The Passion Week of Christ: A Study from the Book of Mark
Week 12: The Servant Finishes - His Resurrection
Mark 16:1-8
I. Introduction
A. Last time we met, we looked at Joseph of Arimathea's wonderful act of love and mercy in preparing our Lord's body for burial, even using his own tomb in which to bury Jesus. It's been said that someone pulled him aside and said, "Joseph, that was such a beautiful, costly, hand-hewn tomb. Why on earth did you give it to someone else to be buried in?" Joseph just smiled and said. "Why not? He only needed it for the weekend." Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord, Jesus only needed that tomb for the weekend. HE IS RISEN!!! And so after 12 weeks of exploring The Passion Week, our Lord's last week on earth when He gave His life as a ransom for many, we come to Sunday! We come to the day that as we sang earlier "He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!"
B. Now...Here's the challenge - believe it and live it! N.T. Wright has said, "Our task in the present…is to live as resurrection people in between Easter and the final day, with our Christian life, corporate and individual, in both worship and mission, as a sign of the first and a foretaste of the second.” And so my goal this AM is that if you are here and you are not saved, that you will encounter the risen Lord Jesus; for there is no other name given under heaven by which men must be saved. May today be your day of salvation! And so my goal for those who are here who are saved is that you would be challenged to live as resurrection people between now and the final day. It's high time for God's people to truly walk in newness of life.
C. So come with me to that gloriously empty tomb this AM, see for yourself that He Is Risen. And as we do we will explore a Ministry of Love, a Message of Life, and a Mission of Liberation.
II. Scripture Reading & Prayer
A. Stand with me to honor the reading of God's Word. Read Mark 16:1-8.
B. Pray - Father, the fact that Jesus is risen ought to make us want to run through the streets of Tipton County screaming and shouting just that! Draw everyone in this church this AM to yourself that none may leave without the salvation your Son has provided and that we all may leave convicted to truly live as resurrection people.
III. He Is Risen: A Ministry of Love (Mark 16:1-3)
A. Mark begins by telling us of three women who went to the tomb that Sunday AM, Mary Magdalene...Mary the mother of James and Salome:
1) Mary Magdalene - from whom Jesus cast out seven demons; usually named first when the women who followed Jesus are listed and thus she could have been the leader. 2) Mary the mother of James - James the younger, son of Alphaeus, one of the Twelve. 3) Salome - the wife of Zebedee, mother to James and John (the Sons of Thunder); she had asked Jesus for her sons to sit at his right and left hand in His kingdom.
B. Luke tells us that having observed the tomb and having seen where Jesus was placed on Friday, they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. He then tells us that they rested on the Sabbath (Saturday) according to the commandment. Mark goes on to say that when the Sabbath was past, these women resumed their ministry to our Lord. It was a ministry of love. Before we go on, let me just say, don't you know that was the longest, most agonizing Sabbath of these women's lives? Finally they could do something! Notice...
1st Their Deed: bought spices This was in addition to those prepared earlier. Joseph & Nicodemus had already wrapped His body in 75# of myrrh and aloe...why more? They were women from Galilee and Joseph & Nic were from Judea, so they were unfamiliar with them. Further, both men were of the Sanhedrin whom had condemned Jesus, so could they trust them? The most significant thing to note is having bought spices they expected to find a corpse!
2nd Their Desire: might go and anoint him Unlike the Egyptians, the Jews didn't embalm, they anointed. And anointing was an act of love that offset the stench of the decaying body. Again, coming to anoint Jesus' body three days after His burial once again shows that they expected to find a corpse.
3rd Their Devotion: very early...when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. Apparently these women left their home while it was still dark, having gotten up very early to minister to our Lord's body. John in fact says it was still dark when Mary Magdalene arrived at the tomb - perhaps she had gone on ahead of the other women. One wonders, could they even sleep Saturday night as they anxiously awaited going to Jesus' tomb. Either way they were devoted! Discuss deer hunting - 3 months up before dark, 4am, Thursdays, Saturdays. Why? Love it, devoted to it. Yet Vicky won't do the same! Why? She doesn't love it and she's not devoted to it. Very early - What a beautiful picture of these women's love and devotion for Jesus!
4th Their Discussion: they were saying..."Who will roll away the stone for us..." This is imperfect tense - they kept worrying about this and asking each other over and over again as they walked to the tomb. Again, what we see over and over is that they expected to find a corpse. Jesus had repeatedly told His disciples that He would be raised from the dead, but they had not grasped the meaning of this truth - read Mark 8:31; 9:30-32; 10:32-34. Neither did the women grasp this truth as by their deed, their desire, their devotion and their discussion they expected to find a corpse at the tomb that AM.
G. App. Lost? Jesus is as dead to you as He was to those women that AM before they arrived at the tomb! How is that? Because you've never confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believed in your heart that God raised him from the dead and thus you are not saved. Not only that, ironically, the Bible says YOU are the dead one, not Jesus - that is dead in your sins! Oh you may have breath in that body, but you have NO LIFE! Won't you come to Him today, the only one who can save you? Saved? Our task is to live as resurrection people...are you living on Saturday or Sunday? 1 Cor. 15:57 = "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Day in and day out I see SO many Christians living as if it's still Saturday - a life of gloom and doom (they may say Jesus is alive but in their actions and lives He is dead, they may sing Victory in Jesus but they aren't living lives of victory). God's Not Dead, He's Alive! He Is Risen! We need to live day to day in the victory of Christ's Ressurrection. Part of that includes, like the women, loving Jesus extravagantly. Read 1 Peter 1:8. Does that describe you? Are you living on Saturday - a life of defeat and woe is me - or are you living on Sunday - a life of victory and joy that words can't express, a life sold out to Christ out of love?
He Is Risen: A Ministry of Love
IV. He Is Risen: A Message of Life (Mark 16:4-6)
A. And so the women finally arrive at the tomb - look at verse 4 (read). And looking up - means they had been looking down, resigned to finding a corpse, downcast, hopeless, defeated, living in Saturday! And as they look up, they saw their first surprise, that the stone had been rolled back - it was very large. The size tells us it was a rich man's tomb fulfilling Isa. 53:9; the size tells us it would have been very difficult to move, having been rolled into a small trench in front of the tomb to keep it securely in place. Look at what Matt. says - read Matt. 28:2, 4. Earthquake occurred due to an angel descending who then rolled the stone away, the guards totally traumatized fell unconscious and upon awakening and finding the tomb empty, fled!
B. And so entering the tomb, the women saw their second surprise - read verse 5. Luke says his clothes were dazzling, Matt. says they were as white as snow and that his appearance was like lightening. At this the women were alarmed. Greek = to be struck with terror. Luke's wording = locked in a state of fear. And let me just say, I would have been too, wouldn't you?!
C. Completely terrified at what they saw, this young man, this angel, began to speak to them. And his message is their third surprise of the AM. It is a Message of Life! Notice with me four things about this Message (read v. 6):
#1 It is a Message of Peace: Do not be alarmed It is very appropriate that His resurrection should be attended with a message of peace. His birth was. 2,000 years later, His resurrection from the dead is still bringing that same message of peace to the hearts of all who believe in Him! Read John 16:33. No Jesus, No Peace, Know Jesus, Know Peace.
#2 It is a Message of Person: You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified Mark's inspired account leaves no doubt about who had been in that tomb! The idea of unbelievers and skeptics that the women and the disciples went to the wrong tomb is completely ludicrous...pure hogwash!
#3 It is a Message of Power: He has risen; he is not here Jesus wasn’t the first man to get up from the dead, (Lazarus – John 11; The Widow of Nain’s son – Luke 7; Jairus’ daughter – Mark 5), but He was the first to ever get up to die no more! Because He was able to conquer death, all those who receive Him as their personal Savior become partakers of that same resurrection power. The two greatest theologians in the NT assure us of this - read John 11:23-27 & Romans 6:4-8. All this great resurrection power will be ultimately realized when Jesus returns and raises the dead in Christ. Oh, what a Glorious Day that will be!!!
#4 It is a Message of Proof: See the place Greek, "ide," prop. a Greek imperative meaning "Behold!" Lit. "Be sure to see. Don't miss this! It is an observable, objective fact!" How? The graveclothes! They would have seen the cloth strips that had been wrapped around the body, still lying there, undisturbed, as if the body had simply passed right through them. They would have seen the napkin folded, and laid to the side. They would have looked upon a scene of absolute calm and order. It was not the kind of scene they would have witnessed had people taken or moved the body. The message from that empty tomb is that Jesus is alive! For 2,000 years skeptics have tried to prove that the resurrection did not take place. They have concocted every kind of wild theory imaginable to account for the empty tomb. Every theory they propose is dashed to pieces by the testimony of that empty grave - which brings me to two further points.
D. The Consequences of the Message: Read 1 Cor. 15:14-19. Paul outlines 6 disastrous consequences if this Message of Life is not true (discuss each): 1) preaching is in vain (BIG ole waste of my time, why are you here, why am I), 2) faith is in vain (all our praying, Bible study, witnessing, serving, hoping, holiness, praising is foolish), 3) we are misrepresenting God (I'm a liar, you're a liar, we're all liars), 4) you are still in your sins (no redemption, dead Savior saves no one), 5) believers who have died have perished (won't see loved ones in heaven), 6) we are of all people most to be pitied (more at the end).
E. The Certainty of the Message: Read 1 Cor. 15:20. That ought to make you shout. You know how Paul could write that - He had SEEN the resurrected Lord with his own eyes! Satan wants to blind your mind and darken your eyes to the fact and light of this glorious truth. Someone once asked Josh McDowell, "Why can't you refute Christianity?" "For a very simple reason. I am not able to explain away an event in history - the resurrection of Jesus Christ." He cites Prof. Thomas Arnold (chair of modern history @ Oxford): "I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God hath given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead."
F. App. As resurrection people, our challenge is to believe it and live it. Lost? You can argue and deny and debate Jesus' resurrection all day long and it doesn't change the truth - He Is Risen. Your acknowledgement of it as true has no bearing on reality - it's true whether you acknowledge it as such or not. Discuss physical laws (gravity - jump off building & break a leg) and spiritual laws (Jesus is THE resurrection and THE life - everyone who lives and believes in Him shall never die). Ravi Zacharias said "A man rejects God neither because of intellectual demands nor because of the scarcity of evidence. A man rejects God because of a moral resistance that refuses to admit his need for God." Will we one day have to pry your "pet sin (s)" that's keeping you from coming to God, and that will keep you out of heaven, from your cold, dead hands? Saved? Do you believe it but don't live it? The same power that raised Jesus from the dead now courses through your veins in the form of the Holy Spirit. Francis Chan in his book, "Forgotten God," writes - read asterisked sections from pages 15-17. Paul summed it up best in Phil. 3:10 when he said his goal in life was to "know him and the power of his resurrection." Is that your goal? Will you commit to living in the power of his resurrection through the filling of the Holy Spirit?
He Is Risen: A Ministry of Love, A Message of Life
V. He Is Risen: A Mission of Liberation (Mark 16:7-8)
A. A Command: The angel's message is not finished and so he gives the women a command - read verse 7. Go, tell his disciples AND Peter Ouch! I wonder how much sleep Peter had gotten from Thursday night to Sunday AM? Had he been 72 hours without sleep? Maybe that's why John outran him to the tomb...or the heavy burden of guilt he was carrying! Yet the angel, speaking on behalf of the Lord, and thus the women as well when they relay this message of life to the disciples, liberate Peter! How thoughtful and tender and forgiving is our Lord?! 20 years later as Peter recounts this story to Mark, he still remembers those sweet, precious, forgiving words of the angel - AND Peter. He is going before you to Galilee Why Galilee? It was where they had first fallen in love with Jesus! Yet we know that the disciples' lack of faith made them slow to act on these words; they did not leave for Galilee straight away - John tells us after eight days when Jesus appeared to Thomas that there were still in Jerusalem. Only after Jesus repeatedly appeared to them in Jerusalem did they leave for Galilee.
There you will see him - and see Him they did. In fact thirteen post-resurrection appearances are recorded in Scripture - Mary Magdalene, the other women, two disciples on road to Emmaus, the eleven, to Peter, to the ten - Thomas, to eleven with Thomas, at Sea of Galilee, to 500 brethren at once, to eleven in Galilee, to James, at His ascension, to Paul as one untimely born.
B. A Change: Those women came to that tomb in one condition and left it in a completely another! Read verse 8a. Astonishment had seized them - Greek, "ekstasis," lit. "completely remove" – properly, takeout of regular position (standing) and bring into a state of ecstasy (rapture) – like a person "carried out" in trance-like amazement. They were overwhelmed by the awesome mystery of the resurrection. Folks that's what happens when people meet the resurrected Jesus! Lives change! Read Acts 4:8-10, 13.
C. A Choice: Read verse 8b. Mark tells us that they did not talk about what they had seen and heard with anyone along the way. Yet at some point their hearts bursting with joy, they made the choice to run and find the disciples and tell them. This news affected the disciples too. Many of them ran to the tomb. We are told that John looked in and saw the evidence and that he believed. The message of these women caused even more stones to be rolled away. Because of their testimony, many were brought out of the darkness and gloom of Saturday into the wonder and glory of Sunday! Which brings me to...
D. App. As resurrection people, God continues to give us the wonderful privilege of being able to liberate people from the bondage to sin, Satan, and death! It is a life-changing, life-giving mission that Jesus tells us to take to the ends of the earth! Are you living it yourself? Gal. 5:1 (J.B. Phillips NT) "Plant your feet firmly therefore within the freedom that Christ has won for us, and do not let yourselves be caught again in the shackles of slavery." Live liberated! Are you speaking it to others? The great theologian Toby Mac in his song "Speak Life" - Though it's crazy, amazing; We can turn a heart with the words we say; Mountains crumble with every syllable; Hope can live or die; Well it's crazy to imagine; Words from our lips as the arms of compassion; Lift your head a little higher, Spread the love like fire, Hope will fall like rain, When you speak life with the words you say So speak Life, speak Life. Look into the eyes of the brokenhearted; Watch them come alive as soon as you speak hope,You speak love, you speak...You speak Life." Oh that Jesus would say of us now, Buffy Cook, Crossway Baptist, well done my good and faithful servants, you are speaking life to the lost and dying world around you EVERY day, not just on Easter! Oh that the world, just as with Paul and Silas in Acts 17:6 would shout these folks are turning the world upside down with their mission of liberation!
VI. Conclusion
A. You may be saying So What? Does this really matter? Dr. Rogers once said, "If Jesus Christ is still in that grave nothing really matters, but if He came out of that grave, nothing BUT THAT matters."
B. Have you ever heard the expression "Don't put all your eggs in one basket?" Urban dictionary defines it as "putting your money or hopes or future into one thing." The wisdom of the world says don't do it! And so we have financial advisors that tell us to spread our money around (401ks, Roth IRAs). And so we have guidance counselors and spiritual advisors and life coaches.
C. But I'm here to tell you the world is wrong! Not until the summer of 2001 did I figure that out. And so since that time I've spent 7 years as a youth and children's pastor planning VBSs, teaching SS, taking nerf bullets to the head during lock-ins; traveled 7000 miles to Africa yearly for 7 years risking imprisonment, sickness and even death; having a successful medical practice on cruise control I've gone back to school at age 40 to get a MCS and committed my life to the ministry and stand before you today as a pastor. Do I say all that to trump myself up? Heaven forbid, NO!
D. I say all that to tell you I've got all my eggs in one basket and that's the linchpin of our faith - the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! And so should you! Jesus Christ is NOT in that grave; He Is Risen, He Is Risen Indeed! Believe it!!! Live it!!! Because nothing BUT THAT matters!!!
VII. Invitation and Benediction
Lost? You've been to that gloriously empty tomb this AM. You've seen that He Is Risen. You've heard that he offers you that same resurrection and gift of eternal life by putting your trust in Him. Come this AM & receive it.
Saved? Rededicate? Baptism? Church membership?
