This Changes Everything!
Mark
16:1-8
Introduction: Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! One special boy
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
normal 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 symbols 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 the foundation of our faith! Paul spoke to
the importance of the resurrection in I Corinthians 15,
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 usesless, 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. He was expecting to be thrown to
the lions, and may have reflected on those verses written by 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, amazingly, were not
expecting the resurrection of Jesus. I say this was amazing since Jesus
had, multiple times, clearly predicted His death and resurrection! We’ve looked
at three of those passages several times on our walk through this Gospel. 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…
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 10:32-34 32
And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and 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. So 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 Maine* Idea: The resurrection changes everything! It proves that
He 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, from Galilee to Jerusalem, they are watching as He is
crucified (while the men were scattered, and nowhere 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 the title of a book about
the resurrection by a man named 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 of Christ is a modern example. He arose! The resurrection
changes everything! It proves that He 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! 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…” (Let’s Study
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). It doesn’t say that does it? Remember that Mark
is writing to a group of believers, a church. They had heard the Gospel
message, they knew the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus from the
testimony of the Apostles. I 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 he ascended to heaven. There
is a phenomenon in reading the Bible that is called “intertextuality.” The writers of Scripture could assume that their
readers had a context, a background, that would inform how they hear the story, what they naturally read between the lines.
We’ve seen that in Mark’s allusions to the Old Testament Scriptures. I think
that same principle extends to the teaching and preaching of the apostles that
was at the heart of the faith of the church from the beginning. Of course the women eventually took
courage and told the apostles what they had seen! If not, they would never have
gone to the tomb to see!
More than likely these women ran in silence
back to the house where the disciples were huddled. All the while, considering
what all this meant, what they had seen and heard. Their excitement probably grew
as they drew nearer. The evidence was compelling, evidence that demands a
verdict! If the tomb was empty, that means that Jesus conquered death—He really
is who He claimed to be! Sinclair Ferguson wrote,
“Mark began his Gospel by telling us who
Jesus is. He 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? Over the last two years we’ve been looking at Mark’s
Gospel from the perspective of three questions, Who is Jesus, why did He come,
what does it mean to follow Him. The resurrection is the exclamation point at
the end of this Gospel. He is God, the Son. He came to rescue us from wrath, to
reconcile us with God. Will you trust Him? Will you follow Him? AMEN.
No comments:
Post a Comment