Although our primary text is coming from the Gospel of Mark
16, I'll be other referencing other gospels to fill in some of
the details for clarity of the story about the burial and
resurrection of Jesus. On Good Friday, we spoke about
the death of Jesus and its implications for us to believe
and receive eternal life from Jesus.
We understand that Jesus died sometime.
It was around 3:00 in the afternoon on Friday and sundown
was around 7:00 PM. That gave Joseph of Arimathea
and the disciples about four hours to get permission from
Pilate to take the body down, take it to the grave and put the
grave clothes on. And so they didn't have a whole
lot of time to do that. Nicodemus, a man who previously
came to Jesus in John chapter 3, accompanied Joseph carrying a
mixture of myrrh and olives aloves.
Aloe's is a aromatic resin from a plant.
It smells a little bit like a Lily.
And that those spices that they brought were about £75 for you.
Those that are in kilo, it's about 32 1/2 kilo.
Normally only about 5 lbs of spices were used when brewing a
person at that time. The cost of that has been
estimated to be a minimum of $30,000.
We think funerals are expensive today.
This is the this is a was extra as extravagant as the the
perfume that Pastor Jake talked about on Friday that was poured
on Jesus head when he was dining with Simon the Leper earlier
that week. How much are we willing to
sacrifice for Jesus, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary?
We're sitting there opposite the tomb watching the burial.
On that afternoon of the crucifixion.
They saw their beloved friend Jesus being wrapped as their
friends Joseph and Nicodemus. Both men had listened to Jesus
and believed that Jesus was the Son of God.
But now this How could they explain it?
They were numb with sorrow. They had lost their great
teacher who had interpreted the teachings of the Torah, the
Psalms, and the Prophets. Nothing made sense.
Why? Why?
The Law required that the dead body had to be entombed before
sundown. And now time was of essence.
There was no time left to contemplate before sundown when
the Sabbath began. Maybe tomorrow on the Sabbath
day they could make some sense of all this that has happened
within the last 24 hours. They were physically,
emotionally and spiritually exhausted.
The next day being the Sabbath and after sundown, Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary went out and bought more spices
to anoint Jesus body. The next morning, very early on
the first day of the week, at sunrise, they went to the tomb.
They'd been asking each other who rolled away, Who will roll
away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb.
They were probably unaware that the chief priests and Pharisees
had gone to Pilate and asked that a seal be put on to that
stone so it couldn't be moved. If they had opened that stone or
rolled that stone away, they would be They could be thrown in
jail, they could be killed for violating the order of the
emperor. The religious leaders had said
that maybe the disciples would steal the body, and so they want
to make sure it didn't happen. As they approached the stone,
the tomb, they looked up and they saw that the stone, which
was very large, had been rolled back.
Then as they went into the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in
white robe sitting on the right side.
And they were alarmed. But he said to them, don't be
amazed, you're looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified.
He has been raised. He's not here.
Look, here's the place where they laid him.
But go and tell his disciples, even Peter, that he is going
ahead of you into Galilee. You'll see him there, just as he
told you. Then they went out and ran from
the tomb, for terror and bewilderment had seized them,
and they said nothing to anyone because they were afraid Jesus
was gone. He disappeared.
This wasn't just some kind of magician's sleight of hand.
The most incredulous invent in history was the disappearance of
Jesus's body. This was one of the greatest
events in human history outside of creation.
The only thing left in the tomb were the linen wrappings and the
head cloth that was used to wrap the body of Jesus after he had
been taken down from the cross a few days before.
Not only was there the shock that the body was gone, there
was fear that they may be next. The disciples had gone into
hiding behind closed doors. What a contrast to the week
before when they had gone into the city of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem proclaiming Hosanna the King of Jerusalem of Israel.
What a difference. The angelic being had told them
that Jesus had been raised from the dead.
We note that this is in the passive tense.
In the Greek, Jesus didn't come to life by himself.
He was raised by God to life. This was a miraculous.
This was not some kind of miraculous revival or rally in
in the part of Jesus. But he had physically died.
But with us, as with us, he was still spiritually alive.
Jesus is the only prophet or religious leader that ever lived
to be raised from the dead and live forever.
As Christians, we have the greatest message of hope for the
world. The resurrection from the dead
proves that Christianity is real and that Jesus was God.
This was a proof that the apostles used in proclaiming the
good news that everyone on the planet earth should be forgiven
of their sins because Jesus died for them and God raised him up
to be reunited after he had been forsaken.
While He took our sins on the cross to prove He was alive,
Jesus verified with a number of disciples.
He visited them, and the longer version of Mark explains these
appearances, as do other passages.
As we look in verse 9 of Mark 16, it says early on the first
day of the week after He arose, He appeared to Mary Magdalene
from whom he had driven out seven demons.
She went out and told those who were there with Him while they
were mourning and weeping. But even the disciples did not
believe. They didn't believe when they
heard that He was alive and that He had been seen by her.
Mark continues to tell us about other appearances to prove that
Jesus had indeed risen from the dead after He appeared in
different and after he appeared in a different form to two of
them while they were on their way to the country.
Now Luke tells us a little bit more about these two disciples
in Luke chapter 243013 to 35. I'll just summarize that while
they were returning home to Emmaus, they were talking with a
stranger who explained all the Old Testament prophecies to
them. They didn't understand who it
was that was going with them, but when they sat down to a meal
together, Jesus gave thanks for the food and they recognized
him, and he disappeared. They recognized it was Jesus.
They didn't sleep for a while after that because they ran at
least 7 miles back to Jerusalem to tell the disciples that they
had seen Jesus and they still didn't want to believe it.
But Luke tells us that while they were telling them, Jesus
appeared to the 11 themselves while they were eating, and he
rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because
they didn't believe those who had seen the resurrection.
Do we need rebuke today? Do we believe that the record
that these disciples gave to the point that they were willing to
give up everything, Do we have that same kind of commitment to
Jesus, to give everything over, to serve Jesus to whom we owe
our very salvation and life? Some of you may not be convinced
this morning that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life,
that Jesus died for your sins. An atheist, Lee Strobel, wrote a
case for Christ wanting to disprove his wife's faith in
Jesus. But in the end, he committed his
heart to Christ because he recognized this was true and
he's become a pastor and author. If you doubt, read the If you
doubt the Bible story, read the book The Case for Christ.
Or if you don't like reading, you can watch the movie that's
been made from that book. If there wasn't enough evidence
to convince his followers that Jesus was risen from the dead
that appeared, he also appeared to many others.
Paul talks about these appearances in First Corinthians
chapter 5, verses 5 to 7. Paul writes he appeared to
Cephas, then to the 12, then he appeared to more than 500 of the
brothers at one time. Most of those are still alive,
and Paul wrote that because if somebody doubted, they could go
back and ask these 500 people that Jesus had appeared to, to
recognize that this was in fact truth.
He also appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of
all, as though to one born at the wrong time, He appeared to
me also. He appeared to Paul, a man who
was trying to persecute, to kill those who are following Jesus
and had believed that he rose from the dead.
Jesus continues to show himself today to people.
And if anyone doubts this, I can arrange for you to talk to
somebody here in our in our midst this morning who has
experienced Jesus coming to him at night time.
There are many stories of Jesus showing himself to Muslims who
then began a journey to find out who this Jesus was.
They committed their lives to Jesus and for some of them it
meant death, martyrdom, because they were following Jesus,
because they had seen him in a vision and they had read His
word and they believed it going on.
In Mark 16 verse 15 to 18, Jesus or Mark Jesus gave his disciples
a Commission. He said to his disciples go into
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
The one who believes and is baptized will be saved, but the
one who does not believe will be condemned.
These are the signs that accompany those who believe in
My name. They will drive out demons, they
will speak in new languages, they will pick up snakes in
their if their hands. And whatever poison they drink,
they will not harm. It will not harm them.
They will place their hands on the sick and they will be well.
Now, having gone to Japan for about 10 years, we feel that we
have been obedient to Jesus to go and preach the gospel to
other places. And Japan is a country with a
population that is aging and shrinking.
The church is also shrinking there.
They need new life. They need people to come and to
share the good news of Jesus with them.
Your lives will be enriched as you as ours has if you will go
to another people group who need to hear about Jesus.
Japan needs a new vision. Only a half a percent of the
population is considered to be born again believers.
To put that in perspective, the municipality, the town of
Leamington has about 29,680 people in the 2021 census.
Now half a percent of that population ends up to be around
140 a 150 people. Now, in our area here, we would
have at least 10 churches or more that have 150 people, some
of them many more than that. We see the need for hundreds to
come to Christ in that country. It continues to be on our
prayers, our life, in our hearts and thoughts, and as we
communicate with people from there, we cry out to God to
bring more into His Kingdom in that country.
You know, we still need to see. We still see.
Even though there are many churches in Leamington, we still
see the need for many more to be started.
You know, if we filled every single church on Sunday morning
2 times even, it would still be many that would never be able to
get in to the church. So we're not overchurched in our
community, but we need a personal vision.
Not just a church vision, a personal vision to reach the
lost with the spiritual gifts that God has given to you.
What are you doing for the Lord? Are you enjoying the blessings
that come from serving Him? God is giving great
opportunities for you to step up and to become involved.
I'm praying that God will give you so much joy and pleasure in
serving Him that our church will explode in our outreach both
here in our community and around the world.
I would be so excited if one of you would decide to go to a
foreign country, another land, another people group and share
the good news with them as well. Little bit like Alex and Pedro
had done going to Africa, Mark wrote in 16 verse 16.
The one who believes and is baptized will be saved, but the
one who does not believe will be condemned.
Do you want your family, your neighbors or your Co workers to
be condemned? Condemned to hell for eternity?
What will you do about it? Can you bring the message of
Jesus to them? You can just bring it up in your
conversations explaining that this is the greatest part of the
of the year where we recognize Jesus is resurrected and he's
living today and he's living in our hearts.
What a wonderful message we have, but it's going to take a
take us out of our own comfort zones to be able to say
something like that. Going on in verse 19, we read
after the Lord Jesus had spoken to the disciples, He was taken
up into heaven and he sat down at the right hand of God.
You know Jesus is watching us from heaven.
He sent His Holy Spirit to those in need.
He is watching us now just as he had been.
Has He? Just as he has been watching for
centuries. The church in action, the
message being preached, the word going out.
I believe he is looking for individuals who will get out of
their comfort zone, their materialistic lifestyle and get
excited about the good news of the resurrection of Jesus.
The disciples of Jesus went and spread the good news.
They travelled to Egypt, Rome, Turkey, Greece, India, Persia
and all around the Middle East to share the story of Jesus and
they willingly gave up their lives to proclaim the gospel.
Are you willing this morning? Mark 16 verse 20 finishes with
They went out and proclaimed everywhere and now this next
phrase stood out to me the other night.
I just like had never really come across it and it says here
while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through
accompanying signs. We have a risen Lord and Savior
who is always with us here. It says that the Lord worked
with them. Yeah, He's up in glory, but He
is working with us down here. When we witness, we don't do it
alone. Jesus is there working with us
as a spirit and the Creator of the universe.
He is able to be everywhere in the in the new form which he
received when he was resurrected.
We are promised that one day we too will have a body like His.
In the meantime, what are you doing with the body that you
have? When you stand before Jesus at
the judgement seat, what will you give as a gift to Jesus for
the sacrifice that he made on the cross to forgive your sins?
If you've never given your life to Jesus, ask him this morning
to forgive and to take away every single stain, every single
sin. Perhaps you've gone on your own
way. You've rejected his promptings.
We encourage you to renew that commitment to Jesus after
service. I'll stay upfront here.
If somebody wants prayer or wants to come forward, give
yourself to Jesus. Please do that.
God loved you so much that He gave His only Son to die on the
cross so that your sins would be forgiven.
Don't you owe it to Jesus to give everything that you have,
including your life, as a thank offering to Him?
Won't you do that today? Maranatha?
Jesus is coming again. Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, there's some here this morning, there's some in
our listening audience, our online audience that have never
given their lives to Jesus. Lord, show yourself to them.
Lord, I pray that you will forgive their sins.
You will make them holy, You will bring them into your
Kingdom, and they they can experience your joy and the
freedom that you give all people.
Thank You that you are here with us, that you are watching us
from heaven and you are working with us.
And sometimes we wander in our own way.
Forgive us, Lord. Bring us peace.
Amen.