The Christians Hour

Cody Custer: You're listening to The Christian's Hour. I'm Cody Custer, your host, and I'm so glad you're joining us today. The Christian's Hour is a ministry of Gospel Broadcasting Mission, where we use radio and media to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth until all have heard. Our heart is to go to those who have not yet had the opportunity to hear, to those who remain unreached or hard to reach, so that they too may hear of the hope we have in Christ.

Well, have you ever been around someone you naturally felt drawn to? Someone whose presence you intentionally sought out, so much so that when you weren't with them, you found yourself thinking about them? They recognized you, cared for you, encouraged you, supported you, and loved you. And the best part was this: they wanted you to be around too. It was an open invitation into their presence.

In today's message, Rick Atchley, Lead Pastor of The Hills Church in Fort Worth, Texas, unpacks the life of Mary Magdalene and the profound impact Jesus had on her life. He shares how her deep desire to be in the presence of Jesus led her to the tomb where he was laid after his crucifixion. And what she discovered there is what we call the good news: that Jesus is alive. And not only is he alive, but he is near, and he desires for us to encounter his living presence. I'm excited for you to hear this powerful biblical teaching today. Here's Rick.

Rick Atchley: Today, I want us to meet the very first person to see the risen Christ. Nobody was there when he actually came back to life, but there was someone who saw him alive again before anyone else. And if you were making this story up, that person would be the last person you would choose to be the first person to see him. Because that person was a woman.

Ben Cachiaras: And in the days of Jesus, women's testimony was not allowed in court because women were considered to be too hysterical. Now that's not right, that's not good, but that's how it was. And in that day, if you're going to make up a story like this, you pick a man with credibility and status and social influence. Jesus chose to appear first to a person we might have picked last. Why? Let's find out. John chapter 20.

Tim Harlow: Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they've put him." Again, that's what everyone just assumed when they first heard about the missing body. He has been stolen.

And so she tells Peter and John, and they run to the tomb and everyone's confused. Let's pick up the story, verse nine. They still didn't understand from the scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. And they asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They've taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they've put him."

At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, "Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you're looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've put him and I will get him."

Then Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried in Aramaic, "Rabboni," which means teacher. And Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I've not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I'm ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." And Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news, "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.

Bob Russell: Now, I have been preaching over 40 years, and I have never one time preached a sermon about Mary Magdalene. My bad. Because she is awesome, and we're about to see why. It's worth noting that every Gospel account has Mary Magdalene at the tomb on that first Sunday. And you read in the Gospels, unlike many of the male disciples, she was also at the cross and stayed there to the very end.

Mary was one of the women that followed Jesus and supported him financially. If Jesus stopped walking, Mary bumped into him. She was just going to be wherever Jesus was. And I believe her devotion was motivated by her liberation. Because there's something about Mary you need to know. Luke 8: Jesus took his twelve disciples with him, along with some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. And among them was Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.

Now, I don't know if that was seven literal demons, or sometimes in the Bible seven is a figure for complete or total. What Luke is saying is that Mary's life was dominated by dark powers. She knew it, and she couldn't do anything about it. These dark powers were running her life, they were ruining her life. She is conscious of it, and she can't change it.

Then this itinerant rabbi shows up, and he doesn't even need seven words, and every one of those demons takes off. And Mary gets the life she had always wanted back. She goes from possessed to released. No wonder she wants to stay close to Jesus. He has given her the life she always wanted and never thought she was going to ever have. And now she's gone from released to distressed. Mary reminds me of the haunting song sung by Fantine in the musical Les Misérables: "Now life has killed the dream I dreamed."

Aaron Brockett: What are you thinking if you're Mary? I know what I'm thinking. If the dark powers come back, who's going to stop them? Without Jesus, what's my future look like? Is the past I so desperately wanted and wasn't able to escape going to be what's ahead? I mean, Mary's heart and soul are as dark as the morning. No one felt the absence of Jesus more than Mary.

Her faith is shattered, her hope is gone, but her love remains. And doesn't that tell us something about grief that we probably understand? That when we love people that are gone, our love doesn't leave. And that's why it hurts so much. And that's why she could not leave Jesus when everyone else did.

She witnessed Jesus being horribly dishonored at the end of his life, and she is not going to stand for him being dishonored in his death. She's going to do whatever it takes to find that body and give him the burial he deserves. But she gets to the tomb, and now her pain is increased because the body's not there. It's gone. Notice the first interpretation of everybody to the news of the missing body was not resurrection. It was theft. But the worst possible deduction was about to become the best possible news. And Mary does something I don't think I would have the courage to do. She peeked her head inside a tomb where a dead man used to be.

Gene Appel: And she sees two angels. Now, we went through an angel craze a few years ago and everybody was going to the store and buying these fat, chubby little creatures with diapers on and halos and putting them on our shelf saying, "Isn't he cute?" Let me tell you, in the Bible, when someone sees an angel, nobody says, "Isn't he cute?" They all fall down like they're about to die.

But Mary, she is too focused on her mission. She doesn't have time to tremble. They say, "Woman, why are you crying?" She says, "They've taken my Lord away." Notice, she did not say, "They've taken the body away." "They have taken my Lord." They could finish her rabbi, they could not diminish her devotion. She is going to stay loyal to Jesus, even if she has to do it all alone.

But the thing is, she wasn't alone. Somebody was there with her the whole time. And she becomes aware of a presence of someone else. There's another figure in the garden, and she looks and she doesn't recognize. And the voice says, "Woman, why are you crying?" And this time she responds by offering to do the impossible: retrieve the body without any help. "If you'll just tell me where the body is, I will go get it." Like, what are you going to do, Mary? How are you going to do that?

And here's the great irony: that's what she wanted most. And if she had gotten what she wanted most, she'd still be crying. That's something you need to remember about God. God loves you too much to always give you the thing that you think you want the most. Because if she had gotten what she wanted the most and found the dead body of Jesus, she would still be crying. And for that matter, so would we.

The thing I wrestle with most is Mary, nobody wanted to be closer to Jesus than you. Why didn't you recognize him? Was it still too dark? Is it possible that she was grieving so much she just couldn't focus? Is it possible that the man she saw didn't look anything like the last view she had of Jesus three days ago? Or is it possible that it's just hard to recognize someone you never expect to see?

Rick Atchley: Then Jesus did something that, as I reflected on it, lived with this text, I literally got goosebumps. Jesus is going to reveal himself to Mary, the first person to see the resurrected Jesus. How did he do it? Did he transfigure himself and glow in the dark? Did he do a miracle? Did he show Mary his scars? No, Jesus said her name, and she knew.

All those months and years following Jesus, big crowds and small, she knew she was never just a number to Jesus. She was a name. And Jesus revealed who he was by speaking who she was. And in a place where hope was lost, dreams were shattered, Jesus appeared to a woman who was not going to let anything keep her from loving him.

Ben Cachiaras: And hope resurrects. And hope changes everything, right? I love the story of the four widows, they're in a nursing home playing cards in the foyer. A nice-looking older man comes up to the counter and the first widow says, "What are you doing here?" He says, "Well, I'm checking in, I'm going to live in this place." The second widow says, "Where do you come from?" He says, "If you must know, the last 20 years I've been in prison." Third widow says, "Why?" "Again, if you must know," he said, "it's because I murdered my wife." And the fourth widow says, "So you're saying you're single?"

Hope changes how you look at everything. And I can't prove this, but my guess is if you had a list of the top ten hardest, longest hugs of all time, her hug of Jesus would be one of them. He didn't say, "Don't touch me." Literally in the Greek, it says, "Stop clinging." In other words, "Mary, you can let go now. I'm here. You can let go, Mary."

Rick Atchley: He wasn't afraid to be touched, he's going to let Thomas touch him later. I think what he's saying is, "Mary, stop clinging and start singing." What he said is, "Mary, go tell your brothers. Go tell them what you have seen." She came to that garden with one mission, she left with another. She came as a mourner, she left as a messenger.

Tim Harlow: And I want to tell you that every one of us who has met the risen Christ has the same assignment that Mary got: go tell others what you have heard and seen. We get to announce that death no longer gets the last word. We get to proclaim that because Jesus is risen, nobody has to live in status quo anymore. You don't have to live in bondage to "it is what it is," because what it is is not what it has to be.

Because Jesus is risen, we get to share with people there is nothing you are going through that a resurrection won't cure. We get to share that we don't have to be afraid of anything, not even death, because Jesus has come back from the grave. We get to share this, we get to tell this.

The risen Christ has given us this assignment. I love the story I heard, it happened in Bangladesh. They made many years ago a movie from the Gospel of Luke called The Jesus Movie. And they've taken that movie and they have showed it to tens of millions of people around the world that have never heard this story.

So they're in Bangladesh at a village, and they set up the projector and they're showing this film, and the whole village has gathered. There's boys and girls and men and women, old and young, and they're watching this story, most of whom have never heard it. And they fall in love with this character named Jesus. And so they're shocked when you get toward the end of the movie and they kill him. And there are gasps and women literally begin to cry.

There's this boy there, they say he stood up and he said, "Don't be afraid! I've seen this before. He comes back!" That's what we get to share with the world.

Rick Atchley: And maybe one of the best messages that we get to affirm is that Jesus is not just alive, Jesus is around. The risen Christ wants to show up. He wants to have a dynamic relationship with every one of you, because you're not a number to Jesus. You are a name. And faith never becomes more real than when you are convinced that Jesus is real. Because he showed up when you needed and weren't expecting to see him.

Mary didn't see resurrection coming, she certainly didn't see a resurrected Christ coming for her, but she found out she wasn't alone. And neither are you. Let's go back to that question: why did he pick first someone most would pick last? And the answer is pretty simple. Nobody wanted to be in the presence of Jesus more than Mary. And that's what you must want for him to be real. You must want his presence most.

Resurrection reality is for those that will not let anything keep them from loving Jesus. My life verse for this year is from Psalm 27: "This only do I seek: to gaze on the beauty of the Lord." And here's some good news: if you want nothing more than to experience the living presence of Jesus, guess what? Jesus wants the same thing. He wants you to experience him.

And so ask him. Ask him to reveal himself, and he will appear to you to resurrect your faith and your joy and your hope. Now, I can't tell you what that will look like. He might appear in a dream or in a vision, it might be in a prophetic word you receive from someone else, it might be in the way the Scripture comes alive that you've never seen before.

He might reveal himself in the kindness of the body of Christ. It might be in the words of the Holy Spirit that are impressed upon your heart. It might be in a miracle that you witness or a prayer that you never thought could be answered that God answered. But he will show you he's real if you want this more than anything else.

But remember this: that with the vision comes a mission, and that is to share your encounter first. Before you say anything else about Jesus, be like Mary. The first thing Mary did was not debate theology, the first thing she did was relate an encounter: "I have seen the Lord." I'm not saying that arguments don't matter, there are good reasons to believe in our faith and in the resurrection of Jesus. But I want to remind you that hope is not a what or a why, hope is a who.

Doctrine did not die for you. Doctrine doesn't know your name. I've never been beside the bed of someone in the hospital courageously facing death who said, "Pastor, I'm not afraid because doctrine is here with me." Everything changes when you encounter the risen Christ. And not just for you, but for those he sends you to tell.

And so I close with a story from the play, The Trial of Jesus. There's a scene in which Pilate asks to see a Roman centurion named Longinus. Pilate's heard these rumors that Jesus isn't dead. So Longinus was the centurion in charge of the crucifixion detail. And so he asks, "Was he dead?" "Yes, he was absolutely dead."

But then Procula, Pilate's wife, who was uneasy all along about this whole crucifixion thing, she gets alone with Longinus and she says, "Do you think he's dead?" "No, I do not." "Then where is he?" And he says, "He is let loose on the world, my lady, where neither Roman nor Jew can stop his truth."

Now here's the good news. Jesus died, and he was buried, and he was raised, and he appeared. Jesus is let loose on this world. He's not just alive, he's around. And he knows your name.

Guest (A cappella Singers): Are you hurting and broken within?

Overwhelmed by the weight of your sin?

Jesus is calling.

Have you come to the end of yourself?

Do you thirst for a drink from the well?

Jesus is calling.

O come to the altar,

The Father's arms are open wide;

Forgiveness was bought with

The precious blood of Jesus Christ.

Leave behind your regrets and mistakes.

Come today, there's no reason to wait;

Jesus is calling.

Bring your sorrows and trade them for joy;

From the ashes a new life is born;

Jesus is calling.

O come to the altar,

The Father's arms are open wide;

Forgiveness was bought with

The precious blood of Jesus Christ.

O come to the altar,

The Father's arms are open wide;

Forgiveness was bought with

The precious blood of Jesus Christ.

Oh, what a Savior,

Isn't He wonderful?

Sing Hallelujah, Christ is risen.

Bow down before Him,

For He is Lord of all;

Sing Hallelujah, Christ is risen.

O come to the altar,

The Father's arms are open wide;

Forgiveness was bought with

The precious blood of Jesus Christ.

O come to the altar,

The Father's arms are open wide;

Forgiveness was bought with

The precious blood of Jesus Christ.

Bear your cross as you wait for the crown;

Tell the world of the treasure you've found.

Cody Custer: What an incredible reminder that not only is Jesus alive, but that we are invited into his presence. Like Mary, who wanted his presence above all else, nothing was going to keep her from him.

So how about you? Do you desire to be in his presence, or is there something holding you back? If so, can I encourage you today to let go and walk into his presence because Jesus changes everything? And if Jesus has changed your life, if he is your Lord, have you taken his command seriously? Just as Rick shared, every one of us has been given the same assignment Mary received: to go and to tell others what we have heard and seen, that Jesus has risen and that there is hope.

If you're looking for ways to do that, can I encourage you to start at home, in your neighborhood, or in your own community? And if you feel called to take his name to the ends of the earth, we invite you to join us. Our desire this year is to share the gospel through radio and media in five new languages, reaching people groups with little to no access to God's word. Just as you're listening today, we want to make the gospel accessible to them as well. To do this, we need partners who are willing to walk alongside us and support this work financially and prayerfully. Join us in this effort to make an impact for the Kingdom.

You can learn more or connect with us at thechristianshour.org or by emailing us at thechristianshour@gmail.com. Our thanks to Rick Atchley for this powerful message and to Acappella Ministries for providing the worship music. And thank you for tuning in today. If you'd like to listen to today's program again, you can find The Christian's Hour on multiple streaming platforms, including Google Play, Apple Podcast, and OnePlace.

You can also visit our website at thechristianshour.org, where all of our programs are free and available to stream or download anytime. And be sure to follow us on our social media platforms. We're on Facebook and Instagram, and you can find us by searching Gospel Broadcasting Mission. And if you'd like to get in touch with us, you can email us directly. Again, that's at thechristianshour@gmail.com. Thanks again for listening. We hope you'll join us again next week.