No power<\/p>\n
man<\/p>\n
from his hand<\/p>\n
till he returns<\/p>\n
or calls me home.<\/p>\n
Here in the power of Christ.<\/p>\n
Good.<\/p>\n
It's good to be with you.<\/p>\n
It's good back. My family's back after<\/p>\n
four months. Really a great pleasure to<\/p>\n
be able to be here on a glorious day. On<\/p>\n
the glorious day that our<\/p>\n
whole faith rests upon. Um, Christ is<\/p>\n
risen. Christ has risen indeed. Let's<\/p>\n
pray.<\/p>\n
Lord, as we hear your word, we pray,<\/p>\n
Lord, that we can uh hear it with<\/p>\n
resurrection power, that we can live<\/p>\n
life in the spirit, that we can know uh<\/p>\n
your goodness and grace, the work that<\/p>\n
you have done.<\/p>\n
We're thankful. We're so thankful that<\/p>\n
you have come and saved us. We're<\/p>\n
thankful for your word explains it. May<\/p>\n
you work in our hearts today. May we<\/p>\n
pour out our hearts to you. May we trust<\/p>\n
you and know that you are good in<\/p>\n
Christ's name. Amen. Well, if you can<\/p>\n
turn your Bibles to John chapter 20.<\/p>\n
John chapter 20.<\/p>\n
We'll be reading from John 20 um verses<\/p>\n
1- two. and then we'll jump over to 11<\/p>\n
through<\/p>\n
18.<\/p>\n
So John 20<\/p>\n
1-2 and then verse 11 to 20. This is the<\/p>\n
word of God for the people of God.<\/p>\n
Now on the first day of the week, Mary<\/p>\n
Magdalum came to the tomb early while it<\/p>\n
was still dark and saw that the stone<\/p>\n
had been taken away from the tomb. So<\/p>\n
she ran and went to Simon Peter and the<\/p>\n
other disciple and the one whom Jesus<\/p>\n
loved and said to them, \"They have taken<\/p>\n
the Lord out of the tomb and we do not<\/p>\n
know where they have laid him.\"<\/p>\n
And then jump to verse 11.<\/p>\n
Uh but Mary stood outside weeping<\/p>\n
outside stood weeping outside the tomb.<\/p>\n
And as she wept, she stooped to look<\/p>\n
into the tomb. And she saw two angels in<\/p>\n
white sitting where the body of Jesus<\/p>\n
had laid, one at the head and one at the<\/p>\n
feet.<\/p>\n
They said to her, \"Woman, why are you<\/p>\n
weeping?\"<\/p>\n
She said to them, \"They have taken away<\/p>\n
my Lord, and I do not know where they<\/p>\n
have laid him.\" Having said this, she<\/p>\n
turned around and saw Jesus standing,<\/p>\n
but she did not know that it was Jesus.<\/p>\n
Jesus said to her,\"Woman, why are you<\/p>\n
weeping? Whom are you seeking?\"<\/p>\n
Supposing him to be the gardener, she<\/p>\n
said to him, \"Sir, if you have carried<\/p>\n
him away, tell me where you have laid<\/p>\n
him, and I will take him away.\" Jesus<\/p>\n
said to her, \"Mary.\"<\/p>\n
She turned to him in Aramaic or bonai,<\/p>\n
which means teacher.<\/p>\n
Jesus said to her, \"Do not cling to me,<\/p>\n
for I have not yet ascended to the<\/p>\n
father, but go and tell to my brothers<\/p>\n
and say to them, I am sending you my<\/p>\n
father and your father, to my God and to<\/p>\n
your God.\" And Mary Magdalene went and<\/p>\n
announced to the disciples, \"I have seen<\/p>\n
the Lord.\"<\/p>\n
and that he had said these things to<\/p>\n
her. Thus ends the reading of the word.<\/p>\n
So how does someone bring their whole<\/p>\n
lives to God? How does someone bring<\/p>\n
their whole lives to God? How does<\/p>\n
someone bring their hopes and their<\/p>\n
dreams,<\/p>\n
disappointments,<\/p>\n
losses,<\/p>\n
discouragements to God?<\/p>\n
The Bible never calls us to come to him<\/p>\n
neat and and tidy. Uh we don't come at<\/p>\n
all cleaned up. We don't come religious.<\/p>\n
The songwriters of the Bible, for<\/p>\n
example, in the Psalms describe their<\/p>\n
coming to God as a a crying out of the<\/p>\n
soul, a heart pouring out all his<\/p>\n
anxieties.<\/p>\n
Uh just if if you have a cup, I was just<\/p>\n
thinking of this today actually when I<\/p>\n
was sitting at Tim's table. If you have<\/p>\n
a cup and you have water in it and you<\/p>\n
pour it out and you start pouring out,<\/p>\n
if you're pouring out your heart, if<\/p>\n
you're and the water's like your heart,<\/p>\n
everything goes, right? You can't just<\/p>\n
have, oh, just the nice stuff. All of it<\/p>\n
goes. And the<\/p>\n
the Bible says, \"Pour out your heart<\/p>\n
with all your anxieties.\"<\/p>\n
They they come hungry. the psalmist<\/p>\n
needy nourishment for the soul.<\/p>\n
The Bible calls us to come to God by<\/p>\n
faith.<\/p>\n
And faith is coming out to God uh coming<\/p>\n
to God poor in spirit. Poor in spirit.<\/p>\n
That's coming with disappointments.<\/p>\n
That's coming with realizing our<\/p>\n
brokenness and the frailties of this<\/p>\n
world. And then also trusting less in<\/p>\n
ourselves<\/p>\n
and trusting wholly to God<\/p>\n
who is the true satisfaction of our<\/p>\n
souls.<\/p>\n
And there might not be a better person<\/p>\n
to look at and understand faith like<\/p>\n
this than the first person who announced<\/p>\n
Jesus resurrection. the first person who<\/p>\n
actually Jesus reveals to<\/p>\n
her after his resurrection and it's Mary<\/p>\n
Magdalene. Mary Magdalene.<\/p>\n
How do you bring everything to God?<\/p>\n
We'll look at Mary<\/p>\n
as a church. Uh next week, I think we're<\/p>\n
going to start a series about looking at<\/p>\n
different influences of the Bible and<\/p>\n
we're looking at their faith in God. And<\/p>\n
then the gospel of John, John puts forth<\/p>\n
not his own faith,<\/p>\n
but Mary's faith as the one prime<\/p>\n
example of what faith is.<\/p>\n
In John 20, the narrative<\/p>\n
uh it explains how Jesus grows her faith<\/p>\n
as a tender gardener. Look at the text.<\/p>\n
It says verses 1 and two. It says, \"Now<\/p>\n
on the first day of the week, Mary<\/p>\n
Magdal came<\/p>\n
to the tomb early.\"<\/p>\n
Now there there are many angles uh and<\/p>\n
stages and characters<\/p>\n
as the resurrection story unfolds and<\/p>\n
reveals as revealed in the various uh<\/p>\n
different accounts of the gospel. But<\/p>\n
John here zooms in on Mary and traces<\/p>\n
her story of grace.<\/p>\n
see has been a story of grace for Mary.<\/p>\n
See, the first time Jesus met Mary of<\/p>\n
Magdalene, she was in the worst places<\/p>\n
that she could ever be.<\/p>\n
She was she was a tormented soul,<\/p>\n
terrorized by seven demons.<\/p>\n
Only uh the skewed imagination could<\/p>\n
kind of guess her pain. rage,<\/p>\n
squeamish outcasts, toggling between, \"I<\/p>\n
hate thee and I hate me.\"<\/p>\n
Mary was in a bad place. Maybe you are<\/p>\n
this morning, too. And Mary is in a bad<\/p>\n
place. But that's where Jesus goes.<\/p>\n
Jesus found her in her desperation and<\/p>\n
delivered her. Mary's demonic depressed<\/p>\n
and desperation turns into now a full<\/p>\n
devotion to Jesus and she gives her<\/p>\n
whole life to Jesus and becomes one of<\/p>\n
his disciples.<\/p>\n
She has followed Jesus even to the<\/p>\n
cross. She's one of the few that<\/p>\n
actually goes to the cross<\/p>\n
and watches Jesus hang as a on a<\/p>\n
criminal cross and die a disgraceful<\/p>\n
death.<\/p>\n
But now she has a new desperation<\/p>\n
because her whole devotion to Jesus<\/p>\n
seems lost.<\/p>\n
She goes while it's still dark and she's<\/p>\n
not going to experience a resurrection.<\/p>\n
You have to get that Mary's not doubting<\/p>\n
like Thomas would, right? She doesn't<\/p>\n
believe in a resurrection that would<\/p>\n
happen in the middle of history. Yes,<\/p>\n
Jewish people thought maybe it would<\/p>\n
come in the end, but not in the middle.<\/p>\n
Conservative Jews, yes, believe this.<\/p>\n
She wasn't going for a resurrection.<\/p>\n
She was going maybe for honor, maybe to<\/p>\n
figure out.<\/p>\n
She's going because she doesn't<\/p>\n
understand. She's confused. She's she's<\/p>\n
she's back into that desperation mode<\/p>\n
again. She's going into barrel mode.<\/p>\n
See, look at verse two. It says she's<\/p>\n
not looking for a resurrection. She's<\/p>\n
saying, \"Jesus, my Lord, is dead. The<\/p>\n
body would have been laid there.<\/p>\n
The body should be laid there, but it's<\/p>\n
not there.\" Now, where is it? Where did<\/p>\n
they lay it? So, I can grieve. So, I can<\/p>\n
mourn. So I can lament that's why she's<\/p>\n
going. The tomb where Jesus was buried<\/p>\n
was found in a garden.<\/p>\n
The spring flowers blooming all around.<\/p>\n
And John the author now focuses<\/p>\n
on Mary and her faith.<\/p>\n
Mary<\/p>\n
found outside the tomb and weeping.<\/p>\n
This is an act of love.<\/p>\n
Jesus stood outside<\/p>\n
the tomb of Lazarus. You remember this<\/p>\n
in John 11? He stood outside the tomb of<\/p>\n
Lazarus, Jesus did. And he wept as an<\/p>\n
act of love. And then there was a<\/p>\n
resurrection.<\/p>\n
And through Mary's tears, tears of<\/p>\n
disappointment and tears of desperation,<\/p>\n
she sees through these tears two angels.<\/p>\n
And these two angels say to her,\"Woman,<\/p>\n
why are you weeping?\"<\/p>\n
Like a father, a mother to a child, all<\/p>\n
Mary knows is her Lord has been taken<\/p>\n
away. She just wants Jesus back.<\/p>\n
And then in the garden,<\/p>\n
another appears,<\/p>\n
Jesus.<\/p>\n
Now, Mary doesn't recognize Jesus at<\/p>\n
first. If you actually look at the<\/p>\n
stories of the resurrection, this is<\/p>\n
actually quite common place. Jesus maybe<\/p>\n
is there but doesn't reveal himself.<\/p>\n
Jesus likes to work on people's faith<\/p>\n
before revealing<\/p>\n
himself. And Jesus is working on her<\/p>\n
faith, tilling her heart, breaking her<\/p>\n
soil<\/p>\n
so he can plant a resurrection hope.<\/p>\n
The gardener asked the same question.<\/p>\n
Why are you weeping? Who are you<\/p>\n
seeking?<\/p>\n
He goes further than the angel. See,<\/p>\n
Mary supposes that he is a gardener. So,<\/p>\n
she goes back to what she knows. She<\/p>\n
knows I know my Lord was buried here.<\/p>\n
And so, I want to see his buried body so<\/p>\n
I can weep.<\/p>\n
How do you bring<\/p>\n
all your losses and all your<\/p>\n
disappointments and your hopes and<\/p>\n
dreams to Jesus?<\/p>\n
What we learn from Mary is that she's<\/p>\n
honest,<\/p>\n
she's humble,<\/p>\n
she's broken, and she's seeking.<\/p>\n
She's there.<\/p>\n
She's not cynical nor skeptic, but full<\/p>\n
of a willingness to believe<\/p>\n
when all seems lost.<\/p>\n
When Jesus really finds us, when he<\/p>\n
finds you and me, it's never in the<\/p>\n
place where we have it all together. But<\/p>\n
when we are at our greatest need and our<\/p>\n
heart is weeping<\/p>\n
because we know that nothing in this<\/p>\n
world will truly satisfy<\/p>\n
and this is the best place to be.<\/p>\n
When we know that nothing in this world<\/p>\n
can satisfy then Jesus then becomes all<\/p>\n
that we can be satisfied in.<\/p>\n
Where we know our greatest need is where<\/p>\n
Jesus can give his great exchange of<\/p>\n
grace.<\/p>\n
Follow me here. Look at verse 16. It's<\/p>\n
simple. Jesus says to her, \"Mary.\"<\/p>\n
And then she turns to him and says in<\/p>\n
Aramaic, \"Raboni,\"<\/p>\n
There's so much beauty here.<\/p>\n
See, when Jesus says to her, \"Mary,\"<\/p>\n
he's doing more than just saying her<\/p>\n
name.<\/p>\n
He's inviting Mary into a deeper,<\/p>\n
intimate, more personal relationship<\/p>\n
with him.<\/p>\n
She's saying, \"I see Mary. I see you,<\/p>\n
Mary. I see your tears.<\/p>\n
And I know you you are known in your<\/p>\n
weeping.<\/p>\n
Don't we don't we all want to be known?<\/p>\n
We all want to be known. And not just in<\/p>\n
our good moments,<\/p>\n
in our good days, but known in our<\/p>\n
darkest places and in our weeping.<\/p>\n
And Jesus says to her, \"Mary.\"<\/p>\n
And what she he says to her is she's<\/p>\n
saying, \"I see you. I know you. you're<\/p>\n
known.<\/p>\n
And then her response is to honor him.<\/p>\n
His response is to her response is to<\/p>\n
honor him. She says<\/p>\n
to Jesus in honor, Veroni or Ajan or<\/p>\n
teacher, right? He here is a story of<\/p>\n
grace for Mary and it's for you and me.<\/p>\n
See, when Jesus calls you, he calls you<\/p>\n
by your name.<\/p>\n
He knows you by your name. He invites<\/p>\n
you personally.<\/p>\n
But even more, he he does so by as he<\/p>\n
says to Mary and he calls her by her<\/p>\n
name, he's also giving you his honor.<\/p>\n
He's giving you his honor.<\/p>\n
And when we respond in faith,<\/p>\n
honoring Jesus, then we are stepping<\/p>\n
through a doorway of intimacy.<\/p>\n
Jesus opens a door to embrace.<\/p>\n
Embrace him and he embraces us.<\/p>\n
Listen to Jesus' prayer. Uh this is in<\/p>\n
John 17 right before the cross. His high<\/p>\n
pleasing prayer. He says John 17:3,<\/p>\n
it says, \"And this is eternal life, that<\/p>\n
they know you,<\/p>\n
that they know you, the one and only<\/p>\n
true God and Jesus Christ whom you have<\/p>\n
sent.\" See, here is the gospel. The<\/p>\n
gospel on Easter morning, the gospel on<\/p>\n
resurrection Sunday.<\/p>\n
Jesus personally gives us his honor so<\/p>\n
that we can have access to him with<\/p>\n
honored intimacy.<\/p>\n
Jesus says in verse 17, \"Don't cling to<\/p>\n
me. Don't cling to me yet.\" I don't I<\/p>\n
don't know how it happened but I can<\/p>\n
imagine that when Jesus uh appears to<\/p>\n
Mary and then Mary goes and sees him she<\/p>\n
not only says teacher but she runs to<\/p>\n
him and clings to him and hugs him and<\/p>\n
life is restored.<\/p>\n
All her hopes and all her dreams are<\/p>\n
restored.<\/p>\n
See, Jesus resurrection has many<\/p>\n
glorious great truths.<\/p>\n
And the glorious truth that we can see<\/p>\n
here today is that Jesus is the true<\/p>\n
gardener who plants hope in the dirt of<\/p>\n
our lives.<\/p>\n
Therefore, whatever darkness or whatever<\/p>\n
disappointment, whatever loss we have,<\/p>\n
we can bring it to Jesus. We can pour<\/p>\n
out our heart, everything to Jesus. And<\/p>\n
it is very easy to think that sin<\/p>\n
that sin will never leave you or that<\/p>\n
grief will never be healed or that a<\/p>\n
person in your life will never change.<\/p>\n
And Mary teaches us to bring our whole<\/p>\n
lives to Jesus and to trust him and to<\/p>\n
let him work on our faith to your faith<\/p>\n
and watch a resurrection that's coming.<\/p>\n
See, this is a story of grace. Jesus<\/p>\n
invites Mary to a deeper space as she<\/p>\n
honors him<\/p>\n
through faith. That's the story of grace<\/p>\n
for Mary and that's a story of grace for<\/p>\n
you and me.<\/p>\n
Let's pray.<\/p>\n
Lord, we thank you for your stories of<\/p>\n
grace that you give us. Each and every<\/p>\n
one of us has a story of grace. We're<\/p>\n
thankful that you meet us in our most<\/p>\n
darkest places and even our most<\/p>\n
brightest places. You are there and we<\/p>\n
pray Lord that you would work on our<\/p>\n
hearts. Lord, if anyone here is needing<\/p>\n
to pour their hearts, may the spirit<\/p>\n
just flood their hearts and to help them<\/p>\n
be able to to see you to see you<\/p>\n
beautiful and to know that you are the<\/p>\n
true gardener working on their heart and<\/p>\n
planting resurrection hope in their<\/p>\n
lives. I pray that for for them. Pray<\/p>\n
that for myself. Pray that for this city<\/p>\n
in Christ's name. Amen.<\/p>","english_search_text":"","":"","original_publish_date":"20260405","video_url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Nv77o7pEbB0","video_id":"Nv77o7pEbB0","video_duration":"20:07","channel_name":"Grace City Bangkok"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44,"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions\/44"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracecity.machakosconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}