This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to day two of our look through John chapter 20 in daily
drive time devotions. We're going to be looking at verses 10 to 16 today. And as we
begin this chapter, we're talking together about how you and I can see,
experience, live out the reality of the resurrection in our everyday lives.

Yesterday, we looked at the fact that one of the keys is evidence for my mind. I
have to see the reality of it so that it changes the way that I think. And for
John, the writer of this gospel, he just saw the empty tomb and he knew.

As we come back to the story of Mary, as we walk through this chapter that's
filled with incredible stories of changed lives, her story teaches us a second
thing that you and I need to see the reality of the resurrection in everyday
life. We need evidence for our minds. We also need answers for our heart.

John chapter 20 verses 10 to 16. Then the disciples went back to their homes,
but 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 the body of Jesus had been,
one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying? " "They've taken my Lord away," she
said, "and I don't know where they put him. " At this, she turned around and saw
Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? " "Who is it that you're looking for? "
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you carried him away, tell me
where you put him, "and I'll get him.

" Jesus said to her, "Mary. " She turned toward him and she cried out an Aramaic
rabboni, which means teacher. You see, John was the first to believe that Jesus
was resurrected, but Mary is the first to physically see the resurrection of
Jesus Christ.

The encounter with Jesus is called by many the greatest recognition seen in all
of human history. But notice at the beginning, Mary didn't know what was going
on. Angels appear, and she just treats them as if they're people that happen to
be there.

Angels do appear as people, and so Mary just saw them as people that happened to
be there that day, and all of a sudden we're in the tomb. And then she turns
around and sees Jesus, and she doesn't even recognize Jesus at first. This is
why this week, as we walk through this chapter, how we can see the resurrected
Jesus in our lives, because Mary missed it at first.

We see this many times in the resurrection appearances of Jesus. That shows us
that something needs to happen in us if we're going to recognize the resurrected
power, daily power of Jesus in our lives. Mary didn't see Jesus at first, and I
think there were two reasons, her tears and her focus.

She didn't see Jesus because she was crying, and so through her tears, she
couldn't even maybe recognize who it was that was close to her there. She
thought it was the gardener. But even more, it was because of her focus.

She wasn't thinking that she might see Jesus. She wasn't looking for Jesus. Her
eyes were back on the tomb.

Her eyes were looking for a dead body so that she could bring that dead body
back into the tomb. Her eyes were not looking for a resurrected Jesus, and
because of that, because of her focus, she missed it. When she meets Jesus,
Jesus asks her two questions immediately, and those two questions helped her to
find the hard answers she needed, and they can help you and I to find the hard
answers that we need to see the power of Jesus' new life in an everyday way.

First, he asked her this simple question. Why are you crying? You see, Mary's
heart was a stage in which tragedy and confusion was being played out.

She'd gone through the events of the last few days with Jesus' trial and
crucifixion, and then this final blow of not being able to find Jesus' body. And
we all know what it's like to go through a tragic, very difficult period of
life, and then all of a sudden, one last thing goes wrong, and you just can't
take it. You just crumble inside.

Mary's experience reminds us of all the things that hurt and confuse us, the
dreams that are dead ends and the expectations that take U-turns and the
supports for our life that all of a sudden fall out from underneath us. Why are
you crying, Jesus asked. And he asked you and I the same question today.

When I stop seeing the life that he wants to give me, I need to hear him asking
me, why are you crying? What is hurting you right now? Mary's hurt was keeping
her from seeing God's hand at work.

Her pain was blinding her to God's promises. Why are you crying? And then Jesus
asks, whom are you seeking?

You go immediately from why are you crying to whom are you seeking? What are you
looking for in life? Jesus recognized her tears and he asked her about her
tears.

He does the same thing for you and I, but he doesn't leave us in our tears. He
then asks, who is it that you're seeking? What is it that you want in life?

Who is it that you're looking for? What makes life worth living for you? Is it
all in the past?

Is it all in the future or can life happen right now? The resurrection declares
that God has a kind of life for you to live right now. Jesus asked great
questions.

He's a better interviewer than Larry King, Barbara Walters and all of them put
together. God asked the great questions in the Bible, in the book of Genesis.
The first question is, where are you when they were hiding out from him?

And here is Jesus in his whole life asking questions like, how many loaves do
you have before the feeding of the 5,000? Who are people saying that I am before
they confessed that he was the Christ? What do you want me to do for you before
he healed somebody?

Has no one else condemned you before he challenged a woman to go out and live
free from a life of sin? And here, who is it that you're seeking? This question
is to lead to something in Mary's life that our heart's going to see something new.

You see, the real question is not, what are you looking for, but who are you
looking for? It's amazing how changing the what of life to the who of life can
make all the difference in your heart. When I'm looking for some thing, some
circumstance to happen and turn out right so my life can be right, life can be
pretty discouraging sometimes.

But when I'm looking for the who of life and that God wants to be a part of my
everyday life, love me through everything, grow me through everything, all of a
sudden my perspective is turned upside down or right side up. And all of a
sudden I can see the life that he wants to give me today no matter what the
circumstances I'm facing. Jesus asked Mary some questions, even in a time of
confusion, to get her heart to see him.

And as he asked those questions, he leads her to a third thing that you and I
need if we're going to see the resurrection as a part of our everyday lives. It's
the most important of these three. Number three, we need a relationship for our
soul.

You see, Mary had two wonderful things happen in her life. She came to the
moment in her life where she was able to say, I recognize you, Lord. But she
also came to the moment in this day in the garden where she realized you
recognize me, Lord.

I recognize you, Lord. You recognize me, Lord. And on that was built this
relationship for her soul.

I recognize you, Lord. At first she mistook him for the gardener. I wonder who
you're mistaking him for right now.

He's standing right next to you. God's at work in your life. Jesus is doing
thing in your life and you don't recognize him.

Some people say what happens in their lives is a matter just of fate or good
luck or maybe personal ability or their own positive feelings. Any good things
that come into our lives, the Bible tells us that all good things come down from
our father who's above. Any good things are the result of what he's doing.

God, Jesus are still unrecognized in our lives today. Who are you mistaking him
for? You see, Mary came to this moment where she recognized him, Jesus.

But she came to that moment when Jesus recognized her. You recognize me, Lord.
New hope sprang into her life when she heard a single word, a name, Mary.

Miriam in Aramaic. Remember back in John chapter 10, verse three, we learned
together that Jesus calls his sheep by name. That's exactly what he does here.

Mary. Mary heard Jesus say her name many times before. As he called her out of
the life that she was living that was apart from him to a life of faith.

As he began to teach her day by day, as they talked during the days, she was one
of the women who traveled with the disciples many times and saw what Jesus was
teaching. But here, this moment, this is the most important moment when she
hears him call her name, Mary. And in this moment, we see that the resurrection
moves from being an historical event to a personal event.

When you and I hear Jesus speak our name, when it becomes a relationship. Jesus
is all about relationships. It's interesting to me that the first words of the
resurrected Lord are the name of a faithful follower.

The first recorded words of Jesus after his resurrected are Mary. The name of
this faithful follower. I wonder, do you hear him speak in your name?

We need a relationship for our soul in order to recognize the reality of his new
life in our lives today. Do you hear him speak in your name into your life
today? And even as I'm asking that, I wonder if Jesus spoke your name, what
would it sound like to you?

Do you think it would be condemning? Do you think he would say your name in a
disinterested way? Now, hear it the same way as you'd hear him speak into Mary.

In a voice that's filled with warmth and compassion, brimming with concern,
drawing interest in you, and also calling you out to be all that he wants you to
be. He calls you and I by name. The question is, today, have I heard it?

Are you hearing it? He calls all of us by name. One of the reasons that Jesus
died and went to heaven, because now he can speak through his spirit into all of
our hearts personally.

Imagine how difficult it would be to see Jesus, to get an audience with him, if
he were still physically here in the flesh after his resurrection in the world
today. There'd be this press of people, millions, billions, clamoring for his
attention. You wouldn't stand a chance to get close to him.

But the good news of Easter, of the resurrection, is not only can you know him,
but he can be close to you, close to every one of us. There is not a situation
that you can ever face where you cannot personally hear him calling your name.
Let's take a minute to talk to him together.

Jesus, we need answers, answers for our heart. And we know that you have the
answers. So instead of asking the questions of life everywhere else, we come to
you and we say, help us to know.

Help us to know the kind of life that you want us to lead, the kind of life that
you want us to live. Help us to understand your answers for life. And Lord, help
us not just to ask, help us to listen after we've asked for your answer.

You're a God who loves us enough to give us the answers. Sometimes those answers
come in questions like they did to Mary. When you ask us a question, help us to
have the courage to answer it in our own hearts so we can hear the kind of faith
that you want to give to us.

Jesus, we need answers and we need a relationship with you, a day-to-day
relationship with you. So right now we take the moment to recognize what you did
for us on the cross, means that you call us by name. And we pray that you help
us to hear you calling us by name today, this day, this day, in everything we
face, everything we do.

And we ask it, Jesus, in your name, amen. Well, join us tomorrow. We're going to be
looking at verses 17 to 23, some verses with some big questions attached to
them.