The Big Empty Series

THE BIG EMPTY

MARK 16:1-8

Before movie companies were careful about Swahili translations--assuming no one in the U.S. would understand--a director needed an African messenger who was to gasp out a sentence to the big chief, collapsing as he delivered his message, since he had run for days with his vital news. A local Englishman who spoke Swahili was asked to write an urgent-sounding sentence in the language. He did, tongue in cheek. An American actor played the part beautifully. All went well until the movie was shown in Nairobi (where everyone spoke Swahili, of course). The drama of the moment was reduced to high comedy. What the messenger actually said as he threw himself, exhausted, before the chief was, "I do not think I am getting paid enough money for this part." B. and J. Leslie-Melville, Elephant Have Right of Way.

Well we have a bit of a skit we would like to share with you today we are hopeful that you will get the message and no none of our actors is getting paid enough for playing their part actually they aren’t getting paid anything.

SKIT SCENE 1

Is your family like that? You always get along, mom and dad are never grouchy, the kids are obedient and polite, they have good friends, you have money to spare and you agree on how to spend it.

Life is good.

Well let’s look back in on our family and see what happens when reality strikes.

SKIT SCENE 2

Isn’t it amazing how quickly the full life can become empty? You can perhaps relate more to the second scene than the first, but what does all this have to do with the Easter story? I want to read to you the resurrection story from the gospel of Mark. READ. The real story of Easter is the story of the empty tomb. Jesus was no longer in the tomb when the women went there early on the first day of the week. The empty tomb has different meaning to different people. Let me suggest two broad categories.

I. THERE ARE THOSE FOR WHOM THE EMPTY TOMB MEANS AN EMPTY LIFE.

A. How can this be? How can the fact that Jesus is alive bring

emptiness to a person’s life? There are people who don’t know

what to do with Jesus.

B. If Jesus is risen then He is Lord. And we need the submit to him

1. The High Priest and other leaders were in control, in power and

And position they didn’t want to submit to Jesus, they wanted

Him to stay in the tomb.

2. Many today don’t want Jesus as Lord, they want to control their own lives...leads to emptiness.

C. If Jesus is risen then Jesus is truth (he did what he said) Jesus was condemned as a liar a blasphemer but if the tomb is empty then it is proof that Jesus is true to what he said and we must believe ...believing means obeying His teaching.

1. Jesus called people to repentance....change and they did not

want to change....

2. Many people are comfortable living by their own rules but it

will lead to emptiness.

D. If Jesus is risen than he is life. This means there is more than just

this physical life, more than just the temporary. Everything we

do can have eternal consequences. If you live life for the

moment and that is all there is then your life is full, but if there

is more you are left empty

Let me suggest that there is another category of people when it comes to the empty tomb.

II. THERE ARE THOSE FOR WHOM THE EMPTY TOMB MEANS A FULFILLED LIFE.

The fact that Jesus is alive can make a tremendous, eternal impact for good in your life and mine. In fact the living Jesus can be the difference between an empty life and a full life.

A. Because the tomb is empty our lives can be filled with joy.

1. Vs 8 the women were “trembling and bewildered” and in

Matthew 28:8 “afraid yet filled with joy” Joy that isn’t

contingent on the right circumstance but instead on the right

relationship...with Jesus.

2. In the diary of a third-century man was anticipating death, he penned these last words to a friend: "It’s a bad world, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret. They have found a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people are the Christians--and I am one of them." Today In The Word, June, 1988, p. 18.