"THE GARDENER"
MF Blume September 20, 1998 am
John 20:11-16 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, [and looked] into the sepulchre, And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.
In Genesis we see a
- Tree of Life,
- A River of Life,
- A Man
- And a Bride Woman,
- A river that holds precious stones (gold, onyx and bdellium - pearl)
- And God with them
This same picture is seen in Revelation. - A Tree of Life (Rev. 22:2)
- River of Life (Rev. 22:1)
- A Man, Jesus, the Lamb (Rev 22:1).
- A Bride, the Church (Rev 21:2)
- Precious stones, gold and pearl (Rev 21:18-21)
- And God (Rev 22:1).
Keep this in mind as we study this message today.
Jesus appeared to several people the day He rose from the grave.
- The appearances of Him show that the people to whom He appeared did not immediately recognize Him as Jesus Christ.
- And we find that Jesus purposely and initially appeared to them in a form they would not recognize as Him.
- We know this from the following passage of scripture:
Mark 16:12 After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. Knowing that Jesus could decide which form to take upon Himself as He appeared to people, tells us that when Mary saw Him as a Gardener that Jesus wanted her to see Him as a Gardener.
- There is a reason why Jesus wanted her to see Him as a Gardener.
Gene 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Gene 2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
- Jesus chose to appear to the first person who would see Him after His resurrection as a Gardener.
- Adam was a Gardener before he fell into sin.
- When Adam sinned, he was cast from the Garden, and was no longer a Gardener.
Gene 3:23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
In the Garden we read that there were both spiritual and physical provisions for mankind. - Adam was made from material taken from two different realms.
- He was made from physical dust of the earth and received breath of life from God.
- He was comprised of Heaven and Earth.
- He was spiritual and also physical.
- And since he was made from these two types of material, he required spiritual and physical food.
Gene 2:9-10 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
- We read of the spiritual meat on the Tree of Life and spiritual drink from the River of Life, along with the other physical fruit and herbs from the physical plants.
- We know the River here is the River of Life because it is associated with the Tree of Life here.
- And when we turn to the end of the Bible we again see this dual provision for man.
Reve 22:1-2 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, [was there] the tree of life, which bare twelve [manner of] fruits, [and] yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree [were] for the healing of the nations.
- The river of Life here is the same River that we read about in Eden.
- It was spiritual drink.
- Fruit of Life and water of Life provided man with his spiritual food and drink.
- In order for Adam to exist healthily God provided both spiritual and physical food and drink since Adam was made from spiritual and physical elements.
It is interesting that on the third day of Genesis we read that God provided the fruit and herbs with man after the land resurrected from beneath the waters. Gene 1:9-13 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry [land] appear: and it was so. And God called the dry [land] Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that [it was] good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, [and] the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed [is] in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, [and] herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed [was] in itself, after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.
- Jesus resurrected on the third day.
- And He appeared as the Gardener, the one providing both spiritual and physical food and drink.
- Adam was the Gardener before he fell.
- He would have supplied all the humanity that came from him, had he not fallen, with their spiritual and physical provisions, because He was the gardener.
In John 6, Jesus multiplied physical bread and fishes for the 5,000 gathered to hear Him. - And we read in verse 11 that He supplied as much as they would.
- In other words, He had an unending supply of food for them.
- Verse 26 tells us that the people searched and found him for the natural food he provided to them earlier.
- Jesus told them...
John 6:26-27 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
- They laboured for the meat that perishes.
- They laboured only for the physical meat.
- They did not labour for the meat that endures forever.
- WORD and SPIRIT endures forever.
- These are spiritual meat and drink.
Earlier, bread kept coming from Him as He multiplied it. - Whether it was 5,000 or 5,000,000, it would not have mattered.
- It was for "as much as they would"
- But he was also a source of unending spiritual food and drink.
- It poured into Him from Heaven and came forth to satisfy all who sought for it.
- His words were not His own, but the Father's who sent Him.
- And this meat never perishes.
John 6:54-55 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
- He said His flesh and blood were meat and drink INDEED.
- They were the true meat and drink.
- But He was not speaking of the physical flesh and blood, for the entire thought here is that He provided spiritual meat and drink.
John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life.
- His food and drink were represented by His flesh and blood.
- They were actually His WORDS He referred to as spiritual meat and drink.
It was the same thought he mentioned in John 4. John 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
John 4:14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
- This spiritual water is an unending source and supply of spiritual drink.
- As Jesus multiplied and multiplied and multiplied the physical bread, He was trying to show that He also has spiritual meat and rink that never fails and runs out.
- And when it gets inside of us, like Jesus, we have an unending supply of spiritual meat and drink to feed upon!
- In us, it is a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
Since Adam ate of the evil fruit, sin and death entered his flesh. - But God came down as a man and died on a cross to release the Life that was in Him that He had for us.
- The night before the crucifixion, He illustrated the event and purpose of the cross.
- He broke bread and told them to eat, and gave wine.
- His body was broken in death, and His blood flowed in water as His side was pierced.
- This was His flesh and blood spoken of in John 6.
We labour too much for food that perishes. - We all need to live and eat and drink physical provisions.
- And we make sure we have food and drink for our families at home.
- We work and labour in order to feed ourselves and our families.
- And most of us do a good job of it.
- But how doe we fair when it comes to meat and drink that doesn't perish?
- How much do we labour for meat that never perishes?
- Many tend to forsake the meat and drink that never perishes.
- It is in us to do as Adam did.
- It is in our flesh to lean towards the meat that perishes and forsake the spiritual meat and drink.
- But the natural meat and drink only leaves you wanting more.
- However, the spiritual meat and drink gets inside you and produces more of itself in you.
Revelation 22 shows the production of Water of Life and Fruit of Life. Notice this also:
Reve 7:16-17 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
- The lamb feeds us and leads us to living fountains of waters (water of life).
Psal 23:1-2 A Psalm of David. The LORD [is] my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
- He is both LAMB and SHEPHERD.
- SON and FATHER.
- ONE GOD.
- JESUS.
- He feeds us with spiritual meat and gives spiritual drink.
We are so faithful to labour regularly for natural meat that perishes. - We do not miss a day of work in order to feed our families.
- But so many miss the times we gather together in Church to hear the word and drink and eat spiritual food.
- Some spend hundreds of dollars to stay physically healthy and jog down the road regularly to keep their natural part strong.
- But what about their spiritual part?
- They do NOTHING to stay spiritually healthy.
- They NEVER attend church and hear the spiritual word of God.
- We concentrate too much on the things that will perish.
People saw Jesus multiply the bread and fish but did not even stop to realize the MIRACLE He was performing. - They did not seek him for the miracles but for food only.
- They did not stop to ask themselves, "How can he do this?"
- They were too concerned with eating natural food.
That sounds insane to think that people ignored the fact that a miracle was occurring before them, and were only concerned with natural eating. - But every service I preach I see the same thing.
- Some do not see the miracle of hearing a word from God in revelation from the preacher.
- They leave service and never CONTINUE with Jesus, the one who gives such LIFE!
John 6:66-67 From that [time] many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?
- Jesus nourishes and cherishes His Church, His wife.
Ephe 5:29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: The Garden provided both spiritual and natural food.
- And I am not preaching against having natural needs met.
- I am just asking how you are doing with the spiritual needs.
- So many prayer requests are for natural healing and natural help.
- Rarely we hear a spiritual prayer request for Home Bible studies to be anointed, or for the spiritual strengthening of the new converts.
- We stress the material too much.
- Let us labour for meat that never perishes!