https://www.bible.com/events/49589832
Church of the Nazarene – East Rockingham Campus
Encounters Part 2- Easter Sunday
Mary Magdalene
Today we continue in our Easter teaching series called Encounters.
We are looking at different stories in the bible where people personally encounter Jesus. Today we are looking at Jesus’ encounter with Mary Magdalene on resurrection Sunday morning.
What did this encounter mean for Mary? What can we learn from it today?
Luke 8:1-3
After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.
We learn that Jesus had healed Mary from evil spirits and infirmities- It tells us specifically that 7 demons were cast out of her life. And that’s all we really know about her background
She was once in darkness, living with demonic presence in her life. But an encounter with Jesus was all it took. And her life was changed forever.
What about you?
John 20:1
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.
The last time Mary saw Jesus. He was dead.
It was on the evening of Good Friday after she witnessed Jesus lifeless body being placed in the tomb, with a large stone rolled in front of the entrance.
That stone on Friday evening had to feel like the end of her world. Hopeless and heavy. And she carried that same feeling with her on Sunday morning.
John 20:2-7
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!” So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.
Mary’s only conclusion at the sight of the stone being rolled away is that someone has taken the body of Jesus out of the tomb. She runs to tell the other disciples.
The other disciple who is not named here, is believed to be John, the one writing this gospel.
Peter arrives and goes right on in to see for himself. He is taking it all in, trying to process the evidence that’s right in front of him.
John 20:8-13
Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 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.”
Mary is still so upset, that she is seemingly unphased by the sight of two angels as she looks in the tomb. As the angels ask about her condition, she can only reply that someone has taken away Jesus.
And now comes Mary’s encounter – the one that would change her forever…the one that would change the world – change you. If you let it.
John 20:14-16
At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, 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.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
This is the encounter. This is the moment that changes everything for Mary.
Jesus first shows up in a graveyard to encounter his friend Mary who is confused, broken, and hopeless. That’s the God we serve.
At the sound of Jesus calling her name, Mary recognizes that it is Jesus. Her heart leaps for joy as she grabs ahold of him.
John 20:17-18
Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” 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.
This encounter with Jesus changed her life. Jesus was alive, validating everything he ever said.
Jesus is alive, there is hope, there is the forgiveness of sin and the hope of ternal life. And he’s still encountering us today.
Do you believe that? Do you really believe that it can be true for you?
Matthew 7:7-8
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
1 Corinthians 15:13-17
If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.
The question of the resurrection is really the central claim of Christianity.
The good news or the gospel of Jesus Christ is that through is life, death and resurrection, we can not only encounter him, but we can find new life in him.
Jesus, through his sufferings, and his death on the cross, made the full payment for all sin.
The bible tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Jesus came to deal with the penalty and the power of sin in our lives. And in his resurrection, he validated his teaching, and the victory over sin death and hell. And those who place their faith in him, will one day share in a resurrection like his. And until then, we get to experience his life within us.
That’s what’s at stake today as we consider the stone rolled away this Easter Morning.