Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us for today's Power Walk Ministries broadcast. Pastor Cannings brings a special Easter series titled, "What Kind of Love Is This?" Since the separation from man due to sin, God has always desired that we be reconciled to Him. Through Christ's birth, suffering on the cross, He now brings us to the empty tomb where Christ reveals Himself as the resurrected Savior. Through this scene in John chapter 20, Pastor Cannings brings us this message titled, "Love So Amazing." Let's listen.

Dr. Paul Cannings: In all my ministry life, if there's anything that has amazed me, it is the love of Christ. I have seen so many situations where God has been so gracious. I've seen situations where the grace of God, as I've traveled around the world, the grace of God so powerfully manifested that the love of Christ has just been overwhelming. To see how Christ could just love and love and love: His peace, His grace, His mercy.

That's why love is huge for Resurrection Sunday/Easter. And I believe that's a time that we should celebrate with a heart to refresh love. That's what we see manifested on the cross—the epitome of love. For people that He is dying for on the cross, He would say, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." These are people that are mocking Him, that have just taken a spear and put it in His side. These are people that are gambling over His garments at the bottom of the cross, and He's saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

You see, Jesus Christ, the epitome of love, is demonstrated on the cross. For God so loved the world, He gave. That is the epitome of God's love for the world: nailed to a cross, brutalized, but will still be about His Father's business. It’s the epitome of love in not just Him being on the cross, but the obedience that took Him there. The obedience of Christ to God is the epitome of what it takes to love God because this world is so opposite to God because Satan rules the earth.

And when he rules it, the Bible is saying that just leads to everything being opposite, everything just going in an opposite direction. As husband and wife, now we want to change the nature of what takes place that is relevant to a family. We want to make that different. We want to make it a different gender situation. We want to adjust everything. Everything has to be opposite in how Satan works the world to be opposite to God.

So when we live in this world, obeying God is a challenge. But the fact that we would submit to Him, no matter what, demonstrates a deep love for God. And that is the epitome of what Christ demonstrates on the cross. This is when man is not seeking Him. So on the back end of this, still love: a nation that keeps turning on Him, Israel. He gives them a perfect garden, Adam and Eve. Right after they sin, Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, we find Christ saying, "He will bruise his heel, but I will crush his head." Redemption was already built-in.

So when we look on the back end or at the cross, we see God's love. So this week for me is the love of God. Yes, I'm focusing on His death and resurrection; I'm all in. But at the end of the day, what it means to me is a love, so unspeakable love. This is what we find demonstrated, highlighted in a woman that you would not think would do this. You wouldn't think that she would be focused this way.

She had seven demons. Possibly she was a fortune teller because she seems to have a lot of resources, finances, because she's in support of Christ's ministry (Luke chapter 8). So people knew her. People would have known her change. These villages aren't very large, so they would have known her change and her whole life becomes this love for Christ. Her whole life becomes what love for Christ looks like.

And here we are now in verse 16 of John chapter 20. What matters is what Christ says to me about love. He literally would say in First John chapter 2, verses 9 through 11, for a person that does not love, they walk in darkness. In chapter 4, verses 7 through 11, He says the person doesn't even know Me, meaning they have no intimate experience of Me, if they can look at another human being and just hate them.

So please understand, when we come to this time, the epitome of love is manifested in verse 16 when Mary's relationship with Christ becomes full-blown. It just blows up in our face. This is what she says in verse 16: Jesus said unto her, "Mary." Now she's crying, she's weeping, she's going, "Why weepest thou?" You're okay, Mary. But look at what happens here that is powerful.

My sheep will know My voice, and when I call out to them, they would respond. It's interesting, you know, that with the number of phone calls that my mom would receive from her eight kids, I could pick up the phone when she was alive and call her and she'd say, "Hey Paul." She'd call me my nickname, which I ain't going to tell you. But she'd say, "Hey Paul." All of the eight kids, now grandkids, now great-grandkids, all of these different things, she would know the voice.

It's interesting that when I was playing as a kid down the street—we had this little park down the street—and we'll be playing (for some people who wouldn't know the sport, but in Guyana, it would be cricket), we were playing cricket down the street, and my mom would come to the little (we call it a veranda), it was just a little place like a balcony that sticks out from the house, and she would stretch over it and call for me to come back to the house.

As a kid you into the game and she calls at the wrong time, and my friends would say, "Paul man, that's your mom." Now there's a whole bunch of guys on the street, we all would go down from the same block to the park, but we all knew whose mother was whose mother. My sheep will know My voice. And when I call them, they would respond. Knowing means they would know when I'm inside of them speaking.

John chapter 14, verse 26: He'll bring to us verses of scripture as we make it through the day so that as we pray for wisdom, we could build off of His Word to know how to apply it to that particular situation (Philippians chapter 1, verses 9 through 11). He would also convict us of sin (John 16:7-11). He will illuminate the Word of God when we're studying it; boom, it comes to life. We come to know Him.

This is what He is saying when He says "Mary." The story is over. It highlights right away the kind of intimate relationship that's taking place between Jesus and Mary. She couldn't recognize Him, but she recognizes His voice. That tells you right there where this starts in how the love leads us to a very intimate relationship with God. Look at what happens from here. She turns herself and said unto Him, "Rabboni," which is to say "Master, my Teacher and my Lord."

That highlights another aspect of relationship. Jesus Christ is someone we always see teaching us. And no matter until He opens my eyes to see, I'm blind. The Word of God is so deep it will take eternity to keep explaining it. So there's no way that a degree could define the comprehension of everything that Jesus Christ is teaching. There's always so much to learn.

One of the things I've learned about walking with the Lord is that the more you apply Him is the more He opens your eyes to see. So the more we obey Him, the more we surrender to Him, the more areas of our life He says, "No, no, you think this is what, no, look at this one right here." He keeps opening up areas in your life to show you more and more as you get deeper in Him because He's constantly the Teacher. It’s not just that He teaches from time to time; He is the Teacher.

And nothing would change in our lives if He doesn't become Master. He has to become Master, meaning He is the one who, when He teaches us what to do, He is Lord. There's no option as to whether or not I'm going to go do it. And that's exactly why in this relationship that is centered around what is taking place in verse 16, Jesus can now say verse 17: Jesus said unto her, "Touch me not."

Now, understand some people look at that differently because He tells Thomas not too far from here, "Touch me." So Jesus Christ, since He is the Lamb, we have to go back into the old Levitical structure to see that Jesus Christ had to go up to heaven; He's a wave offering. He has to do the wave offering, and when God says "acceptable," He could come down later and tell Thomas to touch Him.

So that's what He means by "don't touch Me." I haven't gone to the Father yet. So that means that Mary is just running to cling to Him. She knows the integrity of this man. She knows the pureness of His love for her and she wants to run and hug Him. And that's why He has to say, "Don't touch Me, Mary." In other words, "I have to stay within the will of God. I have to do what God is telling me to do, and until He accepts me, you can't do anything else."

"For I am not yet ascended to my Father." I am, I am the I AM. See, in other words, Mary, this person is my God. And Mary, I AM, even though He's my Father, I am fully God, fully man. But I still have to do what He says. I have to go to the Father, but go to my brethren. Go to my brethren and say unto them, "I ascend." Look at all these personal pronouns. "I ascend to my Father."

My Father took me to the Garden of Gethsemane and wouldn't change His mind. My Father took me to a cross and allowed me to be brutalized before I got to the cross. But He's my daddy. Obeying God means to deny myself, pick up a cross and follow Him. He's still my daddy. And He says He's now your daddy because I've died, rose from the dead, and you now live inside of me as I live inside of God.

That's what Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 through 3 says. So we are now in Him. And that's why He says, "I ascend to my Father, and He's your Father. He is my God." I'm still going to do what He says even though I'm equal to Him, "and He is your God." He is personal to you. He hadn't said it to the disciples yet; He said it to Mary Magdalene, the woman with seven demons, the woman that has a background that doesn't fit any religious resume. He is your God.

This is so beautiful. She doesn't go, "Well, you know, this is a long run. I just ran there." In verse 18, it says, "And Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and He had spoken these things unto her." Mary took off running. It didn't care about the distance. It didn't care she had to do it again because her love for Christ was that intimate, that powerful, and that surrendered. It didn't matter where she had to go, what she had to do. It just mattered that she had met her Master, and that all that matters to her. Folks, stay focused.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Pastor Cannings. Mary recognized Jesus' voice and realized that He is alive. What an amazing love indeed. Now, if you've heard the biblical story of the resurrection and you're not sure where you stand with Jesus Christ and the real meaning of Easter, then give us a call and let's talk about it. Our phone number is 281-260-7402. That's 281-260-7402.

Dr. Paul Cannings: Well, you should come because we never stop learning. So a conference such as this one would just impact you so much that you will grow. I am so excited about the conference coming up April the 23rd through the 25th. I really am ecstatic about it. Pastors have come together on a committee to help with the process moving forward. Excited about our first conference last year, but this conference this year is going to be greater.

There's like about 40 classes here. Let me give you a taste: The Pastor and Deacon's Functioning Under the Leadership of Christ, A Biblical Approach to Resolving Conflict in the Church, Traits of Successful Biblical Leaders, Cultivating a Healthy and Productive Team Environment, Overcoming the Stagnation in the Church, Discipling Leaders, Dealing With How Do We Grow People and Do Evangelism at the Same Time.

Despite all the difficulties churches are facing, we can find a powerful, effective way forward. A lot of teachers are coming to teach. They're well-trained, well-educated, practicing these principles within their church. Come, be a part of April the 23rd through the 25th. Go to powerwalkministries.org, powerwalkministries.org, so that we could move forward together for God's glory. Look forward to seeing you. You will not be in any way disappointed at this conference.

Guest (Male): Again, that's powerwalkministries.org. We'd love to hear from you. And if you live in the Houston area or you're planning a visit, please join Reverend Cannings at Living Word Fellowship Church this Sunday. For church location and service times, visit lwfellowshipchurch.org. And now, remember Jesus' resurrection is the greatest event in human history. May this act of God's love be the greatest life changer for you.