SPEAKER_00: The sermon text this morning comes from Mark chapter 16, verses 1 to 8.
SPEAKER_00: We are concluding our sermon series on the Gospel of Mark after about 18 months.
SPEAKER_00: And it's been a good journey.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, you have a favorite author?
SPEAKER_00: You have an author that you just really enjoy, and you've read multiple books from that author, and it's almost like if you didn't know the name on the title page, you you would know who wrote it, because it just sounds like that author.
SPEAKER_00: That's like the gospel writers.
SPEAKER_00: At this point, I feel like I really know Mark.
SPEAKER_00: His style of writing, the brevity, action-oriented.
SPEAKER_00: This is the most action-oriented gospel we have.
SPEAKER_00: This is the gospel with the least amount of sermons, the least amount of teaching.
SPEAKER_00: And it's very fast-paced.
SPEAKER_00: And it's very, very moving as we see Jesus' interactions with so many people.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read about it at the close.
SPEAKER_00: When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Siloam, bought spices so that they might go and anoint him.
SPEAKER_00: The hymn is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had arisen, they went to the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: And they were saying to one another, Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?
SPEAKER_00: And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back.
SPEAKER_00: It was very large.
SPEAKER_00: And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, Do not be alarmed.
SPEAKER_00: You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified.
SPEAKER_00: He is risen.
SPEAKER_00: He's not here.
SPEAKER_00: See the place where they laid him.
SPEAKER_00: But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: There you will see him, just as he told you.
SPEAKER_00: And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them.
SPEAKER_00: And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reading of God's holy, powerful, perfect word that only the Holy Spirit could give us.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for this passage.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for this account, this event.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we know that they're more than just words to you.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, this was your very life.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, help us to understand what these truths are.
SPEAKER_00: But Lord, would you give us the desire to live, to accept, to receive the one who is all truth, Jesus Himself.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in His name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: A natural response to a supernatural event.
SPEAKER_00: That's the title of the message this morning.
SPEAKER_00: These women that we're going to read about this morning, they had a very natural response.
SPEAKER_00: This is not something cooked up.
SPEAKER_00: This is not something fabricated.
SPEAKER_00: We see their response, probably very much like ours would have been had we been there.
SPEAKER_00: We see Mark's style again.
SPEAKER_00: He closes in a rather odd way, but I think we can explore that a bit further this morning.
SPEAKER_00: For the few things have been questioned as much in our culture today, or historically, few things have been questioned as much as the historical resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps the prevailing opinion today in Alexandria and Washington, D.C., across the country and throughout the world, perhaps the prevailing opinion today is to question whether Jesus actually experienced a bodily physical resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if this is news to you, but I'm sure it's not for some of you, maybe many of you.
SPEAKER_00: Many of our churches believe it doesn't matter whether this happened.
SPEAKER_00: Many of our churches around here believe it's a different message.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say straight up, it's not the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It's a different message.
SPEAKER_00: The thinking goes like this the resurrection is a symbol of hope in life.
SPEAKER_00: The core message focuses on the triumph of love over hate, hope over despair, emphasizing that Jesus' teachings and spirit live on in the hearts of his followers.
SPEAKER_00: And the understanding is pretty much that we all are his followers.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter if we follow him in different ways, different traditions.
SPEAKER_00: We're all God's children, right?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Have you heard that?
SPEAKER_00: How many sermons have you heard?
SPEAKER_00: It's not true.
SPEAKER_00: I hope to convince you today that it does matter whether Jesus Christ of Nazareth was bodily, physically resurrected from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: This is more than just a feel-good emotion.
SPEAKER_00: What do we say in response?
SPEAKER_00: What does the Word of God more importantly say in response to that question?
SPEAKER_00: Is this just a myth?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's what Easter is, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's this time of the year, boy, after you had a long, hard, cold winter here in DC, the flowers start to bloom, grass gets cut.
SPEAKER_00: We have 80-degree days like the other day.
SPEAKER_00: And isn't that just a beautiful picture of life?
SPEAKER_00: Just a little inspiration, just to feel a little bit better about life.
SPEAKER_00: No, it better be better than that.
SPEAKER_00: Matt and Katie read just a few minutes ago from 1 Corinthians 15 as the Apostle Paul summed that up.
SPEAKER_00: He said in verse 2, if this did not actually happen, if the resurrection of Jesus Christ did not take place in a real place at a real time, a real body that was crucified, a real resurrection, if that did not happen, you have believed in vain.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: If that didn't happen, you have believed in vain.
SPEAKER_00: He's not done using that word vain.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: He says, and if Christ has not been raised from the dead, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing at the end of the chapter that was read, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, a minister like me can spend their entire life in ministry in vain.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: It's possible.
SPEAKER_00: There are going to be a lot of unsaved preachers in hell.
SPEAKER_00: That's just real.
SPEAKER_00: Get your attention.
SPEAKER_00: It's true.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: What are you preaching?
SPEAKER_00: Are you preaching a myth?
SPEAKER_00: Are you preaching just a feel-good story?
SPEAKER_00: Or did these things actually happen in real time, in real space, in a real place?
SPEAKER_00: It matters.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to spend my life in vain.
SPEAKER_00: You and I can spend our lives in vain if we miss what's before us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: So let's pick up on this historical account on the first Easter morn.
SPEAKER_00: Very early on a Sunday morning, that first Easter morn, as the sun came up.
SPEAKER_00: Did you see it this morning?
SPEAKER_00: It was actually up early this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Not now so much.
SPEAKER_00: The sun was shining.
SPEAKER_00: On that first Easter morn, three women get up.
SPEAKER_00: Why are they named?
SPEAKER_00: Because this matters.
SPEAKER_00: Names matter.
SPEAKER_00: He tells us.
SPEAKER_00: This is a historical account.
SPEAKER_00: Mary.
SPEAKER_00: Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Saloon.
SPEAKER_00: Mark tells us at the end of chapter 15 that the reason that these three women knew where to go was because they followed the Roman soldiers when they took the body the day before.
SPEAKER_00: They followed them.
SPEAKER_00: Now, where were the disciples?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know?
SPEAKER_00: They were in hiding.
SPEAKER_00: One thing, one reason you know that the Bible is true is the writers, the authors of the Bible, don't go out of their way to make themselves look good.
SPEAKER_00: If they mess up, they confess it.
SPEAKER_00: That's one reason.
SPEAKER_00: They were hiding out of fear.
SPEAKER_00: They did not want to be caught associating with Jesus after his death because if they were, there might be a cross waiting for them.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Bible tells us.
SPEAKER_00: But these women, these three women had courage.
SPEAKER_00: They said, we're going to go and we're going to take these expensive spices, we're going to take them, and we're going to anoint the dead body of Jesus at the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: But then they have this conversation on the way.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: We saw it's a huge rock covering the entrance to the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: We can't move that rock.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let's not be too hard on our sisters.
SPEAKER_00: They were grieving much.
SPEAKER_00: As a pastor who has done many funerals over many years, I know how easy it is to overlook details when you're grieving.
SPEAKER_00: When you're mourning.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to overlook some things because of your grief.
SPEAKER_00: But they did have the courage to go there.
SPEAKER_00: Where the Roman guards had been posted.
SPEAKER_00: When the women arrived, they see an angel, a young man dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side.
SPEAKER_00: The details, right?
SPEAKER_00: Why would you say that?
SPEAKER_00: If you're an author, why would you say that unless it was true?
SPEAKER_00: A young man, angel, dressed in white robe, sitting on the right side.
SPEAKER_00: I just find the Bible so interesting, fascinating.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe one day we'll get to ask some of these questions.
SPEAKER_00: God, why was on the right side?
SPEAKER_00: Not the left side.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But this eyewitness tells us exactly how it went down.
SPEAKER_00: They see this angel and they see that this enormous stone has been moved, no longer black, blocking the tomb, and they can get in.
SPEAKER_00: But do they dare go in?
SPEAKER_00: Because they just met an angel.
SPEAKER_00: An angel who speaks.
SPEAKER_00: What did the angel have to say?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the angel did speak.
SPEAKER_00: The angel had something to say.
SPEAKER_00: And the angel said, Don't be alarmed.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that was easier to say than to actually do.
SPEAKER_00: They were alarmed.
SPEAKER_00: They saw that the stone had been rolled back.
SPEAKER_00: As they entered the tomb, they saw this angel, yes.
SPEAKER_00: And the angel had a message.
SPEAKER_00: Do not be alarmed.
SPEAKER_00: You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.
SPEAKER_00: He has risen.
SPEAKER_00: He is not here.
SPEAKER_00: See the place where they laid him.
SPEAKER_00: This Greek word alarmed is a very interesting word.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen it earlier in our study of the Gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember where?
SPEAKER_00: We saw it in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before Jesus died, before he was murdered.
SPEAKER_00: He was in the Garden of Gethsemane.
SPEAKER_00: And we read about that.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus began to be deeply distressed.
SPEAKER_00: This word means both fear and wonder, astonishment and distress.
SPEAKER_00: These women who went to anoint his body, his dead body, did not know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: They were perplexed, they were confused.
SPEAKER_00: What do we do?
SPEAKER_00: It's a word that really captures what we've seen through the Gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_00: When people meet the real Jesus, there's nothing ordinary about it.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen Jesus experience, meet people all over the pages of Mark, haven't we?
SPEAKER_00: Healing people who couldn't hear, who couldn't speak.
SPEAKER_00: We saw Jesus in the boat with his disciples when his disciples were scared to death.
SPEAKER_00: These experienced fishermen were completely out of control in the storm on the sea.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus shows up in the boat.
SPEAKER_00: We preached that sermon, what, six months ago?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: People are still coming up.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor, Jesus was in the boat with me this week.
SPEAKER_00: I went through something really hard.
SPEAKER_00: I went through something really hard, and Jesus was in the boat with me.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he was.
SPEAKER_00: What you don't see in the Gospels for the most part are people meeting the real Jesus and being nonplussed by it.
SPEAKER_00: You don't see people meeting Jesus and just shrugging their shoulders.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: He's alright.
SPEAKER_00: You don't see that.
SPEAKER_00: What you find in the gospels and what you find in the gospel of Mark is really what we ought to expect to find.
SPEAKER_00: People either bow down and sometimes on the ground with their face to the ground because they're in the presence of a holiness they've never been before.
SPEAKER_00: Or people sing from the top of their lungs because they've been healed by Jesus or they've been forgiven by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You don't find a ho-hum response when people meet the real Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What about you?
SPEAKER_00: What would characterize your relationship with Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Is there something ho-hum about it?
SPEAKER_00: You're not seeing the real Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just telling you straight up, you're not.
SPEAKER_00: You can't see the real Jesus and be non-plussed.
SPEAKER_00: These women.
SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: He's not here.
SPEAKER_00: What happened to him?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that interesting that all of his closest followers did not expect him to be raised from the dead?
SPEAKER_00: And we just take Easter for granted.
SPEAKER_00: They thought he was going to be dead.
SPEAKER_00: And they were never the same after that.
SPEAKER_00: And neither will you be if you see the real Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's just the way it is.
SPEAKER_00: In all their preparations, these women were still unprepared for what they encountered.
SPEAKER_00: As one scholar put it, the visit to the tomb is vintage mark authorship, the irony of the author.
SPEAKER_00: The living are consumed with death, but the crucified one is consumed with life.
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what was going on.
SPEAKER_00: The angel's announcement was the good news, the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The very place where the gospel was first preached, the very place, the empty tomb that both received and gave up Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Received him in his death and gave him up in victory and life.
SPEAKER_00: We sang about that, didn't we?
SPEAKER_00: Now to the lamb upon the throne.
SPEAKER_00: Who else but Jesus would be a lamb, gentle and lowly.
SPEAKER_00: But on the throne, that means he's a king.
SPEAKER_00: Don't take him lightly.
SPEAKER_00: Now to the lamb upon the throne.
SPEAKER_00: Be blessing, honor, glory, power for the battle you have won.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus won the victory.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus won the power of over death.
SPEAKER_00: That's why death and that's why sin has no power ultimately over you.
SPEAKER_00: It may not feel like that right now.
SPEAKER_00: You might be experiencing, if you've lost a loved one, it might be very real and really fresh.
SPEAKER_00: But if your loved one is in Christ, your loved one is going to be raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Your loved one is going to be raised from the grave, and you're going to be raised from the grave, and you're going to know one day, like you cannot possibly know now, that He won the battle.
SPEAKER_00: He won the victory.
SPEAKER_00: Are we living like that now?
SPEAKER_00: In light of these truths, is that how we're living?
SPEAKER_00: Many people don't.
SPEAKER_00: Many people who profess to be followers of Christ live in despair.
SPEAKER_00: How do you explain that?
SPEAKER_00: Have you lost your way?
SPEAKER_00: People do.
SPEAKER_00: We could talk about these amazing, glorious truths, and it's possible to just live in the doldrums like nothing's going nothing's going right for me.
SPEAKER_00: How come I can't ever get a break?
SPEAKER_00: How come I can't ever win?
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: The Son of God died for you.
SPEAKER_00: He forgave you.
SPEAKER_00: He has a home waiting for you in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And you just never get a break.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: You're not thinking.
SPEAKER_00: This is true.
SPEAKER_00: And if you believe it and you understand it'll change your life.
SPEAKER_00: This is what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: He has risen.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's do just a little bit of Greek.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: When's the last time you did your Greek?
SPEAKER_00: Never.
SPEAKER_00: In the Greek, it doesn't say he has risen.
SPEAKER_00: It says he was raised.
SPEAKER_00: He was.
SPEAKER_00: What's the difference between those?
SPEAKER_00: He is risen could imply that by himself he just decided I'm done with death.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just going to stand up.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just going to stand up and tear my clothes off and walk out.
SPEAKER_00: No, he was raised by the power of God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: The Father raised him from death.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the Apostle Paul can say in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 19, that great verse.
SPEAKER_00: He can say, by the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, the Father's power, by the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, is now at work in you, Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Is it?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that amazing?
SPEAKER_00: The same power that raised Jesus, God's son from the dead, makes you a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: You never become a Christian until that happens.
SPEAKER_00: You don't become a Christian just because you decide to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: You are spiritually dead until the Holy Spirit gives you life.
SPEAKER_00: This is the power.
SPEAKER_00: This is the power of Resurrection Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: This is the power of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The empty tomb is powerful in many ways, but it's not enough evidence in and of itself.
SPEAKER_00: Dorothy Sayers, a brilliant English playwright, mystery novelist, poet, she wrote a piece called Creed or Chaos.
SPEAKER_00: This particular piece she titled The Greatest Drama Ever Staged.
SPEAKER_00: She talks about creed, drama.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, today there's a word, a lot of people think it's a dirty word.
SPEAKER_00: It's the word doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: Doctrine is in real disrepute for a lot of people today.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of Christians.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's crazy.
SPEAKER_00: Let's not get into doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: Let's not get into the deep truths of what the Bible actually teaches.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just kind of all focus on loving each other.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody in this room has a doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: You may not know your doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: Your doctrine is Is your philosophy of life?
SPEAKER_00: Your doctrine is how you the lenses through which you see life.
SPEAKER_00: It's either as a Christian or as a non-Christian.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, your doctrine comes down to what you actually believe the scriptures teach.
SPEAKER_00: That's going to influence everything that you see.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest drama ever staged.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian faith is the most exciting drama, Dorothy says, that staggered the imagination of anyone.
SPEAKER_00: And the dogma is the drama.
SPEAKER_00: That word dogma is doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: The dogma is the drama.
SPEAKER_00: If we think it's dull, because we either have if we think that it is dull, this doctrine, it is because we either have never really read these amazing documents of the Gospels, or we have recited them so often and so mechanically as to have lost all sense of their meaning.
SPEAKER_00: Did you hear that?
SPEAKER_00: You may be, this might be like your upteenth Easter Sunday, and maybe you've heard this message many times.
SPEAKER_00: Have you heard it so many times mechanically that it's lost all sense of meaning?
SPEAKER_00: This is the dogma we find so dull.
SPEAKER_00: This terrifying drama of which God is the victim?
SPEAKER_00: God puts to death God?
SPEAKER_00: And that's dull?
SPEAKER_00: You're not listening if that's what you think.
SPEAKER_00: You're not paying attention.
SPEAKER_00: If this is dull, then what in heaven's name is worthy to be called exciting?
SPEAKER_00: This is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Wake up.
SPEAKER_00: Really hear these words, these truths.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to do something with this.
SPEAKER_00: To not do something with this is to do something with this.
SPEAKER_00: It's to ignore.
SPEAKER_00: It's to stand in the presence of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and be nonplussed.
SPEAKER_00: It's to look at the King of glory and say, well, what's the big deal?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, friends, it does matter.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not the empty tune alone that proves anything.
SPEAKER_00: It's an encounter with the resurrected Jesus that makes the difference.
SPEAKER_00: Not the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_00: That alone does not produce faith.
SPEAKER_00: It always requires revelation.
SPEAKER_00: It always requires a spoken word.
SPEAKER_00: It always requires a messenger.
SPEAKER_00: The angel was the messenger to those women that day.
SPEAKER_00: I just happen to be your messenger today.
SPEAKER_00: But if it's God, it's coming from God.
SPEAKER_00: It's not coming from a person.
SPEAKER_00: If it's God's message, it's coming directly from God.
SPEAKER_00: And he wants to speak to your heart.
SPEAKER_00: He has something to say to you.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps you don't know what to make of this, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Like the ladies that morning, are you bewildered, perplexed, confused?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what to make of him.
SPEAKER_00: Look, these historical facts require explanation.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're doing this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We're explaining what these facts actually mean.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the Bible does.
SPEAKER_00: God sent an angel to explain the meaning to the ladies, and God still sends messengers to explain to us today because the evidence is never enough.
SPEAKER_00: None of us understand the significance of Jesus' life, his death, and his resurrection until it's explained.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, they're just facts.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, the evidence is never enough.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, the problem is not the evidence or lack of it.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we're waiting for.
SPEAKER_00: Until the Holy Spirit makes it clear to you.
SPEAKER_00: Until the Holy Spirit turns on the lights in your understanding, in your mind, and opens up the strong grip over your heart.
SPEAKER_00: We close our hearts, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we close our hearts because we've been disappointed, because we've been hurt, because we feel like God hasn't answered my prayers.
SPEAKER_00: There's all kinds of reasons why we can close our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And our hearts remain closed until the Holy Spirit comes.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit speaks truth.
SPEAKER_00: And because the Holy Spirit is speaking truth, you believe it, sometimes for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit is able to pry open that hard, disappointed heart.
SPEAKER_00: He's done it for me.
SPEAKER_00: Has he done it for you?
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You will not come and fall at the feet of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You will not come and bow to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You will not receive Jesus until the Holy Spirit turns on the lights and opens your heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's the real Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you, He's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: The real Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's faithful.
SPEAKER_00: The real Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's nobody like him.
SPEAKER_00: If you're sitting here this morning, you're thinking, I don't think that's happened in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think I've had that experience.
SPEAKER_00: Would you pray and ask the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Ask the Holy Spirit to give you faith to believe.
SPEAKER_00: Ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand what the facts really mean.
SPEAKER_00: Only the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Does he use vessels?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he uses people, but unless it's the Holy Spirit, you won't get it.
SPEAKER_00: You'll hear it, but you won't get it.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, as I said earlier in the service, this has been a great year at APC.
SPEAKER_00: We've had so many people come to Christ this year.
SPEAKER_00: It's been a beautiful for the elders to hear so many testimonies of so many people who just said the lights just came on.
SPEAKER_00: Now I understand.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The lights come on.
SPEAKER_00: That's Jesus speaking to you by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever Jesus speaks to you, that's a good day.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you hear the voice of God.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he is raised.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's true.
SPEAKER_00: This requires revelation by God's word and by God's Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: So they're more than just facts.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to close with three words.
SPEAKER_00: Well, not just three words.
SPEAKER_00: Three words.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, the word of comfort.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be alarmed.
SPEAKER_00: All right, we've already talked about that a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to live your life alarmed.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to live your life distressed, confused, feeling abandoned.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus shows up.
SPEAKER_00: When you invite him and you receive the real Jesus, I will say this, I've met quite a few people in my time who thought they received the real Jesus, and I don't not so sure they did.
SPEAKER_00: This is about receiving the real Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If you receive the real Jesus, he's going to change your life.
SPEAKER_00: And you're not going to just stop following because you get bored with him.
SPEAKER_00: Or you find so many other things in life that are so much more exciting to you.
SPEAKER_00: You haven't met the real Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can't take your eyes off the real Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's nobody who loves you like that, nobody who forgives you like that.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody who knows you like that.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, show me the real Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That'll be enough.
SPEAKER_00: And I won't live my life with so much confusion and bewilderment and disappointment.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how a Christian can come to the end of their life and say, I've just lived a very disappointed life.
SPEAKER_00: That has to make me wonder, are you really a Christian?
SPEAKER_00: I've just lived such a disappointed life.
SPEAKER_00: What happened?
SPEAKER_00: How can anybody say, I've just had such a disappointing life?
SPEAKER_00: To see the real Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The angel says to the women, but go, tell his disciples and Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Peter?
SPEAKER_00: That coward who just the night before Jesus died, three times, he says to a servant girl, I don't know this man Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not one of his followers.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know him.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine what that conversation must have looked like?
SPEAKER_00: When you're one of the three women.
SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute, did he just say go tell Peter?
SPEAKER_00: He clearly is signaling Peter out.
SPEAKER_00: Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I would have loved to have been in that room.
SPEAKER_00: When the women came to the disciples behind locked doors.
SPEAKER_00: And the men opened the door.
SPEAKER_00: And those women came in and said, We see, we've seen him, he's alive.
SPEAKER_00: By that time they'd seen him.
SPEAKER_00: He's alive.
SPEAKER_00: And he wants to see you.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, and Peter.
SPEAKER_00: He especially mentioned you.
SPEAKER_00: If you're Peter.
SPEAKER_00: What are you thinking?
SPEAKER_00: Are you serious?
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want to punch me out.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to see me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm guessing Peter wondering if he'd ever see Jesus again.
SPEAKER_00: Thinking if there was any possibility that one day he might see Jesus again, how long did he rehearse that speech?
SPEAKER_00: How long do you rehearse a really important conversation?
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: A really important conversation.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to have with somebody.
SPEAKER_00: I can go on and on and on editing my speech.
SPEAKER_00: Peter, he wants you.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to see you.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you this.
SPEAKER_00: If Peter could be forgiven for his failures and his moral sin, there's nothing in your life.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing in your life that he can't forgive.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to hear that.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing in your life that he cannot forgive if he forgave Peter.
SPEAKER_00: You bring your failure, you bring your sin to him.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, God, forgive me.
SPEAKER_00: And he will.
SPEAKER_00: He will.
SPEAKER_00: The word of grace.
SPEAKER_00: Do you need a word of grace today?
SPEAKER_00: Do you need a word of forgiveness today?
SPEAKER_00: He's ready.
SPEAKER_00: Lastly, a word of hope.
SPEAKER_00: Again in verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus will meet you in Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: Tell the disciples that.
SPEAKER_00: Just as he told you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not waiting to meet you in Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is waiting to meet you in heaven one day.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that amazing?
SPEAKER_00: He's waiting.
SPEAKER_00: He's waiting to see you in glory, to meet you, to welcome you.
SPEAKER_00: When it'll all be made right, every loss will be made up.
SPEAKER_00: Every disappointment will be flushed.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's it's glory.
SPEAKER_00: It's shalom.
SPEAKER_00: Do you need a word of hope this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Are you going through hard times?
SPEAKER_00: Are you facing discouragement?
SPEAKER_00: Are you living with disappointment?
SPEAKER_00: Are you scared?
SPEAKER_00: And you think, you know, you've got a good reason to be scared.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it may be a health concern.
SPEAKER_00: It may be a relational break, rupture.
SPEAKER_00: It may be your son, your daughter.
SPEAKER_00: There's all kinds of things that can make us scared.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus gives us a word of hope.
SPEAKER_00: I'm waiting for you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to meet you one day.
SPEAKER_00: And it's all going to be made right.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but I need that word of hope.
SPEAKER_00: I need that word of comfort.
SPEAKER_00: I need that word of grace.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus does that.
SPEAKER_00: We come to the end of the story.
SPEAKER_00: The point, in fact, the ending of Mark's gospel is thoroughly consistent with the motifs of the astonishment and the fear that has been developed through this gospel, even with this abrupt ending.
SPEAKER_00: It's so realistic.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of interesting, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
SPEAKER_00: I can relate to that.
SPEAKER_00: You know Jesus is here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: You know he can hear your thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: You know he knows what you're thinking right now.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows what to do with you.
SPEAKER_00: I don't.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows what to do with you.
SPEAKER_00: Come to Jesus, this Easter, for a word of comfort, for a word of grace, for a word of hope.
SPEAKER_00: He'll give you what you need.
SPEAKER_00: In a moment we're going to sing, no guilt in life, no fear in death.
SPEAKER_00: This is the power of Christ in me.
SPEAKER_00: From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny.
SPEAKER_00: No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from his hand.
SPEAKER_00: Till he returns or calls me home.
SPEAKER_00: Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for loving us to the end.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that there's no power that can pluck us from your hand.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your shed blood.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the hope that we have in this gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you this morning for your word of comfort.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your word of grace.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your word of hope.
SPEAKER_00: That's all we need.
SPEAKER_00: If we have you, that's all we need.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.