Women of the Resurrection

This episode contains portions from the following programs:

"The Epicenter of Hope"

"He Is the Resurrection and the Life"

"Because He Lives, You Can Face Death with Hope"

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Dannah Gresh: Pastor Daniel Darling has some Easter encouragement for each and every Christian woman listening today.

Daniel Darling: There's something powerful about the witness and the courage and the faithfulness of a Christian woman. God uses Christian women to declare His good news around the world.

Dannah: Welcome, and happy Easter! You’re listening to Revive Our Hearts Weekend. I’m your host, Dannah Gresh.

Well I am especially excited to be here with you today because this weekend is Resurrection Sunday! We’re celebrating the fact that Jesus died and rose again. I enjoy church every week, but there’s something extra sweet about Easter Sunday. Little girls showing off their Easter dresses, loud, joyful worshipers, all the sweet friends around me saying “He is risen!” “He is risen indeed!” So much goodness packed into one morning! And . . . don't get me started on the peanut butter chocolate eggs that are passed around . . . yummm.

You know, some years those words—He is risen—hit a little closer to home than others. There have been Easters where my life is as bright and cheerful as all the little Easter dresses running around the church building . . . and I’m so grateful for those years! But there are others where sin and suffering are looming overhead and my life feels more like that cold, dark tomb where Jesus was laid. And yet it’s there, against the dark backdrop of suffering and grief, that the glory of Christ’s resurrection shines brightest.

We were meant to be women of the resurrection. That’s what today’s program is all about. We’ll hear three stories about women in the face of death and grief, and we’ll also hear how the resurrection infuses hope into their circumstances.

You and I, we were meant to be women of resurrection. That's what today's program is all about. We'll hear three stories of women who faced death and grief, and we'll hear how the resurrection infuses hope into their circumstances.

Now here’s something that’s wild to think about: God wrote women into the resurrection story. That’s right! He gave a group of Jesus-loving ladies a prominent role. They were actually the very first people to see the resurrected Christ. 

Now you might be asking yourself, What’s the big deal? Why is it significant that women were the first to witness that empty tomb? Well, not long ago, my friend Erin Davis talked with Daniel Darling on the Grounded podcast. Pastor Dan wrote a book called The Characters of Easter, where he talks about these very women. I can’t wait for you to hear what he has to say. Let’s listen.

Daniel: I like to write about the characters in the Bible because I don't believe there are any coincidences in who God casts in this Greatest Story, ever. If you think about it, the first witness to the empty tomb, the first witness that Christ had defeated sin and death in the grave and that a new world that's coming . . . The first evangelist was not Pilate, who was the Roman governor. It was not Herod; it was not the disciples; it was not the religious leaders. 

It was Mary Magdalene, who was a previously tormented woman who had seven demons, who is probably an outcast in our community, who struggled probably with mental illness with all that demon possession. She is someone whom Christ had radically changed. She is the first one to tell the world that He has risen. 

What a powerful witness. I think there's a couple of reasons why I think it's significant that women were the first witnesses and the first evangelists. I think, first of all, it follows with the line of Scripture that through a woman sin entered into the world, but also through a woman, the promise entered into the world through Jesus. Mary accepted the assignment to carry Jesus. And then through a woman would be announced the good news of the resurrection.

But secondly, the testimony of women in the first century was not well regarded. It wasn't admissible in a court of law. A lot of scholars have talked about this. And so, it's another proof of the resurrection story, because if this was just the disciples trying to make something up, they would not have put forward women as witnesses. In fact, Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, in his apologetic for the resurrection, he doesn't use their testimony because he knows his audience won't receive that. 

But I think, third, it says something about the kingdom of God that Christianity always elevates the status of women; true Christianity elevates the status of women. Women in the first century were not well regarded. It was unusual that Jesus had female disciples. Rabbis typically did not have female disciples. It would be considered radical, progressive, unusual. And so it all tells us something about who Jesus is, even by the women who were witnesses.

It's Eden come full circle in a couple of ways. I mean number one, when it comes to the status of women, if you go back to Eden where Eve is deceived by the serpent and sin and death come into the world. And then you walk through Mary accepting the call to be the mother of Jesus, and then to the empty tomb where the curse has been reversed and God has through Jesus defeated sin and death and the grave and defeated Satan, it's a woman again announcing the good news. This is the story of Jesus; it’s God's plan of redemption from time immemorial. It's come full circle.

And this is why Easter is so important for us. This is why it matters so much, because this is true. We don't have to despair that God has a plan to renew and restore human hearts but also to renew and restore the world.

Erin Davis: Yeah, I love that. We also know there's a woman watching this right now or she's gonna listen to it later, and she just feels hopeless. She feels as hollow as that tomb. She's going to feel like it's a fairy tale. Not because she doesn't believe it happened but because it just doesn't seem to be touching the parts of her life that feel dark and dead and buried. 

So, for that woman, Daniel, as you've been deep into Scripture, I wonder what you would say to her about how she could reignite her resurrection hope even now? 

Daniel: What I want to say is that to women, especially to moms especially who are tired and weary or just all the stuff around us and just in the thick of motherhood . . . Your labor is not in vain in the Lord. God is using you even in those moments where it seems like what you're doing is not that significant.

These women were coming to treat the body of Jesus. They didn't think this was that significant of a thing. It was just something they were going to do for their friend to give Him an honest and decent, honorable burial. They didn't know that in that moment they would experience some life-changing thing, that this was history being made.

And so, I just want to tell moms that just stay faithful and to stay connected to God. God sees you. He sees your effort. He loves you. There's something powerful about the witness and the courage and the faithfulness of a Christian woman. God uses Christian women to declare His good news around the world, and so I just want to encourage you this Easter.

Dannah: That’s Pastor Daniel Darling encouraging all of us. God’s plan of redemption includes us! There beside that empty tomb, God made a group of grieving ladies into the first evangelists. It’s just incredible! If you’d like to listen to more from Pastor Daniel, you can find his full conversation linked in the transcript of today’s episode. Just visit ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend, and click on today’s episode to find that.

You know, these women were women of the resurrection. They were physically there when it happened. But friend, you and I are women of that same resurrection. We have hope for eternal life because Jesus walked out of the tomb that day. 

Goodness, this makes me excited! We are, I am part of the resurrection story, too, because Jesus is alive today. And as long as we have breath in our lungs, we should be like these women, running to tell whoever will listen that Jesus is risen! That there is hope beyond the grave!

But you know what? We can’t tell the world about this resurrection hope if we don’t have it ourselves. And in this broken world, it sure is easy for that hope to waver. Especially when we come face to face with the death of someone we love. That’s what our next story is all about. 

Martha and her brother Lazarus are dear friends of Jesus, but Jesus isn’t there when Lazarus dies. And Martha—well, she’s really wrestling with this. That’s when Jesus comes on the scene. Here’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth with more on this story from John chapter 11.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Beginning in verse 21 we see that Lazarus’ sister, Martha, has heard that Jesus has arrived in town and here in verse 21 she goes out to meet Him. And she says:

Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you (vv. 21–22).

So here is Martha, the sister of the man who has died. She doesn’t understand Jesus’ ways at this moment. She doesn’t understand what He’s up to or why He wasn’t there when her brother died when it appears He could have been. She believes that Jesus could have healed her brother when he was sick.

But she thinks it’s now too late now for Him to do anything about her situation. It doesn’t enter into her mind, I don’t think, that this situation could be changed at this point, death is after all final, right? So she’s not thinking that she will ever have a chance of seeing her brother again in this life.

But what I love about this verse is that she still hasn’t lost confidence in Jesus, even though she doesn’t understand, even though His ways are incomprehensible to her, even though things are really a muddle right now, she still believes in Jesus.

She says in verse 22, “Even now I know . . .” Even now. Even now when life has ebbed away from the one I love, when his body is in the grave and is going to rot there. Even now I know. She knows that Jesus has a unique and close relationship with God. She knows that whatever He requests of the Father will be granted, even when there is no human hope.

Well, verse 23:

Jesus [says] to her, "Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” (vv. 23–24)

So think about this for a moment. Martha has revealed already that she has faith for the past. She believes that if Jesus had gotten there before her brother died, Jesus could have healed him. And she has faith for the future. Right? She believes that Jesus will raise her brother one day, down the road, way out there in the distance. So she’s got faith for the past, faith for the future, but she doesn’t have faith for this moment. She can’t imagine anything happening in the here and now after her brother has been dead for four days.

Now, think about this. She knows that Jesus can raise her brother from the dead decades or centuries down the road. But he’s been dead four days, and she doesn’t think anything can change. She needs faith for her present situation. And this is when Jesus reveals another of His great “I AM” names. Verse 25:

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die [looking at Lazarus who had just died] yet shall he live, and everyone who lives [Martha, Mary, your friends, everyone who lives] and believes in me shall never die.” (vv. 25–26)

So whether you’ve already died or you are still living, the key is that you believe in Jesus and that determines your eternal destiny.

So here Jesus reveals Himself as the “I AM”—the eternally existent Yahweh. She had hope for the future, she believed in a resurrection that was coming “on the last day,” at end of the age, but she lacked hope for the present. And this name of Jesus means to her that resurrection, which she’d hoped for down the road, resurrection has come. Resurrection is right here, right now. Present hope. 

Now it’s not enough just to hear Jesus say these words, to be exposed to this truth. Jesus asked Martha in verse 26, “Do you believe this?” Do you believe what I’ve said? He’s really saying, “Do you believe in Me? Do you believe that I am who I say I am?” This believing means not just intellectual assent, but it means personal faith and trust being placed in Jesus.

This is huge because in this passage we see that whether you believe in Him or not is a matter of life or death, eternal life or death. So that’s a question we all need to answer when we hear what Jesus says about life, about death, about faith, about the resurrection, about Himself. The question is: “Do you believe this? Do you believe Me?” Well, verse 27:

She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

Now, there’s a lot Martha still doesn’t understand, but one thing she does believe and that is He is who He said He was. He is the Christ, the Son of God, the promised Messiah. And because she knows He is who He claimed to be, she knows she can believe and rely on His promises. So here in this moment, faith in who Jesus is, displaces and overcomes her doubts, her confusion, her despair, her fear. It’s faith in Jesus that makes all the difference in her life at this moment as they come to the graveside of her brother.

So what about you? Do you believe that Jesus is who He claimed to be? Do you believe that those who die believing in Jesus have eternal life? 

Well, Jesus finally ends up at the grave of Lazarus with Martha and her sister. And you remember the story of how He proves there beyond the shadow of any doubt that He is in fact the Resurrection and the Life. He demonstrates His deity, His power. He declares His authority over life and death as He says, “Lazarus, come forth.” And Lazarus who’s been dead for four days comes walking out of that tomb.

Now, within a matter of days, Jesus is going to lay down His life on the cross. And the raising of Lazarus from the dead reminds these dear friends, and believe me it came back to their minds days later, that death is not final. This miracle of Jesus sets the stage for Jesus’ own resurrection as He says in John 10, “I lay down my life that I may take it up again” (v. 17).

Dannah: What a story! I love that we see this beautiful arc with Martha. She’s such an honest, relatable girl. She starts out grieving and hopeless, and she’s not afraid to let Jesus know she’s a little confused with His ways here. She loves Jesus, she knows Jesus, and she believes He could have prevented her brother’s death. And you know, she’s right, He could have. But later we realize Jesus was teaching Martha a different lesson—that death isn’t final for His people, that He is the Resurrection and the Life. Jesus asks her, Do you believe this?Do you believe that I am who I say I am? And her answer is yes! 

You know, sometimes we need to get honest with the Lord like Martha. Did you know we can be honest with the Lord? We really can. We can tell Him, “Lord, I don’t understand why you’re doing things this way. I don’t know why you’re allowing this grief, this suffering, this loss. But I know You. I love You, and I believe that You are the Resurrection and the Life.” Choosing to embrace the hope of resurrection in the middle of our grief—that’s what living as women of the resurrection is all about.

Our next guest understands this well all too well. A few Easters ago, I interviewed Colleen Chao. She’s a wife, mom, and author of In the Hands of a Fiercely Tender God. For the last seven years, my friend has been battling terminal cancer and writing about her journey. She’s like Martha in a lot of ways. She’s honest about her grief and her suffering, but she also has this radiant joy about her because she believes Jesus is who He says He is.

At the time of this recording, Colleen is still here with us, but we’ve been in regular contact with her recently, and it looks like she’ll be with her resurrected Savior soon. Would you join us in praying for her and her family, that God would flood their hearts with courage and comfort as the hope of resurrection is proclaimed this Easter? Here’s Colleen to share about this very hope.

Colleen Chao: I mean, it's crazy how full the Bible is of hope. It's nuts. And usually that hope is set in suffering. And honestly, I think . . . I haven't done an exhaustive study on this, but it seems like every time hope is mentioned, it's in the context of suffering, at least a very high percentage. 

And so, there's something that is linked together with that suffering and hope. We experience. even more of God's hope when we suffer with Christ, when we enter in further with Him into His eternal realities and into his experience on earth that He had. 

And so, it's almost like He's prepared special hope for us when we enter into those places with Him of suffering. I think when we understand our mortality, when we face our death, there's a special grace, special hope that comes with that, that we can't experience until we face those moments of I'm not here for long. I'm about to go to be with Jesus. 

So, there are unique doses of hope, if I can say that, that come when God asks us to share the fellowship of His sufferings. 

Dannah: When you think about that Colleen, what excites you, when you think about Heaven, especially this Holy Week?

Colleen: My heart literally feels joy when I talk about heaven because it feels so near. Things in the Word that talk about eternity are so alive. I'm holding my Bible, that's why I'm looking down. I'm holding my Bible, just this, this is real. This is the real deal. 

And when I think of eternity, I think of those passages that say there will be no more tears, no more death, no more pain, no more sin. I'm not gonna have to wrestle with my sin anymore. The relationships we share are going to be perfect. 

So, the greatest relationship we have here, the most joyful, peaceful, life-giving relationship here, that is only a little tiny, tiny glimpse of what we get to experience in eternity, before we get in the face of Jesus in His presence, perfected relationships that aren't tainted by sin, by suffering.

Ultimately, though, there's something that I think of all the time when I picture eternity. I think of God on His throne. I think of putting my hand in Jesus', walking beside Him and looking up into His face. And just the reality that I'm going to be like all these other good things are beautiful. They would be nothing if it weren't for the fact that eternity means we are in the presence of Jesus, looking into His face, looking into His eyes, and sharing what we've tasted here, right? This is a taste, this is a glimpse, but the full reality of the greatest good, like Psalm 73 says, the nearness of God is my good. We are going to experience that in its fullness, and it's going to be better than we can even begin to fathom. 

Dannah: Right. I believe that. When you talk about it, you talk about it with so much faith, I mean, it can hear it in your voice, so much hope in your voice for heaven. 

I can't help but think there must be someone listening who is dying, maybe they have terminal cancer, or maybe they're in their eighties or ninties. They know they're in those last years or months or maybe even weeks, and they're just not sure about heaven, not the way that you are. Is there a Scripture passage, you would encourage them to open the Bible and begin reading? What where would you direct their hearts to know that they can be sure that they're going to heaven and how they can be sure of it.

Colleen: I love that. Well, I've been studying Hebrews for months now, verse by verse. I keep coming back to this verse in Hebrews 2 where it says, “Since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these so that through his death, he might destroy the one holding the power of death, that is the devil, and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death” (vv. 14–15). 

Hebrews is filled with this beautiful reality that Jesus is the radiance of God's glory, the exact expression of His nature. He came to make purification for our sins. And so, just spending time in Hebrews 1 and 2 is just power packed, looking at what Jesus did for us how He shared in our flesh and blood so that He could destroy death, and destroy our fear of death or slavery to the fear of death, and make us perfect in His sight—because He loves us so much, just adores us.

Dannah: Jesus destroys our fear of death. Amen, praise God! What an encouraging testimony. Colleen is truly a joy, and guess what—she’s written a brand-new book that’s coming out this October! It’s called On Our Way Home: Reflections on Heaven in the Face of Death, and it looks beautiful. Be sure to watch for its release in the fall. 

It has been my joy to watch Colleen trust God in the face of death, to still believe He’s good, to exude joy. You can only do that if you have absolute confidence that the death of Jesus Christ was not the end it—it was the beginning of something absolutely beautiful!

I know that as Colleen's family prays for her, she has confidence that when she is not here on this earth, she will be in the presence of Jesus Christ. You can have that kind of confidence too. In fact, I want you to know where you can learn more about it. We have a special webpage set up just for you. Go to ReviveOurHearts.com/goodnews and learn about the best news this world has ever heard—that Jesus has overcome death and we don't have to fear it!

Well next weekend, I’m excited because we’re talking about the Holy Spirit. More specifically, we’ll be looking at what it looks like to yield to Him. I hope you’ll join me!

Thanks for listening today. I’m Dannah Gresh. We’ll see you next time for Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

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