"Ooh Mary, Go Tell Peter"
John 20: 1-18; Mark 16: 1-8
Quacco
Baptist Church
Savannah,
Georgia
Introduction
The most notable
of Jesus’ resurrection appearances is when He met Simon Peter. We all know how
Peter denied and deserted the Lord. Peter was devastated by his own
unfaithfulness; and he really needed encouragement.
The
last sight Peter had of his Lord was as Jesus was taken away for trial. Poor
Peter, his world came crashing in on him. He had so many regrets. He was never
even able to tell the Lord he was sorry.
But the
resurrection of Jesus changed all of that. Peter heard the incredible message,
” ‘But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into
Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you’ ” (Mark 16:7). Isn’t that
amazing? Here is the Lord directly responding to the doubts, fears, and regrets
of one of His followers. The message was not, “Go tell the disciples and James
He is risen.” Or, “Go tell the disciples and John He is risen.” Or, ‘Tell the disciples
and Matthew He is risen.” No, it was, “Tell the disciples and Peter He is
risen.”
More
than the rest of the disciples, Peter needed reassurance. His risen Lord knew
that, and knew how to restore his faith.
Then we have, Whom did God select to witness His
resurrection? Between Matthew, Mark, Luke and John there were from three to six
and possibly more witnesses that early Sunday morning, (Matthew 28; Mark 16;
Luke 24; and John 20).
What is
interesting is that in the Holy Scripture is the fact that those who first saw
the risen Lord were all women. This isn’t the first time that the Lord went
against the “norm” of the day. To whom did the Lord reveal for the first time
that He was the awaited Messiah? Go back to chapter 4 we have the incident with
the Samaritan woman at the well; unique because one, she was a Samaritan; two,
she had been married five times and was living with a guy at the time of
Meeting with Jesus. It looks as if she was ostracized by the other women in
here town.
God always seems to do things His
way always the opposite from the way learned men would say they be done. So
let’s get back to the morning at the tomb. In
those times, as today in some sectors of the Middle East, women were not
considered credible witnesses, this was a problem for the Apostles, as Luke
writes in 24:10-11, <Now they
were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were
telling these things to the apostles. 11 But these words appeared to them as nonsense,
and they would not believe them.>
“Their words appeared as nonsense” is saying that their
spoken word has no meaning. In the Spanish Life Application Living Bible, the
Reina Valera translation it says instead of “nonsense” that they saw what the
women were saying were “locuras”; in other words they had lost their use of
reason or judgment, they were rejecting the social norms. Imagine if any one of
them were blonds, just kidding.
Just the fact that the first witnesses were women has led
some throughout history to discredit the accounts of the resurrection. It’s bad
enough to have a tale of a man rising from the dead by himself, (recall the
reaction of the Greeks to Paul when he mentioned the resurrection to them when
speaking in Athens; Acts 17:32), now have that spread about by women made it
preposterous –
Second century philosopher & critic of Christianity,
Celsus, wrote, Christians, needless to say, utterly detest one another, they
slander each other constantly with the vilest forms of abuse, and cannot come
to any sort of agreement in their teaching.” He mocked the “gospel stories” for
their portrayal of the “witness of
hysterical women”.
There’re two truths that are critical here: First, this
reminds us theologically that the kingdom of Christ has turned the entire
world, its system topsy-turvy. In that culture and every culture since Jesus
affirmed, radically, the full dignity of women and the very vital value of
their witness.
Second, this is a
powerful defensive reminder of the historical accuracy of the resurrection
accounts. If all this were “cleverly devised myths” women would never have been
presented as the first eyewitnesses of the risen Christ.
There are many authors and ministers that place a deep
importance of the women at the tomb; especially that of Mary of Magdala,
(Magdalene), as the first witness of the risen Jesus Christ.
Anne
Graham Lotz said, “ the very first to be commissioned was a woman. She was
commissioned to go to men to share her testimony . . . Sharing or reading Scripture I am not
convinced is the same, equal to, what Paul writes in 2 Timothy concerning
authority and leadership. But that isn’t the issue here, for me it is the honor
that Jesus has bestowed on women believers.
Under the curse the
woman not only came under the bondage of sin, but was placed at a disadvantage
in her relationship to men, (Gen3:16). After the fall women came to know pain,
oppression, abuse & heartache.
In that Garden, Eve was the first to be deceived by the
accuser, the serpent, the devil; on this resurrection day Jesus Christ defeats
the accuser, that serpent by rising from the dead and appears first to a woman
– one who had been herself in bondage to Satan’s demons. Her life should remind
all of us that Jesus offers total and complete deliverance from the bondage of
our past, our bondage to the curse of the fall.
Mary, and the other
women there with her, got their voice back through the redemption of Jesus
Christ the woman, the women, all got their voice back that was lost at the
Garden.
Mary was appointed to go and tell, “Simon Peter and His
brothers. She did, along with the other women.
(The Eastern Orthodox Church regard Mary Magdala as
the Apostle to the Apostles). Let’s not confuse proclaiming or preaching the
Good News with Leadership rolls. Women, whenever you are sharing the gospel,
proclaiming the Good News to anyone, male or female, you are being a witness of
Jesus the Christ.
So go and tell someone that they have been freed from
the bondage of their past and can, through Jesus, be accept His work of
redemption.
At the center of Historic Christianity is the
unique, one-of-a-kind, person of Jesus Christ. No other religion and/or
religious cult has at its center anyone comparable to Him, Jesus Christ.
He is unique in His teaching about God, life; His tender mercy and tough
justice. He is unique in wisdom, his miracles, His death and
resurrection. He is in a call all by Himself.
Of the hundreds and thousands of cults in
America today, the ones that seem to be able to last the longest do so by
piggybacking on biblical Christianity while keeping their unbiblical views of
Jesus Christ hidden at first encounters.. –
Therefore, when the question is asked about the
difference between believing in the resurrection of Jesus and in some alien
spaceship coming behind the Hale-Bopp comet, it isn’t as if the Heaven’s Gate
group, or for that matter any other religious group, are on the same level when
they claim to our belief. There are reasons for believing that historical
Christianity must be considered more seriously.
Sad to say many secular minds today do stand on
an even field. For them, Heaven’s Gate leader, Marshall Applewhite and
Jesus Christ were both delusional apocalyptic fanatics out of touch with
reality. Today they will say we have even moved out beyond that and say
there is no God, the universe is just a product of chance plus matter plus
time…..
There are those then who will argue that if
everyone in this world would one day suddenly witness an ear-shuttering
thunderclap; the earth and heavens shutter; buildings tumble; there’s a bright,
blinding light all around the earth and the sky rolls back and a Zeus like
figure appears and with an ear and earth shattering voice says “ENOUGH”!, most
philosophers, scientist, atheist, agnostics then say they would believe.
Now, connecting the dots; If you will turn your
bibles to Matthew 26 and please stand as we read from the word of God beginning
with verse 59 to 64 - - “59 Now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council
sought false testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, 60 but found none.
Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two
false witnesses came forward 61 and said, "This [fellow] said, 'I am able
to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.' " 62 And the
high priest arose and said to Him, "Do You answer nothing? What [is it]
these men testify against You?" 63 But Jesus kept silent. And the high
priest answered and said to Him, "I put You under oath by the living God:
Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!" 64 Jesus said to him,
"[It is as] you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see
the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds
of heaven."
In the second part of verse 64, it is as if
Jesus is saying to all those in today’s age that are looking for some Great
Sky-Demonstration of the Truth of God, that it is going to happen pretty much
as many demand it be done for them to believe – “you will see the Son of Man
sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming
on the clouds of heaven.”
That means that in the future, for them in 32
A.D. , and for us in 2024 A.D. obviously, the sky is going to split open and
Jesus is going to appear alive and real, and at the right hand of God - -
But, that demonstration of the resurrected Jesus
and the Truth of God in Him, that will definitely persuade millions, is still
in the future, not in our present as of today, March 31, 2024. - - That
alone puts us and all others who are looking for a final sign before
believing, in a bad predicament. If one waits to see before
believing in Christ and surrendering their lives to Him, It’s a gonna be way to
late – Remember the parable of the ten virgins, five of them foolish who feel
asleep and then got caught short? Let me read from Matthew 25: 11-13 - Later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord,
lord, open up for us. ’But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know
you.’ Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour. This isn’t just for the day of His second
coming, How about the day that one dies before His coming; before His coming
for the bride? The time to act is now, not then.
Okay, staying in our text,
back-up a little and ask why did Jesus answer the way He did? The high
priest had asked Jesus to tell them if He (Jesus) was the Christ, (V63), the
Son of God and Jesus answered, ‘Yes you put it that way, but (to paraphrase) I
put it this way; I’m not only the Messiah, Son of God as you understand; But I
am more: I’m going to die and afterward there’s coming a time when the whole
universe will see me sitting at the right hand of God.
Why did the High Priest ask Him
that question? We have to back-up a little more to v. 61 and we see that in
this kangaroo court false witnesses were brought in that said that Jesus said “destroy
this Temple of God and He’ll rebuild it in three days.”
The false witnesses were
referring to the rumor going around all of Jerusalem that Jesus was planning to
destroy the Temple of the Jews and then rebuild it in three days. – In Mark we
read that those passing by while Jesus hung on the cross were hurling abuses at
Him saying ‘you would destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days, Yeah
right! Save yourself and come down from the cross”. (Mark 15:29-30).
Where did this idea
originate? In John we find the answer; Jesus comes into Jerusalem and
finds the money changers and merchants turning the house of God into a market
place. He weaves a whip and drives them out, saying, “Don’t make my Father’s
house a house of merchandise”. (V.16). The people become indignant and say
“What sign do You show us, seeing that you do these things”, in other words
they want some evidence that he has authority to act like this, calling God His
Father in some special sense and taking charge of the Temple. What evidence do
you have that we have to yield to you and not kill you?
Then Jesus gives them the
answer in V. 19: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it
up.” So the people were really surprised if not astonished and responded
in V. 20 that it took forty-six years to build this temple and He’s going to do
it in three days? But then John comments in V. 21, “He was speaking of
the temple of His Body.”
Don’t miss the point here
though, Jesus just purged the temple with a whip and called it His Father’s
house. The disciples will recall later Psalm 9:9, “Zeal for Thy house will
consume me.”
Still, Jesus makes the point,
the temple He just purged, destroy it, the one you turned into a marketplace -
- How? How will they bring the entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament,
centered in the temple, to an end?
By rejecting Jesus, the Messiah, and putting Him
to death –
When
Jesus died, Judaism, as enshrined in the temple, - Died. The last, the
final sacrifice was made. Jesus’ sacrifice ended all sacrifices – The
final High Priest offered Himself for the sin of His people,
The priesthood ended.
Forty years later the Romans destroyed the temple, but the decisive end came at
Calvary when Jesus was destroyed.
It is only then that Jesus, in
V. 19 say, “In three days I will raise it up.” Now he is speaking of His
body.
To everyone listening, and you
here tell those you know, to the unbelievers, the skeptics, the agnostics, to
those who say they are atheists, here is the sign, the evidence.
First, they did destroy the
temple. Jesus was killed, just like He said;
Second, Jesus did build the temple
again in three days. He rose from the dead, and for forty days he
appeared to many witnesses and even to five hundred at one time as recorded by
Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:6 – this claim could easily have been falsified in
those days shortly after the event but it wasn’t. The adversaries could
never produce the body of Christ. He had risen up the new temple;
Third, the temple in Jerusalem was completely destroyed
in 70 A.D. and the sacrificial system of the Old Testament did come to an end
and so it remains to this day along with the Old Testament priesthood.
These things happened, they happened in history;
They’re not the delusions of some cultic leader. Jesus Christ is the Divine
Son of God. He is alive and reigns at God’s right hand in heaven.
He will come one day in power and great glory and everyone, I mean everybody,
yes even you, will bow and admit that He is God. In mercy He has given a sign
before that day so that we may get ready, by believing in Him. He died
and rose from the dead and replaced the Old Testament system of meeting God in
the Temple.
He is the temple, the place – the only place –
where all human beings can meet God. He is the only sacrifice you need,
the only priest you need, and He is the God you long for. He is the one
who placed eternity in your heart, that longing for something, the only
something that will truly satisfy you.
As St. Augustine opened his book Confessions,
Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be
praised; great is Thy power, and Thy wisdom infinite. And Thee would man
praise; man, but a particle of Thy creation; man, that bears about him his
mortality, the witness of his sin, the witness that Thou resistest the proud:
yet would man praise Thee; he, but a particle of Thy creation. Thou awakest us
to delight in Thy praise; for Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is
restless, until it repose in Thee
Come to Him, He lives Hallelujah, He lives..
