How Have You Responded To Jesus’ Resurrection?

Jesus’ resurrection on that third day was 4000 years in the making. When God raised Jesus from the dead, it was the crescendo of our Heavenly Father’s plan to make it available for man to once again have His spiritual life living inside of him. That’s why Jesus not only died a spiritual death but was raised on the third day with spiritual life. God wanted a family. He wanted us! Thank you Lord!

One aspect of Jesus’ resurrection that we rarely hear taught is how the eleven respond when they hear the news. By this time Judas has already hung himself. We’re going to see how the eleven’s reaction to Jesus’ death overshadows what should have been the greatest day of rejoicing and affirmation for them. But it wasn’t.

And sadly, even though Jesus rose 2,000 years ago, most of Christians are still behind closed doors, figuratively speaking, because they don’t believe Jesus accomplished everything that He said He would by going to the Cross and then being raised again.

They don’t believe He’s the King of kings. But He is! They don’t believe He’s the Lord of lords. But He is! They don’t believe that every knee will ultimately bow to Him. But they will!

Mark chapter 16 will be our focus, and in particular, verses 9 through 20. We have a lot of verses to cover. So, what I’m going to do is summarize in places to help move the message along.

As you recall from the Resurrection story, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome had gone to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body. But Jesus had already risen. They went inside the tomb and saw a young man, an angel, and it scared them. But the angel, as we see in verse 6, calms them down and says “He is risen: he is not here.”

The angel then says in verse 7, “But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you to Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you.”

Let’s begin reading in verse 9.

(9) Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven deals.

(10) And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept.

(11) And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not.

Let’s stop here for a moment. The Bible says they were mourning and weeping – just like we do when a person dies because we know we will never see them again. But remember, Jesus told the disciples that He would be raised on the third day. And, not only that, but they refused to believe what the angel had told Mary.

Here’s my point: there are far too many Christians who refuse to believe what the Bible says. They may not be like the disciples who refused to believe, but they don’t have enough Bible in them to believe what it says. It’s really the same thing. The disciples didn’t believe what Mary said about Jesus because they hadn’t seen Him themselves. Christians don’t believe what the Bible says about Jesus because they don’t “hear” Him in the scriptures.

(12) After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country.

(13) And they went and told it unto the residue, neither believed they them.

These verses are referring to the two men, who were Jesus’ disciples, on their way to Emmaus, which is found in Luke 24, verses 13 through 35. We’re not going to read the entire passage, but I do want to bring out some points. Emmaus was about seven and a half miles from Jerusalem and so as they were walking they talked about everything that had happened.

As they’re walking, Jesus joins them but they don’t know who He is and He asks them what they’re talking about. Assuming Jesus was a stranger in town, one of them recounts everything that had happened. And one of them said, “This is the third day and we believed him. And there were women who went to the tomb but didn’t find him. They said the angels told them Jesus was alive.”

Then Jesus begins a teaching I would have loved to have heard. The Bible says in verse 27, “And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he (Jesus) expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” I would have loved to have heard that teaching!

I need to wrap up this summary. The two men convince Jesus to join them for dinner and when he blessed the food immediately they knew who He was. Look at verse 31. “And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.”