Mark 16:1-8 Easter 2020 Jesus is Alive!

Mark 16:1-8

Easter 2020

Jesus is Alive!

Good Morning! Good Morning! Thank you for listening this morning as we celebrate the single most important event in History. Gods timing is really shining through this morning. And I just want to say that this is usually one of the biggest weekends of the year for churches and I am missing you all right now. As I talk with you all throughout the week, I know that you are all missing being here as well!  But the good news is that we celebrate the LORD Jesus Christ rising from the dead every Sunday, the LORDS Day that we do gather together in worship. And that time will come again, hopefully soon.

This morning, this Easter morning, I want to look at the Gospel of Marks account of The Resurrection. We are going to see Marks focus on the historicity, the historical facts of the Resurrection. We will see that Marks method of writing is to focus on the main points and keep moving. His writings read very quickly, and he doesn’t get down into a lot of the details that the other three Gospels share.

The section that we will look at today is in the last section in Mark, chapter 16, verses 1-8. I am reading out of the English Standard Version. I do encourage you to read through from which ever is your preferred translation.  Mark 16:1-8, inspired by the Holy Spirit, Mark writes:

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, 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. 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.” 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.

God Bless the Reading of his Holy and Inspired Word of God.

So, what we see previously in Mark, is that Jesus of Nazareth, the man who called himself the Christ, the Messiah, was crucified by the Roman Government and this has been historically proven. This week we see what takes place after he was buried. Jesus was buried late on a Friday afternoon, right as the Sabbath was getting ready to start. There was no time to properly take care of, to anoint and prepare the body. So, he was put in the tomb, wrapped in linen and the stone was rolled in front of the entrance to protect the body and the tomb. Here we see that, as soon as the Sabbath is over, the Sabbath lasts from Sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday, as soon as the Sabbath was over, first thing early Sunday morning, these ladies came to the tomb to properly care for the body.

We also saw, much earlier that Mary, the sister of Martha and brother of Lazarus had anointed Jesus body days before his death, by pouring a bottle of expensive perfume on him. Jesus said that this was too early but that she had done a good thing. These ladies were on their way to do the right thing, showing respect for their friend and rabbis’ dead body. Their biggest concern as they walked up to the tomb was how they were going to get in, who was going to move the stone from the entrance.

When they get close, they are amazed to see the stone is moved and they were able to get into the tomb! The stone was rolled away. They went in and saw a man dressed in a white robe. An Angel. A real live angel. How can we tell? The Bible tells us. We see the language used to describe angels in the scriptures and especially in the other Gospels. But most of all, we know because of their reactions.

Today, when someone says that they have seen an angel or encounter something like that, it tends to calm, warm, soothing, something along those lines. But we need to remember that the Truth of Scriptures trumps our experiences. Our experiences can be important and shed light on things, but our experiences can be easily misinterpreted by ourselves. It is very easy for us to lie to ourselves, to read into things what we want. But when we look at the scriptures, when we look at the Bible, we see the unfiltered truth. And the truth is that every encounter of a person with an angel we see in scriptures results in an incredible amount of fear and trembling at the sight of the angel. Most of the time, the person falls flat on their face and can barely look at the angel.

In this case, Mary Magdalene does not fall down on her face, but Mark does say that she was alarmed. Now this doesn’t sound too bad in English. “Oh, nothing wrong, I was just a little alarmed.” But what the word means in the original language is more like “to alarm thoroughly, to terrify” or “to be struck with terror.”

The Angel immediately tries to calm her down and explains a little bit about what is going on. Notice the way the angels speak. Again, it is to verify the facts and the historical truth. He identifies Jesus of Nazareth, so there is no confusion who he is referring to, or who the ladies were looking for, that it was not an impostor. Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, confirming that he was actually dead, not just in a coma or passed out.

But if this is the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, where is the body? Why is this angel here? His next words let us know, “He is risen!” His body is not here, this is the ledge his body was laid, and his body is gone. The other gospels tell that the linens he was wrapped up in after death were folded and set on that ledge. The body wasn’t there. And it’s not because someone moved it, or stole it, or anything like that, instead, “He is Risen!”

What does that mean? Why is that important? I’m glad you asked. See, God created everything in Genesis 1. Specifically, he created this world, he created the Garden of Eden, and he created Human beings, Adam and Eve. And it was very good. It was all working just like God created it, in perfect, peaceful, shalom. In perfect rhythm. The way this was all intended to be.

Adam and Eve got to walk perfectly with God, worship him, dwell with him, talk to him anytime about anything. They had a perfect, full relationship with God. The way it was intended to be. Then it all went away. Adam and Eve sinned, brought sin into this world and we are all corrupted, all affected by it today. That perfect, full relationship with God has been broken.        

We have been removed from that walk, that dwelling with God. And we have no way of restoring that relationship. In Genesis 3, after the fall, after sin ruined things, God told Adam, Eve, and Satan what some of the consequences would be. He also promised Adam and Eve that he would make things right. That he would provide a way for the relationship would be restored.

In the Old Testament, God provided temporary restoration with the sacrificial system. An animal had to be sacrificed and his blood shed in order to cover up our sins temporarily. We do not have the power to stay sinless on our own. We are slaves to sin and we don’t have the power or the ability to restore the relationship with God on our own. We need his help. He says blood needs to be shed.

And then, Jesus of Nazareth, was born. He manifested as a man, preexistent as part of the trinity, fully God, fully man. Because of this, he was able to live a human life, be tempted, know the pain and the struggles that we go through each and every day, and yet, because he was also God, he was able to resist that temptation, able to live a life without sin, able to live a perfect life, to maintain that relationship with God the Father.

And because he had no sin to atone for, to shed blood for, to make right, because he had none of his own, he was able to offer himself as the perfect, permanent, complete sacrifice to atone for our sins, to make us right with God. But it’s not a blanket statement that everyone always everywhere ever is suddenly right with God. It is a gift designed to be accepted by faith or rejected by lack of it.

And that’s what it is, a gift. Jesus didn’t have to do this. He didn’t have to make himself human. He didn’t have to be tempted, mock, despised, beaten, betrayed, spit on, and crucified. He could have stayed up in heaven, reigning as God, with the Angels to serve him, lacking nothing, needing nothing. But God loves us. He creates us out of that love. And since he, being holy, couldn’t dwell with us, couldn’t ignore the rebellion that we are in against him, couldn’t look at us with seeing all of the sin in our lives, God wanted to do something. Jesus wanted to restore that relationship. So, this was the plan that they came up with.

We are completely dependent on this gift, on this plan to have any hope to save our relationship with God. We can’t not do anything on our own to help it along. None of our, quote, “Good Works” none of our moral behavior, none of our good feelings, none of our tolerance, none of our anything, plays any part in our salvation, plays any part in restoring our relationship with God.

This gift is called salvation because of what is does for us. It saves us. Without Jesus blood paying the price for our sin, we are destined to be apart from God for eternity. The Bible calls this Hell. It’s not a good place, it’s a place of eternal torment, and fire and every bad thing you can think of, the full, perfect, complete Wrath of God poured out on us. All that we do ourselves cannot get us out of Hell. But Jesus death and resurrection allow us to trade places, leaving a destiny of eternity in Hell, for a destiny of eternal life in Heaven with Jesus. That is our salvation. That is our gift that is offered to us. That is what you need to decide if you will accept or reject.

If you accept this gift, you become a part of Gods family, you become adopted in as one of his children. When we are one of his children, we can never be removed from that status. But that doesn’t fully change who we are, not yet any way. The Bible calls those who are saves, Christians, the Bible calls them saints. But it is also clear that we will continue to slip up, to occasionally sin, to not be perfect.

When God looks at us before the cross, before the resurrection he sees sinner. When he looks at us after the cross, after the resurrection, he sees Jesus blood, not our own righteousness, but Jesus righteousness.

We will continue to have imperfect, human moments. And nothing we do before we become saved, before we become Christians will have any effect on our salvation, won’t help it be accomplished or anything. But what we see in the Bible, after we come to know that Jesus of Nazareth is who he said he was, that he was Jesus Christ, literally, physically, truly, then he gives us commands to follow. Then we have holiness to pursue, then we have disciples to make and then we have a job, to bring the Kingdom of God to right here, and right now.

But none of that matters if we don’t know that Jesus is who he said he is and if we don’t believe he did what the Bible says he did. The crucifixion is what proved that Jesus was human. The resurrection is what proves that he was God. John Calvin said, “the resurrection of Christ is the most important article of our faith, and without it the hope of eternal life is extinguished.”

What hope do you have? Where is your hope and your faith placed? Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:14, “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” Christs resurrection, Jesus of Nazareth’s resurrection is simply put, the most important event on history. If it didn’t happen, it he stayed dead, then our hope of eternal life is extinguished, and our faith and preaching are in vain.

But, if the evidence is true, if the historical evidence holds true and Jesus did what the Bible says he did, and he proved that he was who he said he was, than what other choice is there than to put all of our faith, all of our trust and all of our hope in Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Messiah.

I challenge you to look at the evidence, not through scientific eyes, or religious eyes, but through open eyes, eyes seeking the Truth. If you do, you will see that not only is this the most important event in history, but his death and resurrection are one of the most historically documented events as well.

 

And all of this, because God became man to save sinners. I will leave you with the words of the Apostle Paul, writing Romans 5:8-11:

 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

         

Amen, Thank you Jesus.

Let’s Pray

 

 

 

 

2 thoughts on “Mark 16:1-8 Easter 2020 Jesus is Alive!”

  1. Thanks for posting sermons during this time of covid-19 virus! Praying for you and yours and the extended body of Christ as we all stay healthy and safe from passing stuff around!

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