Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:05] So there is an emptiness in our world about Easter. And so this morning I'm going to be looking at the emptiness of Easter, in particular the empty symbols of Easter. And we're going to be looking at it through the eyes of Mary Magdalene. And Mary Magdalene is one of those characters in the Bible that we don't actually know much about yet. There's plenty of tradition and myth about her, which includes the fact that she was a prostitute until she met Jesus.
[00:00:34] But the Bible doesn't actually say that she was a prostitute. We know that she came from Magdala, which was a very sinful place with a lot of prostitution in it. But that's kind of like saying anybody that comes from Soho is either a prostitute or gay.
[00:00:51] What we do know about her from the Bible tells us that she was an ordinary person.
[00:00:57] She'd made a complete mess of her life and she was out of control.
[00:01:02] I guess that would pretty much make her like.
[00:01:05] Well, like me.
[00:01:07] I'll say me because you're all holy. I could see that in your eyes. But me, I messed up big time in my life. I lived my life for me.
[00:01:16] I knew about Jesus from an early age, but I kind of lived my life for me. I was never a miserable sinner. Have you heard that expression, miserable sinner? I don't believe in the miserable sinner because sinners do stuff that make them happy, and if they were miserable doing it, they'd stop and do something else. At least I would have done.
[00:01:37] So I was never a miserable sinner. I was quite a happy sinner, but I didn't really like me. I didn't really like the stuff that made me who I was, the. The character and stuff like that.
[00:01:51] I'll be getting to all kinds of stuff in life, either led by image or experience, which sometimes spirals out of control. But I never spiraled out of control. I was on cruise control, but I still cruised out of control and got involved with stuff that just didn't do anybody any good. Me, most of all.
[00:02:12] So not everybody crashes and burns in life, but most of us have felt trapped by money or lack of money or lack of empowerment or work or lack of work, or the attitude of our bosses or the way that we're treated, or the fact that everybody we work with is dunces and we're not getting the recognition we should get.
[00:02:35] There's all kinds of reasons, even other people's expectations of us. When people put an expectation on you and you don't feel that you can live up to it, That's a really tough place to be.
[00:02:47] And maybe it's expectations of ourselves, maybe it's what we think we should be doing in life.
[00:02:54] Whatever caused Mary to be trapped and out of control for her life, the Bible describes her as having seven demons that Jesus freed her from.
[00:03:03] Now, we may or may not have demons, but there are plenty of us that feel. But there are things that are pulling us every which way. Debt, expectations, can't afford what you like. Job descriptions, Unfulfilled ambition. Husband or wife, not turning out to be all that you'd hoped that they were going to be.
[00:03:23] There are plenty of things to pull us down.
[00:03:25] So when we first meet her, Mary is in trouble.
[00:03:28] But then she meets Jesus.
[00:03:31] The experience of meeting Jesus is wonderful.
[00:03:34] He ministers to her where she has the most trouble in life.
[00:03:38] He restores her and she becomes one of his disciples, one of the group that ministers to Jesus. You know, there are lots of women in the Bible that ministered to Jesus. You know that there was a group of women that followed him and the disciples around. There was Lydia, for example, who made money out of dye, clothing dye, as she gave her money to Jesus.
[00:04:01] Some of us are born to make money, not for ourselves, but so we can bless the kingdom. Did you know that?
[00:04:08] Say, yes, Dave. I love it when people say, yes, Dave. Just say, set an alarm on your watch every five minutes, say, yes, Dave, and then you can go to sleep. The alarm will wake you up. You can say, yes, Dave, and we'll be all right.
[00:04:20] Anyway, thank you.
[00:04:24] Still, she's like those of us who know Jesus.
[00:04:27] Still, she represents to us those who have been touched by Jesus and healed by him, set free by him and loved by him.
[00:04:36] But Mary also became one of his devoted followers.
[00:04:41] And in that role, she saw him crucified, she saw him die.
[00:04:46] She was there when his body was taken down from the cross and laid out in the grave clothes.
[00:04:52] She was there when they placed it in the tomb. She saw the authorities seal up the entrance and she knew that he was dead.
[00:05:01] That's where we pick up a story in Mark's gospel, chapter 16, verses 2 to 9, where she saw the empty symbols of Easter for herself.
[00:05:11] I'll read it to you. Hopefully you can read it on the screen behind me.
[00:05:15] Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and. And they asked each other, who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?
[00:05:25] But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which is very large, had already been rolled away.
[00:05:30] As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side. And they were alarmed.
[00:05:38] Don't be alarmed, he said. You're looking for Jesus, the Nazarene who was crucified.
[00:05:43] He has risen. He's not here.
[00:05:46] See the place where they laid him. Go tell his disciples. And Peter, he's going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him just as he told you.
[00:05:55] Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.
[00:06:02] When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons.
[00:06:10] She went and told those who have been with him and who were mourning and weeping.
[00:06:16] Father, when we read your Word, it's just words. There's nothing there but a story or part of it. But when you add your Holy Spirit, then suddenly your word becomes alive. More than that, it is life.
[00:06:30] So, Father, we invite your Holy Spirit here today because we don't want to waste our time just reading words.
[00:06:36] What we want to do is encounter with you.
[00:06:39] So, Father, we ask you, send your spirit to help us have open ears and open hearts so that we can receive life from you this morning. In Jesus name, Amen.
[00:06:55] And have a bit of a drink. I have to take these tablets that dry me out.
[00:06:58] So let's do it.
[00:07:06] Just imagine Mary's journey from the house where she was staying in Jerusalem to the tomb.
[00:07:12] Not just the detail.
[00:07:14] You know, if you were there on Good Friday, Alice was talking about the perspective that you have. And she was talking about the fact that the disciples experienced the table without knowing what was really what was going to happen at the cross. So it was looking forward. Now here she's experienced the cross, but she doesn't know that the tomb is empty.
[00:07:34] All that she knows is Jesus is dead. That's the start of her little short journey today.
[00:07:40] So imagine that journey from the house where she was staying in Jerusalem to the tomb.
[00:07:45] Notice the detail.
[00:07:47] They had seen him laid there. They'd seen the tomb closed and sealed. They didn't know how they were going to open it, but they wanted to be there anyway.
[00:07:57] They didn't know how it was going to happen, but they wanted to be there. So imagine their journey down the dusty path. They could glance up at the skull shaped hill and they would have seen the first empty symbol of Easter. The cross.
[00:08:12] Imagine the cross silhouetted against the morning sky, cold and stark. The day before, Jesus had hung there until he died. The cross was where he had been cruelly nailed, where he had lived his last long and painful hours, the life slowly draining out of him.
[00:08:31] She didn't yet fully understand it. She might have glanced up in her grief and asked herself, what was it all about?
[00:08:39] The cross is where Jesus became sin for us. Therefore, the cross represents the forgiveness of sin. It represents Jesus overcoming sin for us is where blood was shed. Sin was put to death. Sin was taken away.
[00:08:57] If Jesus was still there, then sin would still be there. Sin would not have been dealt with. Jesus would not have conquered sin. He would simply have been a man.
[00:09:07] If the cross were not empty, there would be no forgiveness of sin.
[00:09:12] God took the worst thing that man could do to his son, transformed it into the best thing he could do for man.
[00:09:20] Max Lucardo says this. Think of it this way. Sin put you in prison. Sin locked you behind the bars of guilt and shame and deception and fear. Sin did nothing but shackle you to the walls of misery. Then Jesus came and paid your bail. He served your time. He satisfied the penalty and set you free. Christ died. And when you cast your lot with him, your old self died too. The only way to be set free from prison is to serve its penalty. In this case, the penalty is death.
[00:09:53] Someone has to die. Either you or a heaven sent substitute.
[00:09:58] You cannot leave prison unless there's a death.
[00:10:01] But that death has occurred at Calvary. And when Jesus died, you died. To sin's claim on your life, you are free.
[00:10:11] That's in a book called in the Grip of Grace.
[00:10:13] Billy Graham said, on almost every church in the Western world, there's a cross.
[00:10:18] Why?
[00:10:19] Why has the cross become the symbol of Christianity?
[00:10:23] It's because on the cross Christ shed his blood, which has become the cure for sinners who would recognize their spiritual poverty and receive him as their Savior, master and Lord.
[00:10:37] If the cross were not empty, it would mean that Jesus would still be hanging there. It would mean that his work was not yet done. It would mean that he still had to say it is finished and breathe his last. Or if he were dead but still on the cross, he would have been no more than a man. And his death would have accomplished nothing.
[00:10:59] We live forgiven because because of Jesus death, his work was accomplished. He did die. Mary knew it when she saw the empty cross she fully expected because she had seen his body taken down and wrapped in those grave clothes and laid in the tomb.
[00:11:17] But she still didn't get it.
[00:11:19] A cross with Jesus still on it represents suffering. The empty cross represents forgiveness.
[00:11:26] Friends, do you know that you're forgiven?
[00:11:29] Do you know that the penalty has been paid? Do you know that you're free?
[00:11:33] See the empty cross and understand that it represents forgiveness and spiritual freedom.
[00:11:42] Then she got to the tomb and she came across the second empty symbol of Easter, the empty tomb.
[00:11:50] Imagine her shock when she saw that the sealed door had been rolled away and the entrance was open.
[00:11:57] Folks, this is the true point of Easter. That's why we celebrate Easter mostly on Easter Sunday, because it's Resurrection Sunday.
[00:12:06] It's the open Tomb Sunday. It's not the Cross Friday, but it's the empty Tomb Sunday.
[00:12:14] Folks, none of them knew where he was, but they did know that he was not there.
[00:12:21] Belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, by the way, is not an optional extra for Christians.
[00:12:27] This lies at the core of our Christian belief. Paul himself insisted that if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:14.
[00:12:42] If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then his own expectations were disappointed and his repeated promises false. If Jesus body still lay mouldering in Joseph's tomb and his now forgotten dust, then death is still victorious and final.
[00:13:01] There's no good news for the dying.
[00:13:03] If for a Savior we only have a ghost, then for heaven we can only have a dream, says Peter Lewis. In the glory of Christ.
[00:13:13] Folks, in all your struggles in life and all of our triumphs and disasters, we are focused and centered on the death and resurrection of Jesus.
[00:13:21] If the cross represents victory over sin and ultimate forgiveness for us, then the empty tomb represents victory over death and eternal life for us. Do you know him?
[00:13:34] Is he the Lord of your life this morning?
[00:13:37] And then the third empty symbol of Easter, the grave clothes. Finally, Mary gets to look inside the tomb and what does she find there? The third empty symbol of Easter. The empty grave clothes, the final evidence of Jesus resurrection, represents his personal interest and relationship with us. If the cross represents victory over sin and forgiveness for us, and the empty tomb represents victory over death, eternal life for us, the empty grave clothes represents glory for Jesus and fellowship for us.
[00:14:11] Those grave clothes were quite possibly really expensive and good quality when they were wrapped around him, because his disciples would have wanted the best for him.
[00:14:23] But you know, they would have been stained with the evidence of the cross and the evidence of death. There would have been blood and water, fluids, body fluids, dirt, even splinters from the cross that might have stuck to his body.
[00:14:36] But when Jesus rose from the tomb, he was transformed.
[00:14:41] There's a small detail in John's Gospel, which I find quite fascinating. If there's a detail in your Bible, you know that it's there for a purpose, don't you?
[00:14:50] Like when David picked up three smooth stones. Why was there three stones? Why were they smooth? I love that kind of detail because I find it helpful to study it.
[00:15:01] So if there's a detail in the Bible, it's there for a purpose. In John 27, the cloth that had been around Jesus head is described as separate from the other linen wrappings and neatly folded.
[00:15:14] That suggests intentionality and care, his deliberate, orderly resurrection and the completion of his work on earth.
[00:15:24] Just as a napkin was folded after a meal was finished, folded cloth shows that Jesus had completed his sacrificial work and no longer needed the burial linens.
[00:15:36] The neat arrangement contrasts with the chaos of death and the crucifixion. It suggests that Jesus resurrection was deliberate and controlled and that he left the tomb in a purposeful manner, unlike a body stolen by grave robbers. I wonder, if you thought you were dead and then suddenly came back to life in a tomb, would you stop to fold your stuff or would you just run out and say hallelujah?
[00:16:01] Grave clothes in general symbolize the old self or sin that must be shed.
[00:16:06] Jesus, emerging from the tomb free from his burial cloth represents victory over death and sin. And the folded cloth underscores the deep dignity and intentionality of this transformation.
[00:16:21] He left behind the appearance of death. And although he carried the scars of his crucifixion, he was dressed in clothes that were clothes of life. He was no longer the battered and bleeding man on the cross. He was now the resurrected Jesus, the conqueror of death, the man who would walk and talk with his friends. He was the one who would meet them in the upper room on the road to Emmaus, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, who would eat with them, walk with them, and probably even laugh with him. You know, Jesus was not the somber figure that they put in most portrayals, don't you? He was somebody that you wanted to spend time with.
[00:16:58] He was a good bloke. He knew how to party. That's why the Pharisees called him an alcoholic. Did you know they called him an alcoholic? In the old words, it's wine. Bibber might call it a dipsomaniac is somebody who drunk too much. I'm not saying Jesus was a drunkard, but he knew how to party. And he was somebody that you wanted to spend time with. He was somebody that you wanted to invite to your wedding.
[00:17:21] Jesus conquered sin and he conquered death.
[00:17:26] I've got five minutes left.
[00:17:28] He offers relationship to you today. Will he conquer your heart?
[00:17:35] Conclusion the emptiness of a heart without Jesus.
[00:17:38] When I was a child, I used to love the fact that at Easter, the chocolate Easter eggs used to have the Smarties or whatever the sweet was inside, loose, so you could shake it and it would rattle.
[00:17:51] Whilst the eggs were hollow, they were filled with a promise. If you shook it and it rattled, that was the sound of a promise of something special inside the Easter egg.
[00:18:02] Later, they put the Smarties or whatever into little bags and then put the bags in the box so the egg was hollow and somewhere in the box, a little packet of Smarties.
[00:18:12] I was thoroughly disappointed.
[00:18:15] The promise was never quite the same.
[00:18:18] Mary's heart that morning was empty. Her heart was as empty as the cross, the tomb, or the grave clothes.
[00:18:26] But for the promise that each one had.
[00:18:28] The promise of forgiveness of sins in the empty cross, the promise of eternal life in the empty tomb, the promise of restoration with Jesus in the empty grave clothes.
[00:18:38] Once she realized the promise, her heart was filled with wonder and awe and excitement and love and faith.
[00:18:46] We can have empty hearts, empty of hope, empty of love, empty of security.
[00:18:53] But when we meet Jesus and receive him and allow his promise to be fulfilled in our lives, we can have hearts that are once more filled with fulfillment of all of these promises, because all of them are ours. Jesus is here. He is risen. His spirit is with us. And we can be restored to relationship with the living God through Jesus Christ. In him, we inherit the promises. We receive forgiveness of sins, and we receive eternal life through restoration of Jesus.
[00:19:26] Restoration with Jesus.
[00:19:28] So are you ready for the folded grave clothes of your old life to be set aside?
[00:19:34] Are you ready for the dignity of a new life with Jesus?
[00:19:39] You know Him.
[00:19:41] Let him fill your life this Easter.
[00:19:44] No need for emptiness, no need for that hollow feeling. He's here because he's risen and he loves you.
[00:19:52] All you have to do is to respond to Him. Now, what should that response be? Well, if you're not a Christian, it's to become a Christian.
[00:20:04] If you are tired, if you are struggling, if things are not going as well as you'd like them to, then you could be renewed, because you can have a renewed experience of Jesus. You can see him afresh again and be renewed in that.
[00:20:20] In a moment, we're going to have a celebration song. But right now, I just want to invite you to a moment of quiet reflection, during which time you can respond.
[00:20:31] So there are two calls this morning. The first one is for salvation. If you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus as Lord, Lord and Savior, but you would like to, then in this moment of quiet reflection, it's only going to be a moment, but I want to invite you to come forward to the front row. When I was a little boy, we used to. I was in the scouts and we used to have to go to the Salvation army for church parades and stuff like that. But at the front of the citadel where we met, there was a long bench. It was called the Mercy seat. And they used to invite you to meet pretty at the mercy seat. It's a biblical picture. And ever since then, I felt it was appropriate to claim the first front row as a mercy seat. If you want to meet with him today, come forward and sit on the mercy seat. And there are people here that will come and pray with you.
[00:21:19] Secondly, if you need renewal, a renewed encounter with Jesus through the Holy Spirit, then that too is available for you. And I'd invite you to stand so that the people around you can pray for a renewal in your life. This is just a gentle thing, folks. It doesn't have to be jazz hands Christianity. Ta da.
[00:21:44] It just has to be a meeting between you and the risen Lord Jesus.
[00:21:49] So let's just quietly reflect, and if you want to.
[00:21:54] If you want to make a commitment to him this morning, become a Christian, come and sit in the front row. There's three or four seats and people will move out your way anyway, so let's do that now and I'll pray.
[00:22:18] Father, Easter is a great celebration.
[00:22:22] It's great for families, it's great for. Great for children, but it's also great for our spirits and our souls.
[00:22:29] So, Lord, I pray that if you have somebody here today that you would like to meet with in salvation, just encourage them, Lord, to make that known by coming forward to the Mercy seat.
[00:22:42] If there are people here that are jaded and their spirits are tarnished and they want to come to you for renewal, Lord, I pray you give them the courage to stand so that we can pray with them.
[00:22:53] Father, if everybody here is hunky dory and good with you, then I just want to celebrate that fact. Thank you for it. So, Lord, you're here. We invite your Holy Spirit to do business with us. In Jesus name, Amen.
[01:01:41] Sa.
