Leading The Way

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for the Easter weekend episode of Leading The Way audio.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Hello my friends. What a joy and delight to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I want to tell you, I've got a message for you today from the Word of God about Mary and her tears and why the resurrection of Jesus can truly wipe away all of our tears and give us joy.

I was looking up some references of what experts say about crying, and one said it makes us feel uncomfortable and makes those who cry feel vulnerable. I said, "Great, I'm in good company." But they said it's a powerful tool for both us bodily and emotionally. Praise God.

Some of you might say, "Well, Michael, how do you start with talking about crying and weeping and tears on the most joyous day of the year?" Well, because this is precisely what Mary Magdalene was doing on that first resurrection day. Jesus asked Mary Magdalene, "Why are you crying? Why are you crying?"

This is not because Jesus did not know why she was crying or not because Jesus, like most men, kind of get discombobulated when women cry and they don't know how to handle it. No, nothing to do with that. In fact, Jesus Himself displayed open and deep emotions and publicly shed tears.

We see Him do that when He saw His friends grieving the death of His friend Lazarus before He raised him from the dead. We see Him weep openly on Palm Sunday over Jerusalem for rejecting its Messiah. And on His way to the cross, carrying that heavy cross and walking in that narrow road, as He was walking, the women were lining the streets and they were crying. He said to them, "Do not cry for me. Cry for yourselves and your children."

And so, Jesus was not and is not against crying. Otherwise, I would be in trouble. Jesus was not distressed or frustrated by women's tears. He was merely telling Mary, whom He had delivered earlier from sin and guilt and degradation, in effect, He's saying to her, "Your tears are not necessary. Your tears are pointless. Your tears are misdirected."

Oh, my beloved friends, please listen to me. How many times do we worry and fret, may not shed tears but might as well do, and weep even over our circumstances? Over temporary loss of job, over temporary loss of fortune, over temporary change in our circumstances. And we get into such a muddle because we fail to see the resurrected Jesus to be in the very middle of our troubles.

He's in the middle of our difficulties. All because we fail to look up to the resurrected Jesus, God of power and might. Instead, we look down into our circumstances, not up to Him. We fail to take hold of all of the promises in the scripture that have become ours because of Jesus.

Now having said that, I must add, just for a brief moment or two because this is very important. There are those who do not know the resurrected Jesus, those who do not know the power of the resurrection working in their life, those who have never received Jesus as their only Savior and Lord and Redeemer and a friend.

And if you're a person who are yet to be transformed by the power of the resurrection, then the smallest amount of bad news is going to be troubling to you. It's going to cause you anxiety. And if you've never surrendered and received life from the resurrected Jesus and let Him allow Him to raise you from the spiritual death by which we're all born, you're going to find yourself not only fearful but worried.

Why? Because you are living your life as if Christ is still in the tomb. And that is why crying, panicking, fearing is your lot in life. Please hear me out on this one. The Bible promised that when you invite Jesus into your life, He will take you up on your invitation. He will show up and He will dwell in you, inside of you, in the power of His Holy Spirit.

But until you do that, you're going to feel that you're a victim of circumstances. And that is why we have the good news of Easter. Without experiencing the power of the resurrection, life is constantly up and down and up and down and it doesn't make sense. Why? Because only the resurrected Jesus can give your life meaning, can give your life purpose, and can give your life direction.

Now, this is not only my testimony. It's the testimony of millions of people around the world. But now I want to turn to those of us who know Jesus, those of us who know the power of the resurrected Jesus working in us. Paul said to the Ephesians, he said, the very power that raised Jesus from the dead is working in the believers.

For those of us who have experienced His amazing and undeserving grace to us, Jesus is also asking, "Why are you crying? Why are you crying? What causes you loss of hope? What causes you continuous discouragement? What causes you to be living in anxiety? What is it that keeps you living in fear and timidity?"

The real answer should be nothing. That's how the answer should be. But you and I know that's not the case, right? In my life, I get into some doldrums. Do you know what the doldrums are? There are times when I get into the doldrums. You say, "You've been walking with Christ for so long. How'd that come about?" I'm going to tell you.

It is the moments when I temporarily forget the power of the resurrected Jesus working in me. When I temporarily get blindsided and I do not go to the resurrected Jesus, I get down in the dumps. First, let me tell you a couple of things about Mary Magdalene. I'm going to come back to that theme.

A couple of years earlier, before that encounter at the empty tomb, because that's where it was, the encounter was at the empty tomb, two years earlier, Jesus delivered Mary by the power of His omnipotence out of sin, guilt, and shame. Mary was set free two years earlier from the life of degradation by our Lord Jesus Christ.

And that is the same Mary who stood at the foot of the cross with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the apostle John, whom he refers to himself in the third person, the disciple whom Jesus loved. And because he was much younger than Peter, he outran Peter. They stood right at the foot of the cross.

They saw Jesus hung on that cross, die on that cross, brought down from that cross as a dead body, was buried in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb. They saw Him. Now, she comes to the tomb because they all had to rest on the Sabbath on Saturday. So the early first day of the week, she comes to the tomb where Jesus was buried to find that it's empty!

It's empty! Please, please understand Jesus is the only tomb that's empty. Jesus is the only tomb that's empty. You see, to her, and I want you to put yourself in her place, the logical explanation is that someone came and stole the body. Someone came and took the body. Let's be honest, if we were there, we would probably think the same thing.

Even now, 2000 years later, we can be so logical and fail to see beyond our logic. We fail to remember that the Word of God tells us again and again and again that the very power that raised Jesus from the dead is in us and working in us if we only appropriate it.

Mary must have been crying so much for so long that she had blurry eyes. I'm going to tell you why I think that at least from the scripture here. Even when Jesus spoke to her and said, "Why are you crying?" You're going to find that in that same chapter, chapter 20, that question was asked of Mary twice.

In verse 13, the angels earlier, the angels asked her, "Why are you crying?" And in verse 15, Jesus asked the same question, "Why are you crying?" She must have been sobbing for a long time that she had blurry eyes. As I said earlier, Jesus was not asking the question because He didn't know the answer, or because He was testing her, or because He's unaware of her grief.

No, no, no. He asked her that question so that He may help her clarify her thinking. He asked her so that He may help her contrast or make a contrast between what she's looking for and the fantastic news that He's about to give her. Another way of reading this question actually can be, "What are you looking for? What are you looking for?"

Well, she was looking for a dead body. But God had for her a resurrected powerful living Savior. She was looking for a helpless lifeless remains, but what God had for her is an assurance of her own resurrection. She was looking for a life of sorrow, helplessness, and resignation.

But what God had for her and for you and for me is an eternal hope in the power of the resurrection. Please think with me. Don't just listen, I want you to think. Okay, think with me. All that Mary and the Mary, the mother of Jesus, they were doing their duty. They were doing their duty. This is what they've done in those days again and again and again.

They were doing their duty and that is to come and anoint a dead body. But what God had for them was an anointing for a mission of proclamation of the news of the resurrection. Praise God. Please, please, please, please look around you. Look around you and see how many people are looking for hope in dead things.

Some are looking for hope in dead religion. Some are looking for hope in dead rituals. Some are looking for hope in Eastern religions. Some are looking for hope in their own strength and their positive thinking. Some are looking for hope in Eastern mysticism. Oh yeah, they're looking for hope all right. Everybody's looking for hope, but they're looking for answers in all of the wrong places.

While in reality, there's only one. There's only one. I don't make the rules. There's only one. There's only one who can give your life meaning. There's only one who gives us the hope of eternal life. There's only one who has the power for living our living and in the midst of our troubles, and that is the resurrected, glorified Jesus. Amen. And give Him praise. It's all right, give Him praise.

See, when Mary came and she saw this half-a-ton, that's how it's said, half-a-ton of stone that they put it there to seal the tomb, it'd be too heavy for anyone to roll it. So half-a-ton has been rolled away and the tomb is empty. I mean, what would she think? All she can think about is to run and tell the disciples somebody stole the body. The body is not there.

Oh, but please, please, please listen. Again, I'm not condemning Mary for lack of comprehension. I am not. I never have, never will. Even though Jesus told them, the disciples and the hearing of the Marys and the other disciples again and again and again that He must die and rise again, that He will die and rise again. Read them in the scripture, find out how many times in the Gospel He told them that.

And yet she and all of them, not just her, all of the disciples did not believe it. And the reason I never condemn her or them, the disciples, is because here we are 2000 years after all of the indisputable evidence of the resurrection. I'm an amateur historian. There is no more evidence given to any event like this one.

After the indisputable evidence of the bodily resurrection of Jesus on the third day, the moment the sky in our lives turn gray, the moment the landscape of life become dark, we succumb to loss of hope. We easily forget the power of the resurrection that is ours in Christ. And so we start feeling sorry for ourselves.

And we easily become anxious and worried. We easily give up hope. Oh, beloved friends, beloved friends, some of us may have been caught in a trap of despair. So much so that we live our lives as if Jesus is still in the tomb. And He is asking us this very resurrection morning: "Why are you crying? Why are you discouraged? Why are you in despair?"

When Mary not knowing who Jesus was said to the resurrected Jesus, "They took Him and I don't know where." By "them" or "they" she's most likely referring to those who were threatened by Jesus' authority, the religious leaders whom put Him to death. She was referring to those who hated Him and conspired against Him. She was referring to those who unjustly condemned Him and ignorantly rejected Him.

Oh, but what Mary did not comprehend was that even they cannot keep Him from rising from the dead. They cannot keep Him dead. They cannot defeat Him. They cannot destroy the eternal Son of God. Oh beloved, my beloved, beloved friends, Jesus had to die. He had to die.

And I know some people always blame the Jews, the Romans, the Caiaphas and all this stuff, and sure, all those people had a part to play. But now remember this: God gave Him up for us. Jesus had to die. He said, "I have authority to lay it down, I have authority to take it up." And he said, "I choose to lay my life down as ransom for many."

He had to die for us. He had to die in our place. He had to pay our ransom. He had to die so that His blood and only His blood can cleanse us from all our sins and our unrighteousness. Oh, praise God. Give Him praise, that's fine. Don't hesitate. I know you're not clapping for me, clapping for Him.

Oh, but listen, death could not keep Him. The grave could not contain Him. The enemies could not possibly have the last word. And let that be a lesson to all of us. The enemies of Christ, the enemies of the cross cannot possibly have the last word. God will have the last word.

And so He rose from the dead to assure everyone who believe in Him of our own resurrection and life eternal in heaven. Listen to me. When our precious Lord called her by name, oh, it always gets to me. And as soon as she heard Him call her by name, she recognized Him immediately.

Oh beloved, please hear me out on this one. This is my life testimony. Do you know that God is calling you by name? To Him you're not just a face in the crowd, maybe to me but not to Him, you're not a face in the crowd. To Him you're not just a number. To Him you're not just forgotten entity.

He does not only know you by name before you were born, He does not only call you by name, He loves you by name and He cares for you by name. He died for you by name. And now He's calling your name. The question is, can you hear Him? Can you hear His voice? He's calling you by name.

When Mary heard Him calling her by name, oh, her depression turned into delight. Her sorrow turned into joy. Her tears of sadness turned into gladness. And Mary responded by saying, "Rabboni, my teacher." And then out of unspeakable joy, she ran to hug Him.

He said, "No, stop." A lot of false ideas about that and I'm going to put it straight today. Stop. Don't hold on to me. What does that mean? It means that now after the resurrection, there is a new relationship between Jesus and those who are His. Hear me out please, this is important.

He is saying to her, "Now I'm leaving and going to the Father in heaven from where I came. Now I'm going back to my Father in heaven. I'm going back to my glory that I laid aside in order to come to earth to redeem you. Now my glorified body will no longer physically be present with you. Now you will be comforted by the Comforter whom I'm sending, my Holy Spirit.

Now you will receive counsel from the Counselor, my Holy Spirit. Now you will receive strength from the Strengthener, my Holy Spirit. Now go and tell. Go and tell. Don't miss this. Please don't miss this. Tell whom? My disciples? No. No, my brothers.

Oh, why? Because now that He had died for our sin, was buried for our transgressions, and rose again for our justification, He has a deeper and closer relationship with His own than ever before. My dear friend, the resurrection is not only good news, it is the best news. It is the greatest news. There can be no news to ever come close to it.

Someone said that there are three most frequently asked questions by people: "Where do I come from? Why am I here? And where am I going?" My friend, please listen, I'm getting close to the end. If you cannot answer the third question, "Where am I going?", then you have not yet known the resurrected Jesus with all of His mighty power. And it would be my greatest joy, my absolute delight and privilege, to invite you today to come to Him and come to Him.

Guest (Male): Thank you for making time in your day for Leading The Way audio with Dr. Michael Youssef. Faith questions? Why not chat with a Leading The Way pastor or counselor? They'd be happy to address your spiritual questions. All you have to do is visit ltw.org/jesus and fill out a brief contact form.

Guest (Female): Michael Youssef has really helped me over the years. For 40 years I had been in an occult religion, what I thought to have been true Christianity, but I was drowning and I was hurt. I was severely hurt and figured that God didn't really love me. I was dealt with legalism like the Pharisees. That's how I grew up in this religion.

And I was just about to give up hope and I was at a crossroads. My marriage was falling apart and I had been married a few times before just like the woman at the well and I had just given up hope. I had no hope left.

My husband at the time and we were separated and he had gone to the bookstore and found a book by Michael Youssef, "Spirituality That Heals," and he'd given me that book. I didn't read it right away but he kept asking me questions. He would call me on the phone and say, "Well, that's just what you're feeling and didn't you read that book? Have you read it? It talks about that what you're going through."

And so I started opening it up and I started reading it. Slowly but surely God started healing me. And it was only thanks to Michael Youssef and his program that I finally let go and let God heal me. And I've been married 12 years now thanks to Leading The Way and Michael Youssef and praise God, I finally have come to know God and to really be loved by Him. Thank you so much. God bless.

Guest (Male): Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef is touching and impacting lives across six continents. Learn more when you visit ltw.org.

This program is furnished by Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth around the world.