To turn in your copy of God's Word this morning to John chapter 20. A couple people have asked, I still don't have an answer as to what book I'm going to preach next, so you can pray about that as I pray through that. I will be doing Old Testament on Sunday night, New Testament on Sunday morning, but I don't know which books yet. I'm going to finish Galatians and John somewhere close to the same time. Just praying through that right now, trying to ask the Lord what would be most profitable for the church. Alright, John 20 verses 11 through 18, Peter and John have gone home and Mary Magdalene is left alone at the tomb. So John 20 verse 11, But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing. But she did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, Sir, If you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.' Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher. Jesus said to her, Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending. To my father and your father, to my God and your God, Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her. Father, I just simply ask today that you'll bless the preaching of your Word, and that you will take and write it upon someone's heart today, and that they wouldn't continue to live in a faithless faith, but they would actually believe the words that you have spoken. I pray these things today by your Spirit, in Christ's name, Amen. A faithless faith. Words seem to come very easily to us, but the reality of what we say is a whole different issue. It's easy to say things like, I believe the Bible. You can say that around here pretty easily. We could say, I believe everything that Jesus has said. It's good, we might even say amen to that. We might even say, well, I'm a person of faith. We could say something like that. However, like Mary Magdalene, many of us stand at the tomb and weep. And we seek that which is not profitable. And we cling to that which we should let go of. Faith is different than what you see with Mary, at least in this section of Scripture. Faith goes to the tomb and shouts hallelujah, right? He is risen, he is risen indeed. Doubt goes to the tomb and weeps. Faith seeks a resurrected Christ. Doubt looks for a corpse. Faith rejoices at the news of Jesus ascending to the right hand of God. Doubt grabs a hold and tries to negate the fulfillment of the divine plan. I know I'm not a poet, but I'm trying to capture this passage in my head, and so I attempted to do so by trying to work out a poem. So my poem, an introduction to this text, is called The Faithless Faith of Mary Magdalene. And this is the poem. So the words are from her, if you will. Oh, I had not slept. I went to the tomb and I just wept. Oh, I could not seem to find the corpse I was looking for. I was blinded to the faith and I could see no more. Oh, I then heard the gardener I called my name. I turned and I spoke the word Rabboni, my heart bursting with flame. Oh, I tell you, I had my eyes opened by revelation. I grabbed hold of him in selfish gratification. Oh, I didn't understand the fulfillment of his mission. I now submitted. And I told the disciples about the impending ascension. Oh, I'm telling you of the one who delivered me from my demon possession. I will spend all of eternity worshiping Jesus, who is my confession. My thesis is simple. Genuine faith is revealed in practical actions. Verses 11 through 13, Mary Magdalene weeps. You see it there in your text again several times. You see Mary, but Mary stood weeping. The next line you see that she wept. And then you have the question there as well in verse 13 that the angels ask her, woman, why are you weeping? Three occurrences that bring out and clarify beyond description this picture of this woman alone in front of an empty tomb. simply weeping her eyes out. She stood weeping as she wept. Why do you weep? Everything about this picture of Mary Magdalene is a picture of someone who did not believe what Jesus said, although she believed Jesus. She believed him. She followed him. She was delivered from demons. She was demon possessed. She's heard all of these stories. She's been around Jesus. She would say, if you ask her in Sunday school, do you believe in Jesus? Yes, I believe in Jesus. Do you believe the words of Jesus? Yes, I believe in Jesus. I believe everything he says. Then Mary, why do you stand here weeping? Her posture, if you think of the picture of her before the tomb, the text brings it out. It's clarity it wants to bring before our eyes. She stoops. She's not looking up. She's looking down. She bends over. The Greek word brings the idea of stooping, to bend over and to look into something. Her face, her images before her are that which is before her or below her in front of her very eyes. to bend over for the purpose of looking, with a focus on satisfying your curiosity. I wanna look in this tomb and figure out what's going on. A curiosity, I know the corpse is in here, I just can't see the corpse. I look intently, but it's just not there. Conclusion, somebody has stolen the body and it breaks my heart. This is Mary Magdalene at the tomb. And then in that moment of tear-filled eyes, behold, there's two men sitting in the tomb, one at the feet where Jesus was, one at the head where Jesus was. Now they sit, clothed in white and splendor, majestic apparel, certainly a vision of shock, certainly a vision of overwhelmingness, she didn't prepare to see two men sitting in this tomb that she went to find the body of Jesus, and these two male angels question her. This is where we get a little uneasy. So the question is not trying to find information. The question is trying to get Mary to be honest with why she's weeping. So the question comes, woman, why are you weeping? Well, a clarity of an answer exposes the heart. So if you answer rightly, she's weeping because somebody has stolen the dead body of Jesus. That's why she's weeping. You say, what's the point? The point is, she's not looking for the living, resurrected body of Jesus. So her answer betrays her faithless faith. She believes, but she doesn't believe. You know, like the Scriptures say, Lord, help my unbelief. I don't believe, but I believe. She's caught in this dilemma that many of us get caught in. We know we believe in Jesus. We know we believe the Word of God. We just don't believe the Word of God. So we have faith in it, we just don't have faith in it. That's where she is. And in verse 13, after this question is asked here in this verse, She's convinced Jesus has to be dead. I saw the cross, I saw the nails, I saw the spear, he's dead. Joseph of Arimathea took him down, Nicodemus helped him, they wrapped the body in spices, they carried off a corpse, they put a corpse in a tomb. I know for a fact that Jesus is dead, except that he said he wouldn't stay dead. Someone's moved the body. She's heartbroken over the wickedness of grave robbers. William Hendrickson puts a nice quote that brings these things to mind. Has the Lord's teaching with respect to His approaching death and resurrection? been entirely in vain? Look, I'll be honest with you, I stand in this pulpit and preach, and 99% of the time, I don't think anybody hears a word I say. I don't think anybody gets anything that I'm saying, and I go home and I'm like, what did I waste this day? Did every bit of my preaching, was it just in vain? Look, it wasn't just me. Christ, in all of his teaching, was it all in vain that Mary's standing here weeping when Jesus has said over and over and over, I'm gonna die, and three days later, I'm gonna rise, the world's gonna rejoice, then you're gonna have joy, and he said all these things. Was it all in vain that Jesus taught these things? And Hendrickson goes on to ask this question. Mary, are you not ashamed of your unbelief. Are you not ashamed? The Son of God taught you, and you do not believe Him. Are you ashamed at your lack of belief in the words of Christ? R. D. A. Carson says, the question about, woman, why are you weeping, quote, is not designed to elicit information. It's a gentle reproof. By this time, Mary should not have been crying. This is not a time for crying. I remind you, and there's a lot of these, but I'll just give you a few from John and maybe some of the synoptics. But just a couple of things. You think about the teaching of Jesus. I think there are some things in Scripture that are difficult, theologically, doctrinally, I get that. But on the whole, our problem's not understanding. Our problem's just believing the truth of the Scriptures. You think about some of the things Jesus said that Mary's heard communicated to her, at least at some point. In the beginning of John, he says something like this. Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up. He said this, not about this temple, but about his own body. Okay, that's not hard to understand. His body's destroyed on the cross, and in three days he's going to raise it up. I bet there's no body in the tomb. So it's been clear. Or you could take John 10, verse 17. For this reason, Jesus says, for this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. That's not hard to understand. I'm going to lay it down, and I'm going to take it up. I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down. I have authority to take it up again. This command I've received from my Father. Everybody, I want you to know, laying this thing down, I'm raising this thing up. Then why are you looking for a corpse? When you're looking for a dead body, I mean, that's not hard to understand. I'm going to lay it down, I'm going to pick it up in three days. You should go to the tomb going, where's he at? He's got to be walking around here somewhere. John 12, 32, when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw people to myself. John 14, 28, you've heard me say I'm going away and I will come to you. And he goes on, I've told you before it takes place so that when it does take place, you may believe. I'm telling you in advance exactly how this thing's going to unfold and so that way when you go to the tomb and there's nobody in it, you go, oh yeah, that's what he told us. I knew he wouldn't be here. Peter and John, why are you running to a tomb? You know he's not there. They had faith. They were just faithless. Or John 16, truly, truly, I say to you, he says to them, you're going to weep and you're going to lament. He already knew they were faithless, but the world's going to rejoice. We killed him. We don't have to deal with him anymore. You're going to be sorrowful, but your sorrow is going to be turned into joy. So you're going to have sorrow now, but I will see you again. And your hearts, when it finally comes around, then you're going to rejoice, and no one will ever take your joy from you again. All these things Christ has taught, these are not difficult texts to figure out. Anybody can read and understand these texts, but here it is, Jesus taught this to them in person. The Son of God spoke these things to them, and yet Peter and John are running to the tomb, Mary's standing at the womb, at the womb? At the tomb, and she's weeping. That was messed up. Wow. Hey, I'm human too, right? To believe what Jesus had said is to negate the weeping at the tomb. Right? You say, why are these people so faithless? You don't want to ask that question. You know what one of the largest money-making businesses is that affects the Christian church? Psychotropic drugs to help us deal with anxiety. Right? Popping pills by the millions. What did Jesus say? Do not be anxious. I believe Him, but I don't believe Him. You believe in God? Believe in me. I'm enough. I'll satisfy your soul. Let not your heart be troubled. Why would the church have troubled anxious hearts when the King of glory has spoken so clearly? I was out here and the world said this, the world said this, and the world said that. I can't believe it. They hated me first, they will hate you. Make sure you know this. They persecuted me, they'll persecute you. How is it that we're so disbelieving at the opposition of the world? I remember the day. I stood out at the abortion clinic years ago and I preached and they cussed at me. That's not a shocker. The world hates the gospel. Why should I be surprised? And yet the church is continually surprised when the world doesn't respond. Jesus told us they'll never receive us. Well, I did good and they were mean to me. No kidding. We say things like this. Yes, I believe Jesus is sovereign. Yes or no? Then why did the whole world of churches react in fear to COVID? What? Well, you're getting in an area you shouldn't be in, Pastor. No, I don't care what the area is. Jesus is sovereign. If Jesus wants me to die by COVID, I'm dying by COVID, whether I've got a mask or not. Whatever the case is, He is in charge. Why should I live in fear and hide in my room? Why don't I just live life and trust that Christ will sustain me no matter what because He's sovereign over all things, that there's not one maverick molecule in all the earth, and you can walk right into the gates of hell and preach, and if God wants you to live through it, you'll live through it. We don't believe it. We have a faithless faith. We say we believe it, we just don't believe it. Every time something happens, we get fear. Fear consumes us, fear grips us, fear gets ahold of us, and we have all these bad thoughts. Why? Because we don't believe Christ and what he says. If we did, we'd be the calmest, most joy-filled people in all the earth. Secondly, Mary Magdalene seeks, verse 14, there's a surprise here. Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. She turned away, don't miss, they ask her a question and it's kind of pressing her. She's turning away from the question. Why are you weeping? She's turning away from it, and then there's this person standing there, it's Christ himself, which we find from the story, and she turns away from the question to be hit from the question again. She's weeping because she believes Jesus is dead. His answer reveals the unbelief in what Jesus had taught her. Then in the midst of that, she's unable to see what she's looking for. You say, Pastor, that don't make any sense to me. Sure it does. So you're walking through a crowd at Walmart. You're walking through a crowd at some event, and there's hundreds of thousands of people around, and you come around the corner and somebody says, Hey, Bob. Not filling your own name. Hey, Bob. And you're like, hello. Yes, good to see you. Who the heck is that? You don't recognize them. And then eventually, another day, there's a family visited here. And I went over and said, hey, I'm glad you're here. And they're like, you don't know who we are, do you? And I'm like, I don't have the foggiest clue who you are. Well, they came here 20 years ago. I forgot. I mean, then when it all came together, I'm like, oh, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, now I know who you are. So we do this. We run into somebody, and we're just clueless until some more information comes. And finally, we're like, now I remember. Here's this revealing of Christ to her, and at first she does not know who He is. And in that moment of her searching, she's asked the question again, why do you weep? But then it's added. Whom do you seek? Whom do you seek? She still didn't recognize the speaker. The second question, according to D.A. Carson, quote, has an invitation to reflect on the kind of Messiah she was expecting. What type of Messiah are you looking for? One who stays dead? Or one who can defeat death and rise from the dead? What kind of Messiah is she expecting? Trying to widen her horizons to recognize that grand as her devotion to Him was, grand as her devotion to him was, her estimate of him was far too small." I love him, I love him, I love him, but you just don't realize how big he is. This happens in the church all the time. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. We all love Jesus, but we don't realize that he really is God. He really is sovereign. and everything we know about God is in the person of Christ and Christ is not comparative to anything. You cannot compare Christ to anything that exists because everything would be to demote him because he is the superlative to all things. The problem in the church is our view of Christ is far too small. Her answer was not, she could have answered, but her answer was not Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, but rather her answer to the gardener, at least in her mind at this point, was, do you know where they took him? Where did they carry him to? Where have you laid him? I will go and take him away. We're still dealing with a dead body in her mind. And then, Jesus speaks. You see it three times in this text. Jesus said, Jesus said, Jesus said. Jesus said to her, why do you weep? Whom do you seek? Then Jesus says to her, here, in this situation, calls her by name, and then Jesus says to her, do not cling. Three times, direct communication. Isn't that good? Jesus says, Thomas, right? He says, Johnny. He says John, he says Molly, he says Joshua. He calls the person by name and says, I want you to focus your attention on me, Mary. And when that name is called, everything that's clouded in her faithless faith is now clarified. Now I see. He ain't the gardener, and I'm done looking for a corpse. Now you got my attention. This is, in a sense, how genuine, real conversion happens when you're lost and alone and you're without Christ. And he says, Dylan. He says, Charles. He says, Jeff. All of a sudden, I didn't care about the Bible, I didn't care about the church, I didn't care about all this religious stuff, and all of a sudden now, it's like all I can focus on is Christ. It's like that cold winter day when that no-good-account preacher stood in that day because the pastor didn't show up, and he looked across the way at Spurgeon, and he says, Young man, you look miserable. You're gonna be miserable in this life, and you're gonna be miserable in the life to come if you do not obey my text. On that day, he says, Chris, Chris, he calls you by name, he says, look to me, look to me, look upon Christ right now, or you're gonna be miserable for all of eternity. It's what Christ does. Look, there ain't nobody else standing there. I mean, why does he call her name? She's standing there alone. He says, Mary, everything's changed. Why is that? Why does it happen like that? I'll give you a real clear biblical answer. The sheep hear his voice. And he calls his own sheep by name. What does that mean? He leads them out. The sheep follow Him. Why do they follow Him? Why? Because they know His voice. Jesus said to her the third time, do not cling but go. When the scripture examines you, don't turn away. Scripture says, man, you're not believing, do not be anxious. Why are you anxious? Why are you anxious? Why do you have fear? Why are you anxious? You say, I don't want to answer that publicly. Answer it. Answer it before God. Why are you anxious? Tell Him you don't believe Him. Tell Him you don't think He's true. Tell Him you don't think He's sovereign. You tell Him, say, I'm in fear because I think I've got to do this on my own and you're not good enough for me. You won't talk that way and you turn away from the question because you don't want to deal with the reality that Christ is sufficient and you don't have to spend the rest of your life on psychotropic drugs, having the government try to relieve you of your fear and pain. You're not willing to accept the truth of Scripture that Christ is enough. And the world out here will condemn me as an uneducated, unscientific, boneheaded preacher that doesn't know what he's talking about. And I'm saying to you, I don't care what they say, I'm convinced that this book is true. And if we don't have to be anxious, because Jesus says we don't have to be anxious, we can believe Him. When the scripture continues to examine you, recognize the grace of God in this, and be honest about what is exposed. Lord Jesus, forgive me for my lack of faith. When the scripture is used to call you by name, it's not Entertainment 101, right Dylan? It's not Entertainment 101. When God calls your name, you say, here I am. Here I am. He says to Jason, Jason. Jason, here I am. He calls you by name. You answer. He's got your attention. You respond to the Son of God. He's calling you out. He's grabbing your attention. He's saying, here, come to me. He calls you by name. Your only response is what? Believe and submit. Believe. I believe you. I submit to you. I give my life. Everything is now unclouded. Now it's a sunny day. Whatever you tell me, I'll do. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to let go of me, woman. And I want you to go tell the disciples, this mission's not over yet. I'm going to ascend back to my father. Thirdly, Mary Magdalene clings, verse 17 and 18. Don't cling to me, not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father, your Father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene, notice now what happens. Went, immediate response. Announce, direct obedience. She does that to the disciples. It's pretty clear. She says, I have seen the Lord. I think at that point when she says that, I don't think she cares what they say. I've seen the Lord. Now, if you want to just aggravate my wife or something, which I've made a lifetime habit of, but if you want to aggravate my wife, tell her that there is no panther living in South Texas. See if she don't get riled up. She says, there ain't no panther. She did not see no panther. Did not see it. But I guarantee if you tell her that, she'll come up, that woman is crazy. She still hasn't finished her anger management classes. She'll come out and she'll say, I did see that panther. I'll leave that up to you. Here's Mary. Look, I don't care what any of you people say, I saw the Lord. This is what he told me, and I'm telling you. You must not cling, kind of like back in the day of Alexander. Alexander was severely wounded in the chest by an arrow, and his soldiers cannot believe that he's still alive. When he appears among them, he didn't die, but he was wounded pretty badly, and he had recovered from his wound. And the same Greek word is used, they took hold of him, a hold of his hands, his knees, and his clothing, and they were just overwhelmed with delight and they just didn't want to let him go. This is what Mary is doing here. But here's the problem. To hold on to Jesus on earth is to misunderstand the purpose of the destination. Now, you know the other story because we use it all the time. Peter says to the Lord, no, this will never happen to you. They're not going to kill you and do all these things. Jesus pulls him aside and rebukes him and says, look, get behind me, Satan. You set your mind on the things of man. You have no idea what's going on here. I must die, and he rebukes him. Same thing here. Mary, you have no idea what you're talking about. The mission is not for me to remain here. What does the gospel mean if our resurrected Lord doesn't get back to the throne? I'd rather you stay here." That's because you don't understand how important it is for him to be at the right hand governing everything. The gospel, death, burial, resurrection, and somehow in all of our gospel presentations, we left out the other. We're just like Mary. Death, burial, resurrection, ascension. It's not in the gospel tracts. I don't see it in any gospel tracts. It's not just that he resurrected, but there was that day in Acts where he ascended before them and he's seated at the right hand of the throne of God. You want to know somebody who knows that? Stephen. Read Acts chapter 7. I see him standing at the right hand of the throne of God. The ascension got him killed. But he showed the whole gospel and it brought great conviction on the crowd that day. So much conviction they killed him for it. So much for love offering. This is time for joy and sharing good news. It's not time for clutching Christ as if someone were jealously guarding a private dream come true. Stop clinging to me. Go and tell my disciples I'm in the process of ascending. And look at this beauty. My God and your God. I mean, what a relationship here. My Father, your Father. My God, your God. Where's he ascending to? Let me briefly answer. He's ascending to original glory. He's ascending to the place of honor. He's ascending to the position of eternally reigning king. He's ascending to the right hand of the Father. He's to the heavenly abode. He's going to a place. You know this place, John 14. I go to prepare a place for you. If it were not so, I wouldn't have told you. Here's some comfort, at least it's comfort for my heart. I hope it would be comfort for you, my father, your father, my God, your God. The dividing wall has been tore down. I don't have to wait on the high priest once a year. I don't have to wait for the holy of holies. I don't have to wait for the animal sacrifice no more. This thing's been tore apart and God and believers have been brought together in Christ. Enmity has been alleviated. Condemnation has been removed. The not a people have become the people of God. Those without mercy have now received mercy. Preparation has begun, preparing an eternal dwelling for His people. Just remember this one little note we might forget when it comes to this relationship with God. This is one of those theological points you don't want to miss. Jesus is the Son of God by nature. while we are sons of God by adoption. There is a difference. He's the Son by nature. We're the sons and daughters by adoption. John Calvin said that, if you want to know who said it. Well, Mary's now convinced of all the teaching and everything's culminated and it's all come together. Jesus is right in everything He says. I'm not questioning no more. I'm done with all this. I'm going to take my faithless faith and make it just faith." And so, she believes Jesus. You say, how do you know she believes? She went. She announced. I've seen the Lord, and this is what He said. That's what Christians do. I heard the gospel, I believe the gospel, and I'm telling you the gospel. This is the truth of the Word of God. We live in confidence, we live in security, we speak the truth of God's Word in the situations that He gives to us with divine appointments, and we speak it without apology, because this is what the Lord has said. If you repent and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved. All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. I came to seek and save that which is lost." All these promises of truth of the gospel, we just share them and say, how can you believe that? Because Jesus said it. It's in the Word of God, and we go with that kind of confidence. Stop trying to hold truth to yourself. Now these reformed people of our day clinging on to their little theological things and they got all their theology worked out and they're just so smart and they're going to write a book about it. Why don't you stop clinging on to this stuff and put it out into the world in real life practical application with a neighbor? with a co-worker, with somebody you do hobbies with and share these things with them instead of trying to hold on to it and take self-possession of it. Live in a way that demonstrates that Jesus is eternally reigning as King. Rejoice in the reality of an ongoing relationship with your Heavenly Father and with your God. Faith in Jesus and love of Jesus is only a reality to those who obey Jesus. In conclusion, when you came to church today, when you came to church today, Robby, John, Mindy, Tony, Chris, Jeff, Thomas, Chris, Dylan, Margaret, Polly. You came to church today. What were you looking for? What were you looking for? Do you even know? What you were looking for? You say, why are you calling people out by name? Because Jesus said, marry. Were you looking for a corpse today? Did you want to come here and expect me to be sad and downcast like my Savior is dead and he's still in the tomb? Were you looking for a corpse? Were you filled with grief over the state of our world? Is that why you're here? Were you looking down and trying to figure out the problems of the church? People come to church and they look down and they go, the preacher this, this person this, and they just try and falter with everybody. This person did this, those kids did that, those kids did this, these people did this, and all they're doing is looking horizontally, trying to find a fault or a problem. Oh, that you would be surprised today and look full in the wonderful face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe you could do like David. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? Maybe we should come to church to look for a resurrected, ascended reigning king who has a word to speak to us. There's a man by the name of Ray Palmer, 24 years old, 1830s or so. Burning the candles at both ends, as they say, exhausted. He's working a full-time job, he's a student at Yale, he teaches at a girls' school, and he's training for the ministry, and he's completely exhausted. And he sits down and he writes a poem for himself to deal with his depression and the fact that he is just done with everything. He writes this thing in a book and he closes the book and he moves on. He runs into a guy two years later named Lowell Mason. If you know anything about hymns, you'll know who Lowell Mason is. Lowell Mason starts talking to him and understands the guy has a little ability to write, and so in all of his exhaustion, Lowell Mason says, I want you to write some hymns for me. This guy's like, I can't, I'm wore out. He opens his book and he says, I wrote this one a couple of years ago, and he hands it to him. Lowell Mason reads it, runs into a shop, grabs a piece of paper, and writes it down before he loses it. He goes home that night and he spends the whole night writing the music to go with the poem. They say to Ray Palmer, and all the stuff you may do, which was by the thousands, this is probably what you'll be remembered for. And it's the thing that we ought to be remembered for. So as Tony Edwards and Emily come to lead us in the final song, we're going to sing Ray Palmer's song. Maybe you've guessed it. It's called, My Faith Looks Up to Thee.