Ep. 29 - Encountering Jesus: I Have Seen the Lord

What if faith isn’t about having everything figured out, but trusting Jesus as you go?

In this episode of 100% Maybe, we walk through John 20:1–18 and the powerful, personal encounter between Mary Magdalene and the risen Jesus. As the story unfolds, Mary doesn’t immediately understand what’s happening, as she sees pieces before she sees the full picture. 

We talk about the tension between sight and belief, how Jesus meets us in our confusion, and why faith often requires stepping forward before everything makes sense. This passage reminds us that transformation doesn’t really come all at once. 

As we head into Holy Week, we also reflect on how this moment connects to the bigger story of Jesus—and how we’re invited into it today.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re still trying to make sense of what God is doing, this conversation is for you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the 100% Navy Podcast. I'm your host, Jeff Stewart, the Creative Director here at Community Life Church in Gulf Breeze, Florida. Each episode, we'll get together to talk about the scripture passage that we'll be studying in our Sunday services. While this started as a resource for our church, we found it applies to all of us who are interested in what it looks like to follow Jesus. So wherever you are on your journey of faith, we hope these conversations will connect you to the source of life we have in Jesus and to the greater story that God is still writing today. Here's our episode. Dude, we made it. No Holy Week. We started. We've made it to the beginning of Holy Week. We are in the beginning of Holy Week. Meant to say we're here. We're here. We have not made it yet.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

We have not made it yet. But it's it's unfolding and it's looking good. Looking like we got a shot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

It's the thing I found is it's gonna happen no matter what. No matter where we're ready for it or not. Holy week is happening. You know what I'm saying? I do know exactly what you're saying. Jesus is coming out of that tomb. Yes, he is. So luckily for us, he already has, but we're gonna get back into that story in real time to know that that's that's what's happening. But we're uh we're on Wednesday here, so go ahead and promote. Let's promote. I don't know if anybody actually watches to the end. Let's do our promotion at the beginning. These poor souls that have to listen to us talk.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

It was like 40 minutes of just rambling last week. Yeah. Yeah, so let's get it out of the way so we can talk about it. Let's go and give you the good stuff, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Tomorrow, Maundy Thursday. What in the world?

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Communion service following the elements of the Seder meal. You'll get a little Seder box. It's not, it's not, I'm always afraid to offend the Jewish nation, but it has the elements the parsley, the salt water, the the Horacet, the things. That's all it's all connected to scripture and reminds you, might remind the Israelites of their freedom. Yeah. But it's also the supper that Jesus was having at the last supper. So there's a moment in there where he breaks the bread, where he lifts the cup, and you can find it in the Seder meal. So it is the promise of the Passover Lamb. So we'll it's a communion service. We'll receive communion at the end of the service.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

The uh thing that I never knew anything about, you have some understanding maybe of the Passover and the meal, what that signified if you read Exodus and some of the history of the Israel nation. Um, but the real beauty to me, the powerful moments are those, the blessings, yeah, the understanding of God's plan of redemption unfolding. You see that um g given uh the visualization of that through what are all the elements of the meal. It's really beautiful. Really powerful. It it it brings you into that weekend to this weekend in a in a whole new way.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Yeah. The Jewish nation that would break break the um, I think it's called the Yahats, and then the piece that's broken is called the Aphi Komen, and it's wrapped in linen cloth and hidden to come back, and it's the hope of the future. That that's a part of their ceremony for the people who don't necessarily believe that Jesus is the Messiah. It's written in all of their satyr meals, it's all plainly there. So as I've gone through this week preparing and thinking about this week, uh folks that are messianic, well, all Jews are messianic, they're looking for the Messiah, but those who believe that Jesus is the Messiah, they quickly say, We didn't know before becoming believers. It's all here. So for them, the Seder meal speaks of hope, but when you add Jesus to the Seder meal and you see it fully uh then it's a hope fulfilled. Yeah. So the Seder meal for them that are Jewish, understanding Jesus now sees the fullness of it all coming together. Uh I just don't ever want to fall into that gap of trying to pretend to be Jewish. It's not that for me, it's connecting people to Jesus. So taking that symbolism and using it as a way to connect people to Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Yeah. And that is the genesis of the faith of what we believe of who Jesus was. He was Jewish, who he is. Um, yeah. Awesome. Is is Jewish. Yeah, is was yeah, it's sorry. Um, yeah, and then Good Friday. Yeah. Um and that's all these services are at 6 p.m.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Yes. Good Friday is a remembrance of the um the last seven things that Jesus says on the cross. So if you have a problem with tradition and you're worried about Good Friday service, it's Jesus' words and and a reflection around them. So it's like seven mini sermons. I don't know how you could have a problem with the tradition of that. Uh and it's cloaked in a night, cloaked is a is a difficult word, but it's set in a night that allows you to be reflective, to think every time we read a word, we put out a candle and it's sim it symbolizes the closer he gets to death. And then when the last candle goes out, Tammy sings a very beautiful song. Um, and then when the lights kind of come back up where everybody's asked to leave in silence, that's not even traditional. It's a moment of reflection to prepare our hearts for resurrection. Yeah. Uh so just come. It's a it's just a quiet, somber service that causes you to think uh it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Yeah. Six o'clock. It takes you into the silent Saturday or just what would have been happening uh in a better way. I think you get to understand that. There there's so much about the visual visualization. I don't know why I can't say that word today. Maybe I should choose a different word. Um, but there is so much about when it comes to life like that, and even so much too. You see the reason we do that still. I mean, Jesus did that so beautifully about speaking and whether it was parables or you know, using metaphors or uh illustrations. I mean, he he was a master at that.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

This is interesting for me as I I sometimes I wonder why I'm allowed to be a preacher because I don't what I do is I love stories, right? And I and so I I find myself with a job, a very good job, because I like to tell stories and I love the Bible. So I go in, I find the stories, and I realize many people have gone to church and it's been like, no, we do this thing because that's the thing we do, and nobody knows the story behind it. What I've found is when you go back and you dig in, there's great meaning and understanding and connection, and it resonates with so many folks. May Thursday is a huge service here. I've never been to a church that's had that many people show up on a Monday Thursday service. Yeah. But not because of Scott or because of the stuff that we're doing, but because of the connection that happens. Same thing with Good Friday. It's just a beautiful time to connect to Jesus. And and that has gotten so much traction because I believe the way we present scripture and talk about scripture is allowing people to understand why they believe the things they believe. It's not just here's three points that I feel good about based loosely on a text. Here's the chapter, here's the context, run with it. Yeah. And that's it's awesome. And this can this podcast, as crazy as it can be, is pretty helpful because it it could pretty helpful. I'm guessing, from what I hear. Because we get to talk about things that don't make Sunday morning. Yeah. So if you're studying along, it helps to to kind of see it.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Um maybe Yeah, it it takes it away from to where a place that uh is not just gonna tell you here's what you should believe because this is what we believe, or here's what uh you should believe because here's what the scripture has to say. And then we're honest about the moments where there's a lot of different paths you can take with with that and how you hold that, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Yeah, and I I think it's easy. It's not because I there's a lot of hurt. It's easy to say that preacher didn't feed us or that whatever. The thing we do at this church is we teach you how to eat because you teach you how to use context. And and you have all welcomed and opened arms and dug in to understanding scripture, but there comes with that a responsibility, right? You know, that that we are called to believe and to study and to and to rightly divide scripture. So there comes a day, and if you want, if if you have a hard time and you leave and it's my fault, awesome. If you if but I don't think it's because we haven't tried to feed or tried to teach or tried to dive digger deeper into scripture, right? Because it's my favorite thing to do, it's our favorite thing to do. So welcome to the party. Yeah, and today's a good one.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

So on that note, let's dig into our Easter scripture. Let's get it. Yes. John 1 through 18. John 10. Encountering Jesus. Yeah, sorry. John not uh John 20. Uh encountering Jesus, this encounter is a big one. It's a big one. It's a big one. This is the first one. What uh resurrection what's why John? Because as we kicked around a little bit, there's an interesting uh note to all this is that the gospel accounts, one gospel, four accounts that we have recorded, they differ not even slightly, considerably a little bit, um they all kind of feather together, but there's there's just they're just weird monkey. Yeah. Different pieces of what's going on. Um any thoughts to that? I have lots of thoughts to that. Any thoughts you'd like to share about?

SPEAKER_01 9:12

Yeah, yeah. Um uh I mean we could we could spend a lot of time talking about why I'm not concerned about it or why I think they line up. Each each gospel writer had a different kind of take and they were writing to a different audience, and so they captured different information based on their perspective. The way that we read today is very logical. So we're trying to put it together in a perfect timeline, like a scene of a crime. It's not that they were sharing the story and it was happening real time, and some of them were under threat of death or arrest, and and the story took shape and really formed over time as they as they started to tell it. Uh so first gospel out is Mark's, it's very raw. If you read Mark and you understand, we've talked about this before, his use of the Greek language actually, Mark's writing ends with them finding an empty tomb, and that's the end of the gospel. But if you read on, it doesn't, it goes beyond that. And every biblical scholar knows that that was added later, not added as a lie, added by the early believers. But it wasn't a context. Yeah, but but but let's be clear, it wasn't Mark's writing, it was the believers maybe that were there that said, Oh, we can't leave it with an empty tomb. Yeah, that's a terrible ending, terrible ending to a movie. He's alive, right? Not just he's gone. And probably be they probably they added that for the same reason they gave us the birth narratives. Empty tomb, Matthew tells you that there's a big conspiracy.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Yeah, all you conspiracy theorists, you'll like Matthew.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Yeah, you'll like Matthew. Angel comes down from heaven, rolls the thing away, sits on the top of the stone, but soldiers passed out. I'm not trying to make fun of it, it's it is what it is. And then, and then they come in, they find, they leave. Uh, they don't know where the body is, and and and then the the soldiers, I guess when they wake up, they go and they tell the high priest, and they're like, whoa, we're gonna give you a bunch of money to tell people that somebody stole the the body. Yeah, and that's and then it says, and that story is still told to this day. Well, that uh it looks like Matthew wrote that clarification in response to Mark's gospel to say, no, no, no, no, there's not a body that was stolen. He was alive, and then he talks about the resurrection story and what happens. Luke's is more detailed, he gives you the road to Emmaus, he actually gives you the physical, beautiful encounters and uh and the how that unfolds and what happens in the stories. And then there's John, completely different, not completely different, story's the same, but John doesn't give you what you already have. Uh he starts with Mary Magdalene and then he enters in the story with James and I'm sorry, Peter and John. Peter and John, and then he goes back to Mary, almost as if Mary was the only one that went to the tomb that day, but but that's not what John says. Yeah. When Mary goes back and reports to the to the disciples, she says, we. So John's not trying to write the other women out of the script. He's just focusing on Mary. And his story is written 25 years after Matthew and Luke had written their gospels. So you got Mark comes out, and then 10 years later, Mark Matthew and Luke come out, offer some clarifications, give you the birth narratives. And then John comes out very old in life. He's probably in his 90s, and um very, you know, near had already been on the island of Patmos, is pastoring a church way more theologically inclined than he was as a young man. Right. And so his story that we're gonna dive into today has some real rich theological undertones, and he's not trying to retell the story that the others already told. He's just adding a deeper understanding of Mary's narrative. That's a lot to tell you, except for I I don't think he's saying the rest of the story's wrong. I think he's saying here's a here's a part of it you haven't seen. Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

And according to early church tradition and histori, I was gonna say historical uh findings there. Sounds smart. John, it's believed, and Mary were were connected in Ephesus later on. Yeah, 100% maybe. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

50% maybe. Yeah. They they do know, we do know 100% that John, the disciple, was responsible for Mary, the mother of Jesus. But history tells us that the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene were then connected, that they stayed together. Right. So it's very plausible. And if you go to Ephesus and you're looking around, they'll sell you a tour of where they lived. That when John went to go pastor in Ephesus early on, now Mary would have been older and probably died early, that Mary and Mary, Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, went with John to Ephesus. That's loose history, but they believe it makes sense that she would have been there if she was still alive. And it also makes sense why John would have extra detailed stories about Mary Magdalene that he added to enrich the story so that you could see the greater purpose. Interesting. That's a lot, but yeah, it's all there. There's other stories around all of that that is three percent maybe about people trying to connect John and Mary in a greater relationship, all these things. Who knows? You know, there's a lot of there's a lot of history out there that happened thousand a thousand years after the resurrection that offer you detail of Mary Magdalene's life. Yeah. A hundred that's not even that's totally made up. Yeah. Has no basis except for, and where they where they really come from that, I'm I'm talking, I'm gonna let you go. You want you have something you'll say? But keep going. It is on this thread. So uh those early bishops that were teaching these stories, they were looking for threads trying to hold it. So remember in the Gospel of Luke, he talks about who supports the gospel and he lists this list of women, very prominent wealthy women, and Mary Magdalene is listed in that list. So it's plausible that she came from a family of means. We assume that because she was possessed with seven demons, that she was broke and that she came from Magdala. So her last name is not Magdalene, right? She's Mary from Magdala, Mary Magdalene or Mary of Magdala. Right. Uh, that she would have uh here's where the story goes, came from a wealthy family in Magdala that owned a fish packing industry. All I mean, go go as far as you want, right? But but where does her money come from? Who knows? She you could you could make the jump to say that she had some sort of resource, maybe from her family from that fishing village connected to it. I've been to Megdala. It's a small place, it's a very small place, but it was prominent in catching fish, repacking them, and sending them throughout the Roman Empire. So they were pretty pretty substantial in the fishing industry.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Interesting, super interesting person, Mary Magdalene.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

A lot of yes, and why a lot of people grab a hold of her story and really identify with her.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

If you dig into it a little bit, you'll see there's even a difference on what you call Western thought versus Eastern Orthodox thought about her. I think, and you've taught when we did this text uh um not that long ago, I think you mentioned this. It was like Pope Gregory the First in I think 591. So think about how long ago that was. He's the one that came out and said, Oh, this is the the the woman who's pouring perfume from Luke. And so from that point on, the church gets a hold of that, says, Oh, she was a prostitute, she was a repentant sinner, she's this. Eastern views have view her di very differently. A prominent uh disciple um or follower of Jesus, whom clearly he but they they think of her as someone who had a a very close relationship with Jesus and spiritual wisdom and insight, and maybe yeah, even supported the whole ministry based on the right.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

I choose to believe the second part of that. I I scripture does not it is not very tight on understanding her as being the one that was that was the prostitute. Right. In fact, it you can almost understand that that is absolutely not her. Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

Mar Mary was a very common name. Uh but we do know from Mark she's the one that that was rescued from seven demons. He tells us that she's the one at the tomb, and this is what Jesus did. Is it Luke? I think it's Luke. Okay. But anyway, we do know that from scripture. Um and we know she's here. So I did want to talk about her a little bit. Um, but her let's think about the thread of the encounter. So she's a person who's had this encounter with Jesus, and her life was forever changed and completely changed. Um, she's the one that's at the tomb, the stone has been rolled away. And set the scene for us. We get the the Peter and John race. We get the the body is not at the tomb. Um what can I back up two seconds? Yeah, please.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

Alright, so Luke 8. Soon afterwards he went on through the cities and the villages proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities. Mary called Magdalene, who from whom seven demons had gone out. So Luke gives us that. Luke is the one that gives us that little that's in in Luke 8. Okay. Gives us that little tidbit, but that's that's all you get about Mary. And so just thinking about the history we have, everything we have comes out of that.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

Yeah. What I was reading earlier, Mark, it's the it's the context that was added after in Mark uh 9. First person who saw him was Mary Magdalene, the woman from whom he had cast out seven demons.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

There you go. So he added, yeah, so they added it. He gives us that as well. Could it have been Luke that wrote that last part? Right. Put it together. So let's get back into the story. I apologize. I just wanted to put that on the book.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

No, that's good. Yeah. I love it, man. Let's let's we're jumping around. It's it's packed full of scripture. It's packed. Holy week, man. We're bouncing. Uh the culmination of of the redemption. Um, what I don't know what sticks out in the in the beginning. So they're running. Um, is there anything to the the women and the men, the differences in in what's happening here and just how they're receiving this? Yep.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

I I I find um there's a lot of shade that's thrown on the men during this time because the women stay and the women go and the men go, right? So there's uh we had a little conversation today, not not I just don't think people probably think logically about this moment. Why do the men not stay? Why aren't they more intentional about this? Why is it that Mary decides to stay and the men don't? They they would have been arrested, right? Like they would have been akin to Jesus, and here they are, and the body's gone. Everybody's being framed. So they show up to go verify, but pretty soon after Peter and John they head back, probably because it would not have been good to be there. Right. They were looking for people to frame. We already know in Matthew that they were trying to give them large sums of money to say someone stole the body. Could you it would have been a perfect frame for those guys to show up and go, arrest them? They're the ones that stole the body, they're the ones that did it. So they go there, they're there for a few minutes, they check it out. Uh John says they looked and believed. You don't know what they believed, right? And then they left. You have the whole race, which I love telling that story every year because John inserts the personal relationship between him and Peter, and it goes way beyond the the this narrative, right on into the book of Acts. Uh, those two, the oldest, probably strongest maybe personality. I don't know if he's if Peter was the oldest, and John would have been the youngest for sure. But there's a lot of role play between the two, and John calls himself the beloved. We took off running, but the beloved meets him there to the tomb. The knucklehead comes behind me and he runs right on in, and then the other guy goes in. It's it's kind of a very funny narrative. I don't know if you could call it playful, but brotherly, you know. It wasn't written out of spite, couldn't have been written out of spite, could have been written out of fact. But John is 90 years old and he watched everybody die. He has no reason to throw shade on Peter at this point. Right. More he was preaching and writing the story and having fun with it and kind of telling you about that. So the so the race is beautiful. Yeah. They get there, you get the information about the linen. Tell me about linens. There's um, you know, and this is what I'm finding in these podcasts is we're putting all the information out, so then Sunday morning I'm like, wow, I got nothing new to present. So let's just keep doing with that, right? Why not? You know, case case you miss Sunday, you'll have all this information. I I used to there's cultural context that okay, can we all just establish that preachers can be narcissistic? I'm that guy. I don't I wouldn't consider myself narcissistic, but I think we all have narcissistic overtones. We love to feel like we got a really cool nugget and get up there and preach it and if you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 21:59

Okay. So the You're trying to find a unique presentation of something that is timeless.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

That's exactly what I didn't say, but that's that's what I said. So there's lots of talk out there about this folded cloth. And then we back into Jewish history. And if the master of the table gets up and folds his cloth and sets it on the side, just like we would a napkin if you're at a table, um then it says you're coming back. That preaches really good, by the way. So there's that narrative of there's a symbol to Peter and John when they walked in and they looked, they saw it folded, and they went, Oh, the master's coming back. Maybe. I I think it's more likely, uh, we talked about this this morning, that John is giving us this powerful theological story of the mercy seat and the holy of holies and the sacrificial lamb and the blood that was sprinkled. So in a second, you get the picture of the two angels. That's a picture of the mercy seat, the cherub on the cherub on either sides of the of the mercy seat. Priests were only allowed to wear linen when they went into the presence of God. They weren't allowed to wear all their priestly garbs. God's not going to tolerate that mess going in there. So you have the linen cloth, you have the air, the angels, you have the mercy seat with the with the blood that would have been sprinkled on it, the sacrifice that would have been placed there. So John, who is now in his 90s when he's writing this, has a deeper understanding of exactly what happened in that moment. And he probably heard this story and went, Oh, it's too good to not share. Yeah. So he gives it to us. I wish he would have stopped and said, Hey, do you see this? Hey, look at that. Hey, here's the linen. Because we've been talking about walking away from a dinner table for a long time and the lapkins being folded, and maybe that's it. More likely, the linen is a is a cue to the Holy of Holies. That's right, the Holy of Holies and the sacrifice that would have been there. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

That's cool. I love, I love John's insight looking at verse 9. It's all throughout his book, but his his gospel. Uh they hadn't understood the scriptures that Jesus must rise from the dead. I like that. And it does speak to someone who is looking back at what they experienced. And it's helpful for us because so much you hear, how did they miss it? How could they not see? Why did they miss Jesus? And he tells you, like, we didn't understand until later. And resurrection. That'll probably make you wake up and pay some attention and start to connect some dots. It would have been shocking. Right?

SPEAKER_01 24:36

Right. I mean, they they still I still think, even though he told them a thousand times that the worst is gonna happen, guys. Get ready. They were still in the triumphal entry, buddy. They were they were partying. This is over, man. We're gonna get Rome out of here. It's we're gonna be moving on. So yeah, they didn't understand that he was gonna rise from the dead, or even what that would mean. Right. Maybe maybe they I have who knows? Yeah. We all like to believe we'd know exactly what that looks like, and we have hope for a resurrection.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

What's that look like? Yeah. Yeah. Um it's it tells me that God lets us take part in things that we don't understand. It's beautiful. Isn't that cool? And you see this throughout this whole scripture is they're getting to play this incredible part in not only history but in God's redemption story. And it wasn't contingent on them understanding it.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

Let's just think about what you just read and imagine you're 90 years of age and you're writing this story and you write the line. What did you just read? Uh then the other disciple went in and reaches her first. That they under hadn't understood. Yeah. There it is. Uh for as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. I that is such at 90 years of age to look back and go, man, we had no idea. No idea. Because from this story to that place, a lot of life happened for John. All of the different things that took place, the beginning of the early church, him following through the footsteps and Paul doing all the things that Paul was doing, the Jerusalem trials, and I mean, just go go through, just go through every single bit of that. Yeah. Him looking back and going, so yeah, we had no idea. Yeah. This that this morning would turn out this way and that this life would turn that journey. That is the most human, beautiful way to read that to me.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

Yeah. I love that verse. I think you could sit with this for the rest of the year and not fully come to terms with it all. Just this scripture. Um, something that I here's the part of the uh episode where I put a disclaimer up, and I am not a Greek scholar. He is. I am not. Not I'm still learning a lot. Nor nor am I. Okay. Okay. But on the same thread of like a progression of faith and understanding. So there is a um, I think John is even telling us in the usage of like the verb tenses he's using in the original Greek to for see. So in verse one, um, when she sees the stone is rolled away. So that's a different use than the one in 12 where she is um she saw the angels. So that's a different saw. And then the first two, the first one is like a to see, you're just checking it out. The second one is more of like a you're examining it, you're seeing it, and and you have a bit more of a I'm gonna let me explore this. Check this one out. In 18, when she tells them, um when she says, I have seen the Lord, that word is in the perfect tense and it's a understanding. Wow. I see it and I understand, or at least I believe. Um, which I think in the Greek that perfect tense is it's it happened, but the effects of it are still ongoing. Wow. There's a depth that's really good, dude. It's really, really cool that even the progression of I But can you say it in the Greek? No, it's good, okay, good. No. That's really good. That's where I stop. That's right. I don't even try to pronounce it. I can tell you they're different. But the progression of the understanding of seeing, and I just think there's such a truth to that about faith. And it takes me back to that stuff. It's not about what you see, it's about the hope for what you believe, and then that spiritual insight that flips the heart. That's faith without sight, right? You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 28:33

And that's where that's where it all comes to. And it continues on. Like I I like that piece. So to say that I'm I'm a believer means that that work is continuing on. I'm I that's fantastic. That's good, man. Yeah, thanks.

SPEAKER_00 28:47

Look at you. That's it. That's all I got.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

Yeah, that's all I got. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

Well, that's a good one. But what how does sight I want to get you in pastor mode today? Oh, God. Because we're this is a big, this is a big week, man. So what how does how does sight impact our faith journey? How does what we see or what we don't see affect us? People that struggle maybe with faith, I want to believe, but I just I need you know, I need to see it with with my own two eyes, without maybe seeking God in that spiritual sense first. You just want the proof, right? We see that in scripture. Show us we want we want to see signs, we want to see the things.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Well, um I'm gonna start making stuff up. I mean, uh but but this is what we do, right? Yeah, we're always trying to get people to see. Not just see, but to but to see this tense that you're talking about, the perfect tense. Uh when Mary comes out of the tomb, she sees the angels, right? You said that. She she recognizes them, but it's not a one of the first times where the angels don't cause her. We talked about this a little bit yesterday, where the angels don't say fear not. She just looks at the angels, she's like, There's two angels there. No big deal. No big deal. Turns around, right? And then and then goes out. She sees Jesus and she presumes him to be the gardener. So she sees Jesus, but she doesn't see Jesus. And maybe this is what you're getting at. We see people all around us that are searching for faith, or maybe have found faith, but aren't moving in this model of transformation that they see. There's a level of belief, but she sees Jesus, and I don't know what to do with this. Sermon's not written, but then he calls her by name. Great thought, and this could be the sermon, so you still gotta come. Where he calls her Mary, and I've always been a firm believer, you know, you if your significant other or your mother or your father or somebody that has a crucial moment in your life, when they call you by name, you hear it and you recognize it. And I believe that's a moment where she snapped out of whatever she was in and probably literally started looking around like, whoa, what's happening? Yeah. So maybe to your to your point, she was seeing and she was going through the motions and she was kind of in this. I'm looking for a dead body, I'm looking for a dead body. Did you take it? Did you take it? Where'd you lay it? I'll go get them, I'll go find it. And then Mary, and then and then she sees Jesus. Um, and then then the whole then the tense that you're talking about. I I don't I can't. You can't. It's the Holy Spirit thing. What is it that does that for people on a Sunday morning or any day of the week when those the scales fall off? Apostle Paul, scales fall off, somebody's able to see, understand. I I don't I'm just talking about what you just said.

SPEAKER_00 31:37

I don't I don't know what but that's I think that's the point though. Yep. I think these Sundays matter so much to to put us in the mindset. So many of my moments of faith and seeing and that switch turn on happen Saturday through Saturday. You know, they don't happen here on Sunday. They don't happen always on a Sunday, no. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I've got there's those moments, but they're what you take here from being in the word and being in worship and being those things that it helps you to see the rest of of what we walk through. You see those moments a little bit better, you hear God's voice a little bit clearer. But um what have you decided how that voice is to be called? Because you were you were working out on some now you're some uh voices yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

Oh maybe before you get onto funny stuff. Um I think a lot of that seeing is hindsight too, because I mean uh God is still active in all of it. So for me, for everybody that shows up on a Sunday morning, whether they see or not, I believe that there's a scripture last week, God came to seek and to save the lost. That was two weeks ago. Yep. Two weeks ago came to seek and save the lost. So I think God is active even when you can't see, trying to move, dropping people into your lives. It's the narrative that builds up until that moment where your eyes are open. And I think there's a choice that can happen in some of that. This is where we can get down to that argument of free will or predestination. But I believe in a God that's actively pursuing us. I just have to believe that. Um, so for me, I look back over the course of my life and I think, how do, how does this guy get to this place? And I don't, there's nothing in my resume that gets me to this place other than just plodding along, being faithful, doing the things, facing the next battle, uh, surrounding myself with people that are way smarter than I am and making decisions as such. So I look back and I go, oh man, thank God for that person and that person and that decision. And I dumbed into that decision, never dumped into a decision. Just God worked it out. Um, so some of that sight is gonna be hindsight. But uh, we were laughing because what is it? How does he say? We don't get the inflection. How does he say Mary? Yeah. What we decided in our study is that she's not Southern because it would have been Mary Elizabeth or Mary Mary Kay or Mary Bell or whatever it would have been, right? So it would have been something more than that. Yeah. They put an exclamation point on it, but the Greek had no exclamation point, so there would have been an emphasis, maybe. So Mary, Jazz Hands, Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

I don't know. I think you had Jimmy Stewart and It's a Wonderful Life, Mary.

SPEAKER_01 34:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

See, you are pastoral today. Look at you. That was good. Oh, there you go. I made some stuff up. That name, yeah, that's huge. I'm sure that'll be a big part of the sermon. So I don't want to belabor that point, but it does, it it totally connects us to John 10 and the good shepherd, and the sheep will hear my voice and know my soul. I mean, that's what you see it in in real time. It's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 34:36

Yep. And how she responds is the is the affirmation. She says the word she says is not just rabbi as in rabbi. She says, My rabbi. Yeah. Uh, so there's an instant connection, and the way that Jesus affirms that is so powerful. He's like, Yeah, this is it. Let's go. And then you got all the narratives about, but she's a female, and during this time and this culture, they would have been like, You can't trust them. Right. But that's also why Peter and John ran to the tomb. They ran to the tomb to verify that the tomb was empty. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

But a great insight of if you were going to make a story up, this is not the way you're going to be able to do it. This is not the way you do it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

Like if the body was stolen and they want to say no, he's alive, he would never have done that. You just said he first saw Peter and James and John, or he, you know, that that's what they would have done. So the the strike against them that it was Mary the first to see him becomes the stronger point later because they actually credited her. John telling us this story. The the kind of stuff that I love to find in scripture is the context of everyone else is dead at this point. John is in his 90s, some believe close to 100. He's pastoring the church in Ephesus. He writes Revelation, which is written to all of the churches that are there in that region. So he's not just a pastor, he's a regional pastor with multiple churches that he's speaking into. And before he dies, either he writes this or he shares it with the people that are that are scribing it to give us this story of Mary and know what that resurrection morning was all about. So the deep theological undertones of the mercy seat, the beautiful interaction of Mary, he gives it all to us. Personal, supernatural, yeah, all together. And then go and tell he sends her off on a mission. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

It's fabulous. It is, and it speaks to the threads that we've experienced about Lord over the natural and Lord over the supernatural. I think it it is exactly what we've studied and seen the last seven weeks. Yeah. And it all comes to this point. But and I know John would tell you this, it doesn't stop here. This is the beginning, but it continues on, much like that that sight or that faith, that belief, it happened, but it the impact is going on still.

SPEAKER_01 36:59

Yeah. Yeah. We had a lot of argument, not argument, not argument. A lot of conversation this morning about don't hold on to me. I've still haven't yet ascended to the Father. Right. Who knows? Who knows? Man, somebody will preach a great sermon about that, and I'll and I will say to them, You have no idea. What do you mean you haven't ascended to the Father? Don't hold on to me. I that's one of those John gives it to us, probably because he goes, I don't even know why Jesus said that. Right.

SPEAKER_00 37:23

Maybe somebody, but maybe you do.

SPEAKER_01 37:25

Maybe you can sort it out. Right. So John just throws that out there too, man. And there will be preachers that they 100% know. Maybe. I I don't I just don't buy it. I I think that's the story. And back to your life. You look and you see at something, you're like, is that God? Is that God? Is that God? And you may not ever know. You may not ever know. This is the mystery of faith and the beauty of the story that there's something, there's a few things in this story that are unresolved. Yeah. Many things in the story that are unresolved. We feel like we've got some pretty good insight on it's a great story.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

So good. Just and that thought, just connect what you said is is that all of the great mystery of God revealed in Christ? And I think that's the place you want to be. I mean, we don't understand the full mystery, but we know it's revealed in Christ. So connect to Him, and that's where that's where it begins and ends. Yeah, this is amazing, man. Yeah. Gonna be a great week. I can't wait. Happy Easter, everybody. That's right. Yeah! Every day's Easter. Yeah, yeah, that's right. That's right, too. He is alive. Hope to get to celebrate with you guys this week. Uh, so many places and chances to connect. Um, we will have the uh Thursday and Friday and Saturday and Sunday, online or in person. So and then baptism service coming up the week after. We'd love to do that too. That's right. Um, if that's a step of faith that you want to take, we would love to come alongside you there and help support you in that. So awesome stuff, man. Love y'all. Happy Easter, and we'll see you on Sunday. See ya