The Gospel of Mark 16. And if you need a note-taking sheet, they're available to you. We didn't have them right at the beginning because we didn't have power to run the copier until 10 minutes before the thing started today. And Brother Matt, I'm right here today. Again, we were all geared up to go to the gym. I didn't put my mic on this morning, so keep me right here if you would. It's common in our lives today to leave and get messages. It's a common thing. It was not part of life. I'm 63 years of age. I know that's staggeringly shocking to many of you. But I remember when there was no such thing as answering machines, right? Just if you weren't home, They had to call back, right? Then we all got the little cassette recorder answering machines. You come home to see that little blinking red light. People 30 years old and under are going, what? What's he talking about? And check your messages. Of course, it's all done so fancy now. And we carry our phone and our message-taking apparatus in our pocket. It's part of our phone mechanism. Leave a message. Send a message. I want to tell you about a message that's been left at the empty tomb. It was left for the Lord Jesus followers and still rings true for us today. The message left at the tomb. We read in Mark's account, we've read through some other accounts from Matthew and Luke today. Now we're at the message time, we come to Mark. When the Sabbath was passed, Mark 16, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Salome had brought sweet spices that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came into the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. They said among themselves, who shall roll us away, the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And they looked and saw that the stone was rolled away, for it was very great. And entering into the sepulcher, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment, and they were frightened. Matthew's account in chapter 28 of Matthew identifies this as an angel. Verse six, and he said unto them, be not frightened, ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified and is risen. He's not here, behold the place where they laid him. But go your way and tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee, there shall you see him as he said unto you. Here's the message that the Lord Jesus left through this angel for those who would approach the tomb and for those who would wonder about Jesus and where he ended up after his crucifixion, after his burial. This message was delivered by an angel. It was dictated to Mary and to Mary Magdalene. The message is directed to be given to the disciples, and there's a reminder to be sure to include Peter in that. The message is a declaration of what Jesus wants his followers to know. These women went back and reported to the disciples, the apostles, what they had just experienced, what they had heard, and they didn't believe the ladies. Luke's account says, their words seemed to them as idle tales. How many of you ladies understand sometimes men don't pay very close attention when you're saying something really important? So they believed him, they believed them not. The guy said, what? You misunderstood. Something's not right about that. And Peter runs off, he's got to check it out for himself. Quickly, as we get into the message this morning, consider part one of the message. Part one of the message is this, Jesus was crucified. Jesus was crucified. There's an emphasis on the past. What has already happened, the historical established fact, the previous situation is acknowledged. The Romans were experts in killing criminals on the cross. They knew how to do it. They had perfected this torturous way of executing criminals. One of the soldiers in charge was questioned by Pilate after the death of Jesus to affirm, is he really dead? Is he really dead? before allowing the body of the Lord Jesus to be taken by Joseph of Arimathea to be buried. The Romans were experts at killing, and the Jews were experts at handling corpses. Specific procedures with respect and honor built into it. There's an emphasis on what has happened. Jesus Christ has been crucified. Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth. Just to be clear, it's not some other Jesus, it's the one. Him, Jesus of Nazareth. Yes, he has been crucified. That's the past. Jesus, whom they had followed, whom they had learned from, was actually dead. There is clear, unequivocal, verified identification. Jesus of Nazareth is dead. He died a bloody death. He died a violent death. He died a substitutionary death. He took my place, Brother Jim. Thank you for the song. He died the death of a criminal, even though he never committed a crime or even sinned at all. No wonder the Bible says that God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He was not in a coma, he was not in a trance. He was not almost dead. Jesus of Nazareth, their friend, their mentor, their teacher, their prophet, Jesus, the Son of God, has died. No wonder they were confused and troubled. After all they had seen, after the miracle upon miracle upon miracle, after the power that he had demonstrated and displayed, how could he be killed by human hands? Good question. He wasn't killed by human hands alone. The only way human hands are gonna kill Jesus is if he's willing. And he was willing. He was intentionally giving his life. The Son of God laid down his life willingly. Jesus said in John 10, 15, as the Father knoweth me, even so I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep. No human took it from him. He laid it down. Jesus said in John 10 17, therefore does my father love me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. There's an emphasis on the past. In the first part of the message, Jesus was crucified. The second part of the message is this. Jesus Christ is now alive. Oh, he was dead. Yes, he was crucified, but that's in the past. Because now, three days later, he's alive. He's alive. Look at verse six. He is risen. He is not here. There's an emphasis on the present. The past is over. He was dead. but now the Son of God is alive. They can now, in their present, these followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, they can say with Job, of Job 19, 25, for I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. In the present, he's alive. Oh, he was dead, but he's alive now. The second part of the message is that Jesus Christ is now alive. He's no longer in the place of death. Death has been defeated. I go back to a funeral service for a dear godly woman. It looks like cancer won. Oh, cancer didn't win. She's more alive than she's ever been. She's with the Lord Jesus where no cancer's ever gonna get near her. Death has been defeated and that death is defeated for all of us in the power and the person of Jesus Christ. Note the emphasis on the present situation in the language. He is risen. It could have been said, well, he was dead and then he rose past tense. But I like the way it says it right there in the scriptures. He is risen. It's present and friend today, he still is risen. He still is the resurrected Savior, securing for you and me eternal life. He is not here, the angel said. This is the message. The prophet Isaiah had been given this same information about the Messiah 700 years previous. Isaiah 25 verse eight, speaking of Christ the Messiah, he will swallow up death in victory. Swallow up death in victory. You like to win? I like to win. Tim here, my brother-in-law, he works with a lot of athletes, fellowship Christian athletes. You know, the goal is try to win in the sporting competition. Well, everybody likes to win. Well, I want to tell you, as the old songwriter put it, I'm on the winning side and you are too. Because Jesus Christ has already won. And he defeated death when he came up out of the grave. The angel points them to the evidence. He invites them to see for themselves. Look at the end of verse six. Behold the place. Go take a look. Look at it right here. This is the place where they laid him. What's there? Not Jesus. Not Jesus. We know from the other gospel records that the burial wrappings are there. All still folded up and wrapped up as if he were there, but he's not there. Why is he not there? Because he's risen. It's the present, hallelujah. Don't get bogged down in the past. Live in the present that the Lord Jesus Christ has for you. Your living Savior has an exciting living life for you to enjoy and to be spiritually profitable. To rejoice and to relish in God's love and care and mercy and grace, forgiveness and blessing for you each and every day. Jesus Christ was crucified, an emphasis on the past. Jesus Christ is now alive, an emphasis on the present. Look at the third part of the message. But go your way, verse seven, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee. It's a way of phrasing it to say he's expecting to meet you there. The first part of that phrase there in part three of the message, go on now, make sure his apostles, the disciples, make sure they get the word, and don't forget to tell Peter, that Jesus, who we just established was dead, now alive, he wants to meet with you. There's an emphasis on the purpose of God. An emphasis on the purpose. You see, what Jesus did All of it. All of it. Everything we know that took place in Jesus' life on earth, from his miraculous incarnation that we celebrate at Christmas time, his arrival on earth in Bethlehem, all the way through all the way through to his public ministry, all the way through to the cross, all the way through to the resurrection from the tomb, all the way through to the ascension back to the Father in heaven. All of it, he did it for you. He did it all for me, the songwriter put it. What Jesus did, he did for you and he did for us. We are his purpose. We are his purpose. Jesus' life, on earth was a series of divine appointments. He had divine appointments with sinners, with religious people, with needy people, with rich people, poor people, young people, old people, with Jews and with Gentiles. It wasn't chance and happenstance. No, he was on a mission. He came to seek and to save that which was lost, Luke 19 10. He came with divine appointments lined up. He was on his way through Jericho, walked by a specific tree, looked up and had an encounter with Zacchaeus. That's a divine appointment. He was on a divine appointment when he was traveling through Samaria. He went the way most Jews wouldn't go. He went a way that most people would avoid, but he had a divine appointment to encounter a woman at the well in John chapter four. He was on a divine appointment teaching by the Sea of Galilee when it just so happened, he ran into some fishermen. No, not just so happened. He's on a divine appointment. He met up with some fishermen that became his followers and mightily used in the power of God. Listen, let me assure you this morning, if you do not know Jesus Christ as your personal savior, he has superintended his purpose over yours today. You are here by divine appointment. It's not an accident. It's not an accident. God always has a plan. He always has a purpose. And he's gonna glorify himself in his purpose through your life, through my life. And the way he gets the most significant glory is when you receive the gift of eternal life. And you're in a divine appointment today to hear and learn again that Jesus died for you and he rose again to secure for you eternal life. And his death on the cross paid the penalty for all your sin. Jesus wanted you to hear that. That's why you're here today. You thought you were here because you're gonna go to some family's house and have ham and chicken. That's what's happening in my family today. But that's not why you're here. That's just a side issue. That's just around the edges. That's just the periphery. God has you here because God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. and that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so you're here today so that you might hear the word of God and so that you might receive the gift of eternal life. Because that's what God always wants. That's why Jesus came. He came with a purpose. Yes, friends, what Jesus did, he did for you. He did for me. We are his purpose. And he waits for you to respond. He says in Matthew 11, 28, come unto me. All you that labor, and I will give you rest. Labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. You're the reason he came to earth. You're the reason that he died. You're the reason that he is now living, the Bible says, to make intercession for us. He's still pleading your case. He loves you. And now the living Savior, Jesus, invites you to receive what he offers. Before we go to the part four of the message, I wanna circle back to In the middle of verse seven, look at it. Go your way and tell his disciples and Peter that he goes before you into Galilee. He wants to meet you. He wants to meet you, apostles. This is the message they're supposed to relay. And he specifically says, be sure and tell Peter. Now, the last time we saw Peter, what was he doing? He was denying the Lord, convicted about it, going out and weeping bitterly. Peter had blown it in a big way, and Peter knew that he'd blown it in a big way. But the Lord Jesus says, when you tell the apostles that I want to meet with them in Galilee, don't forget to tell Peter. Peter may think he's not invited, but oh, he's invited. Peter's blown it big time, but he's still invited. I've blown it big time, you've blown it big time for the Lord, and yet the Lord Jesus says, come unto me, come on. I wanna meet with you, I wanna be in your presence, I want you to be in my presence. Don't run from me, come to me. Notice the fourth part of the message. The fourth part of the message is you will see Jesus Christ. Verse seven, there shall you see him. There, shall you see him, there's an emphasis here on the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Every person that's ever lived will ultimately see Jesus face to face. The Bible says in Philippians chapter two, verse 10, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth. Our lives will be judged by the Son of God, Jesus. Jesus said in John 5, 22, for the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. First Peter chapter four, verse five, speaking of those who commit sins, who shall give account to him, Jesus, that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. If you slip out into eternity, you die in this life without Jesus Christ, you will be judged by the very Jesus that you rejected at the great white throne judgment. And he'll say, depart from me. I never knew you. You rejected Jesus in this life. You turned your back on him when salvation was offered to you. You're going to come face to face with he whom you have rejected. But those of us who know the Lord and have received the gift of eternal life only by His grace and mercy, we're gonna be judged by Him face to face as well at the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of our life of service and faithfulness to Him. We're gonna give a record of what we have done. You will see Christ face to face one day. Jesus who died, Jesus who is now alive, Jesus who offered you the forgiveness of your sin, you'll see Jesus either as a friend or as an enemy, an enemy. and the holiness and the wrath of God in his son Jesus will be poured out upon those who have rejected the free gift of salvation. You don't want to see Christ as your enemy, as your judge for your sin. You see, the believers, children of God, are just going to be judged for opportunities they had to serve and loss of opportunities. When we squandered them away, we're not judged for our sin. No, our sin's paid for by the blood of Christ. Our sin's nailed to the cross. There's an emphasis on the person of Jesus Christ. There, you'll see him. Then the last part of the message, part five, is in verse seven, at the end of it. As he said unto you. It's all happening as Jesus said it would. It's all happening just like Jesus said it would. Here, there's an emphasis on the promise of God. The promise he made to send a savior, to make a way for sinful man to have a restored relationship with holy God. The introduction to that promise goes all the way back to Genesis chapter three. And it unfolds. It's magnified in the unfolding panorama of the Old Testament, in the tabernacle, in the observances of the law, in the life of key Old Testament characters like Joseph and David and others, all pointing to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who would come. And then the announcement on the hillsides in Bethlehem. He's here. He's arrived. He arrived and he set his face as a flint, the Bible says, undeterred to the cross so that he could die for you and for me. So that he could raise again from the dead, demonstrating victory. over sin and death and hell and the grave. It's all happening as Jesus said it would, specifically to his disciples. He'd been telling them that he would be going to Jerusalem. He would be taken. He would be put to death and raised to life on the third day. Somehow this wasn't getting through to them completely. Now, we get to look back at it and we have the entire Bible to refer to about that. We don't wanna be too hard on these guys, but it does seem like sometimes they're a little bit clueless God help me, I've been clueless a lot when the Lord's tried to lead me and teach me. But it all unfolds just like he told his disciples it would happen. The important thing to note here, what God says, he will do. What God says, he will do. There is a heaven, God says so. There is a hell, God says so. You're going to one or the other. God says so. And heaven or hell for you is based only on what you do with Jesus Christ. God says so. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh under the Father but by me. It's all about Jesus. Heaven or hell. Condemned, forgiven. Jesus is the difference maker. Jesus said in John 3, 18, he that believeth on him, the Son of God, is not condemned. But he that believeth is not condemned already because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. Condemned. If you don't believe in Jesus, you're already condemned. You don't have to commit terrible sins to go to hell. You're on your way to hell because you don't have Jesus. Listen, the message that was left at the empty tomb 2000 years ago is the same message that's been left for you today. Jesus was crucified. But now he's alive. Jesus intends to meet with you. He wants to meet with you. He has a purpose in mind for you. And you will see Christ face to face one day. Whether you meet him or not, as your savior, you will meet him face to face. And it's all just as Jesus said it would be. He always delivers on his promise. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Now, whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. You see, the great miracle about Easter, the great miracle about Resurrection Sunday, the greatest miracle is not that Jesus Christ was raised back alive. Oh, that's significant. That's big time. That's huge. But even better than that, we get to live forever. We get to live. Sinful human beings get to live forever because of what Jesus Christ did on our behalf. That's the greatest miracle of all. You don't deserve heaven. I don't deserve heaven. Nobody in the choir deserves heaven. Nobody deserves heaven. We all deserve hell because we're all sinners. The Bible is crystal clear on this point. The Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The Bible says there's none righteous. No, not one. Nobody qualifies. It is precisely because we're all sinners that Jesus came to earth. Romans 5, 8, but God commendeth his love. He put it on display. We will all see it. God commendeth his love toward us. And that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ was, he had no sin, but he died for us who were all sinners. And because Jesus did that, because he died on the cross, paying for your sin debt and my sin debt, God then offers you, based on Jesus, God offers you forgiveness of your sin and eternal life in the person of Christ. The Bible says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Wages of sin. getting what we're due, getting what we've earned, getting what we're entitled to, wages of sin. And those wages are death. And the Bible's not just talking about a physical dying, a physical death. The Bible is talking even more about a spiritual death. That is, eternally separated from God in a place designed for the punishment of sin, a terrible, awful, fiery place called hell. The wages of sin is death. And everybody's a sinner. So if any of us get what we deserve, we get eternal hell. What a contrast, the second part of Romans 6.23, but the gift of God. A gift is different than a wage. A gift is not what I've earned, not what I deserve, not what I'm entitled to. A gift is what someone offers me because they decided to love me. And God decided to love you. And because he decided to love you, he offers you the gift of eternal life and the forgiveness of your sin based on Jesus dying on the cross for you. And secured for us based on up from the grave he arose. So it's all about Jesus. I think we hit that before. It's all about Jesus. It's what you do with Jesus. You see, Jesus is the only way that anyone's ever going to have a right relationship with holy God. You don't have any good stuff with which to impress God. I don't have any good stuff to impress God. The Bible says our righteousness is as filthy rags. It's only through Jesus. Now, this is unpopular. This flies in the face of modern culture, and as the years go by, it's even more offensive to modern culture, but it's this. There's only one way to heaven. It's the person of Jesus Christ. And Jesus said it himself. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Preacher, that sounds intolerant. You can put whatever label you want to put on it. The Son of God says he was the only way you're going to get to heaven. And the Bible reveals that and reiterates that. Jesus is the only way. Neither is there salvation in any other. It's only in the person of Jesus Christ. So how do you receive this gift that's in the person of Jesus Christ? The Bible says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Those verses simply mean that if you'll believe God, we say it in the church, we say it like this, if you'll have faith in God, just trust him. If you'll believe him when he says he'll save you, then when you ask him, He does. How many of you, your testimony is, I remember when I trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. I wasn't a Bible scholar, nobody was when they got saved. But as best I know how I placed my faith, I believed what God said, that if I accepted his son, he'd save me. How many of you remember when you did that and you're thankful for it, say amen. Listen, that may not be everybody in the room. And I want to tell you, you ought to get that settled today. Well, of course you'd say that preacher, it's Easter Sunday and we're in church. That has nothing to do with it. It's not getting saved time because you're in church. It's getting saved time because it's right now. You can't get saved yesterday. That's gone. You don't have a guarantee of tomorrow, but you have right now. You have this moment sitting in your home, watching on our live stream. You have right now to trust Jesus Christ as your savior. You can receive him. He will save you. Are you willing to just say, Lord, I believe you died and rose again for me. I admit I'm a sinner. I can't save myself. But I'm trusting you as best I know how. I'm willing to put my faith and trust. I'm willing to trust you for eternity because I know if I trust me, it's not going to work. It's not going to work. You can get saved today because it's today. In just a moment we're going to close our service and we put the end of our service, we tag that as the invitation because we're inviting you to receive Christ. We're inviting you to respond to what the Holy Spirit of God, what God has said to you through his word, through the testimony of song and preaching. and what the Holy Spirit has been working on you about. You may have come in the door today with the Holy Spirit already churning in your heart about something. Maybe it's somebody gave you a track several days ago. Maybe somebody just has been witnessing to you or you've watched a life that's different than yours and you say, they've got something with the Lord that I want. You may have brought something in the room knowing you needed to respond to God today. And right now the Holy Spirit is saying, yeah, go ahead and do that. You ought to receive Jesus. And let me tell you what the other voice is talking to you right now. I'm not trying to be funny. I'm not trying to be flippant. I'm not trying to be silly. I'm talking to you theological fact. Satan is trying to keep you from doing that. And here's his go-to tactic. You see, if you're thinking about getting saved, the gospel's already got you. You know you need to get saved. So Satan, he doesn't try to talk you out of it. He's so evil and slick and cunning. He just says, just wait. Don't do it right now. They give you a hundred reasons why you ought to wait. You got people coming to the house, folks you rode with, they don't want to wait on you. Whatever, just wait. You'll be embarrassed. Just wait, just wait, just wait. Because it gets you out of this service. Moving on down, life begins to roll again. And I want to tell you, there are millions of people in hell right now who knew they needed to get saved, who sat in services like this, or heard witnesses from friends, read those gospel tracts, and Satan didn't try to talk them out of the reality of salvation. All Satan did was say, don't do it right now. And they put it off. Satan said, just wait, do it at a later time. They put it off, and they died without knowing Jesus Christ as Savior, and forever they will be in that awful, terrible, fiery place called hell. Don't let Satan win. Don't let Satan win. Victory has already been handed to you, handed to you on the perfect holy platter of the life, death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ. Every head bowed, every eye closed, no one looking around. We conclude our service today. We do come to what we call that invitation. We invite you to simply just say yes to the Lord. Just do what God wants you to do today. Believer, maybe, Maybe you needed reminding that though you may have blown it spiritually, the Lord Jesus says, make sure that person gets the message that I love them, I want to meet with them, I have a purpose for their life. Maybe you need to humble yourself before the Lord and just acknowledge, I want the Lord to have control of my life. I've been trying to direct it myself. I need to turn it over, turn it over to the Lord. If you don't know Christ as your personal savior, it's the most important thing in life Why don't you get it settled this morning? When we stand to sing, the choir's gonna lead us in a song in just a moment. I'm gonna ask our founding pastor, my dad, Dr. Bill Bartlett, to come down toward the front, and he's here just to greet you if you'd like to know Christ as your Savior. Or you're just curious about it, you have some questions, you're not sure. Well, maybe I'm saved, maybe I'm not. You know, the Bible says these things were written that ye may know that ye have eternal life. You can get it settled today. You just want someone to help you and pray with you. We have people ready, eager to help you. Don't leave here unsettled about it. Maybe, you know, I need to get saved. I've been putting it off too long. Do it today. Not because you're in church, not because it's Easter, but you have right now, you have this moment. Don't put it off. Do what God wants you to do. Father, help each one in the room today to be obedient to you. Lord, especially lost people that don't know you as Savior, Lord, I pray that they would recognize the urgency of getting this matter settled and not letting Satan distract them and delay and detour them until it's too late. Lord, have your perfect will in every heart we pray in Jesus name. Amen. We stand together, please. May I ask you just to remain prayerful as you stand. Just keep your head bowed. Just keep talking to the Lord. Eyes closed. Choir's going to just sing for us something they know very well. Invitation song. We use a lot. Only trust him. That's what you need to do. Just trust the Lord today. Then sense what he's saying to you. You won't hear it in your ear, but you can definitely sense what the Lord wants you to do. His Holy Spirit, Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth. you