Out of all the events that have happened on the earth, out of all occurrences that have proceeded thru time that humans have been on this earth, no ONE event has been as powerful and continued to be as powerful as Christ Jesus dying on the Cross, then being buried in a stone tomb and rising again on the 3rd day. This one huge occurrence rocked life as we know it, therefore marking mankind forever. It had such an impact on us, we changed how time was recorded on our calendar, BC (before Christ) and AD (after Christ). Though there have been monumental happenings on earth, none have changed how we view our lives as Christ’s life on earth.
Wrapping our entire lives up in one package, stapling the most life changing pieces to the outside, and though these were extremely important pieces, they do not impact others as the death, burial and resurrection of Christ Himself.
When we talk about His life; Him growing up, His ministry and the loss of His life, what causes us to remember Him so? What makes us sit up and take notice so much about Him and the indelible mark He’s left? Why will mankind never be the same?
This answer, to the unsaved person is found not in the dying, and neither in the burying of Him, but in the rising again that flips humans out. Though the power of God was so so igniting, nowhere is His power more accounted for as in the tomb on that particular day.
Though Jesus is the Son of God, He is also Son of human, two intertwined in one physical body. The bible says He was not so handsome that we would particularly remember Him. Why then did this certain week of His life rock humanity? It was the rising from the dead.
God Himself came to earth, enclosed Himself within His creations form and lived a life AS a human, tested and tempted in all ways such as we are, and still did not sin. Whoa! That WOULD take the power of the Holy Spirit to live without sin, wouldn’t it? My goodness we cannot even go a week without having to repent to God the Father over something we’ve done.
Today’s lesson is enfolded within the story of Easter and the accounts of Jesus dying, though as monumental as that is, but we are taking one simple episode of this experience and magnifying it so we spot just what God the Father is showing us girls today, here and now, for us to see.
There were many many people caught up in that day Jesus was taken captive. There were the Jewish Leaders. There were the Roman Leaders. There were the Roman Guards. There were the towns’ people. There were strangers passing through. There were the people that just followed Jesus to see the miracles. And there were His 12 disciples. But there were, also, many other disciples or believers that were following Him. Then there were a few very special women that were accounted for that day, as well, that were with Him the entire way.
Once Jesus was captured by the Roman Guards by the betrayal of one of His own disciples, He was taken in to be questioned. Though there were the Roman Leaders, they granted access to Jesus’ sentencing by the Jewish Leadership that was present. They were the ones that would sentence Him, accusing Him of all kinds of lies.
The Jewish Leadership of that day despised Jesus. Many people no longer followed THEM, but Jesus. They were jealous of Him. They had nothing good to say about Jesus upon His arrest. The Roman Leaders did as the Jews wanted. They sentenced Him to death.
Because the life of Christ has such a profound effect on us today, and throughout history, as the ONLY way to reach Heaven, we celebrate this day as ‘Good Friday’. It is a scheduled day ‘off work’ for many in the work field, even those that do not believe in Him. See the enormous touch His death and burial have had on civilization?
You would think with such a GIANT event upon the earth for the saving of the human race, demonstrating the love of God, the grace of God, the deliverance of mankind, that God would want to show WHO He wanted first share in that moment of finding Jesus risen, alive, no longer in the tomb. I know He doesn’t esteem one person above another, He tells us that in the bible. He is not a respecter of persons, because His word states that very thing. But God, in all His Glory, His Majesty, His reining Importance, you would think He would select someone with authority in the earth, or power in Leadership, or someone special in some way, or an out of the ordinary kind of person to share in this ONE INCREDIBLE MOMENT IN TIME…… when He rose His Son from the grave!
So, seeing that this one incredible moment is one highly regarded by God Himself, we can assume and be assured that God selected JUST who He wanted to see Jesus first risen from the tomb. That one person God said ‘yes, I want them’ to find Him risen, no longer laying in the tomb, lifeless, but ALIVE and well!
Turn to Mark 16:9 “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils”.
Jesus FIRST appeared to Mary Magdalene. She was someone that followed Jesus because He had ministered to her and delivered her of devils. She had become a believer, had received a touch from Him in her life. She …. was a new girl. A NEW GIRL WAS THE FIRST TO SEE JESUS in His risen body. A New Girl was the FIRST to see Christ that we all talk about RISEN and not dead. It was a New Girl that God chose to witness the great miracle of the resurrection of Christ. God did not select a great King on the earth to encounter the newly risen Savior. God did not select even one of the 12 disciples to behold Him. God selected a New Girl, that had once been bound by satan, in bondage to his ways, and multiple demons living within, to become FREE by the hand of the Lord Jesus. God could have selected anyone at all, but God the Father chose….. a New Girl!
Mary Magdalene was at His tomb earlier with two other women, but here she was found alone. She was found there alone, weeping. Mary Magdalene was so overcome with grief, she wasn’t concerned about being at a cemetery by herself. She was there to take sweet smelling spices to cover Jesus’ body with.
This is as we are when we come to Christ. We are so engulfed in what He’s done for us, the love He shed abroad in our hearts, overwhelmed with love for Him, that we will step out in boldness and go somewhere we’ve never gone just to be with Him, even if we’re not certain we will find Him moving. We have to know that because of our love for Him, wanting to encounter Him, that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.
Turn to Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for she that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of her that diligently seeks Him.”. Mary Magdalene diligently sought Him. She was seeking Him in a different form than what He was. That’s like us. We receive a touch from Jesus and assume the next time we meet Him He will be the same also. Not so. Each time we experience Jesus, it will be different. But as you’ve seen in the scripture in Hebrews, He is a rewarder. As we diligently seek Him, become serious to encounter Him, He will appear. He will come down. He will allow us to see Him, feel Him.
Turn to John 20:1-7 “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher [tomb], and seeth the stone taken away from the tomb. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the tomb. So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the tomb. And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the tomb, and seeth the linen clothes lie, And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the tomb, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. But Mary stood without at the tomb weeping…” The others went on home. They went away. But Mary Magdalene, the New Girl, stayed and was crying. She was so disturbed that someone had taken her Lord, that she was alarmed, uneasy and greatly disturbed.
But if we diligently seek Him, He will reward us. Look at the remainder of those scriptures in John 20:11-13 “But Mary stood without at the tomb weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the tomb, And seeth 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? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him”. Because she was diligent, working hard to find Jesus, seriously seeking Him, she had a heavenly meeting with God’s angels. What an incredible experience. She was found alone and seeking, in her alone time early at dawn, searching for her Lord, she had a heavenly engagement. She had a meeting with heavenly beings simply because she was the one searching, seeking, wanting so badly to find her Lord.
As it is with us, the New Girls, searching, seeking, wanting so badly to find our Lord. THEN!
Back to John 20:14-17 “And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith 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 thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; 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 your God”. She went to find Him and FOUND HIM. She was not disappointed in finding Him either. She wanted to discover Him and SHE DID. She had a longing to locate Him and that is what happened. But as she imagined in her heart, she never dreamed she would find Him in a risen body. She never even fantisised she would encounter Him ALIVE!!!!
He told her to not touch Him because He had not ascended to the Father yet for His glorified body, heavenly body. The process wasn’t even complete, but she STILL got to witness the mighty work of God by raising Him from the dead. Mary was the first one to “go tell the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ”. What is that good news? That CHRIST IS ALIVE and is the Savior of the those that are lost. We have a risen Savior. He is not a Savior that’s hand is too short to reach. He is not a Savior that cannot touch and save. He is a Savior that is alive and living, therefore with the power to miraculously touch and save.
Any time we seek Him in our prayer time, though our process of life is not complete, we will find Him. We will encounter Him. We will feel His arms around us, calming us, insuring us, encouraging us, healing us and delivering us from evil. This is what Mary Magdalene encountered through Jesus, this saving grace, this power of God. She knew what is was like to be tortured in her mind by satan. She knew what it was like to feel so alone in that, so helpless, so hopeless. She met HOPE, though. She met POWER. She not only met hope and power, but the One that cared enough to apply that power, and give her hope of life again.
This is like us, being tortured in our mind, feeling some days that we have no hope, are alone in our life. But Christ in His risen condition, not dead condition is the living hope, living power for our lives. It’s when we diligently, seriously, for real, seek Him that we will find Him.
Turn to Acts 17:27 “That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us”.
Again to Deut 4:29 “But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul”.
And now to Psalm 3:4 “I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill”.
Once more to Psalm 34:4 “I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fear”.
Then to Psalm 118:21 “ I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation”.
Any time we seek God, ask of Him, wonder, think on, go after Him, He brings us to Himself. We find Him. No matter what state of mind we are, even grief as Mary Magdalene was, we will have this encounter. He assures us of this. When we want Him, and seek Him with our whole heart, He rewards us. It’s not the same reward each time. Each time is just what we need. It’s just what we are yearning for, longing for, sometimes when we’re not even sure of what we desire, He knows. Mary wanted to see Him so she got to see Him. It was unlike what she thought she’d find, but how she found Him was even better. HE WAS ALIVE!!!
So, as we walk this week and beyond, let us KNOW that He wants us to find Him. He wants us to know the New Girl, His new creation can find Him. We are the New Girl because He’s made us new. Remember 2Corinthians 5:17? “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new”. We are the New Girl because He has made all things pass away, die, pass on, stop working, crash. And behold all things, US, OUR LIFE, OUR THINKING, OUR LOVE, OUR HEARTS, OUR BODIES, OUR MINDS, have become new, original, never being this way before, fresh, a clean slate!!!!! We are no longer the Old Girl, we are the New Girl, seeking and find Jesus in a whole new way.
ALIVE
He is alive….His tomb is empty. Today when you open a plastic Easter
Egg that’s empty, remember His tomb. The treasure is not in the empty tomb anymore,
He is alive and well….
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