Women in the Word Part 7
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Three Lessons learned from Mary Magdalene
Three Lessons learned from Mary Magdalene
Introduction:
During Jeus’s life on earth, He was followed by many people, vast crowds even. Other times it was by a faithful few.
As the course of Christ’s ministry became clear, even His Own disciples were guilty of running away from Him when the pressure became too great. We are told that on the night He was arrested, “...they all forsook Him, and fled.”, Mark 14:50.
After Jesus is arrested, only two of His disciples followed Him to the home of the High Priest. They were John and Peter. Peter, we are told, followed Him “afar off”, Matt. 26:58. Peter would be the one who also denied Jesus that very night. By the time Jesus arrives at Calvary to be crucified, only one of His disciples, John, is still with Him, John 19:26.
After Jesus dies on the cross, His body is removed and taken to the tomb of a man by the name of Joseph of Arimathaea, John 19:38-42. As darkness falls on that dark, dark day, all of the Lord’s disciples are hiding from fear of the Jews. By the time Jesus had died on the cross, and was buried in the tomb, not a single one of the men He had called was with Him.
Even though the number of the Lord’s followers fluctuated from thousands to a handful, there was one group that seemed to always be with Him.
Our text this morning mentions a dedicated group of women that followed the ministry of the Lord Jesus. These women offered Him financial support and absolute devotion.
One of these women, Mary Magdalene, seemed to have followed Him everywhere. She was with Him during His ministry. She also wept at His feet as He died at Calvary. She followed His body to the tomb and sat outside His tomb after He was buried.
She was also among the first to return to the tomb following the Sabbath. And, she was the first one to whom He appeared when He arose from the dead.
While others forsook the Lord, she remained faithful to Him! When others ran away, she stayed! What was it that produced this kind of devotion in Mary’s life? I think the Bible has the answer to that question!
Today, let’s take a look at this woman’s life to find out what happened to her to make her love Jesus so. I want to see if I can get a little of what she had! I believe there is a word from God here for every person in this room. Let’s look into the Word of God as we think about A WOMAN CALLED MARY. I think her life has something to say to all of us about humble, consecrated devotion to God.
Text:
After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.
Prayer
first of all:
Don’t be Defined by your past
Don’t be Defined by your past
Mary was introduced to us in a way that is easy to judge and someone we would try to avoid. Mary was a woman who was possessed. She was a woman who was troubled.
Here’s what she was going through:
She was possessed by 7 devils. The number 7 is noted as “completed” meaning total possession of demons. She was under constant torment. She had lost hope. She was in a state of hopelessness, no hope for salvation, she was cut off from the Temple. She had nothing to look forward to only a life of instanity and sin.
She was helpless in her condition and powerless to change her life. She was trapped, totally helpless with constant noise of the demons speaking to her messing with her mind and though process not to mention her peace.
Most lost people may not be possessed by demons but they are still dead in sin and powerless to change their condition.
Mary is a great picture of this. She is a lost person and in need of a Savior. Those who don’t have Christ are dead in sin. In desperate need of a Savior.
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope.
Without Christ we are trapped in sin with no way out. What a sad condition to be in!
Jesus took time for her and because He did He transformed her life from desperation to DELIVERED!!
secondly:
Make Jesus the Center of your world
Make Jesus the Center of your world
Mary was a delivered woman. Her conversion in Luke 7:36-50.
Jesus reached out to a woman who was in total darkness and brought her into His marvelous light. This shows how amazing He is and what a life changing difference He makes in lives.
This is amazing grace! This is unfailing love!
If it was not for Jesus’ amazing grace Mary would have died and went to HELL!
Imagine how that would have been. Imagine to terror and horror that meant.
Jesus was not content to let that happen. He instead extended love, mercy and grace to Mary and saved her soul!
Mary experienced the Lord’s power and was instantly delivered from the evil powers that had her bound and she was set free!
This is the power that Jesus possesses!
When He comes into a life, He makes instant and profound changes!
We become a new creation
Took off the old robe and put on the new.
That is what redemption is.
Redeem is to enter into a slave market and redeem a slave by paying the ransom price!
When you ask Jesus into your heart the ransom is paid you are free!
Absolutely no holds barred free!
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.
We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.
And they sang a new song with these words:
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and break its seals and open it.
For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation.
Mary experienced the peace of God.
Think of the break she got in her mind alone. There was so much confision in her head and heart. Seven demons talking to her trying to control her and have their will carried by her.
But when Jesus touched her and saved her, the turmoil in her soul was quieted FOREVER!
There was only one voice speaking to her now! HIS VOICE!!!!
somebody touched me!
Jesus took her pain and turmoil away forever and quieted the storm in her heart!
Anyone here need to feel His peace and quiet in your spirit today?
He is still doing this in 2021!
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
He changes everything!
Have you experience this?
Do you have confusion and doubt in your life? Or peace and assurance?
Come to Him believing He will bring His power and His peace into your life!
Jesus uses the weak things of this world
Jesus uses the weak things of this world
Once Mary experienced the deliverence from Jesus she was devoted for life!
After she met Jesus she would not be separated from Him!
Her devotion is seen in her finances.
Mary supported Jesus’ ministry and that is seen in verse 3 of our text.
When the Lord got her He got all of her, pocketbook and all.
Are you giving to the Lord what belongs to Him?
“Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
Mary’s devotion is seen in her following Jesus everywhere and it is stated throughout the Gospels. Wherever Jesus is in the Gospels Mary Magdalene is there with Him.
She followed Jesus as He ministered and followed Him to Calvary. She watched Him die.
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
She followed His body to the tomb and remained there with another Mary.
Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.
She went as far as humanly possible right to the very end.
We too need to make following Him the goal of our life!
Mary was not about living a life of convenience or a life at ease it was about love!
She loved Jesus for what He did for her!
Do you have this same desire?
If yes, feed it and let it grow!
He is looking for people who will follow Him.
He will change you if you receive Him.
If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”
Now if you destroy them, the Egyptians will send a report to the inhabitants of this land, who have already heard that you live among your people. They know, Lord, that you have appeared to your people face to face and that your pillar of cloud hovers over them. They know that you go before them in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.
Her devotion is seen in her faithfulness when everyone else had gone away.
Mary Magadalene was still there!
When the women and the disciples came to the grave and found an empty tomb everyone went away but Mary Magdalene. She stayed when others walked away.
Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
She was faithful to Him even when others walked away.
What produced this level of devotion within her heart for Jesus?
It was that amazing GRACE.
It was all that He had done for Her when He saved her, when He delivered her from demonic possession. She loved Him so much for all He had done, she simply had to be near Him.
Conclusion:
Take a moment this morning and think about all we have.
Think about what He has promised for the future.
We have so many reasons to love Him, to follow Him with purse and selfless devotion.
We just need to get about doing it!
We just need to receive it!
We just need to ensure that others know about it!
Are you lost?
Do you have hope for eternity?
There is a savior who loves you if you will come to Him.
Are you saved but not completely following Him?
He can help you take that final step of devotion. Come to Him!
Are you following Him with all your heart?
Don’t give up!
Get on your knees before Him and thank Him for what He had done - seek Him for His help for the rest of your journey!
Don’t give up you’re on the brink of a miracle! You’re not alone, God is on the throne!
If that isn’t love
And if that isn't love
Then the ocean is dry
There's no stars in the sky
And the little sparrows can't fly
Yeah if that isn't love
Then heaven's a myth
There's no feeling like this
If that isn't love