Passage

John 20:17-18

"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.'"

[18] Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and that He had said these things to her."

Introduction

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, members of over 5,600 branch churches in Korea and all over the world including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Honduras, Peru, Bolivia, El Salvador, Argentina, Germany, France, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Estonia, Belgium, Netherlands, China, Japan, Pakistan, Nepal, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, India, Mongolia, Egypt, Israel, Kenya, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Swaziland, South Africa, Botswana, Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, and local sanctuary members, those who are attending the service on the Internet all over the world, and television viewing audiences,
Today is the Easter Sunday that gives the greatest joy and happiness to us who have become children of God in faith.
Our Lord Jesus was hung on the cross, crucified, and resurrected breaking the power of death, and thereby became our Savior. Let's give glory and thanks to our Lord with a big hand.
Our Father God gave us the message titled "Love" on this meaningful Easter Sunday.
You have already heard many messages on "Love". I hope that you will examine how sincere and true your love is for our Father God, the Lord and the shepherd who guides you into spirit when I speak to you about the true meaning of love on this Easter.
Through this message, I wish for you to cultivate and let your love for the Lord continue to grow more beautifully until our Lord comes again so that you can express your love for God and move His heart.
God has completed 6 thousand years of human cultivation with the groaning that words cannot express and has toiled and endeavored a great deal. I pray in the name of the Lord that to this God you will become a true child and give comfort, joy, and honor.

Body

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
How then can we accomplish such a true and sincere love that can move the heart of our God?
First of all, you have to love our Lord with an unchanging heart like Mary Magdalene.
The core of the true love that our Father God wants to receive from His children is the unchanging heart.
This unchanging heart can be categorized into three fields. The first field of the unchanging heart is one's inner heart.
If your inner heart is unchanging, no matter what kind of unexpected things you may encounter, you will never be shaken in loving our God and our Lord.
When you meet unexpectedly with accidents and incidents, we might say that it is like a lightning bolt from a clear, blue sky.
When you are never shaken in your love for the Lord and our Father God in any circumstance that comes like a bolt-out-of-the-blue, then it can be said that you possess unchanging love in your inner heart.
It was the same with Mary Magdalene. From the time she gained a new life through Jesus, Mary Magdalene came to love Him with a true heart. She followed and served Him with everything she had so that she could become strength to Him.
Mary knew that Jesus had done only good and performed amazing works of God's power, but she heard that He had been arrested by Jewish soldiers.
Just a few hours before, Jesus had eaten the Last Supper with His disciples and shared the word of God with them. Then they went up to the Mountain of Olives as usual with Him. But suddenly He was arrested and taken away by Jewish soldiers.
It was like a lightning bolt from the clear blue to Mary Magdalene.
Mary Magdalene immediately got up and ran up into the yard of the high priest and found that Jesus was there in ropes.
The high priests, elders, and scribes bore false testimonies to one another, and they brought accusations against Jesus for various reasons. Finally, they condemned Him to death.
They spat on Jesus, beat Him about the head and face, and He was blind-folded and they ridiculed the innocent Jesus in various ways.
When Mary Magdalene saw that the precious Jesus had been beaten and ridiculed by the wicked people, what kind of heart did she have?
Did she think that "I have mistakenly been believing in Jesus, so if I remain here, I will suffer harm."?
Not at all!
Mary was never shaken in her trust and love for Jesus at all. When Jesus was hit by the wicked people, she felt the pain as if she herself had been struck.
That was not the end of His sufferings. Jesus was taken away to Pontius Pilate from the high priest's court, and Pilate ordered his men to scourge and then crucify Jesus.
In this situation, Jesus never seemed to try to escape from the crucifixion and death.
Mary knew this fact very well, but because she had already harbored her unchanging love for Jesus within her, she did not follow any fleshly thought and had neither fear nor doubt.
When unexpected and shocking things continuously happened to Jesus including His arrest and crucifixion, Mary did not shrink back in fear at all. Instead, stronger love for Jesus was instilled in her heart and she followed Jesus, who took the cross and went to Golgotha. She remained under the cross to the last moment.
When you and I watch the Passion of Jesus in movies or from a play, we feel heartbreaking pains and sorrows. Can you imagine how Mary Magdalene felt when she witnessed His crucifixion firsthand?
She felt all the same pains Jesus suffered on the cross, and stayed under the cross until Jesus drew His last. She was feeling that she just could not let him go.
This is the form of a person who has unchanging love his/her inner heart.
There have been many fathers of faith who had unchanging hearts.
Let's think of Abraham. God commanded Abraham, the Father of Faith, to sacrifice his only son Isaac, whom he begot at 100, as a burnt offering.
This command of God seems to be unacceptable using common sense, knowing that God had actually promised Abraham that countless offspring would come forth through this only son.
Abraham tried to immediately obey this command of God without any form of discomfort or ill feelings.
That was because he loved God more than his only son Isaac, and believed that God would be able to raise Isaac from death when he offered him as a burnt sacrifice.
It was the same with Daniel and his three friends. As they possessed unchanging love in their inner hearts, they were not shaken in heart at all when they were thrown into blazing furnace or when Daniel was cast into the lion's den.
They neither complained nor grumbled thinking, "I have feared God and observed His commands with an innocent heart, but why does God not protect me?"
Instead, they firmly confessed that they would not change even if God would not rescue them from those dangerous trials. Instead they accepted the trials with thanksgiving.
As a result, the glory of God was greatly revealed through Daniel and his three friends.

Didn't your love for our Father God and our Lord change when you were in trials and difficulties?
Those of you who do not love God from the bottom of your heart but just outwardly may find that your hearts are shaken either a little or even greatly when you face difficulties or burdens.
For example, many of you profess your love for the Lord, but when you face trials or hardships, you may have ill feelings or become disheartened thinking why God allows you those trials.
Some of you may think that God does not love you because you have made many kinds of mistakes, have may blemishes, and feel disappointed by yourself.
As a matter of fact, our Father God is Love and His love is steadfast, but when you have that kind of mind and thought, it proves that your heart has already been shaken.
Your love for God has changed, but you fail to realize it and feel that God's love has become different.
Our Father God's love never ends and His heart is never changing.
The Bible tells that it is because of His love for us that God sometimes disciplines and reproaches us in His justice.
So, Hebrews 12:6 says, "For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives."
First of all, God demonstrated His love for us through His only begotten Son, as Jesus said in Romans 5:8.
To this day I have steadfastly loved our Father God without any change of the heart, so when I have suffered in any kind of trials, I never found it difficult believing and trusting in God.
No matter how many people of the world misunderstood and brought false accusations against me, it did not matter to me because I clang to one fact, and that fact is that my Father God knows my sincere heart and loves me.
I urge all of you to accomplish the unchanging love for the Lord within your inner heart.
And I pray in the name of the Lord that you will overcome any kind of difficulties with the strength of your love for the Lord and be a great joy and an honor to our Father God, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I pray!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
The true love God wants us to possess is unchanging love, and now let's delve into the second aspect, that of the truthfulness.
Our Lord Jesus said in Mark 12:30, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength."
Now let us examine what it is to be steadfast and unchanging in loving God with all our hearts and with all our strength.
First, it is whether we have been unchanging in loving God with all our hearts.
When you were a beginner in faith, you had little knowledge of truth but your heart was burning with the first love for God and you loved Him with all your heart as much as you learned the truth.
In other words, you kept the Lord's Day when you were taught to do it, and gave the whole tithes when you were taught to do it.
At that time the measure of truth you had accomplished in your heart was only a little, but you fervently loved God with that measure of truth.
If you have given all your heart in loving God without any change of heart and raised the measure of truth in your heart two or three times by improving your faith, the measure of your dedication to our Father God should have increased two or three times as well.
This is the proof that you love God with all your heart, without any change in your love, and you harbor true love within you.
But some of you have grown in your faith, but you are found to give God just the same measure of your heart that you did during the early days of your faith.
And you mistakenly feel comforted thinking you have loved God with the same measure of your heart without change.
Let me give you another example. Let's say your faith has grown 3 times what it was initially as a beginner in your faith, but the measure of your heart given to God has grown one and a half times.
By the numerical value of the measure of your heart seems to have increased, but the relative value is just a half of that of your faith.
Some of you may find these cases applicable and think that you have really loved God without changing because you give the more of your heart than ever before.
But, if we measure the two cases compared to the standard of truthfulness, both of the values are insufficient.
You may think that you have loved God with a sincere and unchanging heart, but at some point in time you have failed to give all your heart and sincerity in order to seek the desires, self-benefits and self-comforts that have broken into your heart.
Our Lord teaches us in Matthew 6:21, "for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Let's think of our offerings as a case of our dedicating our hearts to God.
I have increased the measure of my offerings continually. For the last 10 years, I have increased the measure of my offerings 10 times than 10 years ago.
When I was a beginner, I gave offerings with all my heart because I was so grateful for the grace of the Lord. This heart has been steadfast and unchanging, so now the measure of my offerings is the first place in this church that has so many believers.
I have illustrated the measure of offerings for your better understanding. I wish that through this illustration you will realize what it is to give all your heart without any change.
Next, you have to examine with how much strength you have loved God and measure the truthfulness of your love for God.
Let me give you an illustration. A 10-year-old boy can take the load of 5 kg instead of his mother carrying it; a 15-year-old boy can take a heavier load, and finally a 20-year-old man can carry a much heavier load.
If 15-year-old boy or 20-year-old man just takes just the load of 5 kg, but says he loves his mother unchangingly, is it true?
In the same way, you have to give your "strength" in many fields to carry out your God-given duties.
If your faith has grown and the years of your faith are long, but you feel burdened in receiving God-given duties, you can never be deemed to love God.
This is the same to those who have received the duties, but do not try their best to fulfill the duties.
Even if you have the strength to carry the heavier load and even if you can bring more benefits for the kingdom of God, if you say, "I have no strength to take that heavy load," or "I don't want to carry that heavy load," you cannot be deemed to be a true man of God.
To this day I have never thought that my ministry was enough. I did not want to take a rest with the contentment in my ministry, but I have increasingly accomplished more difficult and burdensome works without ceasing.
In reality our Father God has continually guaranteed me with greater power, so how would I dare to rest on the former level of works?
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Thirdly, one who is unchanging and loves with a sincere heart is accompanied with deeds of obedience.
His deeds will then yield fruit.
After she met the risen Lord, all the pains and sorrows disappeared from Mary Magdalene and the fullness of joy filled her.
Her love for the Lord was so truthful and never changeable, so her love could bear fruits even after the ascension of the Lord.
She could do the Last Commission of the Lord – to bear witness of the Lord's resurrection and spread the gospel with all her strength.
She never lost her strength in deep sorrows when the Lord was not beside her, nor did she lose the joy because she believed the promise of seeing the Lord again.
She sometimes had to go hungry because of the lack of food, and sometimes she was put in dangerous situations because of the persecution that came from the Jews. But, she did not give up, but spread the love and the word of the resurrection of the Lord until she again drew close to Him.
Those of you who really love the Lord and are unchanging in your love for the Lord can bear the fruits from your deeds.
In other words, you will put into practice the deeds of evangelizing, becoming sanctified, praying, loving the souls and loving the shepherd who guides you into spirit.
Many of you are joyful and thankful when you are full of the first love and the grace of the Father.
But why have some of you lost your first love for Him?
Revelation 2:4 explains to us that you lose your first love because the deeds you had at first have fallen at some point of your faith.
It is because you confessed your love for God, but you acted not as God wanted, but as you wanted.
When difficulties that did not agree with your benefits and thoughts came upon you, you thought you tried to do things wisely in accordance with your situation, but it was, in fact, to hide your heart that didn't want to give to God and try the best.
If you turn your mind back around, and choose the ways that are acceptable to the Lord in everything, and endeavor with all your heart and strength, you can restore your first love and make it greater.
I wish for all of you to recover your true and sincere love for the Lord from this Easter Sunday and accomplish deeper and greater love for Him till the return of the Lord.

Conclusion

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Mary Magdalene loved the Lord without any change and revealed truthful love with true deeds. That's why she was led as a witness for the very first time to the resurrected Lord.
Do you want to become the beloved brides of the Lord who can receive Him with joy and confidence when He comes again in the air?
I hope you will keep the conditions of having true love in your mind and make this your spiritual bread.
The core of true love for the Lord is to love unchangingly.
I have explained three aspects of the unchanging love – first, in view of inner heart, secondly, in view of truthfulness, and thirdly, in view of deeds.
I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, the Lord of love, that you will make this message your strength and grace, move the heart of our Father God with true heart and receive His amazing love!

[Amen]

2007-04-10 Posted
2007-04-26 Updated