are willing to take responsibility.

And so what is a woman to do? If there are no men with passion, is it okay for God to send a woman with passion to at least convey a message from the Lord? Now, I'm not promoting ladies in leadership or ladies teaching or directing, but where are the men? And the church has struggled with that for years. Brother Denny Kennison, I remember many years ago, preached a sermon. Where are the men? There are so many young ladies who have passion for Jesus, who would like to get married, but where are the young men who have passion for Jesus? How about an amen? I heard some ladies say amen there.

Passion. So I know that we can criticize Mary, and well Mary, you shouldn't be in that place of telling the disciples what Jesus said for them, but Jesus sent her, and she was one who had love for Him, great love for Him. And by the way, that's the whole purpose of the whole thing.

I just shared that with you this morning. It's the end of the commandment. So my question to us here this morning is, how much passion do you have for the things of God? Where is it at? I just go through the motions, drag along, have a hard time getting here.

I just don't have any passion. There's a problem with that heart. It's lacking in passion.

Well, I have a couple of verses here. I just want to read one of them in closing. I have a few minutes here yet before the top of the hour, but let me read to you a sister, a couple of sisters here.

And these sisters have passion. Paul says this in Romans 16, verse 1, I commend unto you Phoebe, our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Sancreia, that you receive her in the Lord. Now notice what he says to this church about this lady.

Receive her in the Lord as become a saint, and that you assist her in whatsoever business she has need of you. Wow, that's pretty strong, isn't it? There's a lady coming to your church and she's got a lot of work to do. You just assist her in whatever she needs.

For she hath been a sucker or a helper of many, and of myself also. Hey, nothing wrong with that, sisters. Greet Priscilla and Aquila.

By the way, one of those is a lady. My helpers in Christ who have for my life laid down their own necks unto whom not only I give thanks, but also the churches of the Gentiles. And I have a couple other verses.

I don't want to read them. But you know those ladies Mary Magdalene has mentioned a couple of times. They followed Jesus all over the place.

And you know it says they ministered unto Jesus with their substance. In other words, they actually took their own money, their own goods, and they gave it to him. Following him around, supporting, strengthening, helping him.

And so I just want to raise up the place for the sisters in the church and especially raise up this idea of having some passion. Passion. You know, I've shared this with you a few weeks ago, but in Malachi, the last Old Testament prophet, Malachi preached against those who would bring a half-hearted offering to the temple.

And I don't mean to pick on those who are having a hard time getting here on time, but let me ask you this. Come in five or ten minutes late for your boss. See how he likes it.

Remember what the Bible says in Haggai? Take that lamb that's lame and blind and give it to your governor. See if he accepts it. And if a governor doesn't accept your offering, why in the world are you going to offer it to the king of kings? Why would you take that half-hearted offering, you wouldn't even take it down to the mayor of the town and say, hey, here's something for you.

I've got a blind, broken-legged lamb to give you. You say, that would be humiliating. Then you take that same offering and bring it to the temple of God and offer it up to the king of kings and Lord of lords.

In the very same way, I would never want to be slack in my business dealings, in my job before my employer. Well, then you'd better be sure not to be slack when it comes time for serving the king of kings and passion for him. So I think it's a wonderful testimony when people from the outside look into a church and they see people who have passion.

Wow, these people have a love for Jesus. God forbid that we have passion for other things and not for the Lord Jesus. May Mary Magdalene be an example to each one of us, male and female.

Why don't we close with a word of prayer.