The Gardener Dr. Chris Montgomery John 20:1-18 | April 5, 2026
1. What you think about when you think about God is the most important thought of your life. 2. My dominant image of God shapes everything. (John 20:14-15) She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?” She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.” 3. God created people to live in a garden. (Genesis 2:8) Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. (Jeremiah 29:5) Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens and eat the food they produce. 4. Our lives were meant to look like a healthy garden. (Isaiah 58:11) The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden… 5. Our sin separated us from God’s garden. (Genesis 3:23) So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden…
6. God’s kingdom looks like a healthy garden. (Isaiah 61:11) The Sovereign Lord will show his justice to the nations of the world. Everyone will praise him! His righteousness will be like a garden in early spring, with plants springing up everywhere. (Luke 13:19) It is like a tiny mustard seed that a man planted in a garden; it grows and becomes a tree, and the birds make nests in its branches. (John 15:1, 5) I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener… I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.