A reading of the holy gospel according to John. Mary stood weeping outside of the tomb. And as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb. And there she saw two angels in white. Sitting where the body of Jesus had lain.
One at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, woman, why are you weeping? Mary said to them, because they have taken away my lord, and I don't know where they have laid him. Saying this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she didn't know that it was Jesus. He said to her, woman, why are you weeping?
Whom do you seek? Mary, thinking him to be the gardener, said, 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 in Hebrew, Raboni, which means teacher. Jesus said to Mary, do not hold me for I have not yet ascended to the father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and to your father, to my god, and to your god.
Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, I have seen the lord and she told them that he had said these things to her. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. Among the many emphatic emphatic, indisputable themes of holy week and of Easter and of the reading today from the book of the acts of the apostles, there among many, there's one item that comes out brilliantly clear and that's the fact of sin. Now I'm reminded of this because for well, for two first of all, I I I saw and listened to Billy Graham last night giving one of his I don't know what to call an exhortations, sermons, homilies, whatever to a vast crowd of people.
And I will wager you that of his address 85 or 80 or 85% of it was quotations from the bible. Notice he never says he always just refers to the bible or the word of God. He never says Matthew, Mark, Saint Paul or that sort of thing. At least 80%, even probably more was direct quotations from the bible and especially the new testament, and it bore on sin. The way he stood up in that vast multitude and talked about sin was something astounding to me.
We're not doing it. You can you can come into this church any minute a number of times and hear nothing about sin. And that's that's the the the nature, the climate of our times. We notice, we don't use the word such words even as immorality anymore. It's antisocial conduct.
And yet here's a man who stood up before this vast multitude and told them about death, judgment, heaven and hell. That if you die and in sin you go to hell. Most of us are trying to forget hell. I mean Catholics. I'm not talking about our dear separated brethren.
I'm talking about members of the holy Roman Catholic church. We have downgraded the fact of sin and yet the whole Easter, the whole idea of the passion and death of Christ has to do with redemption. Redemption from what? We're talking about the liberation theology. That's the great thing.
Not personal sanctity, not holiness. We're trying to make this a better world. What did Karl Marx try to do? Make this a better world. I have respect for Marx.
I have very little for some of these people are talking about Christian Marxism. This is an astounding this is an astound and remember this is true of most of your what we call mainline religions. We have down we have downgraded such ideas as dying, judgment, good where the good will be rewarded, and those who die in sin are damned. Now the reason I I never talked like this in my life from the pulpit, and this is because I saw Billy Graham last night do it. Because the thought struck me, there's we're off the track.
Life isn't all fun and games, it's not all the glories of Christmas and Easter. Far from it. Because if you take either one of these great feasts, the beginning of our Lord's earthly life and the end of his earthly life and the beginning of his deified life as the resurrected as the risen Christ. What's it all about? Redemption.
And as I say, from what? If it isn't from sin. And let me tell you as I say, Billy was quoting the Bible all the time. So if he is wrong then I know where he's getting all his wrongness is getting it from the Bible. And if the bible's wrong in this matter, we're in bad shape, very bad shape.
Remember the old testament's involved with sin. The very first part of Genesis has to do with the fall of man. We don't even like to admit knack now. We we have all kinds of rationalizations of what happened in the Garden of Eden. Anything to avoid the fact that man is not perfect or at least is potentially perfect and on his way to perfection.
100% Marxism. Well, I rest my case with Peter here today. I know that I like to be in his company and I hope he isn't too ashamed of me, but Peter got up before that whole vast multitude and said, look, you're a bunch of awful grievous sinners. You crucified the son of God and you're lost unless you repent and are baptized. That's what Peter told.
And we are told that 3,000 were baptized. They were all Jews. Let us you see, you cannot you cannot reject sin without rejecting responsibility. Just keep these two things in mind. There is no such thing as as sin without culpability and responsibility.
And so let us take this to heart. Sin is a fact. God didn't come to save me because I didn't need saving. He came because I needed it, because I'm a sinner. And if I don't repent and get straightened out before I die, I go to hell.
Whatever hell is. But I don't think I'd like to gamble on trying to find it out in the hard way by going there. And so we certainly ought to take to heart with Peter standing up, laying it on the line. You have rejected, destroyed, executed the son of God, and that is a definition of sin. In the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit.
Amen.