The Resurrection by Jeremy Painter December 7, 2025 ยท First Pentecostal Church, Durham, North Carolina Kind: sermon Scripture: John 20:11-16 Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/jeremy-painter--the-resurrection Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page. Free to copy and share with attribution. ------------------------------------------------------------ I didn't iron my shirt at all, just sort of skipped that part and got an extra five minutes of sleep. I'm so thankful to be here this morning. I think this is my third or fourth time here and it's a great blessing. And this time I get to see sisters. She was a good friend to me way back then too, and glad to see that the family's grown. I saw the likeness of the two of them here on the platform. I think that was Joseph right there and Ben was up here somewhere, right? There he is, right? Grandkids. It's beautiful. You serve the Lord and you stick with it. You don't waver. You just keep going. And then you wake up one day and you're old, but your life is beautiful. Would you turn in your Bibles to St. John chapter 20? I'd like to read six verses beginning with verse 11. But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre. Seeeth two angels in white sitting. One at the head and the other at the feet with the body of Jesus. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they've taken away my Lord. I know not where they've laid him. 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? That's the same question that was asked when we first met Jesus in John's Gospel. Who do you seek? She's supposing him to be the gardener saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, Tell me, where hast thou laid him? And I will take him away. And Jesus saith unto her, Mary, She turned herself, And saith unto him, Rabboni, Which is to say, Master. I want to speak this morning on the subject of the resurrection, the resurrection. And I'm specifically, I have a very specific audience in mind to the general audience of the church. But if you've come here this morning out of habit but your heart has forgotten why I'm coming after you today, I want to preach on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus taught us when we pray to begin with hollowing his name. That means to treasure his name above all else. Could we do that together? Hollow your name, Lord. We cherish your name, that matchless name. Jesus, bless the preaching of your word. Let it be blessed in the hearing. Blessed in the receiving, Lord Jesus. I pray that what is said would be true to your heart and your spirit, but also, Lord, that you would awaken. That there would be a resurrection, a revival of the soul. As we witness anew your resurrection as told in the gospels. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you for standing. You can be seated. Pharisees went to Pilate with the strangest request. Your honor, I can imagine them standing there before Pilate kind of looking at each other for reassurance. Probably not quite able to look Pilate in the eyes knowing what they were about to ask. We humbly request that you that you put a guard at the tomb of the man you put to death yesterday. Now this is a group of people whose claim to fame is they're the sect of the Jewish people who believe in the bodily resurrection and the jokes on them because they're trying to put a guard there to make sure nobody bodily resurrects. And I can only imagine the aggravation Pilate felt at the sight of these men. He'd had enough of them yesterday. Yesterday they cornered him into condemning a man he knew to be innocent. And today they ask that a guard be put over a dead man Imagine that conversation with the poor soldiers when they found out they were being sent to protect the city from a corpse. If it was absurd to guard a dead body something had already happened that made their position even more absurd. They weren't guarding a dead body at all anymore. They were now actually guarding an empty tomb. The popular imagination pictures an angel coming down and opening the tomb, doesn't it? In the popular imagination once the angels roll away the stone then Jesus comes forth out of the tomb. But read the ancient accounts more carefully. The stone is rolled away not to let Jesus out but to let the disciples in. It's difficult to unlearn that strong image of an angel or the angels and the great round stone and Jesus dressed in white emerging from the tomb with hands up raised but the record of the event has another story to tell. Jesus is already resurrected and out of the tomb before the stones rolled away. In three of the gospels we the reader find out that the stone being rolled away was only an event that had already taken place by the time Mary arrived. Only in Matthew's gospel do we get to witness the stone being rolled away as it's happening. And in Matthew, as soon as the angel opens the tomb and sits on top of the stone he says to the visitors, Jesus is not here, he's risen. And stitching together the four accounts and the prophecies of the Old Testament hears something like what must have happened. While the stone was still over the tomb and while the soldiers stood outside just as the merest hint of dawn appeared in the changing blue horizon of the third day the prophecy of David by the breath of the Holy Ghost stirred inside the tomb I will bless the Lord who have given me counsel. My heart instructs me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad in my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall live in hope for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell. Neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life and thy presence is the fullness of joy. And at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore and the body of the Son of God the brute and branch of David answered like a waterfall retaining its essential shape and form even as new water flows through at every moment so did incorruptible immortal matter flow into the form of the same Jesus who died and sudden breath into the lungs heartbeat and fluttering eyelids movement of the arms and consciousness the second Adam rose up from the earth and floor and as he would later pass through the door of a locked house so he must have passed through the stone walls of the tomb and into the world he would now redeem. I don't know how this message ever gets boring. How has it gone to sleep in your soul? Thunders like this in you snore soldiers didn't see him and now the sun was coming up there was just that little ribbon of light bordering the mountains in the east maybe those soldiers leaned their bodies against the tombstone adjusted their leather straps on their boots straighten themselves and yawned and stretched their arms tried to stay awake a wind might have swept by them just then as they pulled their cloaks over their cold arms the sky was suddenly troubled and a bolt of lightning struck the ground near them but it wasn't lightning at all it was a holy angel a malacheme clothed as Matthew puts it with white lightning and immense power the angel approached the huge stone and flicked it open and the tomb was already empty and the land around them trembled with an earthquake imagine not being a modern but a soldier of the first century asked to stand watch in a graveyard where the man who was rumored to have walked on water and put the fear of God into a stormy sea had just been buried imagine being that soldier asked to guard a sepulcher only 40 hours or so after there were reports of tombs opening of their own accord and long dead men and women starting to walk around every child knows what it's like to believe the world is just barely holding back strange powers spirits in the dark ghosts in the graveyard there are just certain things you shouldn't hear in a dark empty room you shouldn't hear a soft voice in the corner for instance or footsteps in the closet or a breath just behind your ear and on this early morning the strong battle hardened soldiers minds could handle no more they lost feeling in their bodies and fell down like dead men the gospel says these four stories don't offer too many details when they came to it seems that they ran into the city and started to tell people what they saw and so the city leaders had to bribe them to change their story at this time it seems that Mary Magdalene made her way to the tomb carrying ointments to dress the corpse of her dead lord Mary knew no doubt that since she'd witnessed the burial from afar that if his body was kept in the same tomb the stone would be in the way she knew that the body had been buried with all expedience quickly at the shortest possible distance from the side of the crucifixion in order to avoid violating the Sabbath with too long of a walk she had been a witness to the burial the tomb where he was buried was owned by a certain Joseph of Arimathea a rich man and a member of the ruling Sanhedrin that had been behind the plot to kill Jesus and it must have occurred to Mary that this rich man might have merely loaned his own garden tomb a tomb that he meant for his own family simply out of expedience in other words she would have thought that this man loaned the tomb for the weekend until the holiday was over so Mary would have feared that the sunset of Sabbath the body would probably be moved out of the rich man's tomb and the body of Jesus dumped in some nearby shallow grave in unsanctified grounds more fitting for a man condemned to death for blasphemy or worse not knowing much for certain Mary Magdalene entered the garden and she approached the tomb and by the dawn's light she saw that the stone was moved in the cavity of the tomb she according to one gospel she didn't look any further you have to remove yourself from two thousand years of Christian history and the cultural knowledge and celebration of the empty tomb to understand Mary's reaction it never occurred to her that her Jesus had risen from the dead this wasn't one of the possibilities there was only one possibility empty tomb the one explanation for the stone's removal was that the authorities had taken the body and either buried it in a shallow grave or they were desecrating it by leaving it unburied and exposed to the birds somewhere so she freaks out John's gospel said she started to run not towards the tomb but back towards where the disciples were sheltering themselves inside of a locked and barred house afraid they'd be the target next you could almost hear the incandescent outrage in her wild words to Peter they've taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they laid him they, she said they after JFK was assassinated those around Jackie Kennedy remembered her repeating over and over again they killed my husband they is the word that we use for that nameless sum of all enemies the mastermind and minions behind everything we hate they've taken the Lord John the one disciple who managed to keep his nerve and follow Jesus all the way to the cross he was out of the door like a bolt running to the tomb and Peter who'd discovered over the weekend that he wasn't nearly as brave as he had hoped he was he ran right after him if he hadn't defended Jesus in life he wasn't going to fail to defend Jesus body and death and I imagine he was ready to take on hell in every authority in Jerusalem now and go out with guns blazing over this unbearable outrage Eugene Bernan's famous 1898 painting of this moment I think captures this moment so well that the chief emotions that must have been felt on the respective faces of these two disciples John who'd already seen more than a man can bear runs in a white garment in this painting his young brow is furrowed and knit together at the center plaintively as if he were preparing his eyes for something to see like a father preparing to identify his child's body at the morgue and Peter on John's left his eyes are unnaturally wide open as if he were being forced to watch a murder John sees the tomb just as Mary had said the tomb was small I've been in what is believed to be the very tomb of Jesus it's housed under the church of the Holy Sepulchre and you do have to stoop down almost to your knees to go in the fourth gospel says that John stooped down and looked in he saw the corpse the corpse's linens that had been wrapped around Jesus body but John couldn't or wouldn't go in the fourth gospel says that John stooped down and looked in and and this disciple that was most sensitive and closest to Jesus may not have been able to bear contact with any decayed remains or touch the ground where Jesus body had lain he could look but he couldn't touch so he didn't go in and Peter probably older by a decade or so caught up with John and John probably pointed at the tomb and true to his nature Peter's ready fire aim he's gruff he's more tactile in nature than John a man who rolls up his sleeves instinctively and handles what others won't touch he goes directly into the tomb I can see him touching the grave linens but when he sees something he can't understand at all he pauses he notices that there's a special cloth that was used to wrap around the corpses head and it was perfectly folded I can see him showing it to John and looking confused and I can see kneeling at the entry to the tomb I can see John thinking he's thinking he's trying to process this body's gone but the head linens perfectly folded the text says it was at this moment that John himself was finally compelled to go in he went in because he knew now for sure for sure that they weren't standing at the scene of a crime anymore or a sacrilege they were standing at the scene of a resurrection Peter didn't understand but John put it all together let me explain the ancient Romans once heard a rumor about the Jews they could hardly believe it they heard that the Jews guarded a place they called the sanctum sanctorum or Holy of Holies it was said to be the throne of the Jewish God and that no one was allowed to go in except their pontifex the high priest not even the king was allowed to enter into this sanctorum only the pontifex and only once a year but the strangest thing was according to the rumor no one had ever seen an image of their God either their priest went into the sanctorum blinded so one Roman general named Pompey a few generations before Christ he decided that when he destroyed the city of Jerusalem he was going to go into the sanctorum and see what no one had ever seen and come back with tales of the strange and exotic to tell the people of the senate he sacked the city and with a light he went in to the great mystery he re-emerged a few minutes later but he was completely puzzled for he too was unable to see the Jews God he went in he had seen the throne he had seen the mercy seat he saw two angels with their wings adorced spread towards one another like a canopy over one seated on the throne but there was no image there was no image of the God under the winged canopy just a blank empty seat he thought they had taken the image of their God away and hid it but he missed the point entirely he didn t realize that the Jews worshiped a God who was not only invisible but if anyone saw an image of what was supposed to represent him you could be sure that wasn t him the absence of Jehovah s image was his presence the empty seat was the evidence he was there now fast forward back to the tomb it s an empty tomb in the first of many revelations dawned upon John s mind it came with all the subtlety of a hurricane modern critics like to say that people were naive or gullible back then as if our age invented reason it just isn t true they had to think too you can see thinking shot through in this account of the resurrection the ancient Jews might have believed in the spirits of the dead but they were every bit as skeptical about a bodily resurrection as we are today Peter remained puzzled but John is more perceptive he knew what he was looking at or more precisely wasn t what he wasn t looking at if they, their enemies had really taken Jesus s body why was his face cloth gently folded who among those hateful men would have taken the time in the care and then the mind leaps nimbly as it was made to do to explanations for the data and why would they take off his grave linens in the first place it would have been more expedient to keep him in the linens who wants to handle the flesh of a corpse or the dead flesh of a corpse he s been dead three days keep him in the linens and who knows exactly but that folded cloth maybe it reminded John of Jesus maybe it was just the sort of thing he d do in the dark before leaving the tomb cleanliness in order in the tomb as if to say with each line in fold what he would later say through Paul s pen all things decently and in order whatever the case when Lazarus came out of the tomb others had to take off the grave clothes what had happened here was Jesus had passed right through the grave clothes Mary the fourth gospel says arrived at the tomb and she started weeping she knelt down like John did earlier to get a closer look in the tomb but now two angels sat where Jesus s body had been one at the foot the other at the head as if the ark of the covenant were being recreated so close a facsimile that there is even the absence of the image of God they saw her weeping and asked woman why are you weeping she seems not to have known she was talking to angels no doubt it was difficult to see much from outside the tomb so she answered probably not wanting to sound like she was accusing them they've taken the Lord and I don't know where they've laid him see she was looking for a dead Jesus but much to the disappointment of his doubters then and now there's no dead Jesus to be found but look at Mary Magdalene she loves Jesus but she's searching for a Jesus who was and never will be again a Jesus of the past and many modern Christians are just like this today they build nice buildings for a dead Jesus and say nice things about him they call him a good teacher and an example that is they build what amounts to tombs for Jesus and they weep for the wickedness of man and they wish there were just some answer to all the evil out there what they're doing is what Mary was doing at first long ago making a religion out of coming to a tomb and mourning and wanting to cover his dead body with nice smelling fragrances yeah the world is a wreck and yes it's unfortunate that goodness has to die and the world is a tough place but we can make it smell a little better at least death is king always has been but maybe we can make it meaningful and beautiful anyway the resurrection is just a myth a beautiful myth Jesus didn't really rise bodily from the grave no one can do that it's just a symbol of Jesus' enduring impact death might end a man's life but not his memory mercy and justice and kindness and ethics that's what it's all about anyway men die but those things never die and see it all sounds so nice and logical but lean in a little closer and smell real good you know what you're smelling perfume sprayed over bad body odor essential oil or oils poured over rotten meat it stinks the faith that changed lives is the faith of a risen Jesus this faith has turned murderers like Paul into apostles and cowards like Peter into martyrs slave merchants like John Newton into songwriters of amazing grace prostitutes into the pure and holy a dead Jesus can't do this don't look for a Jesus who doesn't exist the living Jesus you can find him he's here he said to John fear not I am the first and the last I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore amen and have the keys of death hell and the grave the four evangelists of the New Testament tell the story of an actual resurrection a resurrection of the body they each focus on different aspects of the story but they all tell some version of the story that says we didn't believe we weren't predisposed to believe we had given up every hope we thought the crucifixion was the end we thought we'd see him again in heaven at the end of time we moped around we cried we ran we hid we just tried to pay our respects go to the tomb and say nice things about him we intended to keep his memory alive we tried to eulogize him we tried to just move on with our lives go fishing we tried all this with Jesus safely tucked in our hearts and memories but then he came up to us we saw him die the nail was in the coffin we had him buried so deep that when he appeared to us we didn't recognize him a couple of months ago after a Wednesday evening service I'm backing up those are the things you keep quiet think I've learned by now to have silent thoughts a couple of months ago after a Wednesday night service I exited the sanctuary of our church building and I went down into the parking lot and I saw somebody I kind of found familiar but I thought nah she was going into our building in the education center and uh but okay okay I don't know what to do with this information she looks familiar but that's just that's the way things are and then and then the next day somebody told me that so and so was at our church building and she had dropped her kids off there she was familiar in fact I had recognized somebody from my past but you know what was happening I simply could not call out to her name because I had no category for the idea that she would be in my area none last time I saw her was several years ago and she lived on the other side of the of the state of Washington which is a long way away why would she in fact in fact she not only moved away but she had left penny costs altogether so why would she be here there's no category for understanding see you can't just you think recognition is just a matter of seeing a familiar pattern and symmetry in a face but recognition takes more than sight there has to be something intellectual in place for you to be able to recognize that somebody would be there otherwise they're going to be a stranger to you that looks familiar somebody as the song says you used to know that's what happened to the it's one of the most wonderful things I see in the accounts of the resurrection and all four accounts are like they didn't recognize when they first saw him why is that and always thought well maybe it's because you know he looks so different no he didn't it's the same Jesus they recognized him once something shifted in their mind they were able now to place him but at first sight they just didn't recognize he can't be here he's dead I saw him die I saw the cross I saw them I saw the tomb I saw can't be him familiar we heard the disciple says that we he appeared to a few of us separately we thought that maybe it was just his ghost it was appearing but he appeared to us they said he said touch my hands touch the wound where the spear entered my side watch me break bread at supper and listen to my prayer of blessing hear me call your name you'll know it's me every year there's some major publication that drops out an article on the real meaning of the resurrection they usually do that around Easter just to give everybody a little hope whether it's the New York Times or the Atlantic or Time Magazine there'll be some sober brow biblical scholar who from his ponderous intellectual perch pronounces that Bible believing Christians are just so plainly wrong about the story of the resurrection it's not about an actual person actually rising from the dead literally they love the word actually and literally it's just a symbolic story the story is actually about the renewal of hope and of love winning there's really no resurrection of the body would have completely negated everything we learn from science being told a man died and three days later actually he rose from the grave as a mockery of adulthood making this point making this the point of the resurrection story it's an insult and requires us to be like naive children but if that's all the resurrection was then Christianity really is just a slightly different version of Buddhism or Islam or Judaism with altered vocabulary what does the faith really have to offer that other religions don't have if there's no resurrection if it's just about love and justice you can get that virtually everywhere else in every other religion if it's just about life and death you can get that everywhere else everyone believed there was life after death in the apostles day everyone the Stoics believed it the Romans believed it the Greeks believed it the Sadducees even believed it in after life though it was a spiritual one but all of these merely believed that when we die we simply become spirits and live on in a kind of ethereal disincarnate existence in another world and often times we hear Christianity and even the resurrection being reduced to these kinds of beliefs but do the apostles sound like men who just went around the world proclaiming things people already believed did Jerusalem think the apostles were preaching things everyone already believed when they beheaded James when Rome crucified Peter and executed Paul do you think Rome thought that the Christians were going around just proclaiming that we ought to be good people and that there's life after death that was the message of every religion every philosophy every mother and father taught their kids that no Rome saw the apostles as threats because they believed not only that there was life after death but that Jesus bodily resurrection from the grave meant that someday we would rise from the grave too Jesus bodily resurrection meant that he had plans not just for heaven but for this world too kings and kingdoms were all going to pass away the one who had conquered mankind's greatest enemy death was going though to come back and unseat every king and become the king of kings and the lord of lords and this world was going to be redeemed and renewed see Rome was just fine if you believe that we die and just go to heaven to be with Jesus you're out of the picture Jesus is out of the picture we're no threat if heaven just stays heaven the world can just stay the world but if there's a bodily resurrection of Jesus then there's no real dividing line between heaven and earth anymore they're all mixed up together when Christians like Paul start going to places like Athens and preaching people sit up and they take notice Athens was where everything was discussed everything a man could think or believe was known in that most cosmopolitan of cities but when Paul started he started preaching the city went on high alert the Athenian started saying this Paul seems to be a preacher of foreign theology he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection they said and so they brought Paul to the city's judgment seat and had him explain this they listened along until he got to the part quote the times of ignorance God overlooked but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed and of this he has given assurance to all how? by raising him from the dead there it is he's saying that mankind has been searching for answers for a long time searching for God their idolatry were all part of that search for God and search for truth but God had now done something that ended the search the time of searching was now over and the time of decision has come Jesus will come back at any moment in the flesh and he's going to hold all men accountable including the kings and the emperors that means that heaven is set to intervene in the earthly affairs God's going to meddle with this world but Jesus isn't just going to meddle in the future he's calling all men to repent now he's the true ruler of this world now not later all kings philosophers all rulers all men are answerable to him right now you can read the accounts of the resurrection and conclude that the apostles were lying they made it all up or you can say it looks to me like they record something that really happened to them they met a resurrected Jesus and then spent what they had out of the rest of their lives living like they had and laying their lives on the line and dying with Jesus is risen on their lips but do not say the resurrection is just a symbol this isn't an option the bible gives you Jesus was either a liar or he's lord those are your only two reasonable options but let me tell you it's a lack of belief in the real resurrection that darkens our world and darkens our lives we start getting desperate as we watch our lives slip away into the deserts of time Henry David Thoreau once said that all men lead lives of quiet desperation gather ye rose buds while you may you only live once do you see what kind of anxiety is built into that philosophy I even see young men with tattoos yolo right on their arm or on their neck what are you doing don't ascribe to that philosophy it's pure anxiety if you only live once every encounter you have in this finite life that you live has to be meaningful you can't just take people and things and days as they come to you every vacation has to be the best the home you live in has to be the best your marriage has to have all blessed days in it wonderful days you can't ever ever have anything secondary you can't be hurt by somebody because then somebody hurts you in the only life you have to live desperation it's all around us people really believing you only live once past your ocean we're getting old I've been getting up out of bed in the morning I can't walk yesterday I literally fell on the floor no feel sorry for me I've lived a good life you probably noticed I've been holding on to this podium with one hand the whole time seriously if I turn too quickly to the right I have extreme vertigo I will fall over and you guys will call 911 so I'm holding on I'm returning to dust my body is going back to that out of which it was made and I'm getting reminded of that dust it's getting louder and louder every day what desperation could set in but I like to think of what that old man said once when he was asked on his deathbed how he's doing he said oh nothing's wrong with me at least nothing that the resurrection won't heal death where is thy state grave where is thy victory if you only live once when you go on vacation and you start dating the most wonderful person or you achieve a goal it took years to attain you start a family and have children you adore if your hopes are set on these things you'll always find them disappointing in all the music you listen to to give you peace or joy what you're actually searching for is a song you remember but you've never heard in every relationship you start you're seeking a companionship you've never had but remember somehow like the memory of an amputated arm in every weekend and day you take off you're looking for a rest you've never known but you somehow remember in every vacation you take you're looking for a rest you've never experienced but somehow there's a standard of ultimate rest in your heart that you use by which to judge every attempt to find rest unless you understand that in everything in everything you're looking for what you're actually looking for is the glory of God in the face of the risen Jesus Christ you'll always find that your soul's appetite exceeds what this world can supply all the rivers run into the sea yet the sea is not full several months ago do you guys remember when bombs were dropped on Iran on the nuclear and then a couple days later the Ayatollah took to the microphone and gave a press statement and there were observers out there in the crowd and they were shocked they looked at him and then one person reported he said the Ayatollah is a shadow of his former self normal statement it's an English truism a shadow of your former self in other words he was once strong and powerful and alert and commanding in his presence magnetic even but now he's just this withering old man weak and tired needs propped up shadow of his former self every one of you in here you're a shadow but of your future self no matter how much you're at the height of your glory in this life you're just a shadow a shadow the sufferings of this present time not worthy to be compared with the weight of glory for the Christian we're not missing out on anything there are no regrets ultimately I don't have to live my life saying if only I'm just getting started I'm not walking into a sunset I'm walking into a sunrise friend they went back to the house and Mary stayed at the tomb she didn't dare go in like the two men had she just stood there and wept and then at some point she wiped her eyes and bent down to look into the tomb without going in this time she saw two angels sitting where Jesus body had been they asked her why she was weeping she repeated what she said to the other disciples they've taken my lord I don't know where they put him then she turned around and saw a man standing behind her in the garden if you've ever found yourself walking on a sidewalk say pavement and poles and cars but then you saw a beautiful house surrounded by a garden and you hear the trickle of water and see the green grass perfectly hedged a beautiful cherry tree and blossom tulips of every color and then in the middle of all this paradise a man gardening carrying a bucket and inspecting one of the branches you might remember the sense if you've ever had an instance like this of unsolicited trust a man who's tended this garden who's lived with these trees and flowers is the tender touch and care and shapes the trunks of trees when they're young and trims away the dead branches who stands back at the end of the day and says of his garden it's very good Mary turned away from the tomb and saw such a man in the garden through tearful eyes and in her feverish voice she asked him the same question but the gardener asked why are you crying why are you crying what are you seeking he is risen nothing truly bad can ever happen to you again she assumed the gardener would know where Jesus was and she thought maybe he'd help move him so Mary offered to take possession of Jesus' body and the birds of dawn flew overhead the morning sun must have warmed her face and then his next word was the whole world she saw his lips move in that familiar way she heard him say her name like a woman alone in a foreign country surrounded by strangers unfamiliar streets the battle of unknown tongues customs and sense and difference to her everywhere she turns she suddenly though hears someone somewhere say her name clear as day Mary heard her name in the old world of death and dying and sick and grief and loss and disappointment she went away the bright city of tomorrow the blessed city of the sun took its place every hope she'd ever had was fulfilled in the sound of Jesus saying her name and one day you're going to hear your name as one person said I didn't know my whole life that I was a bell until the day I was wrong rejoice rejoice in the Lord always and again I say stand with me and give praise to the Lord hallelujah blessed is the name of the Lord blessed is the name of the Lord blessed is the name of the Lord blessed is the name of the Lord blessed is the name of the Lord blessed is the name of the Lord Jesus Jesus Jesus revive your people Lord this morning Lord, let a shout of joy go up from this congregation, Lord Jesus. Let the heart sing, Lord Jesus, once more. Lord, let the saint return to his first love, Lord Jesus. Jesus, Jesus, Lord God, I pray that you would wipe away tears, not just then, but Lord, wipe them away this morning, Lord Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and shouting on the happy hills, oh what glory, hallelujah, when we meet our blessed Savior, yonder in the sky. Mansions will glisten on the streets of glory, happy reunions, but Jesus will outshine them all. Would you come to the altar and worship the Lord? Come and worship the Lord. I tell you something very important as you come. The kings of this world, the rulers of this world, they set standards that are impossible for you to conform to. But the king of the cosmos, Jesus, he sets a standard everyone. Everyone can follow. It's quite simple. Repent, repent of your sins. You come and pray, repent of your sins, and turn towards the risen Lord in faith, and begin to worship him and cry out, and watch what the Lord does as he fills you with his spirit. Jesus' name, with the church, lift up its voice and cry out to the Lord.