The first Lord's Day, marked by Jesus' resurrection, signifies the dawn of a new dispensation of grace, replacing the era of law. This pivotal day, celebrated as the Lord's Day, began with the triumphant resurrection morning, as seen in Mary Magdalene's encounter with the risen Christ. The sermon contrasts the thunderous, fearful giving of the law on Mount Sinai with the earthquake and radiant angel at the empty tomb, symbolizing the transition from law to grace. It emphasizes that the Lord's Day is a day of triumph and new beginnings, urging believers to recognize Christ's presence even in sorrow and to share the message of salvation.
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Well, it's a joy to be here on the first Sunday of another year. I've been looking forward to today. I had the privilege of speaking here on the first Sunday of last year. And I remember so well that the Lord spoke to my heart very loudly last year as we spoke from the seventeenth chapter of John's Gospel in the first five verses. And I remember how God impressed upon our hearts the words of the Lord Jesus. I have glorified thee on the earth. And I think most of us, as we bowed our heads at the end of the message, decided we would try and put that into practice for nineteen seventy-five, to glorify thee on the earth.
I wonder how far we got along. I thought of it many, many, many times each morning. not each morning but many mornings. I've asked the Lord that that might be what I might do today. Glorify thee on the earth. Now we're still in John's Gospel, but we've slipped over a chapter two, and we're in the twentieth chapter, and I want to read from the eleventh verse. John twenty, verse eleven, that Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping, And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre, and seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had laid.
And they say unto her, Woman, Why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
She couldn't have done that. How could she have taken that body? If thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast made him, and I will take him away. Jesus said unto her, Mary, she turned herself and said unto him, Rabonai, Which is to say, Master, Jesus said unto her, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended unto my Father. But go to my brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father to my God and your God.
Mary Magdalene came and told the disciple that she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things unto her. May God bless that portion from his word. We shall read some more scriptures as well. God willing. Shall we pray? A blessed God, our Father, as we step out into a new year, and we have all been reminded this morning the bicentennial year in the history of this great nation. We humble ourselves in thy presence, Lord. We step out into unknown territory.
We step out into unknown future days. We don't know how long, we don't know how many. We don't know what lies ahead, sunshine or darkness. We don't know, but we thank thee thou knowest all. We pray that this morning, Lord, as we open thy word now and the Holy Spirit takes it and applies it to our hearts, we might make decisions that we're going to go forward for thee. Oh, God, speak to our hearts. And if, Lord, in this meeting this morning, there should be one soul who's not yet fully persuaded, and who yet not yet fully knows the Lord Jesus Christ is Savior.
O take the scales from off those eyes, we pray thee. And may they say with Mary of old, Rabonai, bow at thy feet and own thee as master. We seek thy blessing then, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. first Lord's day of another year. And my subject this morning is the morning of the first Lord's day.
The morning of the first Lord's day. I hope this evening. Look at verse one. It says, verse one of chapter twenty. The first day of the week when it was yet dark. That's the morning of the first day. Look at verse nineteen, the same day at evening being the first day of the week. Tonight I want to speak about the evening of the first Lord's day. Now why do I call it the first Lord's day? Here it's called the first day of the week, and that was not the first day of the week. There had always been a first day of the week. But when God created the heavens and the earth, it says that He He created them in six days.
Then on the Sabbath day he rests. That's where the Sabbath was instituted. But the first day of the week, the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week. The first day of the week is the eighth day. It's a new day, and eight means resurrection. And when we get into the New Testament, or rather when we get to this wonderful story we've been reading this morning, That first day takes on a new significance. Now at the Feast of Pentecost, they had to count fifty days. Now there's seven days in a week, seven sevens of forty-nine, but fifty, that's that eighth day again, that's the first day of the week, and that's when they had to celebrate the first of the Feast of Pentecost.
But here we get the first of all the Lord's days. Now I only know one scripture where in my own judgment the first day of the week is called the Lord's Day. And I guarantee you all know where that is. Revelation chapter one and verse ten. We'll read verse nine. I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. And just for connection, let's go a little further. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. And I heard a voice behind me. And then further down it says he turned. And Verse twelve, I turned. That's what Mary did. She turned. I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and gird about the paths with a golden girdle.
His head and hairs were white like wool as white as snow, and his eyes as a flame of fire, and his feet like under fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace. Here in verse ten he says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. Now the language here is significant. It is the only face to my knowledge, and I think I'm right. It is the only place where this particular word is used in the Greek New Testament. The word for day in Greek is emera. It's a feminine word, so it starts with the article in front is e.
emera. And the day of the Lord in Greek is emera to kireo. Kiriu is the Lord. Imeritu Kiriu. Ah, but that refers. Whenever we read Imeritu Kiriu, the day of the Lord, we're thinking of that great day of judgment that's coming. Look at two Thessalonians chapter two, just a moment. Second Thessalonians chapter two. And here there is a a bad translation, but Second Thessalonians chapter two, verse one.
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that he be not soon shaken in mind or troubled, neither by letter us, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter us from us, that the day of Christ is at hand. This is a bad translation. the day of the Lord is at hand, and there the Greek is Iemera to Kiryu. And always we find that that is the term that's used. In the first epistle in the first epistle in chapter five, Verse two, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night.
Now what does that refer to? The day of the Lord coming as a thief in the night refers to a terrible day when the Lord Jesus is coming back in judgment to judge the nations. But it also takes us right in through the millennium, the day of the Lord, when the Lord is going to reign supreme. But that is not, I don't think that's what John means when he says in the first chapter, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. Now I said that the day of the Lord in Greek is, . But in Revelations one, verse ten, it says, I was in the Spirit.
and the Kiriaki emera, and the Kiriaki. Now somewhere in that word Kiriaki is Lord. But Kiriaki is the day that the Greeks give to Sunday. The days of the week in Greek are Kiriaki, Sunday, Reftero, Monday, that's two. Treaty means three, that's Tuesday. Tatadi means four, that's Wednesday. Penthi means five, that's Thursday. And Paraskevi means preparation, and Sabbath. Saturday, Sabbath means a Sabbath. But the first day of the week is called Kiriaki.
And that's the Lord's day. That's what it means. The Lord's day. And he says, I was in the Spirit, and did Kiriaki emera in the day, not in the day of the Lord, but in the Lord's day. Now there are some Bible... expositors who would take that thought away and they would say that the real meaning of that is the Lord's Day and it means the Day of Judgment and that John, as he was in that prison cell there, in the Spirit, that he was transported into the Day of the Lord and he was transported into all those judgments that come further on in Revelation.
Personally, I don't think that. Because we always say that Revelation, the Book of Revelation is divided into three parts. Past tense, present tense, future tense. The past tense, the Lord says, write the things which thou hast seen. Past tense. Present tense, the things which are. Future tense, tense, the things which shall be hereafter. And we believe that the first part, the things which thou hast seen are chapter one. We believe the things which are, chapter two and chapter three is the history of the church, and we believe that the things which shall be hereafter. That's when you get to the sixth chapter.
When you get to the beginning of the fourth chapter of Revelation, the church history is over. There's a door opened in heaven and a voice says, Come up hither. What a picture of what's going to happen in Revelation, in Thessalonians chapter four, when the Lord shall descend from heaven and there be a voice and the trump of the archangel, the voice of God, and we shall be caught up to a door open in the heaven. And then what we shall see? A throne set in heaven and one sitting upon the throne. And the one sitting upon a throne had a scroll. There was a scroll, a book, a Bible book is a scroll.
And it was sealed with seven seals. And nobody was found worthy. They searched, they said. Nobody was found in heaven or on earth or under the earth. Those that had died are those who were living or those dictators and rulers of the earth, these great men that are down under now. Nobody was found worthy to undo that book until the Lord stepped upon the throne. It was given to him. and he broke the seal. And when he broke the seal in chapter six, then the judgment stopped. That scroll rolled up there in that scroll was God's plan, God's eternal purposes for dealing with this world.
This world that crucified his son This world that's rebelled against Him, and today is rebelling against Him more than ever. This world of women's lives. This world of insurrection. This world of disobedience that rules the world today, God's going to deal with that when the Lord Jesus begins to open the seals of judgment. And the judgment starts in the sixth chapter of Revelation, and I don't think that verse when it said, in the Lord's day, I don't think it's referring to the judgment day. I think it's referring to the Sunday, to the first day of the week.
And John the Baptist, in his prison cell, was he in the cell? I don't know. He says, I was in the aisle that is called Patmos for the witness of Jesus. He was a very old man. I doubt whether he should do much quarrying and work on that rugged island of Patmos out there. I've sailed very near to Patmos, never been right there, but I've been within a few miles of Patmos. It seems to me they must have had him in some kind of a prison cell. And somehow I don't know how he kept count of the day.
I've often thought of I was put in prison, how I'd remember when it was Sunday. Many prison cells, there's scratches on the wall. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, cross out, another seven, where men of prisoners have tried to keep accounted to know whether it's Tuesday or Wednesday or what day it is, but somehow John knew it was Kyriakchiyanera. It was the... Lord's Day. And he says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. And on that Sunday morning, in the Spirit, suddenly the ceiling disappeared and the walls disappeared.
And his eyes were open. And he saw one light unto the Son of God. What an experience on the Lord's Day. to come face to face with the Son of God. But our talk this morning is about the first of all the Lord's Day. Is it always been called the first day of the week, but now it's called the Lord's Day. Why? Because the Lord Jesus rose in triumph on that glorious first day of the week. And there are certain parallels I'd like to mention here. Let's go back to, for a moment, to the twenty-eighth chapter of Matthew, the twenty-eighth chapter of Matthew.
And verse one, it says, Significant word, mark every word, in the end of the Sabbath. as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. And his countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and he became dead.
And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye, for I know that he seeked Jesus, which was true. Now mark this significant language. In the end of the Sabbath, do you think it means what it says? Do you think it means what I do? I believe that was the end of the Sabbath. fifteen hundred years before. Let's go back now to Exodus chapter nineteen. Exodus chapter nineteen. And I'd like to read just a few verses.
In Exodus chapter nineteen we start the fifth dispensation in the history of man. This world's history is divided into dispensations, and we won't talk about those for sake of time, but the fifth dispensation started here. When Moses came and called the elders of the people, verse seven, and laid before their faces all these words, the words of the Lord, which he commanded them, and all the people answered and said, All that the Lord has spoken, we will do, And Moses returned the words of the people to the Lord, and there started a new dispensation.
It's going to be the dispensation of law. And so Moses is called up into the mountain, and the law is given to Moses. Now let's read a little further down. Verse three. Be ready against the third day. For the third day... the Lord will come down in sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. Mark those words the third day. In the third day the Lord will come down in sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. Verse fourteen. And Moses went down from the mount unto the people and sanctified the people and washed their clothes.
He said unto the people, Be ready against the third day. and it came to pass on the third day in the morning." Boy, doesn't that sound like John twenty-day? Doesn't that sound like Matthew twenty-eight? On the third day in the morning. On the third day in the morning, can you see a parallel? I read just now on that third day in the morning. as it dawned toward the first day, there was a great earthquake and the angel of the Lord descended. Let's read this. Verse sixteen of Exodus nineteen. And it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud so that all the people that came to the camp trembled.
Look a moment at the chapter we read that's in the early meeting this morning, the twelfth chapter of Hebrews, and see what it says there, about this very scene. The twelfth chapter of Hebrews and verse eighteen, ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched. and burned with fire, nor under blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words which voiced they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken. For they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it should be stoned or thrust through the dark.
And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear, and quake. The third day in the morning. And that was the beginning of the law. And the fourth commandment in the law was this. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. Now, as I said just now, the Sabbath didn't start with the giving of the law.
The Sabbath started in creation. God created the world in six days and then he rested on the seventh day, the Sabbath day. But God repeated it in the law that they must keep the Sabbath. And so severe was God's law that when Some poor friend went out and gathered a few sticks on the Sabbath day to light a fire to keep himself warm. They had to stone him to death because they were not allowed to do any work on the Sabbath day. What a wonderful thing to read in Matthew the end of the Sabbath.
What was happening? In Exodus nineteen, a new era was coming in, a brand new dispensation called the dispensation of law. It ran fifteen hundred years. But in the twenty-eighth of Matthew and in the sixteenth of Mark and in the twenty-fourth of Luke and in the twentieth chapter of John, something else, something new is coming. A new dispensation. The dispensation of law is ending, and the dispensation of grace is coming in.
The church age is about to break. A new dispensation, and we're living in that glorious dispensation now. It's lasted nearly two thousand years, and it's just about to end. The dispensation of law started with lightnings and thunders and a voice speaking from heaven, and the people trembling, even Moses, said, I exceedingly fear and tremble. How did this new dispensation come in? Let me read it again. Behold, there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it.
What triumph? The stone that kept the Lord's body in supposed to keep his body in. His body came out before the stone was rolled beneath me. The stone that was supposed to keep him in and sealed by the seal of the Roman Empire, which didn't mean a thing. The angel came down, a glorious being, a glorious angel, shining and radiant. His face shone. His countenances were like lightning. His raiment white as snow. and he rolled back the stone and sat on it. That's right. He sat on it. And they looked at that angel. And the angel said, His cousins was like lightning and his raiment white as snow, and for fear of him the keepers did shake.
And he said, Fear not. And when John was in his prison cell on the first day of the week, And he saw that sight, not the angel of the Lord, but the Lord himself, whose countenance was bright and shining in splendor, and his raiment shining, and his feet shining. What did he do? He exceedingly feared, and he fell at his feet. But listen to the same words. This angel said, Fear not. And the Lord put forth his right eye to it. Fear not, John. Fear not, John. He put his hand upon him to get up, John, this work for you to do.
And so he appeared to him on the first day of the week. And he appeared to these on the first day of the week. Don't you think it's parallels here? The law was given with thunders and lightning, and a new dispensation came in with thunders and lightning, with a great earthquake. It says in the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn, I love the word, it began to dawn toward the first day of the week. Here's a new dispensation coming, and the light of a new dispensation begins to break. And the day is breaking.
He calls it the dawning toward the new day of week. He's bringing in a new day. It's called the Lord's Day. and it's dawning towards the Lord's Day, something altogether new. You know, we live in a similar age, really. As we see events around us today, we can see the dawn. It's very dark today. It's very dark. It's getting darker. But we can see daybreak. We know the morning stars about to rise, and God's going to take us out of this year. The day of grace which started... in this wondrous way, when the angel sat upon the stone and the day broke, the first Lord's day morning came about.
That day is about to end. The day of grace is nearly over. The church is nearly complete. And one of these bright days, we're going to see a vision soon, and we're going to hear a voice too. And we're going to be caught up through the door opened in heaven to be with the Lord. The first of the Lord's days, the morning of the first of all the Lord's days. It was the end of the Sabbath, significant language. God's dealings with Israel now were being put aside.
I think when we were back in the twelfth chapter, we talked very much about this, that the Lord laid aside Israel, he blinded their eyes and hardened their heart that they should not see with their eyes and understand with their heart and be converted. Why? Because the Lord of life and glory, the Son of God, the Messiah, had come down and walked among them, and they rejected him. and they take him outside the city gate at Jerusalem, as we've recently seen in our recent talks, and they nailed the Son of God upon a cross, and he died there for you and for me.
And Israel that did that has been put aside. Two thousand years now. Israel's getting back. The dawn's beginning to come to another dispensation about to break. But Israel was put aside the end of the Sabbath dawning towards the first day of the week, the Lord's Day. Now let's go down to the story of Mary.
Last time I was speaking, four weeks ago, We dealt with the first ten verses of chapter twenty. But verse eleven says that Mary stood without the sepulcher weeping. Now Mary had rung, you know, in the morning, we heard of it, we read of it in the earlier part of the chapter. She ran to the sepulcher and then she ran back to Peter and John and then she came again to the sepulcher. And Peter and John, we saw it last time we were talking. They came up. Oh, John, he came, he ran first, but he dare not go in. But Peter and Petrus, Peter dashed right in, and found the tomb was empty.
And then John went in. And it says, you remember how we finished our last talk here? Remember how we finished the talk? It says, Then went in also and the other disciple with him, which came first to the sepulcher, and he saw and believed. And that's how we ended our last meeting four weeks ago. He saw and believed. And it says, then the disciples went away again unto their own home. And we question our hearts as we left the meeting four weeks ago. As we went home, did we go home believing?
He saw and believed and went home, John Peter. But Mary didn't do that. Mary stood without at the sepulchre for weeping. Could Mary go home? I tell you what, there was nothing for Mary in the home. You could have milk built for Mary the best mansion, the best apartment you could find. That didn't mean a thing to Mary. She wanted the Lord. Home had no attraction for Mary anymore if he couldn't be there.
And she stood without. I like the words. She stood without at the sepulchre, weeping. And as she wept, she stood down and looked into the sepulchre, overlooking what she saw. She looked into the sepulchre and she said to angels in white, sitting the one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had laid. In that sepulchre, I think we mentioned before, at the foot and the head of the sepulchre, and I've been there, if the one we believe to be in Gordon in the...
the garden tomb at Jerusalem. If it is the real one, we don't know. If it is, then it's remarkable. At the head of the grave and at the bottom there are two flat stones like seats, just like this. And the angel sat on one at the head, one at the foot. It's so real when you go in there and see it. And the angel sat The one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus lay, and they say to the woman, say to her, Woman, why weepest thou? What in the world are you weeping about? Why weepest thou?
Why weepest thou? Ah, but she didn't know the Sabbath had ended. She didn't know all that tyranny of the law, the price of the law, the demands of the law had been paid. She didn't know that when the Lord Jesus hung up on the cross, he met to the very last jot and tittle all the demands of that holy law of God, which we have broken. He kept it and he met the claims of it and paid the price of our sin. We who broke the law, he paid the price on the cross at Calvary. She didn't understand all that yet. She's going to learn it. She didn't know yet. And she's weeping.
She didn't know it was the greatest day of triumph in all the world's history. Why do we, this is the greatest day in the world, the greatest triumph day. I suppose the greatest day in the world was the day when the Lord Jesus hung upon the cross. But this is the third morning. We keep talking about the third day in the morning. This is the third day in the morning. This is the day of triumph and resurrection. The greatest day in history, the Son of God, broken the bands of dead. and broken the power of Satan and put away sin forever and come out of the grave triumphant and she's weeping. Oh, mind you, some Christians I mean today.
Miserable and sad and unhappy and got too many troubles and problems. Oh, dear, dear, don't we know the Lord Jesus is risen from the dead? Why we should be the happiest people in all of us? Triumphant we should. Oh, you say I got problems. Oh, wait a minute. Look at this. Her friends at God, they went home. She's alone. She's in a place of death, as she thought. How many of us here this morning know what this means? To stand in the place of death. And you might have all your friends and relatives around you, but you're alone.
And the heart knows its own bitterness. and nobody can enter into your sorrow. Oh, if you say, why weepest thou? You'd say, I've got reason to be. I'm left alone. My loved one is God. I'm alone, and I'm at the grave side. And that's where Mary stood. Why weepest thou? She says, because they've taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. When she thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing. Do you know that in all your sorrow and in all your problems, and we don't know what is going to bring, but whatever it brings, let me tell you this.
If you've got to stand by the graveside, or if you've got to stand, go through sickness or whatever it is, whatever the problem is, if, oh, if we could only open our eyes, listen, look at the words. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing right by her side. She only had to turn herself around, and the Lord was there with her. Oh, look at the sad words. She knew not that it was Jesus. And in our problems and in our trials and difficulties, the Lord stands, and sometimes we don't even know it, you know.
We can understand it. She knew not that it was Jesus. And then Jesus said to her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? And she thought he was the god. You know, I've often wondered how the Lord was dressed after his resurrection. I mentioned last time I was speaking all his clothing was taken away and divided up and split up and got rid of. And somewhere in that tomb, angels came down and clothed him. He looks like a garden. That's how she saw him anyhow.
She just saw a garden. She's supposing him to be the gardener, said, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, Tell me where thou hast laid him, and I'll go and take him away. How often in our trials we try to do this. How often in our problems we think, now I can put it right, Lord, if you'll... I'll do it, Lord. I'll take the body and I'll go, baby. She didn't know what she was talking about. And we're so like that, try and settle our own problems.
And then Jesus said, and I can't stop the time scoring. Oh, look at the word, Sixteen. Jesus said unto her, Mary. You've ever heard him say that? You've ever heard him mention your name, Mary, Martha, James, John, whatever your name is. Mary, and immediately she knew his voice. And what did she do? What could she do? she should have felt ashamed that the tears were in her eyes because he was a risen from the dead, triumphant, Lord of resurrection. And what did she do, Luke?
She said unto him, Rabonai. Now, my opinion of this word, I'd like to know more about it. But as far as I know, this word Rabonai, It doesn't mean it says, which is to say master, but it means more than that. It means supreme master, supreme master. She turned and said supreme master. We have to close our meeting. I'd like to say a lot more. But I wonder if we could turn now and bow at his feet and as we start a new year and say this is going to be my motto for the Supreme Master.
I'm going to turn myself from everything else, from my sorrows, from my wealth, from all I've ever accomplished and all I can ever do and all my own pride. I'm going to turn, and I'm going to say one word, Rabahonai. Supreme Master. What a great decision if we could do that now. Supreme Master. Jesus says, I'm hurt, don't touch me now, but I want you to do something. I'm not ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend to my Father and your Father.
No, he didn't say our Father, how carefully put it. My Father and your Father, my God and your Father. Mary, he said, in effect, we're all, my brethren. Where's Peter? Where's John? Where are all the rest? I've got the greatest message the world has ever had. I want them to go out. We're starting now. I am starting now a new dispensation. The Lord's day has come. A new dispensation. and I want my brethren to go out and tell all the world of the triumph of Calvary and the triumph of the resurrection and tell them there's eternal life by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want them to go with the gospel. Where are they? Where's John? Where's Peter? He knew where they were. He'd gone home. See how often we do that. They'd gone home. And they say... I won't say what they say about a woman speaking, but I'll tell you what the Lord said. He looked around for the men who ought to do the speaking. They'd gone home. I don't know if they had televisions in those days, but they had something that attracted them back home. And there was nobody there but a woman.
And our mission fields today are filled with women missionaries, for no men. I won't say no men. Thank God for those that go. But how many find their interest in business, in getting a name and getting a fame and getting an education and all the other things. When time is so short, we can't stop for any of it, but to get on a mission field and to get out with a message and lead men at God's home. So he says to a woman, it says he appeared first to marry Magdalene, and he gave her the message. You're going to tell my brethren, What a woman to speak to the men? I didn't write it.
For the Lord said, You go and tell my brethren, I send to my father and your father, my God and your God. And so Mary had to go out the first one to take the great message of the Lord's day and the real meaning of the first day of the week. Mary got that. And she got that message when she turned in her weeping. And for one brief moment, forgot all the surroundings as she gazed upon the face of the one who hung up on Calvin's cross.
Can we do that now? As we close our meeting, can we turn? We start a new year. Let's say Rabonai, Supreme Master. And let's listen for his voice as he says to you and to me. Go and tell. Go and tell. Go and tell. The days are short. The dispensation is nearly over. There won't be many more Lord's days. It'll be all over. Go and tell now in nineteen seventy-six. May God help us to take the message for his glory. Shall we pray? Blessed God, our Father, we bow before him. And we thank you for the triumph of the resurrection of thy beloved Son.
As we step out now into a new year, we pray we might go out with this message to go and tell the glorious story of the cross of Christ, and that we might be able to win men and women to Christ. Or we pray for those that stay at home, look at television and all the rest. We pray, Lord, that many hearts might be stir this morning, O to spend more time with thee and for thee. We pray, Lord God, open this up again for us this evening as we think of the evening of the First Lord's Day. This morning we've spoken of the morning of the First Lord's Day.
Hope prepare our hearts as we speak again tonight in thy will. And bless us as we separate. And if there's one unsaved here now, Lord, help that that one might bow at thy feet, and like Mary say, Raboni, and take thee as their personal slave. We seek thy parting blessing in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.