Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Sermon Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. The servant of Jesus Christ. Look at Mark chapter 15 and look at verse 37. We see here the scene of Jesus on the cross and have not gone obviously through all the suffering and things we talked about. Obviously what Palm Sunday means to us and explained all of that. Look at verse 37.

From the top to the bottom. And when the centurion which stood over against him saw that he so cried out and gave up the ghost he said, truly this man was the son of God. Now what did he cry out? As we notice in verse 39 this centurion who was nearby. You have to look through all the accounts of the gospel.

What he cried out was he said it is finished. And when he cried that out and gave up the ghost that was so powerful that that centurion watching said this was the son of God. Now notice this if you would, verse 40. It says there were also women looking on afar off. They weren't immediately there at the base of the cross.

They were a little distance away watching these things transpire. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses. Notice this and Salome. Now some would pronounce it Shalomay.

They believe that this is the roots of where we get our Shalom or peace. But it doesn't say that Shalomay means that. The correct pronunciation with accent is Salome. But it sounds too much like Salome.

It sounds like salami to me. So I'm going to go. I don't want you thinking of that the whole time I'm preaching. Now you will be.

But I don't want you to. So Salome is how I'm going to put the accent as we speak today. But the Bible says that it gives these women. It says there's Mary Magdalene. There's Mary the mother of Jesus. And here is Salome. Who is that?

Why is that? Why would God call her by name? In a sense I was noticing in verse 41. Look who also when he or Jesus was in Galilee followed him and ministered unto him and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem.

Salome was the mother of Zebedee's children the Bible calls her. And I'm going to show you that. You say what does this have to do with Easter? I hope this will encourage you. Lord we love you and we need your guidance and direction today.

Please help me dear Lord in Jesus name. Amen. As far as Salome the scripture is kind of silent to her genealogy. In fact we're not even really given a definition of her name of what it means. But we do know this is that she was the wife of a man named Zebedee. And Zebedee was a prosperous fishing man.

Not just a fisherman but he had a business and he had such a good business that he had hired people to work at this business. And the only glimpse that we have of this man Zebedee is that Jesus called two of his sons. Now I want to read you these verses just to give you a little history. In Matthew chapter 4 this speaks of the account that Jesus he saith unto them follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets and followed him and going on from thence he saw other two brethren.

James the son of Zebedee and John his brother in a ship with Zebedee their father. Mending their nets. The Bible says and he called them. Jesus called. Here they are working for their dad.

Working in this business. And verse 22 says and they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him. Now I don't know if they were mending their nets it was probably docked but sometimes depending on the kind of boats they have they would sit out where they didn't run aground too close to the water and they would mend their nets out there. If you take the Bible literally it means when Jesus called them they immediately left the ship.

I don't know if they jumped in the water and swam to shore. But when he called them they came. Let me give you the other account Mark chapter 1 verse 19 and I'm doing this for a reason. The Bible says that when he had gone a little further he called them. You say alright preacher what does this have to do with Salome who was Zebedee's wife the mother of obviously here we find James and John who ended up becoming two apostles of the inner circle of Jesus Christ. You say preacher well I want to look at it this way from the scripture and what I've done today the verses will be up on the screen so that you don't have to turn back and forth.

I know sometimes you can get people to turn the first two times but after that you're off to Easter ham or whatever you're going to have today. Number one I want you to see in God's word that this mother of Zebedee's children two of whom were of Jesus inner circle. Number one we find her weeping.

Now this isn't necessarily chronological but I want you to see this reference to her. The Bible says that as Jesus after as we had described in Palm Sunday he entered Jerusalem obviously the Pharisees religious leaders the Sadducees did not like this and they began their attack on Jesus. And as Jesus was taken and as he was led to Golgotha and as he was obviously beat and spit upon and ridiculed and just treated in an incredible sense almost unbelievable. If you'll notice these verses in Luke chapter 23 you've got to jump around to these different places to get a full picture of what's going on here. But in verse 26 as you'll notice I'm going to read verse 26 and we'll pick it up in verse 27 the Bible says Jesus they laid hold upon one Simon a Cyrenian coming out of the country and on him they laid the cross. You know the story how Jesus was carrying the cross was beaten so bad that he just physically was so damaged he almost couldn't lift and carry his own cross as he had been and they grabbed this man out of the crowd Simon and he obviously helped Jesus and took that cross and carried it obviously the rest of the way. Look at verse 27 and there followed him a great company of people. There were people following Jesus as he was going down after being beaten and scourged and all these different things as he was carrying his cross that there was a group of people a large group of people following. The Bible says that there was a great company of women which also bewailed and lamented him.

You say well how do we know who this is? Well these two Marys and Salome and some other women were known obviously as the daughters of Jerusalem through the gospels. Notice if you would verse 28 but Jesus turning unto them said daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but weep for yourselves and for your children. So we find here Salome who was part of this little group of ladies that had followed Jesus and believed in Jesus and had served Jesus and ministered to Jesus all these things.

Here they are watching this entire thing happen in front of them. Am I a believer? Not only do I love Jesus but her two sons had literally given their entire lives to serve this individual. And remember as we talked about on Palm Sunday they were operating thinking that Jesus would set up his kingdom on earth and this was hard for her to understand that they thought he was going to ride into Jerusalem take over set up the kingdom and now he is being beaten and scourged and led to the cross humiliated publicly and physically so beaten that it's hard to understand how was he letting this go on.

He's supposed to just take over. The Bible says that she was weeping. She was present at the crucifixion. She was present as he was being led to the crucifixion.

Can I tell you an interesting fact? Salome's two sons James and John that had been called by Jesus and followed Jesus they had already left the crucifixion. They couldn't watch it. They were so upset in a sense but they just said I'm not gonna watch this and they left and Jesus was there without them but guess who was there? Their mother.

Watching and weeping. Notice secondly you say well preacher just hold on. Second we find her walking. Now look at your passage that you read and turned to today in Mark chapter 15. Verse 40 describes these ladies and he says this there are also women looking on afar off among whom was Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses and Salome. Now notice as God describes him here in verse 41 who also when he was in Galilee followed him and ministered unto him. Notice second we find this lady walking.

What do you mean walking? She was following Christ. That means way before this crucifixion she was a believer. Now I don't know if you've thought about this but the Bible says that when Jesus showed up that day that those two boys were working for their dad and Jesus called them to follow him you do not find anywhere in the scripture that mom or dad pitched a fit about it.

In fact what you find from then on is that Salome and Zebedee became followers also. Now I'm gonna be honest with you I've met some parents that love their children and they love the Lord but they don't want God to call their children to do something difficult. I've had parents literally been around parents counseled with parents that told kids well you know what I don't mind if you want to go to Christian college but you go to one close by.

Don't you go off somewhere. Can I tell you something what if that's God's will? What if that's where God wants them?

Do you know how far away I was from my parents? Let me tell you something with their ministry I went to college in June to go work there three years and I did not see my mom and dad again till Christmas. Can I tell you something if it's God's will it's God's will. And here's these two boys working for their dad probably thought hey they're gonna take over this business one day but Jesus shows up and he calls them and mom and dad are fine with that. Not only that she followed Jesus walking. Can I tell you what it means to be a follower of Jesus? It means you walk in his footsteps. It means you go where he goes and you do what he says to do. We have a lot of people that say they're followers of Christ but there's not a lot of following going on.

Oh this is Easter but you can still say Amen. You are not a follower of Christ because you say you are. You're a follower of Christ if you're actually following. This is what God said about her they followed Christ in Galilee.

Notice second we don't just find her working but third we find her working. The Bible says in verse 41 as you notice here that God says that they followed Christ and ministered unto him. God called us to minister to Jesus.

May I say that God didn't save us to sit. God didn't call us to stand in the background and watch everybody else do it. God called us to minister. May I encourage you on an Easter Sunday morning get involved at your church. Serve God. God didn't call us to sit at church and enjoy the fire that everybody else built. God called us to walk.

And serve him. May I say number four we only have five so we're almost done. Number five is a killer though. Number four where else as we trace her through scripture it's in Matthew chapter 20. The verses will be up here but number four we find her wishing. Now you'll start to understand who this lady is because you've heard this story but you might not have known exactly who she was. But in Matthew chapter 20 we find her wishing.

We find this. Look at the verses. Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons worshiping him and desiring a certain thing of him.

Here's Salome with her sons. She shows up to Jesus after they had been following him and after she had been working and following and ministering. She has a request for Jesus.

And what was it? Wilt thou? She said unto him grant that these my two sons may sit the one on thy right hand and the other on the left in thy kingdom. That proves right there that Salome thought that Jesus was going to go ahead and set up his kingdom. She wasn't expecting that he would die. She wasn't expecting that he would go through all this. She wasn't expecting for it to look like he lost.

But you don't understand he had to go through that to win. So here's what she does. She comes in Matthew chapter 20 and look at verse 22. But Jesus answered and said ye know not what you ask. What did she wish for?

Look at me. I think she out of a good heart and out of good motives she comes to Jesus and she says hey these are my two sons obviously James and John that have followed you. You called them and they listened. Could you give them places of prominence in your kingdom?

Could you elevate them above the others? Now what's wrong with a mother asking that? It would be like can you allow my son to play a little more in the basketball game? Nothing wrong with that in a right way.

Not in the middle of the third quarter. Put my kid in! That's what we do. But anyway.

What's wrong with a mother asking this? Listen to me. Jesus said this. He said you don't know what you ask.

Here's why. Do you realize Jesus was telling her and explaining to her and he was very gentle the way he dealt with her but he made it very clear. What she didn't realize is when she was asking if her sons would have leadership in his kingdom they would have to go through sacrifice and abuse and would have to go through scourging.

Listen I want you to get this. In order to have a position in leadership in the kingdom of God they would have to go for suffering. They'd have to go through that. And here she's asking hey would you put them in leadership? And he didn't even realize that she was asking for them to be suffering through life.

You know a lot of times we parents ask God for things and we don't know it's probably way different of his will. But what she was asking and wishing for was the fact she said God would you give them leadership but they didn't understand that in order to have leadership you're going to have to suffer. And if we can we find her witnessing. Now here's what happens in the passage that you read they're watching him as he scourged all the way to Golgotha. Then in Mark chapter 15 we find that Salome who had been faithful who had followed Christ who had ministered under Christ now she was watching from a distance she was watching the crucifixion she watched him yell out she watched him give up the ghost she watched him die. And imagine that in the middle of all that she thought about Jesus she believed he was the Messiah she knew he was the Savior but at the same time she thought that he would set up his kingdom now but it looked like he'd lost. And as a mother my sons have given their life and I've given my life and my husband's given his life for nothing.

I guess maybe I had it wrong. I want you to look at this passage of scripture up on the screen I know it's a but I'll ask Ben to put it all on one so that you could get it. In Mark chapter 16 verse 1 the Bible says when the Sabbath was passed Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome had bought sweet spices.

Now let's just stop right there so you understand. Notice what the verse says when the Sabbath had what? So now it was no longer Sabbath. It's Sunday.

First day of the week. Everybody asks you know remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. So why do we have church on Sunday? Because this is when Christ rose from the dead. So this is why we come to church to celebrate that.

We remember the Sabbath to keep it holy but we don't have to do it on the Sabbath. We do it on the first day of the week when he rose from the grave. Notice if you would that Mary Magdalene Mary the mother of James and Salome here she's mentioned again had brought sweet spices that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun and they said among themselves who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulcher. Now get this she comes to literally pay her last respect.

Her sons had given their life to serve. She had followed Jesus and now that he had died he was put in a tomb. They literally now the Sabbath was done because they couldn't go do this on the Sabbath. Now that it was done they got there early in the morning and they thought well who's going to move the door of the grave so that we can get in and prepare the body of Jesus anoint the body of Jesus and at least show our last respects. And in verse 4 the Bible says and when they looked they saw that the stone was rolled away already in a sense. For it was very great and entering into the sepulcher they go into the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side clothed in a long white garment and they were affrighted. Yeah I bet they were.

Wouldn't you? Think about this they thought well the stones already moved. I guess that's one problem down now we got to go in and prepare the body of Jesus and they walked in the sepulcher and not only was the body not there here's a young man an angel sitting in white and he looks at them. Notice if you would verse 5 when they saw this young man sitting on the right side they were scared verse 6 and he said unto them be not affrighted ye seek Jesus of Nazareth which was crucified. He is risen he is not here behold the place where they laid him.

Look he's not here he's risen he's gone notice verse 7 but don't just stand here be amazed that he was risen but go your way tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee there shall ye see him as he said unto you. We find her witnessing you say what do you mean? Now think about this this is why I wanted to speak on this particular lady at Easter. Everything she had put all of her hopes and dreams and beliefs in she had watched Jesus die but when she went to that tomb and Jesus had risen everything that she had believed that she thought was wrong she now realized was absolutely right. And by the fact that she saw that Jesus had risen from the dead everything that he had claimed that there was a heaven that you would live in heaven that he was preparing a mansion all that he said on his earthly ministry all of a sudden when she walks in the tomb having given two children to the sake of Christ having followed him with her life having her husband sacrificed his family and his future so that they could serve God it all meant it was worth it. The Bible says that she did go and tell. The Bible says the daughters of Jerusalem these ladies went and told the disciples exactly what.

Do you know that's what you and I are supposed to do? We're supposed to witness the power of Christ when we get saved and then we are to go out and tell others. You know the problem is you and I half the times we experience the resurrection of Jesus Christ when we put our faith and trust in Christ and we're just glad we got it. And then this angel said now go and tell. You say well preacher what's the moral of this story? I want to read you a passage of scripture. Revelation chapter 1 verse 17. John wrote this listen and when I saw him John speaking of the vision Christ had given him of heaven and when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead and he laid his right hand upon me saying unto me 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 hell and of death write the things which thou has seen and the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter. Did you hear that?

Do you know who wrote it? Salome's son. You see she was there and saw the tomb that it was empty and it meant this that her two sons you say well what happened to them?

Are you listening? James was the first apostle martyred and John her other son was the last one. They were both killed for the cause of Christ. The Bible doesn't say about her death but it does talk about her sons which means she might have had to witness her own sons being killed for the cause of Christ but it doesn't matter.

It's worth it because she saw the empty grave. Oh it breaks my heart my sons are gone but I saw that empty tomb and if Jesus came up and got out of it that means my sons don't have to die either. I'm here to tell you when you are in Christ there is no death. We had a funeral here Thursday evening for brother Ray Testerman. Can I tell you brother Ray Testerman never experienced a dead day in his life. He went from alive here to more alive in heaven.

Why? Because that precious mother that would soon lose both of her children as martyrs for the name of Christ walked into that tomb and saw that Jesus had risen. I don't know how long it might have been a year or two some months at some point she was standing in front of a grave with her son James. A couple years after that she looked at the tomb of her second son John. And every time she looked into those graves of her children that had been killed simply because they believed in Jesus Christ. Every time she looked into that grave or casket can I tell you what she remembered? Showing up at the grave of Jesus and he wasn't there.

That's the hope that you and I have. The beating and the scourging. She was weeping. She stood afar off and watched him hanging on the cross and watched him yell out it is finished and die. And she thought it was over.

But it had just begun. Because three days later when she walked into that tomb. The first witness that he's not here. He's alive. He was right.

For the rest of her life she was comforted because of that empty tomb. And dear friend I'm here to tell you. You know why you ought to walk out of this building? I don't care what's going on in your life. You know why you ought to walk out of this building? Happy in the Lord because of their empty tomb.

And that means if you have put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and accepted him as your personal savior that means now you have life forevermore also because he does. It's what makes the difference. I'm going to tell you something. Everybody has their weeks, their rough weeks. And this is probably a drop in the bucket of half the stuff that we've been through.

A very small drop in the bucket compared to half the stuff that some of you have been through. But they found some stuff that wasn't looking right on Kaden. So we had to take him this week in his eyesight of all things. Unexpected side effect of a lot of the stuff that's happened in the first few months of his life. His eyesight's degenerated. So we have to immediately get glasses on that little man and we're just worried is his eyesight going to continue to degenerate and all these different things.

We don't know. And I'm going to tell you something. For a few hours it was hard. Now I know that's nothing compared to what some people go through.

But that's my son. And when your child goes through something it's hard on you. But for a few hours I felt sorry for me. And for a few hours I felt sorry for him. Lord just another thing.

You know as a parent you think okay so we're looking at blindness coming up here for him too? With all the other stuff he has to go through every day? I mean enough's enough God.

Enough's enough. But you know what after a few hours Holy Spirit ministers to you. I wouldn't say kicks you in the bridges but that might not be nice to say. And the Holy Spirit reminds you.

Let me tell you something it doesn't matter what happens to that young man. You preach the truth to him and you teach him right. And if he puts his faith and trust in Jesus Christ you have an eternity you'll spend with him. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at KerwinBaptistChurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you. you