Rock N Roll

Rock n Roll

Mark 16:1-8

Mar 16:1-8 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might come and anoint Him. (2) Very early on the first day of the week, they *came to the tomb when the sun had risen. (3) They were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?" (4) Looking up, they *saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large. (5) Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed. (6) And he *said to them, "Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him. (7) "But go, tell His disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you.'" (8) They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

The resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ, is the singular most important event in all of human history. The reason I say this is because the resurrection of the Son of God verifies all that has gone before. From the very first prophecy of God’s plan for the redemption of mankind, the protoevangelium where Yahweh told the serpent Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel." To Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that the time of Messiah’s arrival had come, Luk 1:31-33 "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. (32) "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; (33) and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end." the resurrection of Jesus Christ proved that what God had declared and the prophets had foretold was true, and that every claim of Jesus Christ was authentic and factual.

The resurrection of Jesus is the pivotal point in human history. All of the saints of God prior to His atoning death and justifying resurrection (Rom 4:25) looked forward in time to that event, and every saint of God after His resurrection to this very moment, looks back to that same event. The resurrection confirmed that mankind’s debt had been paid, the curse of death had been broken, and the promise of our own resurrection was sure. Friends, without Christ’s resurrection, there would be no Christian faith, mankind would still be dead in his sins and under bondage to the law, for 1Co 15:17 …if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.

Oh, my friends, without the resurrection, there is no hope. This is why the doctrine of the resurrection is the most attacked claim of the Bible and our faith. Intellectuals scoff at it, pagans deny it, and many more, even among those who claim to be Christians only give it lip service. But you know, none of this is surprising because even the Lord's disciples and others who followed Him closely throughout His ministry, didn’t believe it at first. In the gospels, we read several times where He clearly and plainly told His disciples that He would be arrested, killed, and buried—but three days later He would rise, and still Mar 9:32 …they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him.

Those closest to Him didn’t get it, which is why we see on that first day of the week after His death and burial, the women walking to the tomb with more spices to anoint His body. I don’t know if they were aware that Nicodemus had brought 100 lbs of spices for that very purpose, when he and Joseph of Arimathea took the Lord’s body down and brought Him to his own brand new and unused tomb. But whether they knew or not, that Sunday morning after Passover, they got together and made their way to the tomb, all the while having one question on their minds. Mar 16:3 They were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?"

I. Rock n Roll

“Who will roll away the stone for us?” It was a valid question. Those stones that covered the entrances to tombs, not only were they large and heavy, but when they were rolled in front of the entrance, they rolled into a slot that had been dug out for the stone to hold it in place. It might have taken several men to move it away, so these three ladies wouldn’t have been able to even budge it. But their love for Christ was so great, the foremost thing on their minds was to properly anoint the Lord’s body, their last act of love toward the one who had shown them the true meaning of love. As they walked toward the place where they knew he had been laid, they didn’t think about the soldiers who were there to protect the body from theft. They weren’t worried about being arrested for being followers of Jesus. They weren’t wondering why Peter, and the others weren’t joining them. They weren’t concerned with how they might react to seeing the Lord’s body, beaten, bloodied, torn, marred, and scourged. No, all they worried about was “Who will roll away the stone for us?”