R.A. Torrey emphasizes the significance of the resurrection of Jesus, detailing the events surrounding His empty tomb as witnessed by Mary Magdalene and the other women. He explores their deep love and devotion, despite their initial confusion and sorrow, highlighting how their faith was rewarded with the revelation of the risen Christ. The sermon illustrates the importance of overcoming obstacles in our devotion to Christ and the joy of sharing the good news of His resurrection. Torrey also reflects on the roles of Peter, John, and the angels, emphasizing the transformative power of encountering the risen Lord.

(Compare Matthew 28:1–15; Luke 23:56–24:12) DISCOVERY OF THE FACTS 1. Mary Magdalene and the Other Women Go to the Tomb to Embalm Jesus, Mark 16:1–4; John 20:1 At what time of day does this lesson open? (Mark 16:1.) What did they do that evening? (Matt. 28:1, R. V.) Did the body of Jesus need embalming? Was this mistaken service acceptable to Jesus? Ought they to have known that the body of Jesus was not lying in the sepulchre? (Matt. 16:21; 20:19.) Why didn’t they know it? Why are there so many things about Jesus which we ought to know that we do not know? How did their act reveal the depth, earnestness and unselfishness of their love? How was that love to be rewarded? In what way was the eagerness of their love shown? (John 20:1; Mark 16:2.) Are people nowadays much in the habit of getting up early to perform services for Christ? In what way did they display their courage? What time of day was it when they reached the tomb? When does John seem to say it was? (John 20:1.) How can these seeming discrepancies as to the time be reconciled? Was it dark in more senses than one when they started for the sepulchre? How dark was it? But what was just at hand? What difficulty occurred to their minds as standing in the way of their enterprises? (Mark 16:3, R. V.) Ought they not to have thought of that before? Which is better, the practical common sense, that, foreseeing all the difficulties, sits down and does nothing, or the uncalculating love that follows its own impulse and risks the difficulties? Was the difficulty great in this case? (Mark 16:4; Matt. 27:60.) Who removed it? (Matt. 28:2.) If we march right up to the difficulties that lie in the path of loving devotion to Christ, what will become of them? Would these women have missed anything if they had been disheartened by the difficulties and gone back? How is it that we miss many of the blessings God has for us? (Rev. 2:10.) Who had tried to make the entrance of the disciples into the sepulchre impossible? (Matt. 27:62–66.) Had their precautions seemed sufficient? Why did they amount to nothing after all? Why do all the obstacles which the enemies of Christ put in the way of the disciples of Christ amount to nothing? (Ro. 8:31; Prov. 21:30.) Was the stone rolled away to let Jesus out or to let the disciples in? 2. Mary Goes in Search of Peter and John, John 20:2 What did Mary at once conclude when she saw the stone rolled back from the door of the sepulchre? How did Mary feel about it? (John 20:13.) Was there any real cause for mourning? If her eyes could have followed the body of her Lord to where it really was would she have mourned? If the eyes of many mourners, who stand beside the empty cradle or chair could follow the missing person to where he really is would they mourn? What did Mary do? What did she still call Jesus? Was her faith all gone? If she had had the faith she ought to have had what would have been her explanation of the empty sepulchre? What then lay at the bottom of Mary’s deep and bitter sorrow? 3. The Other Women Enter the Sepulchre, Mark 16:5–8 Did they find what they expected in the sepulchre? What did they see? What was the effect upon them? (Compare Luke 24:5.) Why were they frightened? What ought to have been their feelings? Why were they not prepared for such an experience? With what glad tidings did the angel seek to reassure them? What is the most reassuring of all Christian truths? What sort of a Saviour had they sought? What sort of a Savior had they found? What part has the crucified Saviour in our salvation? (Ro. 5:10, first half.) What part has the risen Saviour in our salvation? (Ro. 5:10, last half; Heb. 7:25; 1 John 2:1; Ro. 4:25; Acts 2:32, 33; Col. 2:12, 13.) What is the believer’s reply to all who would condemn? (Ro. 8:34.) Ought the announcement of the angel to have surprised the disciples? How had it all turned out? (c. 9:31.) How will everything turn out? Are we ever surprised when things turn out just as Jesus says they will? Why is that? Were the women allowed to linger at the tomb? How were they to go? (Matt. 28:7.) Is there any lesson in that for us? Who were the first divinely commissioned preachers of the Gospel of the resurrection? Ought not those women to have kept silence in the church? Who was especially mentioned to whom they should tell the good news? Why “and Peter”? Where were the disciples told to go? what for? Did they not see Him before they reached Galilee? (John 20:19.) Is there any inconsistency in these two accounts? What were their feelings as they left the sepulchre? (Compare Matt. 28:8.) Why were they afraid? 4. Peter and John at the Sepulchre, John 20:3–10 What was the effect upon Peter and John of the information Mary brought? How did they go? Why did they run? Which got there first? Why? What did he do? Why did he not go in? What did he see? What did Peter do? Why did he enter in? What did he see? Was there anything significant in the linen clothes lying and the napkin “rolled up in a place by itself”? What did John do after Peter had entered? What was the result of his entering? What did he see? What did he believe (v. 9)? Why did he believe upon merely seeing the linen clothes lying and the napkin “rolled up in a place by itself?” Had they believed up to that time? Had they any grounds for belief? (Matt. 16:21; Mark 9:9, 10.) Is it credible that with all the previous announcements of the resurrection they should not believe? Why had they not understood? (Mark 9:31, 32.) What reason does John give for their not believing until then? (Compare Ps. 16:10; 22:16, 22; Is. 26:19; 53:10.) Were they to blame for not understanding all this, and believing? (Luke 24:25, 26.) What did they do next? 5. Mary Magdalene Comes the Second Time to the Sepulchre and the Risen Christ Makes His First Appearance, John 20:11–18; Mark 16:9–11 Who had come back to the sepulchre while Peter and John were there? When they left what did she do? (John 20:11.) Why did she not go home? What was she doing there? As she wept what did she do? What did she see? Why had not the disciples seen them? When does God make His especial revelations? Was she particularly impressed by the angels? Why not? What did the angels say? Why did they ask that (v. 15)? Are Jesus and the angels interested in our sorrows today? What was her sorrow founded upon? How many of our sorrows are founded upon a mistake? How did she speak of Jesus here? (Compare 2.) Would you weep if some one should take away your Lord and you did not know where to find Him? What kind of Lord was she about to find? What did she do as she said that? Why did she turn herself? Whom did she see? Did she recognize Him? Does Jesus ever stand beside us and we do not recognize Him? Why did she not recognize Him? (John 21:4; Mark 16:12; Luke 24:16, 32.) What held her eyes? What question did Jesus put to her? Why did He put that question to her? How did His question differ from that of the angels? What was Mary’s answer? Could she “take Him away”? Why then did she say she would? What happened just then? When Mary heard that, what did she know? What was Mary’s feeling? Will there ever come such a wondrous moment in our lives? What did she say? How do you explain the “turned herself”? (Compare v. 14.) What did Mary do? What is the meaning of the “Touch Me not”? (The primary meaning of the Greek word used is “to fasten one’s self to,” “to cling to”). Note the contrasted duty “but go, etc.,” and compare Matt. 28:7, 9, 10.) Instead of clinging to Him, what was Mary to do? Are there ever times now when, instead of clinging to the Lord who has manifested Himself to us, we should speed away and tell to sorrowing hearts the good news? To whom did Jesus commit the first preaching of the Gospel of a risen Christ? Had this woman to whom Jesus first appeared after His resurrection and to whom He committed the first preaching of the Gospel of a risen Christ, ever been very low down? (Mark 16:9.) Does the fact that one is very low down in Satan’s power prove that God will never exalt him to a place of special honor? What was the message she was to bear? How did He speak of the disciples? (Matt. 28:10.) Is He then our brother still? Why did He not say “Our Father”? Is there any indication here that the disciples were at this time regenerate men? How do we become sons of God? (Gal. 3:26; John 1:12, 13.) How further does Jesus speak of the One to whom He went? What is indicated by the use of the expression “my God”? By the coupling of these two titles, what do we see that the one who is our God at the same time is? (See also Is. 41:10; Jer. 31:33; Rev. 21:3.) What did Mary do? What would it have been if she had refused or delayed to go with this glad message to these sorrowing hearts? Has He given us any commission like Mary’s (Mark 16:15.) What if we refuse or delay to go with the glad message? What did Mary find the disciples doing? (Mark 16:10.) Why were they weeping? Why was that weeping out of place? Do Christians ever go mourning and weeping as if they had a dead Christ? What is the best news to take them? How was Mary’s testimony received? (Mark 16:11.) Why ought it to have been believed? (Luke 24:25; Matt. 26:31, 32.) Is it credible that after all the plain announcements of the resurrection, the disciples should be so entirely unprepared for it? What will help us to understand that? Were the disciples in a state of mind to imagine a resurrection which did not really take place? What interval marks of genuineness does the story bear? CLASSIFICATION OF TEACHINGS 1. Jesus His divinity, John 20:17; His humanity, John 20:12, 17; Mark 16:6; His subordination to the Father, John 20:17; His superiority to the angels, John 20:12; His crucifixion, Mark 16:6; His burial, John 20:12; His resurrection, John 20:1–8; Mark 16:1–11; His ascension, John 20:17; His sublime calmness, John 20:7; His wondrous tenderness—“Mary,” John 20:15; His matchless forbearance—“And Peter,” Mark 16:7; His untiring sympathy evidenced by a deep interest in human sorrow (John 20:15) and His standing beside His disciples in their grief (John 20:14); unwearying patience evidenced in revealing Himself to loving and sorrowing hearts even when in culpable ignorance and unbelief, John 20:14–17; Mark 16:9–11; His infinite condescension evidenced by His revealing Himself to those who seek Him ignorantly and blindly (John 20:15, 16) and by appearing first to one who had been possessed of seven demons and commissioning her as the first preacher of the Gospel of a risen Christ, Mark 16:9; His amazing magnanimity shown even after His glorious resurrection in calling the crushed and cowering disciples, “my brethren,” John 20:17; His loving command, to go tell sorrowing hearts the glad tidings of a risen Christ, John 20:17. 2. Mary (1). Her condition when she first met Jesus: Possessed by seven demons, Mark 16:9. (2). What Jesus had done for her: Cast the demons out, Mark 16:9. (3). Her love to Jesus: Bought spices to anoint Him, Mark 16:1; came to the tomb very early, while it was yet dark, Mark 16:1; John 20:1; could not leave the tomb where her loved One had lain even after she had found it empty, John 20:11 (the first and last at the Saviour’s tomb); clung to the titles, “Lord” and “my Lord” even when faith was broken and almost dying, John 20:2, 13; had no eyes even for angels now her Lord was gone, and desired no heavenly visitors but Jesus Himself, John 20:12–14; forgot her weakness in her love and offered to do the impossible for Him she loved, John 20:15; reached out her hands to cling to the risen Lord the moment she heard his voice, John 20:17; obeyed the voice of the beloved even when He bade her leave Him—leaving the place of rapturous vision of Himself for the place of kindly service to others, John 20:18. (4). What was done for her: The stone was rolled away by angel hands that she might get access to the empty tomb, John 20:1; a vision of two angels granted to her, John 20:12; a vision of Jesus Himself granted to her, John 20:14; the voice of Jesus heard in tender self-revelation, “Mary”, John 20:16. (5). Her mistakes: She imagined her Lord was stolen when He was in fact risen, John 20:2, 13; she wept over a stolen Lord when she should have rejoiced over a risen Lord, John 20:11; in her grief mistook angels for men, John 20:12–14; in her grief mistook Jesus Himself for the gardener, John 20:14, 15. (6). Her quick recognition of her risen Lord in the one familiar call, “Mary,” John 20:16. (7). Her commission: Leave the place of ecstatic communion and speed away to comfort sorrowing hearts with the glad tidings of a risen and ascending Lord, John 20:17. 3. The Other Women Their love to Jesus, Mark 16:1, 2; perplexity, Mark 16:3; deliverance from their perplexity, Mark 16:4; privilege, Mark 16:5, 6; commission, Mark 16:7; disobedience through foolish fear: “They said nothing to any one,” etc., Mark 16:8, R. V. 4. John Loved of Jesus, John 20:2; forgetful of his Lord’s oft repeated words, John 20:9; compare Matt. 16:21, 22; ignorant of the Scripture, John 20:9; ran to the empty tomb, John 20:4; outran Peter, John 20:4; stopped reverently without, John 20:5; looked in with eager, anxious gaze, John 20:5; saw the linen cloths lying, John 20:5; followed Peter’s example and entered, John 20:8; saw the napkin “rolled in a place by itself” and believed in a risen Christ, John 20:7, 8. 5. Peter Tenderly loved by Christ even after his denial, Mark 16:7, see 4:2, 3, 4; rushed impetuously and unhesitatingly into the tomb, John 20:6; saw the linen cloths lying and the napkin rolled up in a place by itself, John 20:6, 7; failed to see their meaning, John 20:8. 6. The Disciples Their mistaken grief: Mourned a dead Christ when He was really risen, Mark 16:10. Their undeserved privilege: Mary was sent to them with the glad tidings of a risen Christ, John 20:17. Their great glory: “My brethren,” John 20:17. Their persistent unbelief: Mark 16:11. 7. Angels Lingered about the scene of Jesus’ victory over death, John 20:12; Mark 16:5–7; ministering spirits, Mark 16:5–7; take an interest in human sorrow, John 20:13; are especially near Christ’s most sorrowing ones, John 20:12; compare 5–7; first announced the resurrection, Mark 16:6.