From the 20th chapter of John’s Gospel, reading from verse 11- 16 “Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping, and she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre, and saw 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 said unto her Woman, why weepiest thou? She said unto them because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him. 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, said unto him Sir, if thou have borne Him hence, tell, me where thou halt laid Him and I will take Him away. Jesus said unto her Mary. She turned herself and saith unto Rabboni; which is to say Master.”
Sunday mornings, our usual practice is to gather together in consecrated homes in the remembrance of Jesus. As He said in the breaking of bread, do this in remembrance of me, both in the cup and in the bread, and our coming together is to remember Jesus. Perhaps at this time if we could speak a little about becoming more involved deeply involved with the person of God’s Son, it may add to the blessing and joy as we would gather in a regular manner Sunday mornings.
I’d like to say it’s a great pleasure for me to be here. From the time I heard the Gospel, some years ago, we owe much to those from Aust. and NZ who have come and ministered and laboured in the States, and this an added pleasure then that I could visit the very land from where those have come to us to labour.
We’ve a little about a person this is not a parable but a real person like ourselves, who became very deeply involved with Jesus. It wasn’t just a reading knowledge in something that she had heard, but her heart was deeply involved. This is true about a successful man in business becoming really involved in their work, or a farmer, a person in school has to be involved- a housewife, to be diligent, has to be involved. Or a good marriage they are involved in the marriage. To succeed, we must have our heart in it. It is well understood to all of us that secrets will be made known to us if we really love what we’re doing. If it is a trade school whatever, if we really love what we are doing there will be secrets made known to us that will not be made known to others. It is true in a marriage. It’s particularly true in the kingdom of God.
Mary Magdalene, she is called Mary Magdalene because she was from the city of Magdala south of Galilee, and we will just referred to her as Mary Magdalene. We read first of her in the 8th chap. of Luke’s gospel. It was she that had been devil possessed. She was a devil-possessed woman and Jesus cast from her seven devils. It doesn’t tell us what they were, but then we realise that Adam and Eve were devil-possessed also. The spirit that came into them of deceit and deliberately, disobeying a command of God wat not the righteous work of God; it was the subtle spirit of the adversary, an angelic power. This is where the gospel has found any of us and all of us. Mary was devil-possessed, and Jesus cast out those spirits.
The final work of redemption had not taken place, the price of the ransom for sin, was not yet attended to. The work of reconciliation was not yet. The great work of the full payment of salvation. All that Mary received was a work of atonement. It was a promise that yet the fulfilling would take place. And those of our brethren in former days this is what they believed in was a promise of the coming of the saviour or of our soul, the Son of the living God. They lived and only enjoyed the work of the atonement, that nothing more than a promise temporally covering for sin, that’s all Mary had. We have far more to rejoice in and become involved in, and yet she ministered to Jesus of her substance in her appreciation for the work of atonement.
We read no more of her until we read of her standing by the cross. At the time it makes clear that her being there it means that she was faithful in continuing and being involved there at the cross. The great confusion of what was happening- some saying one thing and some saying another. It says that she stood by the cross, it tells us that in John 19 v 25. “Now here stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.”
Some years ago, before I had the privilege of going out into the work, I attended a Sunday morning meeting. Our brother was there whom I had not met, but heard much about, and everyone at the meeting was speaking about Harry Holland coming to that meeting, and I looked forward to that meeting. We went to the meeting and the saints had a part in prayer, and testimonies, and he got up to speak and he said, the most important part of this meeting has already passed. I wondered what is more important than his part, is that the part of when we prayed, or when we sang that hymns or when the saints testified. I thought the most important part was going to be the hour Harry Holland had to speak. And then he said this “The most important part of this meeting is the spirit, in which we have arrived before we came, it has to do with what we did in getting ready for the meeting the night before.”
I nearly fainted. The night before some of us young ones had gone to the world’s fair. We had a very nice time, and we had done nothing that we were embarrassed or ashamed about. Our conduct was upright. Our group of us were there about six or seven. We stayed until 10 o’clock that night, and by the time we got to our homes it was about midnight. I slept in that morning to get as much rest as I could, then I hurried off to the meeting. When he said the most important part of the meeting was the spirit in which we arrived, I believe that was a turning point in my life. I began to give some serious thought to what was important regarding this matter of getting involved in the most sacred moment of our life, the breaking of the bread, the very touching substance, the remembrance of Jesus the Son of God.
We cannot do this carelessly to get the blessing, we cannot do this in some hurried way and have preoccupied thoughts, and have God’s blessing. It is interesting to understand that when the sun goes down the new day starts, that’s a beginning of their day. Their Sunday began at sun down Saturday, the Lord’s Day. Things that we can do to become involved, what will soften the heart and prepare us for the most holy sacred moments of our life, the most searched out discerning time of judgement, that God is seeking to bring upon us, to bring about change to the likeness of Jesus. It takes more than a strong desire to be right, it takes more than just some lofty ambition, to aim at some high ideal.
It has to do with our honest, heartfelt involvement with the Son of God. That will make the difference. God has arranged for His children and for His children only to get involved in this. It’s the only thing we do that we exercise all our five senses in the breaking of bread. We hear about Jesus in the meeting, we behold that bread and that cup with our eyes. The time comes that we handle, and we taste, and we smell with the tasting. All five senses we are in it- seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, to make a deep and lasting impression, and we have every reason to enter this experience in a spirit of reverence and holiness spirit of consecration and thankfulness. And for a little while if we can be with Mary and with some things which she saw. There at the cross things were not clear to her like they are to us, she wasn’t fully understanding what was happening, but she was there, and I believe that on Saturday night as the day begins into Sunday, if we can read some scripture about Jesus, about His death maybe just one little subject. The preparing of the heart. It might be Psalm 22 or 34 that you choose to read. It might be Isaiah 53 or Zechariah 12 v 10 about the crucifixion. Perhaps something about the glorious day of the resurrection. Something that softens our heart and makes us glad. Our coming together on the first day is more than just a review or a rehearsal of our failure. It’s a time of rejoicing in the greatness of our salvation- in the Son of the Living God, and what this has meant to us.
As she stood at the cross she heard those words, Father forgive them they know not what they do. She heard that. It’s good that we be with her a little and think about that, and it was He who was assuring them of forgiveness, and Jesus was saying I don’t hold anything against you. She heard the conversation between Jesus and those other two on the crosses. It’s good that we stop a little and think about that, and be there, really be there with her. What was she hearing? She heard those words I thirst. She saw the man run and get the vinegar. It may not have been she fully understood, but now we do. We have the scriptures that said this would be. She saw those men gamble for His clothes. She didn’t understand the fulfilment, but we do. We have that in Psalm 22.
She heard the conversation of Jesus about His mother and Mary. We need to be there and think about that. The feeling of compassion. She heard those words My God my God why hast thou forsaken me. It was not just the suffering of pain, the inward deep feeling goes beyond physical pain. She may not have been in the garden when He prayed and perspired great drops as it were blood, but it would evident on His garments. On a cold night when a fire had to be kindled to keep them warm, Jesus perspired great drops as it were blood. Anguish of soul. It would not be amiss for us to visit there even on the preparation of going to the meeting.
The crown of thorns- those who didn’t understand who caused blood to flow from terrible physical abuse. The mocking, the blindfolding, pulling the very hairs from His head, very humiliating. It stirs anger within. Jesus had absolute control. Mary behold the spear thrust in His side that revealed to all that Jesus had died from a broken heart. It ruptured. It was from those words My God my God why hast thou forsaken me. His heart had ruptured- sin- the consequence of it.
It’s true sin may be that within us- some spirit or attitude, but physically it has to be revealed in all whatever that might be in us, whether some spirit of anger, it will reveal itself physically. A spirit of jealousy, it will express itself, a spirit of pride or conceit or ego or vanity. These spirits, we cannot have them in us except they are going to express themselves. We need not get angry or upset with the tongue for speaking amiss, or try to control it. There must be a change of spirit. It must be that there is the kind of repentance before God of our sin that it changes the spirit so that the tongue will be controlled.
Maybe you have heard this story about the clock in the shop to be repaired and there was a little notice under the clock, it was not on the correct time at all- and it just simply said on the note “Don’t blame my hands, I am not right inside.” Of course the message was, don’t blame your clock for not running correctly, it’s what is inside. It needs cleansing and adjusting, then of it will keep the right time. That is true about all of us. We may try to restrict or control or confine, and try to have some resistance against anger or some other vanity or spirit, whatever it might be and we work and work and work and feel that was not getting very far: We need the cleansing of the blood of Jesus through true repentance, where the spirit is cleansed, and made different, and right. That is where the need needs to be.
And this is why Jesus had to suffer physically, but he also had to suffer in the soul. God saw and said the anguish of his soul was satisfied. In Isaiah 53 tells that He had to suffer both, and we must also, because of physical misdeeds that we express, when they are repented of that’s why they have to be confessed and we ask for forgiveness from those whom we have offended. God’s way of getting things right changing us from within.
Mary was there when the earthquake happened. She did not fully understand that He was dying for her. It was not clear to her then that He was dying for her as a person. It was her sin that had crucified Him. Her sin, your sin and my sin, is what caused His death. We must get into this thing altogether involved to understand that our sin murdered the Son of the Living God. As a person this is a frightening thing; a searching thing. She did not understand at that moment though she was there. We understand that and we know that. It is a good thing that our hearts be softened before we go into the meeting. We’re not going to write off Sunday morning, we’re not ‘going to be sleeping in to the last minute, to rise quickly without time to have breakfast. No we are getting up for the preparation of the most holy, sacred moments of our life.
Truth Archive 