"Resurrection" - The Apostolic Connection

and when the Sabbath was passed Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and soomi had brought sweet spices that they might anoint that they might come and anoint him very early in the morning the first day of the week they came to the seeler at the rising of the sun verse number nine now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week he appeared appeared first everybody say first he appeared first to Mary Magdalene out of whom he had cast Seven Devils precious Lord today anoint your servant with your spirit Lord that I would speak words that could penetrate the hardest heart in this room Lord Jesus today the urgency of the hour is for lives that don't yet know that resurrection power can come to find you this morning and Lord that you could take up residence in their hearts and that you could change them Lord Jesus you came to seek and to save that which was lost father I praise you today Jesus name I give you thanks amen you may be seated you know the true meaning of Easter the true true meaning of Easter I know that we talk on this morning about the cross and the cross was man at his worst but God at his best that horrible Cross of which he was crucified upon the spit the physical hits the stripes the nailing to the cross the hunger thirsting but yet that's not what Easter is about because if we just looked at that we would get a martyr that Jesus was a martyr Jesus if we looked at the tomb today if we examine the tomb today the tomb is empty I've asked them that I've asked them that brother long that puts messages up on our church sign there's one sign at Easter I do not want put on there I don't know why churches put it on there they'll put it on there he is not here don't put that on the side he is here he is here I wonder how many angels go by those signs and say well that's truth but if we focused on the tomb it's empty right and if we just look at the tomb and examine of the Tomb today we leave with more questions than we do answers we leave the tomb is empty there could be questions of did his disciples come and we we all know but really the true meaning of Easter is not a torture on a cross that was a part of it and it had to he had to do that the true meaning of Easter is not necessarily an empty tomb but yet he had to do that but the true meaning of Easter can be found in the people that he first appeared to because the meaning of Easter is all about changing lives you hear me it's all about lives being changed let me tell you the greatest truth in all the world today is that your life can be changed through the power in the Lord Jesus Christ your life can be changed changed now let me tell you the greatest lie the greatest lie is that he can't change you that's the greatest lie that's ever been told it's interesting it caught my eye that Jesus first appeared under this woman by the name of Mary Magdalene would you get me verse chapter eight of St Luke chapter eight of St Luke verse one we'll start reading there because in order to appear first to someone he's trying to tell us something he appeared first under Mary Magdalene now Magdalene is not her last name Magdalene is the city that she is from Mary is her first name she is Mary of Magdalene or she lived in in that City but it also goes a little bit further than that and it tell tells us in in chapter 8 verses number verse number one it says and it came to pass afterward that he Jesus went throughout every city and Village preaching and showing the Glad Tidings everybody say Glad Tidings that's good news he came preaching the Good News the good news you see the Easter is all about good news as a matter of fact Easter is the only true good news of the day it's truly the only true good news of the day he came preaching and showing the Glad Tidings of the kingdom of God and the 12 were with him verse two certain women which and certain women which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities Mary called Magdalene out of whom went Seven Devils now we have Mary at the the tomb we have Mary wanting to anoint the body of Jesus we have Mary a worshipper of Jesus but you see just part of our story is who we are now the other part is who we were when God found us she was not always a devout worshipper see this is this is good news for people today because you know we can fathom God loving an anointing worshiping Mary at the tomb we can fathom God loving someone like that but when God found Mary when Jesus found Mary magdal she had Seven Devils in her now we really don't know that maybe the number seven is complete we really don't know we just take it for face value seven separate devils in her but we know that she had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities well we really that that leaves Lees Us in the dark also was she was she sick or can we get a better view of how Satan works and what Satan does when Satan gets a hold of people and how he uh uh torments their life can we get a better view of that in the gospel of Mark chapter five and uh if there's ever a chapter that the our enemy wishes was not in the Bible it's this one it's this one you see there's certain things the enemy would like to cover up and that's the end results of his products he'd like to cover those up he doesn't like it he doesn't like it when it gets out that his products they don't pay Mark chapter 5 and we'll begin reading verse number one I want to show you the point of taking you here is to show you what Satan does to a person the Bible said and they came over to the other side of the sea into the country of the gatans and when he was come out of a ship immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean Spirit who had his dwelling among the tombs and no man could bind him no not with chains because he had been often bound with feathers and chains and the chains had been plucked aunder by him Su by him the feds broken in pieces neither could any man tame him and always night and day he was in the mountains and in the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones I'm G to stop there at verse five but I'm going to continue now let's look at what Satan did to this man now he lives among the tombs the tombs is no place to live that's no place for a human being to live you don't want to go to the tombs you visit the tombs you go to the tombs for one purpose and that is to bury your dead you don't live there you go and bury your dead and get out and ever so often you come back and visit the tombs is nowhere that you want to live I'm I'm often reminded of years ago matter of fact when my wife and I first came to Maryville and we lived over uh over by the the Old Courthouse we lived on Goddard Street over there and uh I remember brother Mike Bingham an evangelist would come often and Hold Us revivals and after church uh he wanted to walk after he ministered he wanted to he wanted to walk and was fine and I would walk with him but brother Bingham and if he's watching today or if he gets on and watches this everybody knows that brother Bingham is kind of a fry short of a Happy Meal I mean we we we we all know that he's not those of you that know him know he brother bingham's just not your average bear he's just he he's just you know and maybe God has to find guys like that to make preachers out of them I don't know but he wanted to walk at night no problem with that but he wanted to walk down this certain Street and over and right through an old Cemetery now I had no problem with walking and I had no problem with the distance but I didn't want to walk through that Cemetery he said nothing nothing's going to hurt you I said I know it's me hurting myself I I understand that because come on folks you just don't live in the tombs right you just don't live in those places but you do when the enemy gets a hold of you because the enemy wants you to live among that which has no life and so this man filled with these Legions lived among the tombs he did he didn't live at home he's evidently a nuisance because they had come out and they had tried to bind him with chains but the chains could not hold him not only that they put feathers on him what we would call handcuffs and shackles but he broke him because Society was trying to control him and keep him from being a nuisance and when they saw that the chains and the feeds couldn't hold him they took teachers and they tried to tame him that's right they tried to teach him how to act better they tried to train him to a better Behavior but we know today that the answer to bad behavior is not necessarily a lesson on good behavior but bad behavior can be broken by the resurrection of Jesus Christ and so we know that they couldn't tame him and he was night and days in the tombs crying that word crying there meant he had anguish he was tormented on the inside he was tormented and then he was cutting himself with stones he was mutilating his body he was trying anything that he could do he was cutting himself what a pitiful pitiful plight for a human being to be in but I'm so thankful for verse six of this chapter because this would be a pathetic pitiful story had it not been for verse six Mark chapter 5 and verse 6 says but when he saw Jesus a far off he ran and worshiped him now you understand something today that wasn't the devil worshiping that was that man giving a space of time to be free praise God to be free to do what he wanted to do he didn't want to live among the tombs he didn't want to cut himself he didn't want to cry day and night but he was under the power of something greater than he could ever handle but oh thank God when Jesus came that way when Jesus come walking see that's what Easter's all about that's what our lives are all about we're not here today because we saved ourselves we could not save ourselves a bit more than we could jump flat footed and touch the moon we are impossibly lost hopelessly lost without God's saving power but thank God for verse six because Jesus came to where you and I and bought us bought us a brief moment to make our decision of what we were to do he cried we know verse 7 of chapter Mark 5 we know verse 7 says that when he worshiped and he got to where Jesus was the Bible said and cried with a loud voice and said what have I to do with thee Jesus thou son of the most high God I adure Thee by God that thou torment me not would you please notice something with me verse six is what this man was allowed to do he came and he worshiped but yet verse seven tells when he opened his mouth it was the devil in control of his tongue in verse six he's in control he runs and worships whether the running is an act of worship we don't know but we know that verse seven when he opened his mouth the devil spoke because that's where the devil likes to have control because the scripture says the power of life or death is in the tongue and the enemy knows that's why God uses the tongue as a sign of the infilling of the Holy Ghost because God wants control of that tongue and that tongue will say the tongue's not going to say anymore I'm trash I'm no good I'm a hopeless nobody loves me I'm just the scum of society but that tongue under the direction of God says I'm treasure I'm valuable I'm loved by God I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me I can overcome I can get through this thank God for Easter Sunday morning because Easter Sunday morning puts a new song can you say Amen so now as we go back to Mary now we understand a little bit of her life we understand a little bit of her frame of mind because Mary follows Jesus because she is thankful for what Jesus has done and I really believe that that's something that every Christian in here needs to work on is being thankful there's not enough thankfulness in the house of gods in the house of God today there's not enough Christians and and I'm I'm I'm not just talking this to us I'm talking this as a whole we we're not expressing Thanksgiving like we ought to express Thanksgiving Mary Magdalene let me tell you something Mary Magdalene knew how to be thankful because she always remembered the Seven Devils that went out of her and one way to always stay thankful is not to be thankful for what God has given you that's not what you want to be thankful for but be thankful for what God has brought you out of that's something that they can't repossess that's something that that that can't be taken away from you I'm here to tell you that's something that keeps a song in your heart a smile on your face I'm glad today and I can't help help it but Easter feels good this morning I once was lost but but now I'm found I I once was blind but now I see I once had no hope but now I have joy I I I'm so thankful that he he would reach down he would reach down you see the prophet HCA in chapter three of habca Chapter 3 of a Becca verse 17 said it this way he said although the Sak tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vines the labor of the oliv shall fail and the field shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the Stalls now the prophet ABCA just described to you total Financial collapse there's no crops growing there's no no no grapes on the vines there's no herd there's nothing in the stall your your your your brother BR busted and disgusted all right I mean you're you're you're looking up through the bottom it it's there there's no this there's no h but then Verse 18 of habca chapter 3 verse 18 He says yet will I rejoice in the Lord I will joy in the god of my salvation folks today Christians let don't fall prey to this to where we're only thankful for material things we're only thankful when the surroundings get just right the wife's beside me the husbands beside me the kids are well all all is going good and now I can praise him a little bit that's not what your praise Governor ought to be set on but your Thanksgiving Factor ought to be like Mary Magdalene I had Seven Devils in me and he brought them all out I was cutting myself I was living among the tombs I was tor any day and night I had no peace I had no confidence but now through the cross I wish somebody would help me preach this morning