Throughout the New Covenant, throughout the New Testament, the one central theme of all apostolic preaching is what is central to our Christian faith, and that is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is Andrew Smith, pastor of Christ Reformed Community Church here in St. Johns County, Florida. I would like to extend to you an invitation to worship with us each Lord's Day at 1015 a.m. Our address is 161 Hampton Point Drive, Suite 2, St. Augustine, Florida, 32092. You can also access archived video versions of these same sermons on our Facebook page. Additionally, our sermons are broadcast live on Facebook every Sunday morning. Now, let's open God's Word and listen to the sermon for today's broadcast. Let's take our Bibles this morning and be turning again to the Gospel of Mark. Mark 16. The title of the message this morning, He Has Risen, He Is Not Here. Mark 16. We want to look at verses 1-8 of Mark 16. And I want to ask you to stand in honor of the reading of God's Word, picking up in verse 1. When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, bought spices so that they might go and anoint him." That is Jesus. And very early on the first day of the week when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb and they were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb? And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back. It was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a man sitting on the right side dressed in a white robe and they were alarmed. 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. 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.' And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them. And they said nothing to anyone, for Mark says, they were afraid. That's in the reading of God's holy word. Please be seated and let's ask the Lord's help this morning as we look at this text together. Father, we do come before you needing the enabling of your Holy Spirit. I know I need the enabling of your Holy Spirit. to have an unction from on high, to speak powerful words from Your Word that I'm unable to do in the feebleness of my flesh, that we as a congregation are unable to understand and absorb in the feebleness of our flesh, we need the power of the Holy Spirit. So would You bring about that power in our hearts and in our lives as we speak about the resurrection Of Your Son and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray these things in His holy name. Amen. Two years ago, and three months to be precise, we began a study in the Gospel of Mark. There is no way that I could have known that we would come to the end of Mark's gospel in the month of April, but as it turns out, that's exactly what has happened. And as we have approached the end of our study in Mark's gospel, I realized that we're coming really close to the resurrection passage right around the time of Easter. I then began to dig around a little bit and found out, according to Lorraine Bettner's A Harmony of the Gospel, which is a little synopsis of the events of the life of our Lord that came out in 1933, but it was a textbook that I used in seminary or college, one or the other, that not only have we come to a study this morning on what we call Easter Sunday, a passage that speaks about the resurrection, but almost 2,000 years ago, to the day and to the date, The Lord Jesus Christ resurrected Sunday, April 9th, A.D. 30. Sort of stunning when you think about that. And yet a more amazing than that fact is the fact that the reality is every Sunday is an opportunity to celebrate the resurrection, not just Easter. Week after week, year after year, We proclaim Christianity's central truth, that is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. What is stated in our text, verse six, He is risen, He is not here. But, as we come to the end of our study of Mark's gospel, we are not to view the resurrection as the epilogue or the postscript of the Christian life. This is not the epilogue. This is the very capstone of Christ's life. It's the very capstone of the Christian faith. The resurrection holds Christianity together. It is the hinge upon which the whole of our doctrine turns. It is the glue that holds together everything we believe. The resurrection is not the conclusion of Jesus of Nazareth's ministry. It is the culmination, yea it is the very climax and indeed the vindication of the ministry and life of the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember at the beginning of his ministry is baptism. in the water, the Father's voice from heaven, this is my Son with whom I am well pleased. Well, you can think of it this way, as Jesus comes to the end of His life and He is baptized into death, and as He raises again the third day, that is the vindication of the Father as if the Father was saying yet again, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. God cannot be pleased with you because you are a sinner. But God can be pleased with His only begotten Son who is your substitute and my substitute who died upon the cross of Calvary. In fact, the Apostle Paul really rather boldly states for us, I know you're familiar with it, in 1 Corinthians 15, that the cross work of Jesus Christ is in vain if Jesus did not rise again from the dead. And if Christ has not been raised, 1 Corinthians 15, 14, Paul says, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain. Verse 17, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, Paul says, and you are still in your sins. The cross is vain, apart from the resurrection. But with the resurrection, the cross declares to us the vindication of Christ, and therefore the vindication of His people. It gives us, the resurrection does, assurance of our salvation. Acts 17.31 says that very thing. That He has given to us assurance to all by raising Jesus from the dead. Paul says in Romans 4.25, not only that it gives us assurance, but it gives us acceptance. Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. We are justified and declared righteous and accepted by the Father. The resurrection gives you assurance. The resurrection gives you acceptance before God. The resurrection also gives absolution. or forgiveness of sins. 1 Peter 2.24, He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds we are healed. We are healed! And therefore, we will not die eternally. We've been raised. So a Friday, April 7th, A.D. 30, was good. Good Friday. then Sunday, April 9th, AD 30 was great. Because that is the day our Lord Resurrected. Obviously you understand that all four Gospels record the resurrection. Jesus was crucified on Good Friday. He remained in the tomb all day Saturday. He rose again the third day on Sunday. And in fact, His death in the tomb on Saturday was the last Sabbath. rendering the Sabbath itself dead, giving way to Sunday, giving way to the Lord's Day, giving way to a new creation in which we celebrate every week of our lives the culmination of the central doctrine of Christianity, the resurrection of Christ. This is so immensely practical. And before we walk through in Mark's Gospel, The story that Mark tells concerning the resurrection of Christ, I want you to understand how practically powerful the resurrection is for your life. And we'll begin this way. Number one, the resurrection demonstrates Christ's power over death. What did Jesus say? He said, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. What does the author of Hebrews say in Hebrews 2? Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. The resurrection demonstrates for you power over death. Secondly, the resurrection declares our future hope in a bodily resurrection. Going back again to Paul's words in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Paul says, "...but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all died, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, that each in his own order. Christ the firstfruits, then it is coming those who belong to Christ." Or if you like, 1 Thessalonians 4, there is not a funeral that I preach where I don't mention these verses. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, those who are dead, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. That is the promise of our resurrection. 1 John 3, 2, Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. The resurrection not only demonstrates Christ's power over death, but it also declares our future hope in a bodily resurrection. Number three, the resurrection determines the hope of God's people throughout history. It's not just New Covenant Christians who believe in the resurrection, but the saints in the Old Testament as well. Consider Job, for I know that my Redeemer lives. and at the last he will stand upon the earth, and after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God." Or Daniel 12 verse 2, and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. The resurrection demonstrates Christ's power over death, it declares our future hope in a bodily resurrection, it also determines the hope of God's people throughout the ages, and it also dominates New Covenant preaching. If you turn with me over in the book of Acts, just for a moment, I want you to see how the resurrection of Christ dominated the preaching of the apostles. For example, in Acts 2, the apostle Peter God raised up Jesus, losing the pangs of death, Acts 2.24, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it. Or, Acts 4.2, the religious leaders were greatly annoyed because Peter and John were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. Flip over with me to Acts In verse 27, for those who live in Jerusalem, this is Paul and Barnabas, and their rulers, because they did not recognize Jesus, nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are dead every Sabbath, read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him, and though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed, and when they had carried out all that was written in him, they took him down from the tree, they laid him in a tomb, verse 30, but God raised him from the dead. Or Acts chapter 17, Paul before the Areopagus in verse 31, he tells these philosophers that God has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed and all of this has given assurance to us all by raising Him from the dead. This dominated the preaching of the apostles, the topic of the resurrection of Christ. And then we come to the epistles, Romans 6-4, where Paul says, We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we might walk in newness of life. Or 2 Corinthians 4-14, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us into His presence. Or Ephesians 1.20, or 1 Peter 1.3, you get the point. Throughout the New Covenant, throughout the New Testament, the one central theme of all apostolic preaching is what is central to our Christian faith, and that is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is why all four Gospels record for us the resurrection of Christ. But behind the resurrection is a principle that was taught by Jesus and repeated by Peter. Jesus says, you remember it well, whoever exalts himself will what? Be humbled. And whoever humbles himself will what? Be exalted. That was literally lived out and manifested and Jesus Christ. Philippians 2, he humbled himself to the point of death and therefore the father highly exalted him. He lived out that principle. First comes humiliation, and then what follows is exaltation. But here is the difference. The humiliation that led to Christ's exaltation did not just concern Him, it was a humiliation to exaltation that has cosmic proportions. The One who is the Creator of all things. The One who holds all things together by the Word of His power. All things in the entirety of the cosmos. The One who Himself became part of His own creation in the second Adam, becoming truly man. The One who suffered a humiliating death. the One who was separated from His Father on the cross in darkness, the One who was pushed down lower and more humbling than every human being who has ever existed, the God-Man who was hated and humbled to the point of death, has been raised up in glorious exaltation, and what was true for Him is not merely true for Him, but it's true for you. It is true for all of those who have confessed their sins, who have repented of their sins, who have placed faith in this crucified and resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. So I don't know all of the motives why you have come here this morning, but I am here to tell you this morning that the greatest message that can ever be proclaimed from any pulpit of any Bible-preaching church is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray that you will listen this morning And I pray that the Holy Spirit will open your ears and open your hearts, that you might understand the gift of God that comes to us in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and in His glorious ascension. He reigns supreme over all things. He is calling His elect children to Himself, but those children cannot come to Him apart from the proclamation of the gospel. And the gospel cannot adequately be preached apart from the resurrection. And Mark, as he closes his gospel, brings us front and center to the garden tomb. In these verses we see that this first message of Christ's resurrection comes to humble women. Humble women. And their experience surrounding Christ's resurrection can be seen in four moments of crisis. This was a time of crisis for these women. We'll begin in verses 1 and 2. The first moment of crisis is what I'll call their sacrificial devotion Notice in verse 1, when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. First, we know who went in verse 1, and then secondly, when this was. It says, when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices. That is, they made their purchase of expensive spices after sunset on Saturday, when the Sabbath was passed, as verse one says, when the stores were open again, and obviously they were making these purchases because they planned, as verse one says, that they might go and anoint Him, that is, the body of Jesus. Remember, sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday was the Jewish reckoning of time for the Sabbath. And their sacrificial devotion is seen in their lavishness. If you remember last week, some of these women witnessed in verse 46, they witnessed that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had already anointed Jesus' body with spices. In fact, the Bible says in John 19, this was anywhere from 75 to 100 pounds of spices. A very expensive and hefty amount of spices. But these women who witnessed that want to demonstrate their sacrificial devotion to Jesus. And so they go and buy spices, usually a mixture of myrrh and aloes. It was usually the job of women, and they felt it was their duty and their devotion. Their lavishness reveals their sacrificial devotion, but also their loving hearts. Jesus had already been dead for a while, and the hot climate of Jerusalem meant that the decay of the body would happen rapidly. The spices weren't really an embalming of the body, they were meant to neutralize the odor from decomposition. And for these women to go at this late hour means that they were not being led by their heads, they were being led by their hearts. Surely no one would think badly of them had they not gone, given the stark reality of the stench of death. But they were devoted. And they were longing for an opportunity to show their devotion to Christ. And also their loyalty. While it's true insofar as it goes that they lacked faith, why else would they go to anoint Jesus' body if they believed that He was raised from the dead? We must also say that on some level, their love and loyalty towards Jesus was profound when you consider the fact that the apostles are not around. The apostles are in the upper room, hiding out. The fact is, the women were at Calvary when he died. The fact is, the women were in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb when Jesus was laid there. And now we see the women going back to that garden tomb. Who were these women? Well, verse 1 says it was Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome. These women were there. On Friday, they were there at the crucifixion. Some of the other gospel records indicate to us there were other women that Mark doesn't mention, including perhaps Mary, the mother of our Lord. But it's important to understand that for Mark to tell us that it was women who went to the tomb is a very startling thing. Women were viewed in the first century as being on the level of slaves and criminals when it came to their reliability as eyewitnesses. And so if the resurrection had been fabricated, the storyteller would never point out the fact that it was women who witnessed the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead. In fact, there's an interesting little... that occurs in church history when Celsus, who was a pagan, used to rib Origen, the church father, because Origen believed in the resurrection of Christ, and he used to speak about the gossip of the women about the resurrection. Celsus, that pagan. But here, this matches perfectly with the gospel. That this news of Christ's resurrection would come to women. You haven't forgotten what Paul says, for consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. It would only make sense that Jesus was humbly from Nazareth. If our Savior is humble, certainly the message of the resurrection being received from humble women fits. Perhaps also, if you remember, the resurrection of Christ is first proclaimed to women because it was first the woman in the original garden that sinned, which brought death. And now in the garden tomb, we're gonna see that the angel reveals a message of life. But notice when they went, verse two. We saw who they were, notice when they went, and very early on the first day of the week, Mark says, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. Matthew 28 one says they started their journey to the tomb toward the dawn of the first day of the week. Luke 24 1 says at early dawn. John 20 verse 1 says while it was still dark. There's really no contradiction. What Mark is saying here is that Mary Magdalene walked perhaps ahead of them to the tomb and arrived first while it was still dark. And by the time the others arrived, the sun had already risen. So they had started their journey sometime between the hours of 3 and 6 a.m. Mary Magdalene got there first, according to John 20. She got there when it was still dark. When the others got there, it was light. But I want you to notice back in verse one, there's another time reference, when the Sabbath was passed. This is not just a time indicator. This is a theological statement about redemptive history. There is a sense in which the Sabbath is now obsolete, right? Jesus is gonna raise from the dead. now that the new covenant is here. Paul said, therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or in regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. There are a lot of things passing away. Another example would be the Passover. Once the final lamb, Jesus Christ, was crucified, God's people no longer were to celebrate the Passover, it was replaced with the Lord's Supper, which Jesus instituted the night He was betrayed as a memorial to remind us of the sacrifice of Christ. And even so, the Sabbath observance has ended. with its specific restrictions given to Israel in the Old Covenant. It has been replaced by the Lord's Day to remember our Lord's resurrection. When the Sabbath was passed. When the Sabbath was ended. This is the end of the Old Covenant administration. And I think there's even a connection between us and these women who wanted to show their sacrificial devotion to Jesus. We are motivated, the Bible says, to be living sacrifices for Christ, Romans 12, only as we hear the Gospel preached, only as we see the Gospel in the sacraments like the Lord's Supper, which we celebrate each Lord's Day as we gather in duty and delight to worship King Jesus. It is what we do every week, on the first day of the week, what we might call the Christian Sabbath, or the Lord's Day, that will motivate us to live for Christ the rest of the week. The Sabbath has passed, the Lord's Day has come, and yet there are other parallels. Just as God rested from His creative work on Saturday, in Genesis 2, so too did God the Son rest from His redemptive work in the tomb on Saturday. To become, as Hebrews says, Hebrews 4.9, our Sabbath rest. And just as Jesus rose on the first day of the week, we too arise from our deadness and our sins and trespasses. We've been given new life, and we have found in our lives the pattern is to worship on the first day of the week, to rest in the gospel so that we can harvest kingdom fruit the rest of the week. Jesus said in Matthew 21, 43, therefore I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, that is Old Testament ethnic Israel, and be given to a people producing its fruits. This is a time for massive change when Jesus rose from the dead. Just as man's death came from sin done in the garden. Life comes from the righteousness of Jesus Christ being raised. Just as spices were brought as gifts from the wise men to Jesus not long after He was born, so too these women bring spices to Jesus, to the tomb, to anoint His body. And as we'll see, these women are astonished at the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead. Sabbath has passed. Darkness would turn to light. Death to life. Post-Tenebrous Lux. Which makes that phraseology very interesting to me in verse 2 at the end of it when Mark says, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. It's a very interesting prophecy at the end of the Old Testament. You're familiar with it, Malachi 4.2. One of the last prophecies of the Old Testament says, but for you who fear my name, the sun, S-U-N, of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. Malachi says the sun will rise, S-U-N. Well here on this day, the sun does rise, but it's the S-O-N sun who leaps out of the tomb and he rises with healing in his wings. Peter says in 1 Peter 2, by his wounds we are healed and we through Christ are given new life like brand new baby calves. We leap from the stall having been birthed by the Spirit into the kingdom of God. Peter put it this way, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And on this day, the sun rose as the women went to the tomb, and the Son of God Himself was rising. This was a moment of crisis. They wanted to get there. They couldn't wait to get there to anoint Jesus' body. But that first moment of crisis leads to a second moment. Not only their sacrificial devotion, but number two, their substantial dilemma. Their substantial dilemma turns from anxiety to astonishment. Notice first of all with me their anxiety, verse 3, and they were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb? I mean, imagine it. Their love for Jesus and wanting to show devotion by anointing His body sort of overshadows any foresight the night before about how they actually will roll away that stone. Remember they were there on Friday. They saw two men roll that stone into place, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, and they knew that it would take men to unroll that stone, pushing it up the channels and up the hill. And so Mark tells us in verse 3, while they're on their journey, it dawns on them. We have no one to roll the stone away for us. I'm sure you can sympathize with this. It's like getting packed and getting in your car and heading out on the road only to just get on the interstate and notice that your gas light is on. And you say, I hope that I can find a gas station before I run out of gas. These women just keep walking. They don't know how they're going to roll the stone away, but perhaps even more surprising is the women's failure to ever consider the fact during their conversation in verse 3 that Jesus had promised to rise again from the dead. Back in Mark 8. Back in Mark 10. He specifically said He would be handed over, He would be flogged, He would be crucified, and after three days He would rise again. The fact this issue never rose in conversation reveals the fact they didn't expect Jesus to rise from the dead. They had a lack of faith on the one hand. And yet on the other hand, we need to credit them with the little faith they had. These women, amazingly, not knowing how they'll roll the stone away, who in the world would be around at that hour in the morning, they continue to walk. It seems to me that they had some level of faith that some way they would be let into the tomb. Little did they know that God had been around. Little did they know that Jesus had been around walking about. God was already at work before they could get to work and what's more, God would render their work and anointing his body as unnecessary because he did the work of rising again from the dead. Turn back with me to Matthew chapter 28 because Matthew records for us what happened as these women are on their way to the tomb. Verse 1, now after the Sabbath toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. Verse 2, and behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven. He came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and His clothing white as snow. And for fear of Him, the guards, that is, those who were guarding the tomb, trembled and became like dead men." I mean, here Matthew tells us there was an earthquake. He tells us that there were angels involved in this supernatural resurrection, and yet The fact is that God may have used angels and used an earthquake, but it was God who was behind it. These women are completely unaware of this earthquake. They're completely unaware that there were soldiers posting guard. They had no knowledge of that. They had left on Friday before that happened. These women had no knowledge that Jesus had risen and that the glory of His brightness and the glory of the brightness of the heavenly angels was so bright that the soldiers fell down and they played like they were dead out of fear. Here's the reality, God was protecting these women from the soldiers who would have been alone with these women in the dark. They were gone by the time the women got there, and not only that, God was solving their substantial dilemma of the stone. God rolled the stone away through the angel. I think back to the Old Testament, just as Jacob was Rachel's hero, When he saw her coming and he rolled the stone from the well's mouth and he watered her father Laban's flock." This is Jesus rising in power. The stone is rolled away. The shepherd comes out, the one who has living water, the one who has power to grant eternal life, comes out of the grave to tend to his little lambs, to tend to these fearful women. And they will see him soon. God's power was made perfect. in the weakness of Jesus' death, and in the women's fear. This should remind us of something very important, beloved. In our deep moments of anxiety, we need to remember to keep the faith and trust the Good Shepherd. What do we do when we don't know the future? We do exactly what these women did. They continued walking in their steps to the tomb with faith that God would make a way for that stone to be rolled away, We too are to persevere in our steps, confident that we are walking toward the arms of Jesus, even when we doubt whether He is there, even when we doubt whether we can get to Him. When we are filled with that anxiety, we too might be astonished at the power of God we See in this substantial dilemma, not only the women's anxiety, but also their astonishment. Verse 4, it says, And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back, and it was very large. Imagine the women coming up, picking their heads up, seeing the stone rolled away, and being utterly astonished. Mark tells us that it had been rolled. That's what the Greek translates into. They saw that the stone had been rolled. This is a divine passive in the Greek which indicates the fact that it is God who did it. He may have used the angels, he may have used the earthquake, but this is God who rolled the stone away. And I don't think that the women immediately thought God did it. I think that immediately their thought was some grave robber came in because 75 pounds of spices was a king's ransom. So they probably assumed someone stole the body of Jesus with all those spices wrapped up in the linen. But whether they chose to recognize it or not, in that moment, that which the women were incapable of doing and rolling the stone away, God did. Moreover, Jesus was raised from the dead. That stone was merely the evidence of His resurrection. Paul speaks about our spiritual resurrection. He says, And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work, and the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Paul says, This was a terrible and dark situation with no hope. But then he says in verse 4, But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ. The most substantial dilemma in your life and my life is not how we're going to pay the bills, it's not who we're going to marry, it's not what college we're going to go to, it's how in the world can we be accepted by a holy God because of the darkness of our sin. And that substantial dilemma is removed by the power of Christ through his incarnation, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, and glorious ascension. But God, who is rich in mercy. But that now takes us to the third moment of crisis. We have seen their sacrificial devotion in that moment of the crisis of Jesus' death, their Master, they head to the tomb to anoint His body, their sacrificial devotion. Secondly, their substantial dilemma was a moment of crisis. How to remove the stone? God did it for them. That takes us number three to the third. moment of crisis, and that is their supernatural directive. They're getting ready to see agents of heaven in verses 5 through 7. And this supernatural directive begins with an angelic confrontation. Notice verse 5. It says, and entering the tomb, they, that is the women, saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. Well, no kidding, they were alarmed. The stone was not rolled away for Jesus to exit. Oh no, the stone was rolled away for the women to enter. It was like an invitation by God to come in and see. And so, they go in and Mark says in verse 5, they saw a young man sitting on the right side dressed in a white robe. This is clearly a description of an angel when you go and read the other gospel accounts. First of all, proven by the fact of their distress. What does the end of verse 5 say? It says they were alarmed. Let me give to you in the Greek literally what that means. It refers to profound fear and distress. It's sort of a fear and wonder. Astonishment coupled with distress. The same sort of distress Jesus had in the garden. That's the same word that's used Mark 14 verse 33. Not only that, but Luke 24 5 in his account says that these women did what all people did when they saw an angel. They were frightened, Luke says, and they bowed their faces to the ground. So this is an angel. And that is proven by their distress. But it's also proven by the angel's description. Notice he's called a young man. That was, by the way, a common way to describe angels because they often took a human form, his youthfulness probably symbolizing heavenly perfection, symbolizing purity, symbolizing the eternality of him as an angel. Matthew 28.3 says that his appearance was like lightning. And we know this is an angel proven also by his dress. Verse five says he was dressed in a white robe. Matthew says in Matthew 28 three, his clothing was white as snow. So this is an angel proven by their distress and bowing to the ground, proven by the description, proven by the dress, but also proven by his duplicate. I don't know if you know this, but Luke 24 two and John 20 verse 12 say that there were two angels. Now Mark, because he's briefer, doesn't mention the other angel. He's not denying that there's another angel there. He just doesn't mention that angel. Instead, his focus is on the angel, as he says there in verse 5, which is on the right side. And I take this to mean the angel who is doing the talking. But there were two Probably in accord with Deuteronomy 19, which says, on the basis of two or three witnesses, facts are confirmed. And this is the most important fact that has ever occurred in the history of the world. Aside from creation, that is the resurrection of Christ. Luke 24, verse 4 says, two men stood before them in dazzling apparel. And we know this was an angel not only because of their distress and the description and the dress and the duplicate, another angel, but also because he comes with a delivery. We see that. Angels were deliverers of God's message. And we see that in verses six and seven. The Greek word angel is not used here, it's angelo. It literally means messenger. That's all the word angel means, it means messenger. And if you are to read in the book of Revelation, in Revelation two and three, you will see John's letter to the seven churches in which he writes to the angels of those churches. And I take that to mean the messengers of those churches. It's not to say that each congregation has a heavenly angel over them, but each congregation has a human messenger. That is a pastor-teacher who delivers the Word of God. But on this day, as these women stand before these two agents of heaven, these are God's delivery boys. But they are not humans, they are from heaven. And just as an angel delivered a message to the shepherds the night Jesus was born, you remember that in Luke 2, good news of great joy, so too after Jesus' death comes angels to deliver the good news of the resurrection. And just as the shepherds were struck with fear at this angelic confrontation, so too the women. But this angelic confrontation then leads to an angelic comfort. Notice verse six, and he, that is the angel doing the talking, said to them, do not be alarmed. I love that. The angel disarms their alarm by saying, do not be alarmed. In other words, he's saying, stop being preoccupied by death and fear. You came here for a funeral. Quit being occupied by death and fear. And instead be preoccupied by life and joy. And here he delivers the first part of the message. He says, you seek, notice verse 6, Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, He has risen. He is not here. I love that language. You seek Jesus of Nazareth. In other words, the same historical man, Jesus of Nazareth, is the same one who was crucified and is the same one who has risen. I mean, this is the central message of Christianity. This is the greatest news in the whole world. Eve gave the first and worst bad news in all of the world when she told Adam she had eaten of the fruit. And here it is women who receive the best good news that could ever be. He is risen. Now I want you to underline that statement, He is risen, because it is more literally translated, He has been raised. This is another example in Greek of a divine passive. This was a work of God. But it wasn't just a work of Jesus alone. This is a Trinitarian work of triunity. All three persons of the Godhead were involved in the resurrection just like they were involved in the creation. Jesus on the one end had authority to lay his life down and to raise that up again in John 10. But the Father was also involved in the resurrection. Romans 6, 4, Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. And the Holy Spirit was at work. Romans 8, 11, the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. All three persons of the Trinity were operative. in the raising of Jesus from the dead. He is risen. That is a one word sentence in the original Greek, and it is one that comes with supernatural and magnificent proportions. He is not here. He has risen. He is not here. You know, from time to time I will read skeptics regarding the resurrection of Christ. Those who say Jesus did not rise again. Simple question you can ask a skeptic who doesn't believe in the resurrection is this, what happened to the body of Jesus? What happened to the body of Jesus? The early Jews obviously didn't know where Jesus was. The ones that denied his resurrection, and even the ones who knew he was resurrected but denied it, they didn't produce the remains of Jesus. The religious leaders tried to bribe the soldiers in Matthew 28 who witnessed the resurrection because they knew that Jesus had risen from the dead. The reality is that the remains of Jesus have never been found because Jesus remains. He rose again from the dead and ascended to the right hand of God. But I want you to note before we leave verse number six, how tender this angel deals with these women. Remember, they didn't have faith he had been raised. They were going to anoint his body. But note how the angel tenderly points the women to the place that he was with comfort. See the place where they laid him. The place would have been a shelf or a niche carved out of soft rock. Is this a rebuke? Well, yeah, maybe a mild rebuke. When the angel says, you seek him, he is not here, but here is the tenderness. See the place where they laid him. Luke 24, eight tells us that at that moment, the women remembered Jesus's words. that He would raise again from the dead. Those tender words of comfort are the same tender words of comfort that the Holy Spirit uses to open hearts to Christ. It is the message of Jesus Christ crucified. It is the message of God's love for sinners through Christ. And I believe that ministers above all people, the ones who actually have and are referred to in Scripture as angels or messengers, are to not beat the sheep down. They are to lift the sheep up with the comfort of the gospel. Just as these heavenly angels did. Peter speaks about the fact that elders and pastors are fellow elders with Christ. We are to shepherd the flock of God, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have us, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in our charge, but being examples to the flock, because the chief shepherd will appear and bring his unfading crown of glory." This tenderness. By the way, John records that Peter and John later came, into that tomb, and they saw what remained, it wasn't the remains of Jesus, but what he had been in. Simon Peter came, John tells us, went into the tomb, he saw the linen cloths lying there, the face cloth which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself. It's exactly what the women would have seen when the angel said, look where he was laid. It's not some sort of messy crime scene where someone came and stole a body. This is a folded up napkin. This is Jesus as if he arose from sleep and made his bed and headed out. What is the significance of the empty tomb? That is what we're speaking about this morning. What is the significance of this angel comforting these women Well, first of all, the resurrection is a symbol. What does the resurrection symbolize? That by the empty tomb, death itself was emptied of its power. Acts 2 24, God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. The power of death no longer hangs over God's people because the tomb is empty. and death itself is empty of power. Secondly, the resurrection is a statement. And here's the statement. If Jesus has been raised from the dead, then your sins have been buried. That's the way the Bible describes forgiveness. Psalm 103, For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us. And that is this way, east to west. But north to south, Micah says, He will tread our iniquities underfoot. He will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. The resurrection is about a symbol. It is about a statement that our sins are buried. It is about your salvation. Romans 10, 9, Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. It's also about sovereignty. Because the Apostle Paul speaks about this Lord Jesus Christ who was raised and ascended to the right hand of God. It also speaks about a certain sending. The Son Himself will return. 1 Thessalonians 1.10, We wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. It's almost as if the resurrection itself is a down payment of the fact that if He went up, He's going to come back down again. Assurity for us. 1 Peter 1.21, through Him we are believers in God who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. This is what is embedded in this comforting message that is given to these women. But this supernatural directive involves not only an angelic confrontation and an angelic comfort, but verse seven, an angelic commission. Notice your Bibles. The angel goes on to say, 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. The angel tells them not to panic, but rather to proclaim the message of his resurrection. Think about it with me for a moment. In spite of the failure of both the men who are hiding in the upper room and the women who went to the tomb, we'll give them credit for that, but they had no faith he was gonna be raised. In spite of all of that, the angel says that Jesus is gonna be in Galilee to commission them for kingdom work. And it's these women who were given the first commission that then go tell the men that Jesus would commission the apostles. Notice verse 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. When did he tell him that? Well, back in chapter 14. In verse 28, but after I'm raised up, Jesus says, I will go before you to Galilee. That word before is the Greek word proago. It literally means to lead. It's as if Jesus is saying, I'm going to give you leadership directives for the building of the kingdom of God after I am raised. And I love how these fleeing Doubting apostles are referred to still as his disciples. Did you see that in verse seven? But go, the angel says, tell his disciples. They're still his disciples, in spite of their failure, and even Peter is pointed out, but go tell his disciples and Peter. As if to say even Peter is still one of Jesus' disciples. The boldest of them all, and yet the one who was the biggest coward of them all, the only one who denied our Lord verbally three times, which was predicted by Jesus, but Jesus said he would pray to him, pray for him, and restore him. I love how the disciples and Peter are still referred to in verse seven as his disciples. Does that give you comfort this morning? and knowing that our salvation and even the perseverance of our faith is not contingent on anything we do. I am so glad that Peter's last words that Jesus ever heard, which were a denial of him, were not the last words. But later in Galilee, we read in John 21, Jesus asked him, do you love me? And Peter responded three times that he loved Jesus. But the issue is not, do you love Jesus wholly or do you love Jesus perfectly? None of us do. Peter certainly didn't. If Peter had loved Jesus perfectly and wholly, he wouldn't have sinned so egregiously. But Peter had enough love for Jesus to repent and be restored because Peter knew that Jesus loved him perfectly and wholly. So Jesus, the angel says, will go before them into Galilee. By the way, before he went before them into Galilee, he appeared to them in Luke 23 in the upper room, proving that he didn't need the stone rolled away to walk out of the tomb. He's able to pass through doors. Why would he go to Galilee? Well, it's obvious, isn't it? That was Jesus' headquarters for his Galilean ministry, Capernaum. But more importantly, there at the headquarters where work had been at the heart of everything Jesus did, Jesus would give work to the disciples, to the apostles. Matthew 28 in the Great Commission, Jesus came and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age." The ministry of Jesus didn't stop. The ministry of Jesus would continue through the body of Jesus. We are the hands, we are the feet of Jesus. We are the mouth of Jesus to the lost and dying. Jesus was not only raised again, but Jesus' work would continue and it would continue by Jesus commissioning the apostles. But first, He commissions the women to go tell the apostles. All of that takes us to the end. Mark ends on an abrupt, or in an abrupt way, bringing us really back down to reality. We've seen several moments of crisis. We've seen, speaking about the women, their moments of crisis after the death of our Lord, their sacrificial devotion, their substantial dilemma, their supernatural directive, and now we note in verse 8, their stereotypical dismay. You would think that they would be so empowered and so overjoyed to be told this great news and to be able to go to the apostles and give this good news, but that's not at all what we're told. Notice in verse eight, Mark says, 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. we might expect something different, but the reality is we shouldn't. They were human like us. This is, as one commentator says, a battery of seven negative responses to the positive message of the angel. They went out. They fled from the tomb. They trembled. They were astonished. They were seized with astonishment. They said nothing. They said nothing to anyone. They were afraid. They were like you and I. Their fear led to flight, utterly dismayed, even after the promise of the comforting words of the gospel. This is so ironic to me. You remember way back when we were studying the miracles of our Lord before his death. Jesus would walk into this town and this village and he would interact with people with various diseases and various problems and he would heal them and inevitably he would tell that person, go and tell no one. You remember that? Go and tell no one. And yet here we see, The greatest miracle of all take place the resurrection and the angel says go and tell and they tell nobody. Earlier in Jesus's ministry he said go and tell nobody and they told everybody. Now the angel says go and tell everyone and Mark says the women said nothing to anyone because they were afraid. They were dismayed. Why does Mark leave us hanging like this? I mean, he's not a good Paul Harvey. He doesn't tell us the rest of the story. We know from the other gospel writers the rest of the story. We know that the women eventually told the apostles that Jesus had risen again. We know that Peter and John went to the tomb. But perhaps Mark leaves us hanging. to highlight what is so often true about us, which is also true about these women, and that is their hesitancy to obey the angel. Think for a moment what would have happened had they lingered in their fear and told no one. Or perhaps Mark leaves us hanging to encourage us Because we are so often fearful to obey Christ, because we know that our obedience to Him will cost us a lot. It will cost us the scorn of a family member. It will cost us perhaps a job. It will cost us a friend. It will cost us money. It will cost us time and energy to obey. I'll just tell you this this morning, Some obedience is better than no obedience. And late obedience is better than empty obedience. And in actual fact, the women did go tell the disciples. We read about that in Luke 24. And guess what? The men responded to that the same way the women responded, in doubt, disbelief, hesitancy. Because the problem of both the men and the women is the same problem of men and women today. If we do not have full confidence in the resurrection, then our Christian lives will be stagnant. I'll even go beyond that. If you have no confidence in the resurrection, that will lead to discouragement. You know what discouragement will lead to? That will lead to failure. You know what failure will lead to? That will lead to despondency. You know what despondency will lead to? That will lead to fretting. And you know what that will lead to? It will lead to doubt, and doubt will lead to fear. Discouragement to failure, despondency to fretting, doubt to fear. But I'm here to tell you, the resurrection is the central thing about the gospel that gives us hope. Again, Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 15. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, your faith is in vain, 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. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. And that is true, but Paul goes on to say in verse 20, but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. He has been raised and so we have hope. We aren't to live in fear and doubt. We aren't to stay in the failure of our sin because we have the resurrection hope. We understand that we aren't always what we should be and what we ought to be but Christ has been raised from the dead and he's not going back to the grave. Your sins were buried with him and you've been given new life. You can live in freedom without fear even in the midst of failure. I think that finally seized upon the apostles because the other gospels remind us as I said Peter and John ran to the tomb. Mary Magdalene saw not only the angels, but also who she thought was a gardener, which was actually Jesus, her master. We read also that Jesus met those disciples on the Emmaus road and spoke with them. He walked with them. Matthew 28 says he met the rest of the women walking on the road to meet the disciples. 1 Corinthians 15.6 says that Jesus appeared to hundreds in Galilee, 500 specifically, 1 Corinthians 15.6. Acts 1 says he summoned his disciples to himself prior to the ascension. Here's the reality. It was hundreds of people that saw the resurrected walking Jesus of Nazareth who had been crucified but had been raised again. And yet, the Bible says on two or three witnesses every fact is confirmed. He had way more than two or three witnesses. And the Bible says it's not see and then believe. It's believe and then see. There's a mystery to this. But this is how Mark began his gospel. Chapter 1, verse 1, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. What a mystery! Jesus Christ, the Son of God? How is Jesus Christ the Son of God? Well, now you know, He rose again from the dead. He lived out that principle that before exaltation comes humiliation. Philippians 2. He humbled himself to the point of death and then was exalted. He was raised up. His humiliation leads to not only his exaltation, but the exaltation of all God's people. All of those for whom Christ gave his life for at the cross of Calvary. His humiliation, His exaltation has cosmic proportions and dimensions and results. The world has never been the same. That is why we gather the first day of the week, every week of our lives, to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You've seen how the women responded. You've seen how the disciples have responded to this resurrection, and I implore you to search your heart that you might respond to the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ with a humble confessing of your sins. crying out for the mercy and the grace of God, and if you cry out that way, because the Holy Spirit has prompted you, you can be forgiven and freed and be given new life. That is our only hope, and that is precisely the promise of the Gospel, and it is the resurrection which fits the evidence for Mark's whole thesis, the beginning of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And Mark ends by telling us of the resurrection. Father, we thank you for the gift of Scripture, most of all the gift of Christ, the one who is truth incarnate, the one who came from heaven to earth, the one who went from the cradle to Calvary, to the tomb and rose again triumphant. Lord, we thank you that that tomb is empty, a symbol and a statement that death itself is empty of power. And yet, Father, if we're still in our sins, death still holds sway over us. So we pray that we might be repentant believers in Christ, that we might look to the hope of Christ found in the glorious doctrine of the resurrection. Give us comfort where we need it. to assuage our anxieties, our fears, maybe a fear of death, fear of tomorrow, fear of whatever, all of that can be removed through Christ. Help our focus to be on Him this resurrection day. We pray these things in His holy and blessed name. Amen. I hope this sermon from God's Word has ministered to your soul. For more information about our church, you can visit our website, www.ChristReformedcc.com. Also, for access to more sermons, articles, and a podcast I host, entitled Today in Church, His Story, you can visit www.PastorAndrewSmith.com.