This Changes Everything!
Mark 16:1-8
Introduction: Christ
is risen! He is risen indeed! I read a story of one special boy who understood
the importance of that message…
Little Philip, born with Down's
syndrome, attended a third-grade Sunday School class with several
eight-year-old boys and girls. Typical of that age, the children did not
readily accept Philip with his differences, according to an article in
leadership magazine. But because of a creative teacher, they began to care
about Philip and accept him as part of the group, though not fully.
The Sunday after Easter the teacher
brought… [empty
plastic eggs]. Each receiving one, the
children were told to go outside on that lovely spring day, find some symbol
for new life, and put it in the… [plastic egg]. Back in the classroom, they would share their new-life symbols,
opening the containers one by one in surprise fashion. After running about the
church property in wild confusion, the students returned to the classroom and
placed the containers on the table. Surrounded by the children, the teacher
began to open them one by one. After each one, whether a flower, butterfly, or
leaf, the class would ooh and ahh.
Then one was opened, revealing
nothing inside. The children exclaimed, “That's stupid. That's not fair.
Somebody didn't do their assignment."
Philip spoke up, "That's
mine."
"Philip, you don't ever do
things right!" a student retorted. "There's nothing
there!"
"I did so do it," Philip
insisted. "I did do it. It's empty. the tomb was empty!"
Silence followed. From then on Philip
became a full member of the class. He died not long afterward from an
infection most [healthy] children would have
shrugged off. At the funeral this class of
eight-year-olds marched up to the altar not with flowers, but with their Sunday
school teacher, each to lay on it an empty plastic egg. (Unknown).
I don’t know if these were based on
that story, but Mary Ann has a set of “resurrection eggs” that each contain a symbol
of the gospel message. The last one is empty, reminding us of the empty tomb. Christ
is risen! Indeed He is risen! That is not a story. It is not a myth. It
is a fact of history. And that truth changes everything. The resurrection of
Jesus is not just a religious story we tell at Easter time. It is not just
a facet of the Christian tradition. It
is a historical fact, and it is the foundation of our faith! Paul spoke its
importance in I Corinthians 15 (I would encourage you to read that chapter
today),
13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has
been raised. 14 And if Christ
has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in
vain. 15 We are even found to
be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ,
whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised,
not even Christ has been raised. 17
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in
your sins. 18 Then those also
who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
19 If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of
all people most to be pitied. 20
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those
who have fallen asleep… (I Cor 15:13-20).
That is pretty emphatic, is it not? If
the resurrection is not true, our faith is useless, we are still in our sins,
we are of all men most to be pitied. But if it is true, and it is,
it changes everything! Ignatius of
Antioch, was being taken to his execution in AD 107, just a few years after the
death of the last apostle. He was expecting to be thrown to the lions, and may
have reflected on those words of Paul when he wrote the following…
If you come across somebody who says
that Jesus Christ never lived, or that He is just an idea, or a concept, or a
myth, shut your ears to him.
Jesus
Christ was born into a human family, a descendent of David. His mother was Mary. He was persecuted under
Pontius Pilate, a fact testified to us by some who are now in Heaven, and some
who are still alive on earth. How can
this be a phantom, or an illusion, or a myth?
These are facts of history!
It
is also a fact that he rose from the dead (or rather that his Father raised him
up). And that is the most important fact
of all, because his promise is that the Father will also raise us up, if we
believe in Him. So if Christ Jesus is
not alive, neither shall we be. There is
nothing left for us to hope for if he is just an idea or a fantasy.
In
any case, if he only appeared to rise from the dead —why should I be in chains
for this “myth”? Why should I die to
support an illusion? I am prepared to
die for him, the true and real Son of God.
But no one is prepared to die for a shadow.
The resurrection is not just a story
we tell once a year at Easter. It is the very foundation of our faith! The tomb
was empty, and that truth changes everything!
As we look at this account, we will realize that the disciples were
not expecting the resurrection of Jesus. Why would they have been? Jesus had, multiple times, clearly predicted
His death and resurrection! After the disciples first confess that Jesus is the
Messiah, we read in 8:31 Jesus explicitly teaching them about what had
to happen. They needed to learn what the Messiah came to do (see also 9:31 and
10:32 ff.)…
Mark 8:31 31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must
suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the
scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.
A chapter later, after casting out a
demon from a boy that the disciples had been unable to exorcize, Jesus was
teaching His disciples, and in 9:31 He says to them…
Mark 9:31 "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men,
and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise."
Essentially the same teaching. Then
again, we read in Mark 10:32-24…
…Jesus was walking ahead of them. And
they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve
again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, 33 saying, "See, we are going
up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests
and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the
Gentiles. 34 And they will
mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he
will rise."
Each time, after Jesus’ teaching, the
disciples said or did something that proved
they did not understand. After the scene
on the Mount of Transfiguration Jesus had told Peter, James, and John to tell
no one about what they had seen until after He rose from the dead. Then we read
in 9:10, “…they kept the matter to
themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead might mean.”
They would soon know! That is…
The BIG Idea: The resurrection changes
everything! It proves that Jesus is who He claimed to be and that He
accomplished what He came to do! We’ll look at Mark’s account of that morning
and consider 1) The devotion of the women, as only they, among the
followers of Jesus, risk going to the tomb on Sunday morning to anoint the body
of Jesus; 2) The declaration of the angel in 5-7, appearing as a young
man dressed in white who declares the Good News, He is not here, He is risen, and finally; 3) The deduction
of the witnesses, as it strikes them as to what this must mean!
I. The Devotion of the Women: Only they, among the disciples, risk going first to
the tomb to anoint the body of the Lord (1-4).
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and
Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day
of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 And they were saying to one
another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the
tomb?" 4 And looking up,
they saw that the stone had been rolled back- it was very large.
The disciples had been scattered, and are
still out of sight. These faithful women, who had followed from Galilee,
watched from a distance at Golgotha, and
had followed Joseph to the tomb, are first to arrive. Again, the fact that Mark
reports that these women were the first witnesses of the empty tomb and that
they received the angelic announcement of the resurrection, is a powerful
testimony to the authenticity of the record. Women were truly second-class
citizens in the ancient world. At the time of Christ they were not allowed to
testify in legal matters. They were considered unreliable witnesses. If Mark
was making this story up, he would not have had the first witnesses as women!
But he reports it that way because that is the way it happened. As God inspired Mark to write this account, he
highlights the role of these women as faithfully following Jesus. They are
watching as He is crucified (while the men were scattered, and not to be found),
they follow Joseph of Arimathea to the tomb when Jesus is buried on Friday
afternoon, and they arrive at the tomb to tend to His body on Sunday morning.
It seems only on the way do they start to think about how they are going
to move the huge stone they saw rolled in place to seal the tomb (3). God had a plan about that. They arrive, and
the stone is already moved! Who moved the stone? That is the title of a
book about the resurrection by Frank Morison. He set out to disprove the
resurrection, and like many before and after him, when He looked at the facts
and considered the evidence, like the centurion at the cross, like the thief
crucified at the side of Jesus, his heart was opened to the truth—surely this
man was the Son of God! Dr. Simon
Greenleaf, founder of Harvard Law school had a similar experience. His book was
entitled, The Testimony of the
Evangelists: The Gospels Examined by the Rules of Evidence. Lee Strobels’s The Case for Christ is a more recent example. The evidence is clear
and compelling: He arose! That changes everything. It proves that Jesus
is who He claimed to be and that He accomplished what He came to do!
II. The Declaration of the Angel: He is risen;
He is not here (5-7).
5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side,
dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed.
6 And he said to them, "Do not be alarmed. You seek
Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the
place where they laid him. 7
But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee.
There you will see him, just as he told you."
An alarming sight (5). Mark describes
this scene in the simplest, most straightforward terms. A young man, dressed in
white. We know from the parallel accounts that this was indeed and angel, and
his appearance was like lightening (Mt 28:3) and he was dressed in dazzling
apparel (Lk 24:4). The word Mark uses here can have the sense of “amazed” or
“alarmed,” or even “distressed.” No wonder! They were already distressed about
the events of that week, but now they find the tomb open and the body gone, and
this angelic figure seated in the tomb! As shocking as all that was, I assume
that what He says goes even further…
A shocking statement (6). They were alarmed
at the sight of this angelic figure sitting in the tomb. Wouldn’t you have been?!
But the announcement the angel made had to be even more shocking: He is risen! These women may have been
there in Capernaum when Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus to life. More
recently, they might have been at the grave of Lazarus when Jesus called Him
forth! But Jesus now had died. They saw His dead body taken down off the cross,
wrapped in linen by Joseph of Arimathea, laid in a tomb, and then a rock rolled
in front of the door to seal it in. He’s
alive? Do you know what this must mean? Yes, this was a “shock and awe”
moment!
Look at the place where they
laid Him – It is as
though the angel is saying, “Impress this on your mind, consider what it means,
you are going to be a witness to this earth-shaking event! This changes
everything!”
Go and tell the disciples and
Peter… Why does the Angel specifically mention Peter? Remember his
response when Jesus looked at him in the courtyard of the High Priest, after Peter
had denied Him three times? He was broken.
Broken and broken-hearted, Peter needed restoration—he had denied the
Lord. It’s hard to read that “Go and
tell” without thinking of the Great Commission, and our mandate to share
the Good News of Jesus with the world around us (see I Corinthians 15:1-3;
Matthew 28:18).
“…he is going before you to Galilee.
There you will see him, just as he told you." Remember that after Jesus predicted that
they would all be scattered, and that Peter would three times deny Him, Jesus
said to them,
"…You will all fall away, for
it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be
scattered.' 28 But after I am
raised up, I will go before you to Galilee." 29 Peter said to him, "Even
though they all fall away, I will not." (Mk 14:27-29).
We know how that worked out for
Peter! But consider the grace that Jesus is extending. They would all desert
Him, Peter would deny Him, but Jesus would be raised and go before them to
Galilee. That speaks to restoration and forgiveness. Even for Peter, and
even for us! (And remember, tradition tells us that Peter was Mark's primary source). God’s grace is bigger than our sin. That is why Jesus came,
that is why He died. And the resurrection changes everything! It proves that He
is who He claimed to be and that He accomplished what He came to do!
III. The Deduction of the witnesses: Consider what this means! (8).
And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment
had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Astonished and fearful they
fled from the tomb! One preacher said, “The resurrection confronts before
it comforts.” That has been true of other miracles that Jesus did earlier in
his ministry. Jesus was giving glimpses of the future kingdom and clues to His
identity in the acts of power He did. They were signs, testifying to His
identity, revealing the presence of the Kingdom in the person of the King! They didn’t just casually leave the tomb,
chatting about the theological implications of what they had just seen. Mark
tells us they “fled the tomb.” He
uses three words to describe their feelings of awe at that moment: trembling… astonishment… afraid… That
shouldn’t surprise us too much in the light of what we have already seen in our
survey of the Gospel of Mark. It is the response of humans as they get a
glimmer of the answer to their question: “Who is this man?” (cf. Mk 4:40-41). Sinclair
Ferguson said,
“In Mark’s Gospel, this fear is
always man’s response to the breaking in of the power of God. It is the fear
the disciples experienced when Jesus stilled the storm; the fear of the
Gerasenes when Jesus delivered Legion; the fear of the disciples as they saw
Jesus setting His face to Jerusalem to die on the cross. This fear is the
response of men and women to Jesus as He shows His power and majesty as the Son
of God…” (Mark, p. 271)
I believe Mark intends us to
understand that they went directly to the disciples, speaking to no one on the
way (8). Remember that Mark is writing
to a group of believers, a church. They had heard the Gospel. They knew
the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus from the testimony of the
Apostles. First Corinthians was one of Paul’s early letters. In chapter 15 of that
letter Paul says that Jesus appeared to Peter, and to the twelve, and on one
occasion to more than 500 brothers at once! We learn from the book of Acts that
after the resurrection Jesus appeared to them over a period of 40 days,
teaching about the kingdom, until his ascension. The writers of Scripture could
assume that their readers had a context, a background, that would inform how
they read the story. Of course the
women eventually took courage and told the apostles what they had seen! If not,
the men would never have gone to the tomb to see!
It is likely that these women
ran in silence back to the house where they disciples were huddled. All the
while, considering what all this meant, what they had seen and heard. Their
excitement likely grew as they drew nearer. The evidence was compelling,
evidence that demands a verdict! The tomb was empty, that means that Jesus
conquered death—He really is who He claimed to be! Sinclair Ferguson said,
“Mark… wrote his Gospel to make us
ask the question: Who is Jesus? And answer it accurately. Now he shows us the
nature of a true response to Jesus. It is to be moved with a sense of awe and
wonder that the Son of God came among men, and lived and died and rose again
for our salvation. That sense of awe is the beginning of a new life of
fellowship with a risen Lord…” (Ibid, p. 272),
What is God saying to me in this passage? The resurrection changes everything!
It proves that He is who He claimed to be and that He accomplished what He came
to do!
What would God have me to do in response to this passage? Mark is really
answering three questions in his Gospel: 1) Who is Jesus? 2) Why did He come? And, 3) What
does it mean to follow Him? The resurrection is the exclamation point at the
end of the story. Jesus
is God, the Son. He came to rescue us from wrath, to reconcile us to God. Will
you trust Him? Will you entrust yourself to Him? Will you follow Him? He conquered death, He is the Son of God. He
is risen, and that changes everything! AMEN.
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