Listen to the audio above while following along in the transcript below which is also available for download at www.biblestudyministriesinc.com
I want to thank everyone who remembered me in prayer. This last weekend we got to go to Maryland to a Chinese church and I spoke through an interpreter. What I didn’t know was that it was live connected to other Chinese churches at the same time. It’s amazing that technology. If it comes to your heart, I fly out on Friday; we have another conference this coming weekend and I would appreciate your intercession for that. That’s up in Falls Church, Massachusetts.
I’d like to share a Bible verse and then we’ll pray and then get into the word. You may not see the connection at the beginning, but I hope by the end you’ll see why I began with this verse. Matthew 11:28-30, our Lord Jesus said, “Come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Our Father, we pray that all you inspire that verse to mean, You would work in our hearts as we meditate together on Your word. Thank You for the Holy Spirit who lives right inside of us and turns our faith, our eyes, our heart to the Lord Jesus. We pray that You might manifest Him again in a fresh way, and we claim it in His matchless name. Amen.
Welcome to our meditation. We are in lesson seventy-three; that’s a lot of lessons. Seventy-two times I’ve reminded my heart and yours that we gather for one purpose, and it’s not to know the gospel of John; it’s to know our Lord Jesus. It’s my prayer that I would never take that direction for granted. The gospel of John is a wonderful book, and it contains precious doctrine, but doctrine is not Jesus. We want to make sure we’re focusing on the Lord. We can get all the facts of the Bible in the world, and we can categorize everything and believe all of those doctrines but if we’re not growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, Bible study will just make us more proud because knowledge puffs up. We don’t want just facts; we want to know the Lord.
I often hear Christians say, “I believe this and I believe that,” and much of what they profess to believe is good; it’s sound doctrine, but a person doesn’t necessarily believe what he says he believes. A person believes what he emphasizes. You can tell what a person emphasizes, and you’ll know what they really believe. I hope by my emphasis in the last seventy-two lessons that you know what I believe; I believe we’ve got to see our Lord Jesus.
Let’s come back to the gospel of John. When we left off our meditation, we had just concluded chapters 18 & 19 called the passion chapters, about the arrest and about the suffering of our Lord, all the way to His burial. Last week we tried to wrap up what we had left out, and we talked about words like Tabetha and Golgotha and Calvary, and we talked about the emphasis on prophecy, the inscription over the head of Christ on the cross, and we ended up talking about the burial. Luke 23, “A man named Joseph who was a member of the council, a good and righteous man, he had not consented to their plan and action, a man from Arimathea, a city of the Jew who was waiting for the Kingdom of God,” and there is a good possibility that the title over Christ not only helped the thief trust in the Lord, “when you come to Your Kingdom,” but also Joseph who was looking for the Kingdom. We thank the Lord that everything is redemptive.
That brings us to the final two chapters, chapters 20 & 21 of the gospel of John. Let me give you an overview, give you the content of those two chapters. Chapter 20 is easy to remember because there are three stories; I call them people stories. Number one, in verses 1-18 there’s the story of Mary Magdalene, and then in chapter 20:18-28 is the story of Thomas who is sometimes called “Doubting Thomas”. I think he gets a bad rap. And then the third is a story that is sort embedded in Mary Magdalene’s story, and that’s the foot race that John and Peter had when Mary reported the body stolen and they were running to the tomb. So, those three stories—Mary Magdalene, Thomas and that foot race. Chapter 21, as you would expect, is the clincher to the entire message of the gospel of John, but it’s also the last chapter of the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, it’s also a summary of all of the gospels. So, it’s a clincher in a wonderful way. When we get to it, we’ll focus on the great message of chapter twenty-one, and that is the Great Commission. Some think that John doesn’t give the Great Commission; it’s in Matthew, Mark, Luke an Acts 1, but actually the fullest mention of the Great Commission is in John. Matthew, Mark, Luke and Acts tells you what to do, to go into all the world and make disciples. John 21 tells you how to do it, in picture form. So, we have a story of how to fish and how to shepherd. It’s just a summary of the Great Commission.
Let’s begin with the story of Mary Magdalene. I want to make a couple of general observations before we get into her story. I don’t think you are going to get anything new in these observations, but I think I should mention them. The first is that Magdalene was not her last name. I think all of you know that; that’s where she was from, like Jesus of Nazareth, and this is Mary Magdalene. It’s not like our last name, Smith or Russell or Miller, and so on. It’s not like that. Her hometown was Magdala. I’m going to save you some trouble, the trouble I had to go through. Nobody knows where it was, so you’ll waste your time if you are trying to figure it out. There are some guesses and some good guesses, but nobody knows for sure. It’s somewhere near the Sea of Galilee.
The second fact is that her name appears fourteen times in the New Testament, but most of the time just in a list. There are only three stories about Mary. Though her name appears fourteen times, the Holy Spirit focuses on three events. One was when she got saved, and the Lord Jesus cast seven demons out of her. Two, she’s mentioned at the cross. Number three was when she met the risen Savior at the empty tomb. Luke 8:2 talks when she got saved, “Mary, who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out.” The story of Mary is the story of every Christian. It’s my story, it’s your story, and the story of every Christian begins here with salvation, with the Lord Jesus cleansing us from our sin. If a person is not saved, they’ll never end up at the empty tomb and in relationship with the living Savior. So, we’re going to take that path that Mary took.
The second story is at the cross. She is mentioned in John 19:25, that she was one who was at the cross. Finally, she’s at the empty tomb where she met the Living Savior. That progression from salvation through the cross to the risen Savior is the illustration of our journey to the risen Savior. We’ve got to begin with salvation, and we’ve got to go through the cross and we have to end up with a Living Savior.
The bulk of the story of Mary Magdalene is from the cross to the empty tomb. Let me word it another way. She got saved, one verse, and that’s it, one verse. She met the Living Christ, one verse, that’s it. The Bible only gives us one verse, but she got saved as a verse, when she met the Living Christ as a verse: eighteen verses from the cross to the empty tomb. That’s where we are going to spend our time. How did she get from the cross to the empty tomb. In a wonderfully symbolic way, she illustrates that journey to the cross.
We learn from the same passage that tells us she had seven demons cast out, that she immediately joined other women in financial support of all of the disciples and the ministry of the Lord Jesus. In every detail Mary is a picture, and we’re going to look at that. First observation is her name, and the second is the time she’s mentioned in the Bible, and the third observation is this, Mary is a lover; every time we see her, she’s a lover of the Lord Jesus. In all three accounts she’s a lover of the Lord Jesus. One thing that evidenced her love was her tears. When you see Mary, she’s crying a lot; she’s weeping a lot. She’s a broken-hearted lover here. John 20:11, “Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping. As she wept, she stooped and she looked into the tomb. When two angels came before her, they asked this question,” John 20:13, “They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said, ‘Because they’ve taken away my Lord; I do not know where they have laid Him.’” And when Jesus was standing in front of her and she didn’t recognize Him, He asked a question, John 20:15, “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’” Now, I don’t want to compare who loved Jesus more than the other one. It’s not healthy to judge one another like that, but I think according to the record, Mary is way up on top. She was a lover, and I think she suffered the most, if you exclude the mother of our Lord Jesus, because Luke 2:35 says, “A sword would pierce through your soul.” Whatever that means, Mary experienced that. I think on the level of earth with that exception, her broken heart and flood tide of tears testify that she really loved Jesus.
I’m going to tell the story of how she illustrates the discovery of a risen Christ, and therefore the discovery of the Christian life as a risen life, and we use the expression the exchanged life; it’s all the same; it’s our Lord Jesus. I’m going to focus as we tell the story on many missteps; she did a lot of things wrong. She made mistakes, but as I talk on her mistakes, I don’t want you to think that she’s not a lover of Jesus. She’s a lover of Jesus, and in fact I think many of her mistakes demonstrate how much she loved the Lord. So, we’ve got to look at that but keep in mind that she’s a lover of Jesus.
I want to make one more observation before we get to her story. Mary is unique. When I say that she’s unique, I’m saying something happened to her that never happened to anybody else, and never can happen to anybody else. God selected her as the only one who would experience this thing. It didn’t happen to the mother of Christ, and it didn’t happen to Nicodemus, it didn’t happen to Joseph of Arimathea, it didn’t happen to any of the disciples; it was only Mary. I’m referring to her honor that she had the privilege to be the first one to see the risen Savior. Nobody else could be first; she’s first, the first one to see Him, the first one to hear His voice, and the first one to receive a commission from Him. Mary Magdalene stands apart as the first one, and that’s part of the reason she becomes the illustration of how to get to the risen Christ. She’s first, so we’re going to follow her path. She experienced the life when they come from the cross to the risen Christ. That process is what we’re going to look at.
Those are the four general observations; her name, the accounts, she’s a lover of Jesus and she’s honored to be first. That brings us from those observations, the journey from the cross to the tomb. I’m going to focus on the observations but especially on the fact that she’s the first to meet the risen Savior, and there are three accounts: you are saved, you’re at the cross, and you get to the risen Savior. Since the most inspired space is given to the cross, to the empty tomb and the risen Savior, let’s look at her journey.
As I studied this, this was my first indication, I was shocked to see myself. As I read the record, I thought, “My, my, that’s exactly the path I went down,” and I think you are going to be able to identify, as well. Hers took eighteen verses. I don’t know how long it took, but mine took seven years, seven years from the cross to the empty tomb, the risen Savior.
Let’s go on Mary’s journey. After she became a Christian, and before she embraced Christ as her life, what was she thinking. You don’t only see what is in front of your brain. Sometimes, what’s behind your brain is, your preconceived ideas affect what you see out here. Mary had some preconceived ideas, and she had things that were in her mind, and it affected and influenced her heart and her walk. Her expectation, what she’s looking for is now depending upon what is in the back of her mind. She’s seeking Jesus. When you read the record, she is a desperate woman seeking the Lord Jesus, and she’s weeping her eyes out until she finds Him. But she has a preconceived idea of what He will look like when she finds Him. Her last vision of Christ was on the cross, and wrapped in the linen, and laid in the tomb. The image of Jesus made a profound effect on her thinking. Since that’s the last time she saw Him, on the cross, beaten beyond recognition almost, the One who saved her, the One who cast seven demons out of her life, the One she truly loved, her last vision was that He was dead, He was crucified, and she loved Him even more for being willing to die.
We learn from Luke 23:55, “The woman who had come with Him out of Galilee followed. They saw the tomb and how His body was laid. They returned and prepared spices.” Mary went from the cross and followed and she saw where Jesus was laid. That was her last view of Christ—dead, wrapped, anointed and laid in a tomb. Her mind was filled with that vision; that’s all she had in mind, “He’s a crucified Savior.” That morning when she went looking, her expectation was to see Him the last way that she saw Him. That was her last vision. Now she’s expecting to find Him as she last saw Him. So, she’s going on a hunt for a dead Christ. She’s looking for a dead Savior. Although angels told her that He had risen, and although she had looked inside the tomb and saw the angels. John 20:1&2, “On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark. She saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. So, she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They’ve taken away the Lord out of the tomb; we do not know where they laid Him.’” They were with the women, the women continued but she left and ran to tell the disciples that the body had been stolen.
In verse 13 she sees the angels, and they said to her, “’Woman, why do you weep?’ She said to them, ‘Because they’ve taken away my Lord; I do not know where they’ve laid Him.’” In her mind He’s still dead. And even when He does appear, as Rommel reminded us, in verse 15, Jesus said to her, “’Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’ Once He said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know it was Jesus.” Why didn’t she know? The answer is… I don’t know if He appeared in a different body or different form and if He was changed, but I know a real reason she didn’t recognize Him. She didn’t recognize Him standing there because He was standing there. She wasn’t expecting anybody to be standing there. She’s expecting her last vision of the Lord. He’s dead and wrapped in linen, and if appeared any other way than dead, she would have a hard time believing that it was Him. I’m quite sure even through her tears, if she looked up and saw a dead body laying in the bushes, I think that would have satisfied her heart; I think she would have been happy to find Him. She needed, of course what the book of Romans calls “a renewing of the mind.” Her mind was thinking the wrong thing, and she needed to think God’s thoughts.
A sad result of that kind of thinking and expectation is that it makes you absolutely dead to spiritual reality. This is amazing. Spiritual things are going on all around her right under her nose, and she doesn’t get it, because her mind set is closed, “I’m looking for a dead Christ,” so she’s unable to discern spiritual reality. For example, when she saw the two angels, John 20:12&13, “She saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been lying. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said, ‘Because they’ve taken away my Lord; I do not know where they’ve laid Him.’” I don’t know if those angels appeared in dazzling garments. It appears on one scripture that she saw them in dazzling garments, but it’s like talking to the mailman, or talking to the Uber driver. She’s just saying, “They took Him.” She doesn’t see them as angels, and she doesn’t discern that the slab on which Jesus was laying… When she looked in, there was an angel on one side at the foot, and there’s an angel on the other side, and you know that’s the mercy seat. The empty slab is now the mercy seat, but she doesn’t see any of that. She’s a lover of Jesus but at this point a blind lover of Jesus. Some suggest it’s only because she had so many tears, and that was what was blinding her. I don’t think it’s her tears that’s blinding her. It’s her mind, her preconceived idea.
It comes to a climax in John 20:14&15, when Jesus stood before her, “And when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Who do you seek?’ Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, ‘Sir, if you’ve carried Him away, tell me where you’ve laid Him and I will take Him away.’” She didn’t recognize Jesus, and didn’t recognize His voice, and didn’t recognize His person. Of course, we don’t know how He appeared. Watch her response when she saw the stone rolled away, John 20:2, “She ran, and came to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They’ve taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they’ve laid Him.’” That stone was rolled away, not to let Jesus out, but to let us look inside and see it empty and that our Lord has risen. The rolled away stone according to the Holy Spirit, is a message of good news. Mary didn’t see good news; she saw the stone rolled away and to her that was bad news. They stole His body. That’s how she looked at it.
It’s very sad when Christians hear or look at good news and then interpret it as bad news. There’s only good news in the Christian life, and to Mary the empty tomb was bad news. That was designed to wipe her tears away. Instead, it created tears for her. It’s so tragic and I know, because it was me. She has to create somebody to blame, so she says, “They took Him.” Who is “they”? We always say, “They say…” Who is “they”. “They” took Him away. She expected things to go one way, but she’s got to blame somebody; it’s not happening that way. I think it comes to a climax. She even viewed Jesus as an enemy; she saw Him and said, “If you’ve taken Him, tell me where you’ve laid Him,” and she looked at Jesus as if Jesus stole Jesus from her! It’s because she’s blind; she can’t see. All she’s looking for is a dead Christ. Because of her love, she wants to minister to a dead Christ the last way that she saw Him. We’re going to read the record, and you’ll see why I chose that verse, “Come unto Me all Ye that are weary and heavy laden,” because she became exhausted, weary and heavy laden in her search for a dead Christ.
Let me illustrate. John 20:21, “On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark, and she stone already rolled away.” I know she got up early; it was still dark. Mark 16:1, “When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices that they might come and anoint Him.” Mary loves Jesus; getting up early is not a problem for someone who loves the Lord Jesus. I wonder how much sleep she got that night because those women are preparing spices. I don’t know what it takes to prepare spices and how long it takes, but they had to gather materials and so on. She was working all night to give Jesus a ministry that He could never use. She’s working her head off trying to give Christ a ministry that He doesn’t need, that anointing. It was a useless ministry and a waste of energy and waste of resources and a waste of their time, but she loves, “So, I’m going to work, and I’m going to minister, I’m going to prepare, and I’m going to get up early.” Then, in John 20:2, she came, and the Bible says, “She ran to Peter and John.” I don’t know how far it was from the tomb to that house, and we’re assuming it’s John’s house. I want you to get the idea here. I don’t know how much sleep she had all weekend. I don’t know how much sleep she had that night. I know she got up early, and now, through heavy breathing she’s running, and running and running. She finally gets to John’s house, “They’ve stolen Him; they’ve taken the body.” You’ve got to picture her all out breath. While she’s out of breath, she’s still weeping uncontrollably. That drains somebody, too. She is just being drained.
Even the angels had to ask her, “Why are you weeping?” She’s a sad woman. She’s a Christian. She’s saved. She had seven demons cast out of her. How come there is no joy? How come she’s sad? How come she’s crying? Then, all out of breath, Peter and John start running, the Bible says, to the tomb, and guess who is trotting along behind them? Mary is still running, so she runs all the way from the tomb to the house, and then John and Peter run and they’ve got a little race going on there, and then she’s running behind them, all out of breath. And it’s all because she loved Jesus. She gets up early and she prepares a ministry He can’t use, and she’s all out of breath wearing herself out because she loves the Lord Jesus.
It comes to a climax in John 20:15, “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping. Who are you seeking?’ Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, ‘Sir, if you’ve carried Him away, tell me where you’ve laid Him, and I’ll take Him away.’” Right, Mary; that’s dead weight, you know, and you are going to carry Him away? I don’t know how much Jesus weighed but whatever it was, after that a hundred pounds of ointment that Nicodemus put on His body, and Mary is saying, “Show me where you’ve laid Him, and I’ll take Him away.” I don’t know how big Mary was, but I don’t think she could have handled carrying a dead body with a hundred pounds of ointment on it. Maybe it’s two hundred and fifty or three hundred pounds. I don’t know.
There’s an illustration in Isaiah 46 that’s very precious where the heathen had to lug their idols from place to place and they used animals to carry their idols. Isaiah 46:1, “The images you carry are burdensome, a load for the weary be.” They were carrying false idols, and they made the donkey exhausted. It’s heavy. And now she wants to carry Christ; she wants to lug a dead Christ. I’ll tell you, that’s a burden. I love verse Isaiah 46:3&4, “Listen to Me house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, you have been born by Me from birth. You’ve been carried from the womb, even to your old age it will be the same, and even to your graying years I shall bear you. I have done it; I will carry you and I will bear you; I will deliver you.” Mary has not yet entered into this wonder that the Lord wants to carry you; you don’t have to carry Him. The Lord wants to carry me. When Jesus becomes a burden to the Christian, something is very, very wrong. Christ had become a burden then for Mary. She’s looking at Him as if He’s the helpless One who needs her. So often we try to rescue God from a jam that His love got Him in, and we’ll spread the gospel, and we’ll help you, Lord, and we’ll drag Him from place to place, “Alright, Lord, we’re going to the street today and I’m going to preach. Alright Lord, we’re going to the beach today. Alright, we’re going to the prison.” We’re lugging Him along rather than, “Where I am, my servant will be.” We’re saying, “Where the servant is, we’re going to lug Jesus there.” He’s gracious enough to be lugged; He comes along and He blesses. That’s just the heart of the Lord.
So, this is Mary from the cross. She gets up early, she prepares a ministry, she runs herself ragged, and she’s crying her eyes out. I remember reading a commentary where somebody got up at 4 o’clock to worship the Lord. That’s not going to beat me. I got up at 3 o’clock, only because I wanted to be the best servant He ever sent. I told Him, “I’m going to serve You.” I tried to one-up every ministry that I saw or heard. That was a big problem; I was reading Christian biographies and then I wanted to be Morgan, I wanted to be Buehler, I wanted to be Spurgeon. I tried to copy all of these people. Her prospect was mine; I got up early. You can’t believe the ministries I was involved in; I won’t bore you with them. I was running myself ragged all for the sake of Jesus. Lillian had to go through a lot of that. She’s forgiven me, I hope. Anyway, I didn’t have the joy of the Lord. Picture that—I’m testifying to someone and I’m saying, “You need to accept Christ, so you can be like me.” That’s not very exciting. Who wants to be like that?
Anyway, that was Mary’s journey from the cross to the empty tomb. What did Mary need? I don’t think she needed more love. I don’t think she needed more zeal. I don’t think she needed to get involved in more things. What Mary needed and what I needed and what you need, and whatever everyone needs is an encounter with the living Savior. That’s what we need. Not dead. She needs to get beyond the cross. The road from getting saved to the cross, someone might say, “Come on, you’re using her as an illustration. We’re not looking for a dead Christ. How can you say that we are looking for a dead Christ?” Let me try to explain it. Thousands of Christians are saved and they’re lovers of Jesus, and they never get past the cross. Am I suggesting that we should not enter into all that He died for? When Jesus died, I died, when He was buried, I was buried, when He rose we rose, when He sat down we sat down with Him, when He returns we’re coming with Him. Identification—those are wonderful, wonderful truths, and we need to know what was accomplished at the cross. It’s all sound theology. That’s good doctrine. That’s cardinal truth. That’s an evangelical creed that we’ve got to believe. You can’t meditate enough on what Jesus did for you on the cross, and how His blood cleansed you from sin and how you are not going to go to hell, and that you’re going to go to heaven and spend eternity with Him. You can’t get enough of the cross.
Am I suggesting that you leave the cross? Not at all. We love the Lord, and we’re getting up early and we’re serving Him and we’re getting weary and we’re running and out of breath, and we’re sad and we’re weeping. Why? Let me tell you why. It’s because sound theology is not Jesus because good doctrine is not Jesus, because cardinal truth is not Jesus, because evangelical creed is not Jesus, and people stay at the cross and learn doctrine. They learn, “I’m identified with Him.” They learn all that He’s done; it’s all about what He’s accomplished for me. I’m not saying to not learn that, but if you run after doctrine, you are running after a dead Christ. If I run after doctrine, I’m running after a dead Christ. I don’t care how true that doctrine is and I don’t care how sound that doctrine is, it’s not Jesus; it’s not the Lord Jesus.
Mary needed something and the women couldn’t help. Mary needed something and the angels couldn’t help. Mary needed something and Peter and John couldn’t help. Mary needed to meet the living Christ. John 20:16, this is where she meets Him, “Jesus said to her, ‘Mary,’ and she turned around and said to Him in Hebrew, ‘Rabboni,’ which means teacher.” In other words, the Teacher – a revelation. In a moment of time, He opened her eyes, and He straightened out her thinking. In a moment of time, now she sees a living Savior. The next verse says, “Stop clinging to Me.” She was clinging in the flesh to the Lord, and He said you can’t do that. The Greek scholar Charles Wordsworth, a commentator, he said that the Greek here not only forbids acts but forbids the habit of clinging to Him. John 20:17, “Jesus said, ‘Stop clinging. I’ve not yet ascended to My Father. Go to My brethren and say to them, “I ascend to My Father and your Father, My God and your God.”’” That’s the key to the risen life—stop clinging to Him. The Greek means to fasten yourself, and God is saying, “Listen, I’m going up to heaven, and I’m going to send My Holy Spirit. I’m not going to leave you an orphan; I’m going to come and live inside of you, and you can cling to me in a new relationship. You can touch Me and hold Me and love Me.”
Mary’s testimony is summarized in her last words that are recorded, and with this she goes off the pages of scripture, John 20:18, “Mary Magdalene came announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord, and that He had said these things to her.” The Holy Spirit drops her testimony; it’s over. Do you know why? It’s because there’s nothing else. “I’ve seen the Lord,” and that’s it. That’s what the Christian life is all about, seeing over and over, in the morning and you can still get up early and look at your Bible, but you know your heart is on “I’ve seen the Lord. I want to see Him. Holy Spirit, show me Jesus in this book.”
I think some of you have heard my testimony. I was saved in 1958 and praise the Lord, I don’t know if there were demons cast out, but I was certainly delivered from sin. For seven years I just stayed at the cross. I wanted to hear everything I could hear about what was accomplished at the cross, but it was all doctrine; it was all dead. I had all the right words, that you’ve got to rest in the Lord and trust the Lord and look to the Lord and abide in the Lord. I had the right words but where was the Lord. I didn’t have sweet fellowship with Him. I was busy and I was tired and I was engaged and I had many things that I don’t even want to think about. Then Mary says, “I’ve seen the Lord.” That’s my testimony now. In 1965 He called my name, and I opened my eyes and I saw Him. I want to go into my grave, and if you think anything, if they say, “There’s that dead Ed Miller,” you say, “He saw the Lord.” That’s all. There’s nothing else. I praise God for that experience from the cross. I praise God for the good theology that I learned, but now it’s changed; it’s a living Christ. John 7:17, “If any man wills in his heart,” Knowledge doesn’t come from your head, “to do His will, he’ll know the doctrine.” Doctrine will come, but you go after Jesus, and don’t go after doctrine.
Go after the Lord, and then the doctrine will come. That’s why I began with Matthew 11:28-30, “Come unto Me all that are weary and heavy laden and I’ll give you rest.” Mary found that to be true. Listen and I’ll close with this, Revelation 1:17&18. “And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man, and He placed His right on me saying, ‘Do not be afraid; I’m the first and the last, the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore and have the keys of death and Hades.’”
Father, thank You so much for Mary’s testimony and story. Thank You for giving us those stories when she got saved, and her time at the cross and her journey to the empty tomb and the Living Savior. Lord, wherever we are in our lives, we pray that You would take us to the Living Savior, that our testimony might be from now on and forever, “I’ve seen the Lord, I’ve seen the Lord.” Work that in us, we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.