This is your daily reminder. God has not run
out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome
to the New Mercies Podcast. Welcome. Today is
April the 3rd. It is Good Friday. It's the Friday
before Easter Sunday, and we're excited about
the reading plan for today. It is in Luke chapter
24, verses 1 through 35. Once again, we already
looked at it on Tuesday. Once this week, looking
at it again today, reading it again, and then
we're going to talk about it on Sunday, and we're
going to read it again on Monday. I love how
this reading plan is taking us through this core
scriptures over and over and over again. I've
had people asking me, why did you do that? And
I said, part of the reason was I want scripture
to rest in us. I want it to be memorized by us.
I want it to be over and over and over again,
poured over us. poured into us. As always, if
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you every morning. It comes out Monday through
Saturday, every single day. Some encouragement
for you, hopefully between eight to 10 minutes
long each day. And as always, if you would like
to donate financially, you can do that in the
episode description link. Now, to jump straight
in today to Luke 24, verses 1 through 35, I just
want to read a couple of verses to you today,
and really something that stuck out to me. This
is going to be a little shorter episode today.
It is Good Friday. Typically, we would talk about
the crucifixion of Christ. We did that last week,
but this is the day that we remember as the crucifixion.
I just want to focus in today on something that
is very, maybe the contrast to that. Obviously,
he rose from the dead, and we're going to be
reading about that, but also that the first couple
of verses kind of blew me away today. As I was
looking at them and reading them, I was overwhelmed
and challenged, and so I want to challenge you
as I read this. Just a couple of verses today.
Listen to verses 1 through 3. Here we go. Beginning
at Luke 24, verse number 1. But on the first
day of the week, at early dawn, they went to
the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.
And they found the stone rolled away from the
tomb. But when they went in, they did not find
the body of the Lord Jesus. Now, this is the
ladies that had been preparing the spices and
the ointments. Here's what I want to share with
you today. Something that just jumped out at
me. All this text is great. Read it all and let
it soak in. Pray over it. Let it change your
life. Let it seep into the very essence of who
you are. Let it overwhelm you and transform you.
But today, here's the first three verses. And
I was going to read even through verse 5 and
6. And as I was reading over it over again and
again, this is what stuck out to me the most.
This will be a little shorter episode, a little
more concise today. Here's what I was encouraged
by. These ladies, sometimes we look at the Scripture
and we don't put ourselves there. We don't watch
it. We don't think about it. The men were asleep
is what's going on. The men were asleep. This
is very early in the morning. One of the gospel
accounts says it was before the dawn had broken,
before the light of day. It says, at early dawn,
before the sun really came up, they began to
make their journey. What were they doing? These
women were going to prepare the body of Jesus
with these ointments and these spices. Now, there
is something wild about this scene. It's dark.
They have to walk out there. I was thinking,
where are the men? Where are the men? There's
no man that says, hey, I'll hold a lantern for
you in front of you. I'll check to make sure
the coast is clear. I'll make sure that the guards,
when you get there, don't give you a hard time,
don't cause you a lot of trouble. I'll help move
the stone away because I'm a big burly man. None
of that happened. These men were still hiding
in fear and they were sleeping. They were asleep.
They weren't going out to be bold. These women
absolutely loved. Jesus. Over and over again,
what I have seen over the last couple of chapters,
especially in Luke, is that the women of the
town, the women that follow Jesus, loved him
like crazy. They loved him like crazy. They were
not rebuking him. They were never speaking ugly
of him. They were always showing care, showing
love. In every scene, we find a female that's
connected to Jesus. Always. I mean, it was never
disrespectful. And I think, what in the world?
The women got it. They figured it out. The guys
are over here hiding, afraid of the authorities.
These women said, we're going to go to a graveyard.
in the dark, and we're going to go, and yes,
there's guards that are standing guard at the
tomb. Yes, there's a giant stone. Yes, there's
a seal with the governor's stamp in it. Yes,
we know all that is the case, but love can break
all of these bounds. Love can break every one
of these chains, and we can get in and do what
we need to do. What were the women planning on
doing? They couldn't move the stone. They couldn't
break the seal. They couldn't get through the
guards. What's going on? It's dark. What are
the women doing? And what are the men doing?
The women had so much ridiculous courage that
they said, we're willing to do all of this for
our Jesus. That's what we're willing to do. As
I look at the text over and over again, I wonder,
how much are you willing to do for Jesus? How
much am I willing to do for Jesus? The Bible
says that on the first day of the week, that's
why I wore my first day of the week shirt today,
because it was the first day of the week. All
the gospel accounts say it was the first day
of the week. Make sure they knew. It was Sunday
morning that the women went to the tomb. Not
only do they get there, there's no guards. The
guards, they've run away in fright. They've run
away completely terrified. They're gone. The
stone has been rolled away. And these women,
as courageous as they were, went into the tomb
and saw there was no person in there. Jesus'
body was not there. The more of the scene that
plays out, it says they were perplexed, and then
there was two men in dazzling clothing. It was
these two angels. They talked, why are you searching
for the living among the dead? All that scene
kind of takes out, and it's beautiful, and it's
awesome, it's amazing. And there's a lot of theology
in that. I don't want to get into that today.
What I want to say is, where is your courage?
Where is your love? These women loved Jesus like
crazy. Like crazy. And they weren't going to
let anything, any obstacle stand in their way
of getting to him and caring for him as best
as they could. These women said, I'll go in the
dark. I'll fight off a guard. I'll figure out
a way to move a stone bigger than me. I'll figure
out a way to ask for forgiveness after I break
the seal of the governor so that people know,
yes, I came in and did this. They were willing
to put their life on the line. And Jesus had
died. That's what happened. They saw Jesus crucified.
They saw him taken and buried. It said that just
a couple of verses earlier in chapter 23. They
saw where they buried him. And they said, we
are going to have, they have so much courage.
How much courage do you have for this Lord? How
much do you have? I wonder if we were sitting
in this time frame, in this first century, and
we saw this happen. Are we going to be the bold
women that go to the tomb, or are we going to
be the scared disciples that won't? Because in
this scene, we see that the women come back and
wake the disciples up. Hey, guys, just so you
know, we were at the tomb. He's not there. We've
been told he's alive. And then the disciples,
a couple of them, take off running to the tomb.
I almost wonder those disciples, when Peter and
John run to the tomb, I almost wonder, do they
feel ridiculous because the women were the ones
that made this call? The women were the ones
that showed up at the right time, at the right
place? They were the first to hear about it,
first to witness it. Why? Because they had the
courage. I would love to be the first to witness
a revival breaking out, but I would have to first...
have the courage to step out of my comfort zone
to go through any obstacle to show my love for
Jesus. My call to you today, my challenge to
you today is read the text and then show somebody
how much you love Jesus.