Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20051211.htm

JESUS' DISCIPLING OF WOMEN: AN ADDENDUM TO HIS DISCIPLING OF PETER
Part II: The Discipling Of Mary Magdalene: Shifting From Experience To Absolutes
(Luke 8:2-3 et al.)
  1. Introduction
    1. Where Mary and Martha needed to be adjusted so their intake and outflow of Christ's instruction would match each other, Mary Magdalene had a more serious discipling need -- she had difficulty identifying what God's truth actually WAS! This led to her being deceived and its catastrophic results!
    2. Our study of Mary Magdalene's discipleship under Christ instructs not only Christian women who have trouble being deceived, but any believer with this problem, and it offers us rich advice (as follows):
  2. The Discipling Of Mary Magdalene: Shifting From Experience To Absolutes, Luke 8:2-3 et al.
    1. As Mary had been delivered by Jesus from being indwelt by seven demons (Luke 8:2), we know she was susceptible to receiving false spiritual viewpoints from Satan (John 8:44b) and that she possibly had a tendency to live via human effort versus God's Word and power [The seven demons Christ describes as entering one (in Matthew 12:43-45) is the result of a past exorcism without true conversion that leaves one living in human effort, vulnerable to a worse subsequent demonic possession, cf. B.K.C., N.T., p. 47].
    2. When Jesus exorcised these demons, Mary's gratitude to Him became apparent in her resulting efforts:
      1. Mary physically worked to support Christ's ministry with her own material means, Luke 8:3.
      2. She expended great emotional energy in support of Jesus by attending His traumatic crucifixion (Mark 15:40) and burial (Mtt. 27:61) and preparing spices for his burial (Mark 16:1).
    3. However, her devotion to Christ was marked by an emotional focus that could deceive rather than a commitment to factual reality and God's Word: when His body was absent from the tomb where she had last seen it, she wept as though all hope was gone even though (1) the evidence of the empty grave clothes that had led John to believe in the resurrection were right in front of her, John 20:2, 6-11a. She was "stuck" in grief and so could not discern the facts in front of her, and (2) she did not depend on Christ's previous prophecies that He would rise from the dead, cf. Matthew 16:21 et al.!
    4. Thus, Jesus worked to change Mary's basis of knowing what WAS God's TRUE FACTS (as follows):
      1. When Jesus appeared to Mary as she wept at His empty tomb, He INITIALLY sought to impress Mary NOT with the reality of His physical body , but to make her THINK and thus REALIZE the truth, John 20:14-15; Jesus initially REPEATED the question the angels in the tomb had just asked her -- WHY she WEPT -- a question that should have made her wonder why strangers would ask such a question while sitting in an empty tomb [unless they were God's angels, meaning Jesus had risen]!
      2. When she failed to perceive this way that Jesus had risen from the dead, He called Mary's name with His voice so she would see beyond her emotionally clouding grief and recognize Him, John 20:16.
      3. As soon as Mary recognized Jesus, He diminished the importance of His physical presence while extolling God's positional truth: He told her (literally) "Do not continue . . . clinging to me' (in order to restrain Him)," Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., ftn. to John 20:17; no, she was to dwell on the TRUTH that she had a new position with the Father as the result of His work on Calvary, J ohn 20:17!
      4. In blessing, Mary Magdalene disappears from the pages of Scripture after reporting to the eleven that she had seen the risen Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her, meaning Jesus' charge to focus on the TRUTH of Mary's relationship with Him and God the Father through Him, John 20:18!
Lesson: Christ weaned Mary away from her errant BASIS for defining as TRUE what she SUBJECTIVELY FELT rather than OBJECTIVE FACTS and SCRIPTURE, and all for her blessing!

Application: (1) As 1 Timothy 2:12-14 reveals women are generally more susceptible to being deceived than are men, we can note the discipling of women requires a strong emphasis on the part of the one who disciples to focus on REVEALED BIBLICAL TRUTH versus EMOTIONAL FEELING to define what is SPIRITUAL REALITY. (2) We should expect God to achieve discipling advances in women by weaning them AWAY FROM EMOTIONAL FEELING as the BASIS of defining truth to OBJECTIVE FACTS and WRITTEN SCRIPTURE! (3) [MEN often need the same program too, 2 Tim. 3:13-17!]