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Now let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. 34 books of the Bible talk about angels. 17 in the Old Testament, 17 in the New Testament. They're all over the Bible. They're God's secret agents, Billy Graham calls them.
They show up in the life and ministry of Jesus at very specific and important times, like his annunciation announcement, the announcement of his conception, his birth. That was given to Joseph and Mary by an angel. At his birth, angels hovered over Bethlehem and gave that announcement. The Messiah has come. At Jesus' temptation, the angels came and ministered to him.
And here at the resurrection, and they're here to announce that Jesus is alive. It seems that angels are very, very interested in our salvation. Peter writes in 1 Peter 1, these are things, that is our salvation, these are things which angels desire to look into. I think we are a marvel to the angels. I think they marvel at God's love.
You love them that much? You love these creatures? That you would do that for them? And then I think they look at us sometimes, they go, I don't get it. How come these people don't really rely on God and don't turn to God and pray more and love more, and they just can't figure us out?
These are things the angels desire to look into.
Something else I found out, I hope you'll find it as interesting as I did, we never find angels sitting except at the resurrection. They're always busy, right? They're doing stuff. They're working. They're active.
It's at the resurrection only that we find angels sitting down. They're just like hanging out. They're one on this side of that bench where Jesus' body was and one at the other side of the bench. Oh, and Matthew tells us that the stone that was rolled away from that tomb, there was an angel sitting on that, just sitting there. Waiting for people to come by.
I don't know if they were eating angel food cake before they got there or what.
Okay, so this is what my mind does. When I read about an angel on this side and an angel on that side where Jesus' body was, my mind goes back to the Old Testament to the mercy seat in the tabernacle. You following me? Remember on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant, there were two angels, one on one side, one on the other side, and the wings spanned over. and God said, God said, the only place that I'm going to meet with you is on that mercy seat.
Jesus Christ in the New Testament is the mercy seat. The only place God will meet with the human being is over the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that symbolically is set forth here. Look at verse 14.
Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and didn't know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? She, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him.
Now please listen carefully as if you've never read this before. Tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. Yeah, right. Frail little Mary is going to carry the dead weight of an adult man somewhere. Let's say she could.
Let's say this is like Brunhilde. This chick can lift big weight. Where have you laid him? Where is she going to take the body?
Well, that's sort of my point. When you love somebody like Mary loved Jesus, you don't care about those impossibilities. You don't care about those questions. I'm going to deal with it. Just tell me where he is and I'll take him.
1 Corinthians 13, that great love chapter, one verse in the Phillips translation is rendered, love knows no limits to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope.
Now think about these two questions. Question number one, how come you're crying? Question number two, who are you looking for? The angels ask the first question. Jesus asks it again and adds a question.
This is Jesus' typical method. Asking the question to direct the thinking or redirect the thinking to a proper line of thinking to elevate that person eventually to a place of trust, a higher level. why are you crying?
Now, we know why she's crying, because she thinks somebody's stolen the body. But asking the question, it's as if Jesus is saying, could there be, Mary, could there be another explanation for an empty tomb other than the body was stolen? Like a resurrection? How come you're crying? And then the second question, who are you looking for?
What kind of a Messiah are you expecting Mary Now she looking for a corpse She does not believe Jesus has risen from the dead and right in front of her is Jesus looking eyeball to eyeball with her J.C. Ryle writes, Two-thirds of the things we fear in life never happen at all, and two-thirds of the tears we shed are thrown away and shed in vain. Here's the principle, and here's what I've discovered. When a person is in a trial, suffering, grief, despair, brokenhearted, depressed, well-placed questions will help redirect their thinking. Ask the right questions.
Don't get preachy. Walk softly around a broken heart. But questions like this, if they've lost someone, what did you admire most about that person? Get them thinking those thoughts. What will you miss the most?
What is the greatest lesson they taught you in their life? Or what do you think that person wants you to do now? How would they want you to think and react? If they've lost their finances or their home, maybe a question like, okay, at this point in your life today, what's the most valuable thing that you have? Or what's the most valuable to you at this point.
Get them to evaluate and think. Just well-placed, well-timed questions can redirect the thinking and raise a person to a higher level of faith. Here's the third principle. Comprehension is gradual. Verse 16, Jesus said to her, Mary, she turned and said to him, Rabboni, which is to say teacher.
Okay, let me kind of give you a flow of events here because it says in verse 16, she turned and said to him.
So this is what I think happened. This is as I see it. She comes to the tomb at this time. She's weeping. She's crying.
She looks inside. There's these two dudes who ask her a question. How come you're crying? And she says, because they've taken away my Lord and I don't know where they laid him. And she's talking to them, stooping down inside the tomb.
Jesus is behind her outside. How she knew Jesus was there, we're not sure. Maybe the angels went, look. Or she heard footsteps. She turns away from the tomb, turns toward Jesus, who says, how come you're crying?
Who are you looking for? And she said, look, if you've taken him away, tell me where and I'll get him. And then at that point, she must have turned away from Jesus, back toward the tomb, buried her head in her hands, and just started weeping again because one word was given that reeled her around. She turned around again to Jesus, and she recognized him. One word.
One word, and all of her fears, all of her sorrow, all of her discontent was melted away. One word, and she instantly recognized Jesus, and it was her name. And it was probably said in a familiar tone, the tone Jesus always used when talking to her. Maybe it was like Mary. It was a familiar tone that brought her reeling around, recognizing that this was Jesus.
We know that hearing is one of the strongest memory triggers we have. Smell and hearing. If you hear a song or you hear a word, it takes you back to an episode. especially your name because your name is the access point to your personality it's your name if you've ever been in a crowd where people are talking to one another in several conversations you really don't hear what they're saying but if somebody mentions your name you recognize that you hear that the way jesus said her name brought her recognition You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig, Weekend Edition. Before we return to today's message, what does real spiritual maturity actually look like, and how can you achieve it?
In his new series, Adulting, a study through the book of James, Pastor Skip gives straight talk from Scripture on how to grow up in your faith through trials, temptations, and daily life. This eye-opening 21-message series is our thanks for your generous gift of $50 or more to help reach more people with God's Word through Connect with Skip. Request your CD package or digital download of adulting when you give at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888.
Now let's get back to today's teaching from Pastor Skip. I have a question. Why didn't she just recognize Jesus visibly? He was standing right there. that mystifies a lot of people when they read this.
They go, I don't get this. How come she didn't recognize it?
Well, let me give you a few reasons. Number one, she's crying.
Okay. Give her a break. She has tears in her eyes. She's emotionally distressed. She's all been out of shape because they think she thinks the body has been stolen.
And number four, which should be really number one, the last one she expects to see standing in front of her is Jesus. She thinks he's dead.
Now she might have thought, that guy looks a lot like Jesus. Can't be him. Here's another reason. Jesus is now in his resurrected body. Very different from what she saw a couple days ago on that cross, that horrible, bloodied scene.
In a resurrected body, he looked different In 1 Corinthians 15 we are told the body is sown in corruption but raised in incorruption It is sown in weakness but it is raised in power Let me give you another reason. It could be that she was supernaturally kept from recognizing Jesus. That shouldn't surprise you. Luke chapter 24, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, it says, they were restrained from recognizing him. They didn't know it was him.
Okay, pause for a moment and consider this, because a lot of you can relate to this. Jesus is right there, and she doesn't recognize him. How many times has Jesus been close to you, and you think, he's so far away, he like went on vacation, he left town. when Jesus promised he would never leave you or forsake you. He would be with you always to the end of the age.
What has happened? Your circumstance, your sorrow has clouded your view of reality. All you can think about is your grieving and your situation. But he's still there. He hasn't moved.
He hasn't moved. How did Mary recognize Jesus? not by sight, but by voice, by sound. She saw him, didn't recognize him. She heard his voice.
She recognized him. Does that bring up a principle to you? Romans 10, faith comes by hearing, not by seeing.
Well, if I only saw something, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd calls his sheep by name, and they recognize his voice. Mary, my teacher. The sheep has recognized the voice of the shepherd.
How did she know that voice? How did she know that voice? How did she know that voice? Anybody? She heard it before.
Thank you. She heard it before. she recognized that voice because she has been in the presence of Jesus long enough to recognize it. How do you recognize the voice of God?
Well, you've got to spend some time with him. The longer you spend time listening to the voice of God in Scripture as he speaks, you'll recognize the voice, and you'll be able to tell the difference between the voice of God and the voice of your mother's tapes playing in your mind, or the voice of the media, or the voice of your peers, or the voice of false prophets. you'd be able to go, that's the voice of Jesus. It's unmistakable. I've been in his presence.
I've spent time in his word. I hear it. The comprehension was gradual, but she eventually, eventually got it. Here's the fourth principle for those dealing with a trial like this. Commission is needful.
That is, people who are brokenhearted, distressed, confused, discouraged, depressed, sometimes need a task to be given to them. Look at verse 17. Jesus said to her, Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things to her.
Now, why did Jesus say, don't cling to me? Literally, he is saying, stop fastening yourself to me. What do you think Mary did once she recognized Jesus? I think she grabbed him. What would you do if somebody you thought was dead was now alive and standing in front of you?
Would you go, hi? Knuckles, dude, nice to see you. You would grab that person, and she probably put a death grip on Jesus, like, I'm never letting you go again. Probably. She's grabbing him so tight, and here's Jesus saying, stop fastening yourself to me.
You've known me only in this relationship. I'm going to be around here for another 40 days. That's how long it took before he ascended to his father. In the meantime, I have something I want you to do. I want you to go to my brethren and give them this message.
She was elevated to a place that Jesus gave to her of a commission, a mission that he would send her on. I want you to bring this message to them. I could do it myself, but I'm giving you this task for you to do. oh by the way this is the first time Jesus ever refers to his apostles his disciples as my brethren up until now it's been you are my friends you are my servants never you are my brethren now he calls them his brethren why because he's died on the cross paid the price for redemption making this new relationship possible we're adopted sons and daughters of God And Hebrews 2 says, God or Jesus is not ashamed to call them brethren. Go tell my brethren.
I think he couldn't wait to say that. My brethren. That I'm going to my God and your God, my father and your father. Giving a task to someone who is depressed or brokenhearted is part of restoring their hope. And it simple as to why Grief sorrow discouragement are all very consuming activities They require lots of attention They absorb all of your energy And a person in those situations can become hopeless and listless and unmotivated and just so down they say, I can't do anything.
I visited a girl sometime back. She was on suicide watch. She tried to take her life. I was brought in to speak with her. I spoke with her for a couple hours, and at the end of it, I said, there's something I want you to do for me.
And her first response is, I can't do anything. I said, you can do this. It's a little assignment. It's very simple, but I'm going to ask you to do something for me, and as soon as you are done with that task, I want you to call me. Here's my number.
Personally, call me and tell me when you've completed that. And she goes, okay, I'll try. But she did it. And she called me. She said, I did it.
I said, that's excellent. You did such a great job.
Now, there's something else I want you to do. And I gave her another one. And then I gave her another task. Eventually, what I got her to do is to find somebody who was in a very needy situation and tell her story to them and how she got hope. And what that did, those tasks help elevate her to a place of, I have purpose.
I'm useful. I'm doing something. and it quickly helped bring her out of that funk that she had been living in for so long.
So these are good principles when you encounter somebody who is being buffeted by these trials. You always bring in hope. You always redirect their thinking. It could be a question, could be a task. The scripture that comes to mind as an overarching scripture to this passage is Psalm 30.
that says, weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Let them emote, let them cry, but then direct their thinking from the temporal to the eternal. Little task, little task, but always with the view of, now look to the horizon and see what you have to face in your eternal future as the prime motivator. let me close with a story about a woman who taught that to her pastor she went to the doctor the doctor said you have a terminal illness you have three months to live true story i met the man last night who attended this funeral she went home from the doctor she knew she had roughly three months to live liver cancer was going to take her and it did she got her house in order, told her friends or relatives. They went through all the stages of planning and weeping.
She went to her pastor. She said, this is what I want at my funeral. I want these songs to be sung. I want these scriptures to be read. And she said, there's one final thing I want you to do at this funeral.
Promise me you'll do it. I want you to place a fork in my right hand. And he gave her one of those looks like, I really want to ask you, but I don't know if I should. She just had that look like, I don't get this.
So she smiled and she said, I know what you're thinking. Here's why I want you to do this. All through my life, whenever I've gone to church, potlucks or socials, wherever there's dinner, they serve the meal, inevitably someone will say after you eat the meal, hold on to your fork, which means they're going to serve up dessert. The good stuff's coming. and, you know, the chocolate cake and the apple pie.
Hold on to your fork.
So, Pastor, I want you to promise me you'll place a fork in my right hand, and I want the casket open, and I want people filing by my casket before you give the message. And they're going to look in the casket and see a fork, and they're going to think, why is there a fork in your hand? And they're going to go back to their seats, and then I want you to preach the message, and you tell them this, the best is yet to come. She's holding, hold on to your fork, because the best is yet to come. Here's a woman who lived with all the trials she lived with, knowing with fork in hand, the best is yet to come.
Now you think about that when you go to lunch today and pick up your fork. And you never forget as you grab that fork, hold on to your fork. The best is yet to come. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before you go, don't forget to request this month's featured resource, Adulting, a study through the book of James, Pastor Skip's 21-message series that gives you straight talk from Scripture about how to grow in spiritual maturity and live out your faith in the real world.
Adulting is our thanks for your generous gift of $50 or more to help share God's Word with more people. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer. And while you're there, sign up for Skip's weekly devotional emails and get a free download of a chapter of Skip's The Biography of God. We'll see you next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word, here on Connect the Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
