#66 Twenty-four Little Hours
Series: Mark
Chuck Sligh
April 16, 2022
NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives.
TEXT: Mark 16:1-8 – “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. 2 And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. 3 And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? 4 And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. 5 And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted. 6 And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. 7 But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you. 8 And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid.”
INTRODUCTION
There’s an old popular song (first released in 1959 and covered by many famous singers) titled What a Difference a Day Makes. The first 4 lines go, “What a difference a day makes / twenty-four little hours / Brought the sun and flowers / where there used to be rain.” The song goes on to describe the singer being blue and sad one day and happy and joyous now that his lover has entered his life.
My, what a difference a day makes! One day you were in your mother’s womb, and 24 little hours later you were out of the womb bringing joy and chaos to your parents’ world. One day you were tied up in knots awaiting your wedding, and 24 little hours later you and your spouse had tied the knot. For some of you, one day you were a long-haired, undisciplined, directionless youth, and 24 little hours later, your hair was shorn, and you entered the U.S. Army.
What a difference a day made for Jesus’ disciples. Saturday night was the bluest day in the lives of the disciples. They had no idea what the future would bring now that Jesus was gone. But in 24 little hours, all that changed.
We look today at the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Notice with me 3 points in today’s text:
I. WE NOTICE FIRST A MINISTRY OF LOVE BY 3 WOMEN IN VERSES 1-3 – “When the sabbath had past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices that they might come and anoint his body. 2 And very early in the morning of the first day of the week, they came to the tomb at the rising of the sun. 3 And they said among themselves, ‘Who will roll away the stone from the entrance of the tomb for us?’”
The 3 women mentioned in verse 1 had observed the long, dark Sabbath Day. As commanded in the scriptures, they rested in their homes all that day (Saturday). Only the day before they had witnessed the awful crucifixion of Jesus. They watched as He was placed in a tomb and a heavy stone was rolled in front. They could do nothing on the Sabbath except wait—in sadness and apprehension.
Then Sunday morning they brought aromatic spices to anoint Jesus’ body to counteract the odor of decay and as a symbolic act of devotion. Whereas the Egyptians embalmed their dead, the Jews did not. The sweet spices brought for a decomposing body meant that they expected to find a dead body in that cold tomb. Their hopes were dashed once and for all and now all they could do was express their love to Jesus by one final act of devotion.
Very early in the morning, before dawn, they gathered their spices and trudged solemnly to the place of burial, arriving at the crack of dawn. As they walked, the topic of discussion turned to the stone. How were they to roll it aside to enter the tomb? That stone has been estimated by some to weigh as much as a thousand pounds. They would not be able to move it by themselves under any circumstances.
In all of this, these women were filled with sorrow and grief and anxiety. They did not anticipate a living Lord but a cold corpse. Their problem was that they were still living in Saturday! Before His death, these women had placed all their hopes in Jesus. They had loved Him, sacrificed for Him, listened intently to His teachings, ministered to Him because they believed He was the Messiah. He was the One who would fulfill all the Old Testament prophecies. He was the One who would be their King of Israel and deliver them all from the chains of Roman rule. All their hopes had been bound up in what they had believed about Jesus.
All those hopes were shattered when they stood afar off and watched Jesus die. Faith turned to grief and grief to utter hopelessness as they saw the broken body of Jesus taken from the cross and placed in a tomb. Now all was lost. It was over. Hope was gone. There would be no kingdom anytime soon. Every step on the way to the tomb said to them, “Jesus is dead, dead, dead.”
It was Sunday…but they were still living in Saturday and that’s a bad place to be in your life: in despair, feeling lost, sorrowful and grief-stricken.
II. NOTICE SECOND A MESSAGE OF HOPE IN VERSES 4-6 – “And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very large. 5 And entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were alarmed. 6 And he said to them, “Do not be afraid: You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him.”
When they arrived at the tomb, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, which was shocking, for Mark tells us in verse 4, that “it was very large.” Even more startling was that when they entered the outer chamber of the tomb they were met by what Mark calls “a young man” in a long white garment. At this point they only saw the one man, but the other gospel accounts say that there were two of them, and that they were angels.
As you can imagine, they were alarmed when they encountered the heavenly messenger. The word translated “alarmed” means “being overwhelming distressed at what is highly unusual.” It would be like running into a large scary man late at night in a dark alley.
But to put them at ease, the angel tells them not to be afraid. The angel brought a message of hope. He knew why they were there: they were seeking Jesus of Nazareth who had been crucified. They came seeking a dead man’s corpse, but the angel had wonderful news to share with them: He said about Jesus: “He has risen and is not here.” As proof, he invites them to come and see the place where Jesus had been laid to see that indeed He was not there.
The phrase translated, “He has risen” is passive in the Greek, meaning that the literal translation is that “He was raised,” indicating that the resurrection of Christ was God the Father’s act, a truth emphasized in many New Testament scriptures. (E.g., Acts 3:15; 4:10; Rom. 4:24; 8:11; 10:9; 1 Cor. 6:14; 15:15; 2 Cor. 4:14; 1 Peter 1:21)
John tells us what they would have seen when they entered the tomb in John 20:6-7 – “Then Simon Peter came…and went into the tomb, and saw the linen clothes lying there 7 And the face cloth, that had been on his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but folded up in a place by itself.”
This is not the kind of scene you would have seen if people had stolen the body. The perpetrators would have grabbed the body with the burial clothes still on, and high-tailed it out of there as quickly as possible, not folding up the face cloth neatly.
The message of the 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! If the Jews had the body, they would have produced it when the disciples started preaching the resurrection. If the disciples had taken the body, they would not have died for a lie. All twelve of the apostles except John died a martyr’s death. People will die for what they think is true, even if it is not, but no one will die for a deliberate lie—and especially eleven of the apostles.
That missing body has always been impossible for the skeptics to overcome. His body was missing because He was ALIVE! Jesus walked out of that tomb that morning in eternal victory over death and the grave!
III. NOTICE WITH ME LAST A MISSION GIVEN TO THE WOMEN IN VERSES 7-8 – “But go your way, tell his disciples, and Peter, that he is going before you into Galilee: there you will see him, as he said to you. 8 And they went out quickly, and fled from the tomb; for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone; for they were afraid.”
The women were charged to go and tell the disciples they would be with Jesus in Galilee. It’s significant that he said to tell the disciples…“and Peter.” This detail is not mentioned in the other 3 gospels. But remember that Peter is the source for Mark’s Gospel and this little memory was especially important to Peter. He mentions it not to show his preeminence among the disciples, but because Jesus had forgiven Peter for his three denials and he was still among the eleven remaining disciples, and to assure Peter that he had not been forgotten. It’s a reminder to us that no matter what our sins or failures, there is forgiveness aplenty for anyone truly repentant.
The response of the women was to vamoose out of there as quickly as possible! There’s no discussion with the angel, no questions, no exclamations of excitement. They were trembling and amazed, and I suppose they were quite bewildered too—so they fled.
Mark says that they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Matthew, though, says in Matthew 28:8, “So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.”
This apparent discrepancy is easily explained. When they first left, they were so shocked that they said nothing to anyone along the way. But as they drew nearer to the where the disciples were, the realization of what they had been told began to dawn on them and though they were still fearful (after all they had just seen an angel, for crying out loud!), joy began to grow in their hearts as reality set in. After arriving where the disciples were, the women opened up and told the disciples what they had seen and heard.
CONCLUSION
Most believers in Jesus Christ have heard the story of the resurrection many times. We’re reminded of it whenever the Gospel is preached, for the Gospel is the Good News of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection is pictured for us in symbolic form through baptism which represents Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. And every Easter, we hear the story again and anew.
Somehow, as many times as I hear it, it never grows old to me. It’s just as exciting as the first time I heard it.
What would the Lord have us learn from this glorious story we’ve heard this morning?
First, remember how things can change in 24 little hours.
What are you going through today that is causing you to lose hope; to feel grief; to be despondent because of adverse circumstances? One day the disciples were living in the sadness of Saturday. But what a difference a day makes! The next day they were living in the glorious truth of the resurrection, the greatest event in human history.
Brethren, no matter what you’re going through, no matter how deep the valley of despair you are in, I promise you that Sunday is coming. God will give you strength to overcome whatever you’re going through. You just have to get through Saturday—for there is no Sunday without Saturday. Jesus could not have been resurrected if he had not first died and been buried. You can only have a resurrection experience in your life if you have gone through the death experience in your life.
The key is to remain devoted to the Lord no matter what! These women’s dreams had been dashed, but they still went to the tomb to administer loving devotion to the body of Jesus. They were just as faithful in His death as they had been when Jesus was alive. Whatever you’re going through, a Sunday is coming. Stay close to the Lord until the dawn of Sunday’s rejoicing.
Second, understand the vital importance of the resurrection.
If Jesus were not raised from the dead, everything we live for and believe in as Christians means absolutely nothing according to 1 Corinthians 15:14-20. That passage says, “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is vain, and your faith is also vain. 15 Yes, and we are found to be false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ whom he did not raise up….17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”
But praise the Lord, we have incontrovertible proof that Jesus rose from the dead!
Illus. – I mentioned in passing last week Frank Morison, one of America’s foremost lawyers in the early 1900s, who tried to explain away the resurrection. He decided to use his critical abilities as a lawyer to tear holes in what he saw as myths and legends surrounding the resurrection of Jesus.
So he set about researching the subject, having in mind to write a book that would destroy Christianity’s linchpin once and for all.
You see, he recognized that if you can disprove the resurrection, Christianity would crumble to the ground.
So Morison began his research.
But over the course of months of exhaustive investigation, he concluded that—based on the evidence as seen from a trained lawyer’s perspective—the story of the resurrection as found in the gospels is an airtight case. It was so persuasive based on undeniable evidence—the kind that would be allowed in a court of law—that Morison became a believer in Jesus Christ. And instead of writing a book DISPROVING the resurrection, he wrote the classic book titled Who Moved the Stone, one of the most persuasive DEFENSES of the resurrection ever written, a book I highly recommend to you.
Oh brethren, what a difference a day makes! The resurrection turned failure into victory in 24 little hours. The same can happen to you! If you’re here and you have never turned your life over to Jesus and placed your trust in Him as your Savior, you can do so in an instant. You don’t have to wait 24 hours; you can be saved TODAY…this very minute. I invite you to turn from your sin and your efforts to save yourself through your own good works and turn to Jesus for forgiveness and eternal life.
