About this sermon
The Christian faith rests on the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and if Christ has not been raised, faith is worthless. Mary Magdalene finds the tomb empty, and Peter and John run to see the grave clothes lying in order. Their haste shows that no one had stolen the body, and John sees and believes. The risen Lord meets Mary in the garden and sends her to his brothers, because his death and resurrection have made believers the adopted children of his Father.
Sermon transcript
Please remain standing for the reading of God’s Holy Word. Today we consider a passage from the Gospel of St. John the Apostle. John 20, verses 1-18. We take a little break from our consideration of the Gospel of Mark today to consider this resurrection passage in John’s Gospel. Let’s hear the Word of God. John 20, verses 1-18. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark and 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 have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. So Peter and the other disciple went forth and they were going to the tomb.
The two were running together, and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first. And stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. And so Simon Peter also came following him and entered the tomb. And he saw the linen wrappings lying there and the face cloth, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered and he saw and believed. For as yet, they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. So the disciples went away again to their own homes. But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping. And so as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been lying.
And they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. 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? Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabboni, which means teacher. Jesus said to her, stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended to the father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my father and your father and my God and your God.
Mary Magdalene came announcing to the disciples, I have seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of our God endures forever. Please remain standing as we seek the Lord’s blessing in prayer upon the preaching of his word. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we have heard this story so many times. That it is tempting to consider to not have it have the impact that it ought to have. We ask that you would give us fresh ears, as it were. Help us, Lord, to hear this anew and to enter into the sense of awe and amazement that the disciples and Mary Magdalene experienced on this occasion. We pray, Heavenly Father, that the glorious good news of our Savior’s resurrection and the empty tomb would powerfully impact us this day. and bear much spiritual fruit in our lives.
We ask that You would grant unto me, Your unworthy servant, the grace to declare and speak forth Your Word with clarity and power and with the assistance of Your Spirit. And Lord, give us eyes to see and ears to hear that which the Spirit is speaking to us in this portion of Your God-breathed Scriptures. We pray these things, Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated. Brothers and sisters in Christ, I would point out to you, if you’re following along in your sermon outline, there’s four key words to listen for today. And one thing I’d encourage the children to do, if they would find it to be helpful, is to keep track of the number of times that I say these words. The key words are tomb, resurrection, life, and hope.
Well, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our Christian faith is a resurrection faith. The central proclamation of biblical historic Christianity, that proclamation which sets Christianity apart from every other religion in the world, is the proclamation that the founder of our faith, Jesus of Nazareth, actually, physically, bodily rose from the dead. It’s an amazing claim. It is a claim that earns the scoffing of skeptics and unbelievers. It is a claim that many find confusing, but it is a claim that is rooted in and grounded in the truth of God’s Word. and actual history. The Bible scholar Merrill C. Tenney states the matter. Well, he says the major difference between the life and teachings of Jesus and those of any other great religious leader lies in the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and the others did not.
However, persistent their influence may be. The importance of our Lord’s resurrection to the integrity of our Christian faith is well stated by St. Paul the Apostle, who writes in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 17, that, and I quote him, he says, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins. The great liberal demythologizing scholar Rudolf Bultmann once made a comment that if they discovered the bones of Jesus somewhere, no major aspect of the Christian faith would be affected by that. Of course, Dr. Bultmann was very wrong. The Apostle Paul would disagree. Paul says, if Christ is not raised, your faith is worthless. You’re wasting your time being here. But indeed, Christ is risen from the dead. He has conquered sin and death and hell. And that is why we have hope.
That is why we gather today. One of the central facts of history, which bears powerful witness to the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is the fact of the empty tomb. The body of Jesus was no longer in the garden tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea, the tomb in which our Lord’s body had been put to rest. It was absent from the tomb when the women arrived early on that Lord’s Day morning, that first day of the week. Along with the other gospel accounts, John’s gospel records the fact of the empty tomb. When my sermon for this morning, I want to have us consider what we can learn from the drama of the empty tomb as that drama is powerfully recorded for us and unfolded for us here in John’s gospel. And as we focus, first of all, on the first 10 verses of our passage for today, I would have you to note the discovery of the empty tomb.
Consider what we learn here about the discovery of the empty tomb. Now, John’s account of that resurrection morning focuses especially on Mary Magdalene, and she was very significant in scripture because it was from her. It was out of her that Jesus had cast seven demons, according to Luke chapter eight, verse two. So she loved the Lord Jesus who had delivered her from such oppression. It also focuses, this passage also focuses on two of the leading apostles, namely Peter and also John. John refers to himself in this gospel account of his as the other disciple or the disciple whom Jesus loved. So let’s dive in. In verse one, it says, now on the first day of the week, children, what would the first day of the week be? That would be Sunday. Sunday is the first day of the week.
On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb. The other gospel accounts indicate that she doesn’t come alone, but she is joined by other women as they go to the tomb early for the purpose of applying spices to our Lord’s body and so forth. It says that she came early to the tomb while it was still dark. She may have left her home while it was still dark and arrived when some light was there. And it says that she saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. The large stone that had sealed the mouth of our Lord’s tomb, the garden tomb where Jesus was buried, had been removed. This was no small stone. large, heavy stone. It had been removed, perhaps even lifted out of the groove that it had been rolled into place in and perhaps lying flat on the ground.
And what is her response? What is Mary’s response? It says in verse two, so she ran and came to Simon Peter, Simon Peter, The Apostle Peter being typically the spokesman for the other apostles. She runs to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved. That would be, again, the Apostle John, whom I believe is the author of the gospel that bears his name. And she said to them what? They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb. She doesn’t identify the they. She doesn’t know who the they are. All she knows is that the body of her beloved Lord has been, in her mind, stolen from the tomb. And she’s deeply distressed. She and the other women had gone to the tomb to honor their dead Lord, to prepare Him more fully for burial.
But instead, they discover His body is gone. They’ve taken away the Lord out of the tomb. And we do not know, we indicating that she did not just go alone, she and the other women, we do not know where they have laid Him. Deeply distressing. This is deeply distressing to her. Now, some interesting cultural and sociological factors to keep in mind as we read this passage. In those days, in the first century in Judaism, the testimony of women was not accepted as reliable in a court of law. I’m not saying that’s a good thing. I think that’s a bad thing, but that’s just the way it was back then. The word of women, the testimony of women was not accepted as being reliable in a court of law. By recording that two male disciples of our Lord. end up investigating the tomb, having been prompted by the words of Mary Magdalene, the fact that John records for us that Peter and John go to the tomb and investigate it.
This is testimony to the fact of the empty tomb. That testimony to the fact of the empty tomb is bolstered, at least in the eyes of first century Jews. And also the biblical law that states that everything should be established by two or three witnesses is satisfied. So Mary Magdalene goes back, she tells she tells the men, folks, she tells Peter and John about this. And how do they respond? Do they say, oh, well, we knew that his body was going to be moved or, you know, doesn’t disturb us very much. We’re expecting him to rise from the dead. No. In verses three through eight, we read of the race to the tomb and the apostolic investigation of the empty tomb, it says this in verse three. So Peter and the other disciple went forth and they were going to the tomb.
They respond to Mary’s report by going to check it out themselves. And they hurry along to the tomb. In fact, we’re told that they are running. Verse four, the two were running together and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first. John was a little more fit, I guess, than Peter. And he arrives at the tomb first. And remember, the stone has been rolled away. No doubt the sun has begun to rise more. So there’s more visibility. And what does John do? Does he go into the tomb to check it out? No, it says in verse five, stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloth, excuse me, the linen wrappings lying there. But he did not go in. Now it’s interesting, that word that is translated here in the New American Standard Version as looking, this is a word that indicates that he clearly saw, physically speaking.
He didn’t just glance, he looked and he clearly saw. The body was not there. He did see, however, the linen wrappings lying there in an orderly fashion, not strewn about as they would have been if there had been grave robbers who had stolen the body of Jesus. The linen wrappings are lying there. But he doesn’t go in. We’re not told why he doesn’t go in, perhaps out of respect for Simon Peter to allow him to go in first. We don’t know. But Simon Peter, I love Simon Peter. He’s the disciple who’s always sticking his foot in his mouth. He’s always the one to take the initiative. He’s sort of take the bull by the horns kind of guy. Verse six, Simon Peter also came following him. And Simon Peter doesn’t just stoop and look in.
He enters the tomb, we’re told. And he saw the linen wrappings lying there and the face cloth, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself, you know. Someone had arranged these linen wrappings and this face cloth in an orderly way for some reason. It’s interesting here, friends. It says in verse eight, so the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered and he saw and believed. It’s a different word from the word saw in verse six. In verse 6, where it says, Peter saw, the Greek indicates that Peter observed, that he scrutinized the scene. He didn’t just glance around quickly. He studied the scene. And though it would seem that Peter doesn’t really get what’s going on, he doesn’t know how to interpret yet what he is seeing.
But on the other hand, when John, the other disciple, the disciple whom Jesus loved, when he goes into the tomb and looks around, verse 8 says, he saw and believed. The Greek word here indicates that John saw not only in the physical sense, but in the sense that he understood the significance of the empty tomb and the folded linen cloths. He understood, yes, the Lord has been raised from the dead. We use that term, see and saw, in a similar way in our own language. Sometimes when someone’s trying to explain, say, a difficult math problem to you or a particular tax law or whatever the case may be, and it’s hard to understand and you don’t get it, but finally when you do get it and the light bulb goes on in your head, what is the way that you might respond?
You might respond by saying, oh, now I see. In other words, now I get it. So John saw in the sense that the light bulb went off in his mind. It was like an epiphany. Now he gets it. John gets it. that Jesus is indeed risen from the dead. And then it goes on to say in verse nine, for as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. One of the things that that I’ve harped on time and time and time again in my in my preaching series in the Gospel of Mark, perhaps I’ve harped on this so much that maybe you’re getting sick of hearing it. But remember, brothers and sisters, that that the common view of the Messiah held by first century Jews was that the Messiah would be a military leader, a political leader, a political king, one who would conquer the Romans and set up the throne of David in Jerusalem again.
And Jesus had to gradually dislodge that wrong view of the Messiah from their minds. He had to gradually reveal to them that, no, in fact, I have come to be a suffering Messiah, a spiritual savior from sin, who would rise from the dead and reign on David’s throne at the right hand of the Father, but nevertheless, He would be a suffering Messiah. And this is why they did not understand the scriptures. They were blinded to those scriptures, which indicated that the Messiah would not only suffer as the suffering servant of God, but would also rise again victorious from the dead. Verse 9 says, as yet, at that point, they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. So the disciples went away again to their own homes. They leave the scene.
But as we will see, Mary stays around. Now, a number of important things that I would have us notice from this first section of our passage for today. Friends, notice that the fact that Mary Magdalene and the other women went to our Lord’s tomb after the Sabbath shows that the followers of Jesus had not expected Jesus to rise from the dead. Even though Jesus had told them on a number of occasions before his crucifixion that he, the son of man, would indeed suffer and die and rise from the dead, it didn’t register with them. They didn’t get it until after his resurrection. And the point here is that they weren’t expecting the resurrection. And therefore, this makes it very unlikely that they would later on try to invent the story of the empty tomb. Some skeptics say well, you know the story of the empty tomb that was just made up by Jesus’s followers But what advantage would they get from making up that story?
The only thing the early Christians got from proclaiming the empty tomb proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus The only thing they got was persecution and in some cases torture and martyrdom The early Christians These early disciples at this point before his resurrection weren’t expecting him to rise from the dead. They were expecting the women were expecting to go to the tomb, find the body of Jesus there and apply the spices to the dead body out of respect for the dead and so forth. But instead, the tomb is empty and their Lord is not there. Another observation, the fact that Peter and John, these two disciples of Jesus, these within the inner circle of our Lord’s disciples, the fact that Peter and John ran so quickly to the tomb to investigate after Mary’s report is evidence that they were not involved in any kind of conspiracy to steal the body of Jesus and that they were not aware of any plans by either the Jewish or Roman authorities to relocate our Lord’s body.
And by the way, the Jews and the Romans would have no reason to relocate the body of Jesus. The gospel accounts tell us that, in fact, they wanted to make sure the body of Jesus was still there. They posted a guard, they sealed the stone over the tomb and so forth. And certainly Peter and John would not have rushed to the tomb in surprise at the news of Mary Magdalene if they had been involved in some kind of conspiracy to steal the body of Jesus. Also, the fact that John tells us that they did not yet understand the teachings of the scripture, that the Messiah would rise from the dead, as we’re told in verse nine, is further testimony against the theory that the disciples invented the story of the empty tomb later on. No.
Why would they invent that story? They did not see that in the scriptures until after Jesus rose from the dead. And the fact that our Lord’s grave clothes were left in an orderly manner also testifies that his body had not been stolen by grave robbers. If for some reason grave robbers had gotten into his tomb and stolen his body, do you think they would have said, oh, wait a minute, guys, we got to fold these linens up nice and neat? No, of course they wouldn’t. They would have left them strewn, perhaps left them on his body. They would not have been concerned about leaving them in an orderly fashion. So even the fact that Jesus, after he rose from the dead, apparently folded up his grave clothes and his face cloth in an orderly fashion indicates that this too is evidence of his resurrection.
Now, these are all important historical evidences for the empty tomb. What are some of the spiritual lessons that we can learn from the discovery of the empty tomb? A couple of points of application here, beloved. The fact of the empty tomb, first of all, bears witness to the reality of our Lord’s resurrection from the dead and therefore to the truthfulness of our Christian faith. Now, technically speaking, the empty tomb, of course, does not in and of itself prove the resurrection of Jesus. There are all of the factors surrounding the Lord’s resurrection, not only the empty tomb, but also his resurrection appearances over a period of 40 days to multiple eyewitnesses, as well as the changed, transformed lives of his disciples, his disciples who were cowering behind closed doors for fear of the Jews and who had been so crushed by his crucifixion, the fact that our disciples, that the disciples of Jesus were re-energized and gained new strength and new energy and vigor to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus, the fact that their lives were transformed is also evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But indeed, the empty tomb is one powerful witness to the reality of our Lord’s resurrection from the dead. And it helps to strengthen our faith that indeed what we believe in is not some mythology. This is based on truth. We, brothers and sisters, serve a risen Lord, not a dead teacher. The empty tomb also proclaims that Jesus Christ has conquered death and has secured for us believers the gift of life everlasting. The empty tomb is testimony to the fact that death does not have the final say. Death does not have the final word. There is life beyond the grave. There is the promise of the resurrection in one day. We, too, our bodies, too, will be raised from the dead when our Lord Jesus returns at his glorious second advent. We will be raised from the dead and we will be raised in his likeness.
Christ’s physical bodily resurrection from the dead is the first fruits of the resurrection yet to come of his people. Dear listener, have you received the gift of eternal life from the risen Lord Jesus Christ as that gift is offered to you in the Gospel? In the Gospel, you are welcomed, sinners are welcomed to come to Christ as the perfect, all-sufficient Savior, the One who died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin and who rose from the dead so that all who by sovereign grace believe in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life. Dear listener, believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God says you will be saved. The Word of God says that you will not perish but have eternal life. So we’ve considered the drama. of the empty tomb.
But next, let’s consider, as we move on to verses 11 through 18, Mary Magdalene’s encounter with the risen Lord Jesus Christ. We next notice Mary Magdalene’s encounter with the risen Lord. Verse 11, after the menfolk go back home, we’re told in verse 11, but Mary, this is Mary Magdalene, the one out of whom Jesus had cast seven demons, she lingered. She lingered. She so loved her Lord. She was so crushed by His crucifixion. And she’s so distressed by the empty tomb that she lingers. And what is she doing? It says in verse 11, but Mary was standing outside the tomb, weeping. She’s deeply distressed. And so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb. And her eyes are probably clouded with tears, but she looks into the tomb. And what does she see?
Verse 12 says she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head, one at the head where Jesus’s head would have been laid, and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been lying. The other gospel, in other accounts, these angels are described as young men dressed in white. Angels would often appear in white, in human form, dressed in white. And she’s not processing this right now. She’s distressed. And these two angels in white are sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet. She doesn’t reflect and say, what’s going on here at this time? She’s looking in, she sees them. In verse 13 it says, And they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord. Notice how she describes Jesus.
My Lord, they’ve taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him. She is concerned to find the body of her Lord. Verse 14, when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and she did not know that it was Jesus. Why didn’t she recognize Jesus? Well, there’s any number of reasons. Again, in her distress, she might not have been thinking things through rationally at this point. Her tears may have clouded her sight, or Jesus himself may have withheld her at this point from fully recognizing her. But in any case, she turns around, she sees Jesus standing there, and then Jesus asks her the same question. Jesus said to her, verse 15, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the gardener, this is a garden tomb, right?
Supposing him to be the gardener, who else would have unrolled the stone and maybe moved the body. She said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you’ve laid him and I will take him away. Again, she doesn’t reflect. How is she going to do that? Drag his lifeless body away? But she’s determined to take her Lord away to honor her dead Lord, which she believes to be her dead Lord. But then Jesus identifies her. We’re told by John in his Gospel that the sheep of Christ know his voice. Mary recognizes the voice of Jesus. Jesus said to her, verse 16, Mary. Mariam in the Greek. She turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabboni, which means teacher. It’s an intensified form of rabbi. And apparently, she’s wanting to cling to him.
She doesn’t want to lose him. She wants to abide with him But he assures her, he says in verse 17, Jesus said to her, stop clinging to me for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Now, there’s different ways to interpret these words here. Some suggest that that he’s saying to her, look, we’re no longer going to be able to relate in the same way we related before my resurrection. I’m going to be ascending to the Father and you’re not going to have my direct physical presence with you. But I think it’s perhaps more likely that he’s simply saying to me, look, don’t worry. You’ll have time. We’ll have time to to talk to each other before I ascend to my father. Either way, Jesus says to her, stop clinging to me for I’ve not yet ascended to the father, but go to my brethren.
He sends her out to proclaim the good news. Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my father and your father and my God and your God. So here, Mary has seen these angels dressed in white. The white probably signifying holiness, perhaps also victory and joy. And they ask her the question, why are you weeping? Jesus Himself asks her the question. And then Jesus finally identifies Himself to her. And again, the light bulb goes on. And she recognizes Him. Rabbi, He’s risen! And Jesus says, go to my brethren, say to them, I send to my father and your father, my God and your God. Now, you may be wondering, why doesn’t Jesus just say to her, go and tell my brethren, go and tell the apostles and the other disciples that I ascend to our father and our God?
Why does he say my father and your father, my God and your God? Well, I think the reason for this is because, again, he is making a distinction between his relationship to the Father and our relationship to the Father. And I’ll mention, I’ll dive more into that in just a few moments. But brothers and sisters in Christ, what we see here is sorrow turned into joyous, glorious, inexpressible happiness. joy inexpressible and filled with glory. The resurrection of Jesus, the truth of the empty tomb, the truth of our Lord’s resurrection from the dead turns our sorrow into joy. It leads us out of despair into hope. Indeed, it brings us out of death into life, even life eternal. Dear ones, just as Mary’s encounter with the resurrected Jesus turned her from a despairing, confused, sobbing mess into a bold proclaimer of the good news, who was bursting with joy and renewed hope.
May our fellowship with the resurrected Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as we enjoy that fellowship through the word and spirit of God, may that joy flood our lives. with joy and peace and hope, and may that joy make us bold and courageous confessors of Jesus as the resurrected Lord. This world needs good news, and there is no greater good news than the truth that the Son of God incarnate has conquered our greatest enemy, sin, death, and hell. Christ has risen victorious. There is hope. There is hope eternal. But again, finally, consider in verses 17 and 18 the content of Mary’s message to the disciples, as that is recorded in verses 17 and 18, the content of Mary’s message to the disciples. Jesus gives Mary a command. He says, go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my father and your father and my God and your God.
This reference to the ascension, what does that imply? That implies that he is risen. The tomb is not empty because someone has stolen the body or because the disciples got the wrong tomb. That’s a that’s a theory that some skeptics try to bring up. There’s no way that they would have gotten the wrong tomb. They saw where he was buried. They knew he was there or had been there, but now the tomb is empty and Jesus has begun to appear. The resurrected Jesus has begun to appear to his disciples. And it’s interesting, the first one that he appears to is a woman. Again, remember how I said earlier that in the first century, in first century Judaism, the testimony of a woman did not count in a court of law. But God’s priorities are not our priorities.
God often uses the the weak things of this world, the things that are despised by this world, to shame the wise. But in any case, she is called to go to the disciples and say, I am going to my father and your father, my God and your God. And notice again, why does Jesus make that distinction? Well, this is likely because Jesus is making it clear that he is related to God the Father in a different way than you and I are. Jesus is related to God the Father as the eternal, divine Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, whereas we are related to God as Father, as his adopted children. We are adopted children of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is related to God in a different way than we are.
And therefore, he makes this distinction. And how does Mary respond to this? Verse 18, Mary Magdalene came announcing to the disciples, I have seen the Lord. And that he had said these things to her. She proclaims it to them as he had commanded her to do. Dear ones, by His saving work, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has caused us to be adopted as children of a loving Heavenly Father. The empty tomb not only proves that Christ has redeemed us and justified us, it also demonstrates that God relates to us believers as a loving Heavenly Father, for we are His adopted, blood-bought children. Let us embrace our identity as children of God, and let us live as children of a loving Heavenly Father, bearing testimony to the good news that Christ died for the forgiveness of our sins, and Christ is risen from the dead.
And all who believe and repent will not perish, but have everlasting life. Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, our sovereign and eternal God, we thank you that Jesus is indeed risen from the dead, that the tomb is empty and that he has ascended to your right hand where he intercedes for us and that one day he is coming back to bring us to be where he is. Lord, we pray that this good news which is so familiar, which we have heard for so many years, may we hear it again. And may the awe experienced by Peter and John and Mary Magdalene, may we share in that sense of awe and joy. Joy inexpressible and filled with glory because Jesus, our Lord, is risen from the dead. In his name we pray and all of God’s people said, Amen.
Let’s respond to what we have heard from the Word of God by rising and singing joyfully together, number 360. Christ the Lord is risen today. 360.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.