Your Story Could Change Someone's Life! | Pastor Mark Crull

likely person you know who would ever become a Christian. All right, think about that. You know them personally and you think, "This person, they are the least likely person to ever cross that line of faith and become a disciple of Jesus Christ." And so what is it about that person that you know that makes you think, "This is the least likely person." Is it their lifestyle? Maybe they live a very worldly lifestyle. Is it their worldview? Maybe they're an atheist. You're like, "Well, Mark, this person doesn't even believe God exists. How could they become a follower of Christ if they don't even believe that God exists?" Maybe it's a past hurt that they have, past church hurt. Maybe they have an addiction that's just debilitating in their life and they just can't seem to get beyond it. Well, we're in this 52 week series, right? Great cloud of witnesses. Our person today falls into that category. This person is one of the least likely persons you would ever think who would become a devoted follower of Jesus Christ. And it's a story about life changed, like Judy. It's a story—do you know that one of the most powerful pieces of evidence for the reality of Jesus Christ is a changed life? You can argue with somebody's theology. You can argue all day long about the interpretation of the Bible and what this verse means or what that verse means, but there is something very compelling about a person who stands up and says, "I know who I was. I know what happened to me when I met Jesus, and I know I am not the same person that I used to be." You cannot—what can you do with that testimony?

You can't argue it, it's a testimony. It's one of the most powerful evidences of Jesus. There's a story about a guy who is battling alcohol his whole life, and he found Christ and it changed his life, and one of his old friends comes to him and says, "You don't really believe all that about God, do you?" And he replied, "As a matter of fact, I do." And his friend pressed him, "You actually believe that Jesus turned water into wine." And the man thought for a moment, and then he answered, he goes, "I don't know much about how Jesus turned water into wine, but in my house I watched him turn beer money into grocery money." His point was simple, right? It's my testimony. I know what he did for me, what he did to me, and when you open the New Testament, there may be no better example of that kind of transformation than a woman named Mary Magdalene. Mary is one of the most recognizable women in the Bible, and yet there's a lot that we don't know about her. We don't know her age, we don't know whether she was married or not, we don't know whether she had children or not, we don't know what she did for a living, we don't know how and when Jesus met her, but we know that she met Jesus. There's also an important misconception about Mary Magdalene that I want to set straight in case you have this in your mind. For centuries, Mary had been sometimes portrayed as a prostitute, or identified as a sinful woman who anointed Jesus' feet with oil, she's even been identified as the woman who was caught in adultery when Jesus wrote in the sand. But you need to know that the Bible never makes that identification of Mary Magdalene. This came in the late 4th century under Pope Gregory. These ideas about who Mary was became evident. The Bible teaches us none of those things, but it does teach us that she was possessed by seven demons. Think about that.

Ten demons possessed her, but Jesus delivered her, she became one of his devoted followers, she supported his ministry, she was there at the cross, she was there when he was buried, she was there at the tomb, and when Christ was risen from the dead, we find Mary there also. She was the first person that Jesus sent out to tell others about himself being risen. I believe there are four words that capture Mary's story, and it captures the story of anybody who is a follower of Jesus Christ. I hope that it does, or it should capture us. These four words are this, delivered, devoted, present, and sent. We're going to start with the word deliver. In Luke 8, it says this. After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The 12 were with them. Those are the 12 disciples. And also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. Mary called Magdalene from whom seven demons had come out. Joanna, the wife of Chuzah, the manager of Herod's household, Susanna, and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means. Luke introduces Mary by telling us something that had happened to her in her past. Seven demons had come out of her. And we don't know exactly what Mary's life looked like under that kind of spiritual oppression. And we should be careful not to speculate beyond what the scriptures tell us.

But we know that we do know one thing. It was a serious, I mean, you would agree this was a serious situation for her. I mean, she knew spiritual darkness. She was in bondage to these demons. She knew what it meant to live under profound spiritual oppression. If you're anybody like the chosen series on TV, the chosen season one, episode one, starts right here with Mary Magdalene. Try to imagine what life may have been like for her before she met Jesus. Some of you may say, Mark, I don't have to imagine it. I've lived that life. Perhaps she wondered whether she would always be this way. Perhaps she wondered whether her family wondered whether they would ever get old Mary back. Maybe people in her community avoided her. They whispered about her. They were frightened of her. Maybe some had simply given up hope that Mary would ever be different. Perhaps Mary herself reached the point where she no longer believed her life could change. But then this happened. Mary met Jesus, that happened. Now, I don't know what you make of that sentence. It's a short sentence, isn't it? To me, that's our mission statement as a church. Our mission as a church is to make Jesus known.

This isn't an intellectual concept. We don't want people just to know about Jesus. We want people to know Jesus. We want people to meet Jesus. This concept is a relational concept. It's a faith concept. It's a belief concept. Mary met Jesus and it changed her profoundly forever. So I think the natural question is, have you met Jesus? Have you met Jesus? Say, well, how do I know? I think you would know. I think you would know if you've met Jesus. If you met Jesus 15 years ago, how has your life changed in the last 15 years? The way you think, the way you speak, the way you act, the way you believe, your attitude, your motives, your generosity? How has life changed for you in the last 15 years? Have you met Jesus? We are not given the details of the encounter when Mary met Jesus. I wish we were, I think it would be amazing to know the circumstances. But what we do know is the result. The result is, again, seven demons came out of her. Jesus set her free and she was delivered. And you think about that morning after she was delivered. What that must have been like for Mary, she opens her eyes and something's different.

There's peace, there's clarity, there's freedom, perhaps for the first time in years, Mary realizes that she has her old life back. And yet the truth is even greater than that. She didn't have her old life back. She had a whole new life that Jesus had given her. She was in utter spiritual darkness possessed by seven demons. If you're in a room that's perfectly dark, what do you have to do to physically have sight? All you need is a light. I mean, any amount of light, your eyes will activate. Spiritually, if you're in complete darkness, what do you need spiritually? You need spiritual light. Jesus was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. In verse 5 of John, chapter 1, it says this, "The light," this is Jesus Christ, "shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it." In chapter 8 of John, it says, "Jesus said these words, 'I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of light.'" Most of us can't identify with Mary's particular situation, like being possessed by seven demons, but we should identify with the word delivered. Do you think about your life as being delivered? Have you been delivered? What have you been delivered from? Paul says this in Colossians, "For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. He has rescued us." I love this word rescued. Why? Because it insinuates that we could not help ourselves. We needed something from outside of us to come and rescue us, and that is the spiritual light of the... We were in this darkness, and that was the spiritual life, and that light is Jesus Christ, the light of the world. If someone's drowning and you see them drowning, it doesn't help to tell them, "Hey, try harder from the shore. Try harder. Hey, try to live a better life. They are drowning."

All right, they need rescued. Prior to Jesus Christ, our spiritual condition, my spiritual condition was utter and complete lostness. Utter lostness. We are not merely... I wasn't merely confused or... I didn't misunderstand Jesus. I was dead. I was dead in my sins. Ephesians 2 says that we were dead in our sins. And here's the thing about dead people. Dead people don't need improvement. Dead people need resurrection. They need resurrection. I needed resurrection. You needed resurrection. That is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not come primarily to make good people better. He came to make dead people alive. He came to find the lost, to forgive sinners, to free captives, to restore the broken, to reconcile men and women to the Lord God Almighty. And one of the greatest dangers for those of us who have been Christians for a long time, if you've been a Christian longer than 10 years, one of the dangers is you may have become accustomed to grace. We sing about grace. We talk about grace. We teach about grace until if we're not careful, grace becomes and feels very ordinary. Mary never seemed to have forgotten what Jesus had done for her, and neither should we. Every once in a while, we need to ask ourselves, "Where would I be without Jesus Christ? Without His grace in my life, what would my life look like? What have I been forgiven of? What has He protected me from? What has He changed in my life?" Now, listen, we should not look back in shame. There's no shame in the risen Christ. There's forgiveness of sins. There's freedom. We should look backwards in gratitude. And Mary had been delivered, but Jesus did not deliver her just from something. He delivered her for something. She was delivered to be devoted. And that's the second point. Mary was devoted to Jesus. And the question is, are you devoted to Jesus? You say, "Well, again, Mark, how do I know if I am devoted to Jesus?" That's a tricky question. I admit, how do you measure that? What does that look like? But I think you might know whether you're devoted to Jesus. Just look at your calendar and look at your checkbook. Those two measurements can kind of tell a huge story about your life, about my life. Am I devoted to Jesus? Luke tells us that Mary had become a part of this group of followers of Jesus Christ. In Luke 8, it says that these women were helping to support them, that is the disciples and the work of Jesus, out of their own means. Mary's response to grace that she received was generosity. Her response to deliverance was devotion. She did not simply thank Jesus for solving her problem and then return back to her regular life. She followed him. She served him.

She gave. She engaged in his mission. Jesus didn't become merely if you needed a kidney and you had a rare blood type, and it was very unlikely that you were going to get this kidney, you know, and you needed it to live. Then you find someone across the country, they have your same blood type, perfect match, and they decide they're going to give you their kidney, and it goes inside your body, and you are healed, and you are healthy, and you meet this person, and you get to know that person. Ten years later, somebody puts a picture of that person in front of you, says, "Do you know this person? What would you say?" Well, yeah, they look vaguely familiar. I think I know that person. No way. No way you would think that. You would be like, "Absolutely, I know that person. That person saved my life ten years ago." Now, think about if that person came to you and they had a legitimate need, they said, "Hey, Mark, I have this need. Would you be able to help me?" Would I respond to that person the same way I would respond to just a regular stranger? No, I would not. I mean, this person did this thing for me. I'm going to help meet their need. Mary responds to the grace that was given to her was a life of generosity. When you remember what someone has given you, generosity becomes the natural response of gratitude, and that is Mary. Jesus had not merely done her a favor. He had given her her life back, and in fact, Mary's response was saying, "My life belongs to you." Paul captures this beautifully in his book to the church in Rome. Romans 12, verse 1, you're probably familiar with this verse. "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy." What is mercy? Mercy is not getting something you deserve. Grace is getting something you don't deserve. They're like two sides of a coin, all right? In view of God's grace, in view of his mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Paul is saying, "If you have received grace in your life, your proper and true response is to offer your life back to God." It's to offer your life back to God. There are three statements that kind of can reframe and reshape our thinking of this. We don't serve Jesus, so he will save us. We serve Jesus because he has saved us. We don't give, so he will love us. We give because he already loves us. We do not obey, so he will accept us. We obey because, through Christ, we have been accepted. You've got to reshape and reframe your worldview of how this works. What does Christianity mean? What does it look like? Why do I do what I do? Why do I serve? Why do I give? Why do I help? It's a response. It's a responsive gratitude. Mary's life challenges comfortable Christianity because her devotion became tangible.

It involved her schedule, her resources, her relationships, where she went, what she said, what she did. It raises the important question that for all of us, what has following Jesus actually changed about my life? What has it actually really changed about my life or my lifestyle? If following Jesus never affects the practical parts of our life, we have to ask ourselves, have we really, are we really devoted? Are we really following Him? Mary's life says, Jesus did not just save me. My life now belongs to Him. She was devoted. She was devoted. However, every person's devotion gets tested and it's easy to be devoted when you're with Jesus and He's feeding the 5,000. It's easy to be devoted when you're with Jesus and Lazarus is raised from the dead or the crowds are shouting, "Hosanna, that's easy to follow Jesus, to be devoted to Him." But what happens when that same crowd flips and instead of shouting, "Hosanna, Hosanna," they're shouting, "Crucify Him, crucify Him." And that's where we find Mary next. She was present with Jesus. We pick up Mary's story in John 19 and it says this, "near the cross of Jesus stood, his mother, his mother, sister, Mary the wife of Clopus and Mary Magdalene." [BLANK_AUDIO] (congregation laughs) Actually the most popular female name worldwide, Mary. There you go. But there's Mary. She is at the cross. Think about the contrast. She had seen Jesus heal people, and now she watched him bleed. She had seen him command demons to leave, and now she heard people mocking him. She had seen Jesus demonstrate incredible power, and now he appeared powerless. How does a person reconcile that contrast? Mary didn't understand what was happening, but she stayed.

She was present. She couldn't take Jesus off the cross. She couldn't reverse Pilate's sentence. She couldn't convince the religious leaders. She couldn't remove his pain. She couldn't fix the situation, but Mary could do one thing. She could stay. She could be present. As a pastor, there are experiences that you have like walking into a hospital room, and immediately you know there is absolutely nothing you can say to fix what is happening in this hospital room. The reality is very clear. The family is devastated. The doctor has said there are no more treatments. You sit beside the bed and you realize no explanation that I can give is going to make everything all right. I mean, it kind of feels a little powerless when you're a pastor and you're in that situation. So what do you do? Well, I'll tell you what you do. You pull up a chair, you sit down, you take a hand, you pray a prayer, you cry with the family, and then you simply stay, you just be present with them. Why? I'll tell you why, because presence is a ministry. Sometimes the greatest gift you can give someone is not an explanation, but the assurance, I am here with you.

And that is Mary at Calvary. She could not fix Friday, but she could remain faithful on Friday. After Jesus died, Mark tells us in Mark 15, Joseph of Arimathea took his body and placed it in a tomb. And it says this, "Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where they laid him. She was not just with him at the cross of Calvary, she's following the body to the tomb. She's present." And there's something we often miss when we read about this whole narrative about Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, there's something that we often miss. When we read that story, we know that Sunday's coming. Mary did not. When we read about Friday, we are already thinking about Easter. We know an empty tomb is coming. Mary did not have that perspective. For Mary, Friday was simply Friday. Jesus had died, her hopes were buried behind a stone. God seemed silent, yet Mary stayed. She stayed close. Some of the hardest seasons that you will find in your faith journey or what we might call Saturday seasons. Do you know what a Saturday season is? A Saturday season is this. On Friday, Friday is when something terrible happens

in your life. And Sunday is when that's something that is terrible that happened. There is a resolution. God has showed up, God has provided clarity or whatever. Saturday is a space in between Friday and Sunday. Saturday is when you pray and nothing seems to happen. It's when you know what God has done in the past, but cannot see what he's doing currently. Saturday is when the marriage has not been restored. The child has not come home. The diagnosis has not changed. The job has not appeared. The grief has not lifted and the answer has not come. Saturday seasons are hard. They can be very hard. Some people live very long Saturday stretches. You know where to go. I don't understand what you are doing. Mary teaches us this. You don't have to understand God in order to remain faithful to God. You don't have to understand God to in order to remain faithful to Him. Sometimes faith sounds like this, God, I don't understand you right now. I don't understand why you would allow this. I don't know how this story ends, but I'm staying. I'm going to keep praying, I'm going to keep worshiping, I'm going to keep serving, I'm going to keep trusting,

I'm going to keep giving, I'm going to keep following. God's silence doesn't mean God is absent. Mary thought nothing was happening, but Sunday was coming. The grave that looked final was not final, the situation that looked hopeless was not hopeless, God was still writing His story, and this leads us to the biggest surprise of Mary's life. Point four, Mary was sent by Jesus. She was sent by Jesus. John 20 says this, early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb. Those words while it was still dark, I think Carrie, not just a physical, it was probably physically dark early in the morning, it was emotional darkness. It was literally dark outside, but it was also dark inside her heart. She was grieving, she was not going to the tomb expecting a resurrection. She was going because she loved Jesus. And when she arrives, she discovers that the stone had been rolled away, it was empty. She goes and gets John and Peter, Peter comes running, they come running to the tomb, they realize this tomb is empty. And so in this part of the narrative of the Bible, you have three people that are there at an empty tomb, the stone is rolled away. And I want you to look at what scripture says

about two of the people and what scripture says about one of the persons. What the Bible says about two of the people is then the disciples, that's John and Peter, went back to their own homes, verse 10. Verse 11 says, okay, then the disciples went back to the home, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. Now, there's no judgment, like what do you do? There's no judgment, I'm just making the point. Here's Mary, she's staying. And because she stayed, like they left, because she stayed, she received the blessing of her life. John 20, 11 through 16, as she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white seated there where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her woman, why are you crying? They have taken my Lord away, she said, and I don't know where they have put him. At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for? Thinking he was the gardener, she said, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him. Jesus said to her, one word, Mary. He says more words, but at this point, it's Mary. One word, her name, and that's when she realized who he was.

Can you imagine that moment? One second, she's grieving, and the next second, he says her name and her eyes are opened, and she recognizes, this is the Lord Jesus Christ, risen. There's something powerful about a familiar voice that says your name. You can be in a crowded airport with chaos going everywhere, and somebody's 10 feet behind you calls out your name. If you know that person, you hear that name, and you know exactly who they are. Why? Because you recognize that voice. You know that name, and there's power insane, your name. Jesus knew her story. He knew what she had been through. He knew her faithfulness, he knew her tears, he knew her pain, he knew her name. And I believe there is somebody here today, whether you're in this room or you're online at one of our campuses or online, you need to hear this. Jesus knows your name, Jesus is with you, Jesus cares. He is not abandoned you. His silence right now is not his absence. known by God. Then Jesus gives Mary an assignment. This is beautiful. Verse 17 says, "Jesus said, do not hold on to me for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them I am returning to my Father and your Father to my God and your God." Those two verbs go and tell them. Those two verbs are the mission people. Go and tell. And Mary did exactly that. Mary Magdalene and verse 18 went to the disciples with the news, "I have seen the Lord." She is the first human being. Mary Magdalene, seven demons, Mary, the first human being to encounter and that Jesus entrusts with the message, "I want you to go and tell." Think about her journey. The woman who had once lived under spiritual darkness was now announcing that darkness had

been defeated. The woman who once needed to be rescued was now carrying the message of rescue. The woman whose life had been changed by Jesus was now being sent by Jesus to tell others how their life can be changed to. Mary had moved from delivered to devoted to present to sent. And church, this is our rhythm also as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Where are you in this? Where are you? Maybe you've been delivered but you're stuck. Maybe you're struggling to be present and to stay. Maybe you have no idea that Jesus has sent you into this world to be a light for others. And you have a testimony to share. You have a story that God could use to change somebody's life. Sometimes Christians are intimidated by sharing their testimony of their faith in Christ. I get that. I mean, who wants to feel rejected or whatever? But I want you to think about this. If you had a great restaurant experience, I think the reason that sometimes we feel intimidated is I don't know what to say. What if they ask me a hard question or I'm not a theologian or I'm not a pastor or whatever? I get that. But think about this. If you had a great experience at a restaurant, the service was great, the food was great, would you agree that you don't need to have a culinary degree to tell somebody about that great experience at the restaurant and recommend that restaurant to somebody? What if a doctor helped you? You had this weird thing going on. You see your doctor. They're like, hey, I've seen this before. I know what this is about. I can help you. They help you. And then you meet someone else as the same thing going on. You don't have to have a medical degree to say, hey, this is what happened to me. I saw this doctor and they helped me. You should go see that doctor. It's as simple. You don't have to have a theology degree. You don't have to be an ordained pastor to share the good news of how Jesus has changed your life. Mary did not know everything, but she knew one thing with absolute certainty. She met Jesus and Jesus changed her life. Psalm 1072 says, "Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story." If Jesus has changed your life, you have a story worth telling, and that could be the one and only application from this message today. Go out and tell your story. Tell your story to somebody. What I love about Mary's story is that it begins with what had been controlling her, but it doesn't end there. Her story begins with darkness and ends with light. It begins with Mary needing someone to bring freedom to her, and it ends with Mary carrying the message of freedom to others. That is what Jesus does. Jesus takes broken stories,

and he writes new endings. Perhaps you see yourself today in this story. Maybe you've You may not have seven demons, but you are in a darkness, a spiritual darkness, and you want to be delivered from that, from your sin, from your addiction, from your fear, from your regret, from your pride, from your guilt, from your sin. And I want to provide an opportunity for you to do just that. You may think, there's no way that God will deliver me. Well, I just would point to the fact God delivered Mary Magdalene. Why wouldn't He deliver you? If that's you, and you know it's you, 'cause you can feel it in your knower. You know in your knower that that's happening in you right now. I want to give you the opportunity to pray. There's a verse in Romans 5, 8 says, but God demonstrates His love for us in this while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. So I'd ask everybody to close your eyes and bow your heads. If you are here today and you're like, Mark, God is doing something in my life. And I don't know what it is, but what I do know is I need to be delivered from it. I'm gonna say a prayer and I'm gonna invite you to quietly from your heart with true sincerity, say this prayer along with me. Father in heaven, I need you. I am lost in my sin. Lord God, I need you to deliver me, just like you delivered Mary.

And as you do, God, I will devote the rest of my life, as Mary did, to following you, to be in present with you, to be in sent by you, God. Thank you, God, that you hear my prayer right now. Thank you that you're faithful and true, and that you're gonna answer this in my life. I pray this in the name of Jesus, my Savior, amen, amen. If you are a person who prayed that prayer, I wanna encourage you to do one thing, and that is simply text the word yes to 85379. The reason we ask you to do that is, we would love to just follow up with you. I don't know exactly what you meant by praying that prayer, but what we wanna do is help walk with you whatever that looked like, whatever that meant, on the journey of being a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ. And so just text the word yes to 85379, and somebody from your campus will follow up with you.