Relentless

Intro

What’s going on INDE?! It feels like it’s been forever since we had our last one Wednesday with just us!

Go Ahead and grab or power on your Bibles and turn to John Chapter 20

Announcements:

Jr. High Trampoline Park trip to Mountain Air is this Sunday! Make sure to Sign up and complete your waiver by tomorrow! if you’ve signed up and haven’t received an email with the waiver, message me!

Next week is what we call “Holy Week”, Which means there’s a lot of stuff happening! We’ll have Small Groups on Wednesday, Our “United” Good Friday service at Arab High School at 6:30pm, and Easter at the Stadium on Sunday Morning at 10am

Tonight, we begin our series “What is Easter?”

I know sometimes it can seems like we’re up here performing some magic tricks and it seems like we want to surprise you at the end. Well tonight i’m gonna let ya’ll in on the secret from the get go.

Here are my goals for tonight.

for each one of you To understand why the resurrection matters

To show you how a real ENCOUNTER with Jesus will change you.

Let’s jump into the Word

John 20:11–18 ESV

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.

Easter is all about how Jesus came into Jerusalem in a parade of celebration, had the people who celebrated Him betray and kill Him, and How on the third day He defeated death and rose from the Grave.

While most of us have heard some form of this story in our lives, with all of the noise and division in our world today, we’re seeing more and more people allowing doubt and indifference to creep into our view of Jesus in our lives.

Doubt - We see some who doubt the Bible as a whole because of things being taught and discussed in our culture.

Indifference - While many people doubt, I would say that more people are indifferent, meaning that they just don’t care. Their hearts, minds, and attention have been stolen by something else. It’s like they’re prisoners, but just don’t know it.

Mary Magdalene

I know it can be hard to related to people like Mary. People who lived in an entirely different era and culture. BUT consider this.

Everyone of us here tonight are dealing with some sort of struggle. We each have something going on either in our life, or inside of us, that is causing us anxiety, stress, or maybe even pain. And we want that thing to go away, but we just can’t seem to get rid of it.

When we realize that the people that we read about in the Bible, aren’t characters in a story, but are people just like you and me, then we start to see the picture more clearly, and realize that Mary Magdalene was just like us. Struggling, Depressed, Hurting, and looking for answers.

Let me tell you a little bit about this woman. She wasn’t your typical church lady. The Lexham Bible Dictionary suggests that her name literally means “Rebelliousness”

How many of us fit that description tonight? Rebellious, Argumentative, arrogant, conceited, boastful, proud, entitled?

I imagine, If we are really honest with ourselves, our lives make us look much more like rebels than followers of Jesus?

Mary was all of these things and more, but we see something click for her in Luke 8:2

Luke 8:2 ESV

2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,

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Relentless

Relentless in Our Loyalty to Jesus (Vs. 15)

John 20:15 ESV

15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”

Relentless in Our Love for Jesus (Vs. 17)

John 20:17 ESV

17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”

Relentless in Our Proclamation of Jesus (Vs. 18)

John 20:18 ESV

18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.