Mark 16:1-8 | Good News!

Sunday Morning | April 5, 2026 | John C. Majors | Louisville, KY

Pastor John’s Easter message centered on the life-changing power of the good news of Jesus’ resurrection, drawing from Mark 16:1–8 and the example of the women who first encountered the empty tomb. Their journey began with a labor of love as they went to honor Jesus, followed by a step of faith despite uncertainty about the stone, and then the shock of unexpected news that He had risen. Instead of remaining in fear, they were given a mission to go and tell others. In the same way, we experience the power of the resurrection today by choosing to walk by faith, especially when we don’t have all the answers, by moving toward Jesus in moments of confusion rather than away from Him, and by allowing Him to transform our fear into faith, stepping into the hope and purpose found in the risen Christ.

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Transcript

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Thank you Isaac. Good morning, Valley View. It's great to be with you today to celebrate Easter, Resurrection Sunday. What a powerful time of worship. Really dwelling on the fact that he is risen. Yeah, he's risen indeed. Well, this morning we're talking about good news. You've seen it out in the lobby. You've seen it on the screen. Good news. This Sunday is all about good news. And everybody loves to get good news. That's one of your favorite things to hear is good news. I remember when I was waiting to hear back, I had applied for college. I had applied for a specific degree program, and I didn't really know how it was going to turn out or not. And so a lot of people were praying, especially my parents, because they weren't sure either. And I kept checking the mail and checking the mail and wondering, because this was before any kind of app that might send me a notification or email or cell phone or anything, just waiting on the mail. One day I came home late from work, had been at the grocery store late at night, helping to stock the shelves. 11 p.m. hungry? Eat, shower and it hits me about midnight. I haven't checked the mail. I run outside, look at the mail and there it is. There's that letter and it says, congratulations, you've been accepted. And that was good news. That was exciting news. In fact, in many ways, life changing news. And I had to tell somebody right away. And so I'll go inside, wake up my parents, it's midnight. They're like, what are you doing? You're crazy. I said, listen, I got some great news. I got accepted, and they said, we weren't sure. I mean, great, we knew all along we were sure that would happen. That's wonderful news. Thank you. Lord. Can we go back to sleep? Yes. Go ahead. But when you get great news, when you get good news, when you get life changing news, you can't help. You got to tell someone else. And this morning we're going to see the story of three women who received very good news. In fact, we would say it's the best news ever delivered to the world at any time. We're going to be in Mark chapter 16. So if you have a Bible, turn to mark chapter 16. And if you have a church Bible, which we have some of those out in the lobby, that'll be on page 802. We'd love to give you a copy of that Bible. That's for you, to keep you can slip at any time and grab one. We're going to be reading from Mark chapter 16, verses one through eight. This is at the end of the book of Mark, and there will see a group of women who were the first to encounter the good news of the resurrection of Jesus. And today we want to look at how they respond to that, how they encounter, how they respond. And then we'll look at what that means for us today. And hopefully you have a copy of the notes where you can capture some of what we covered. But I'm going to start by just reading from Mark chapter 16, verse one through eight. When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they may go and anoint him. 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 young 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 they were afraid. Here we have this experience of three women who were coming to the tomb to anoint Jesus's body. And I think the first thing we see with them in this experience is that they were coming out of a labor of love. That's the first point in your outline. They were coming to express love to Jesus. You know, it was common custom to anoint the body. They in fact, other scriptures say that they anointed his body before burial, but of course others would want to anoint him as well. We would do that even if there were flowers on the tomb. On the day when you went to show your respects, you would still put your flowers down. It was your way of saying, I love you. I care about you. I'm sorry that you're gone. I miss you. And so they this shows their eagerness. They were waiting as soon as they could. The first thing right after the Sabbath. It wouldn't have been appropriate to go on the Sabbath, to anoint the body that would have been kind of against their rules and their customs. First thing, we're going as soon as we can go buy stuff. As soon as it gets daylight, we're out of here. We're going to show our love to Jesus. You know, many people look at this encounter that we're going to read about here and study with Mary. Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, Salome. Many people have seen that this is an example of why the New Testament can be verified, why the new Testament is trustworthy. Because if you were making the story up back at this time, you would not have been the first people you wouldn't have recorded, the first people to meet Jesus or to learn the story of Jesus would to be women. Back at this time. I'm not saying it's right. I'm not approving. But back at this time, many times, especially in a court of law, the testimony of a woman, it would need to be confirmed by another man, a trustworthy man, someone else to come alongside them. Again. I'm not saying that's right, not approving of that. But if you were making up the story, then you wouldn't have chosen women to be the very first witnesses. You certainly wouldn't have chosen Mary Magdalene. I mean, she was known to have been possessed with seven demons, and Jesus healed her from them. So you're going to pick a crazy woman as your very first person to encounter. You know, that's how we get spun. That's not what you're going to make up. And I think some of that is certainly applies. I think it also shows that the New Testament, in Jesus coming into the world, breaks in a new respect for all of humanity that you don't see in history prior to this. But I think there's a more practical reason why these three women were the first to hear the news of Jesus. I just think it comes down to the fact that they were the first to come. Which says a lot about them, by the way. You know, where were the disciples? Wherever they come in to anoint the body. I think this speaks to their love for Jesus. And think about this. If you had been healed of seven demons and set free from control of the enemy, and the kind of love that you would have for Jesus, even though it seems like he let you down, he didn't say he didn't become all he said he was going to be. This is a mother's love, a family love, a sister's love that says, I don't care. I still love you. I'm still here honoring your life. Even if things didn't go the way they planned. Now that's how it starts, a labor of love. But I think also in this, the second thing we see is that they are taking a significant step of faith here. In fact, look back at verse three. They were saying to one another as they're going there, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb? They're taking a significant step of faith by coming to assume, first of all, they don't even know if they're going to be able to go in. I don't know if it'll be open. I don't know if they'll let us in, by the way, it's guarded, likely by the very soldiers who were a part of crucifying Jesus. These are rough dudes. They don't care. We don't even know if we'll be able to get in. But we got to go. We have to be there. Not only that, but by even just showing up, they are aligning themselves with the enemy of the state. They put this guy to death for a reason. And you want to say, yeah, we approve of him. We love him. I mean, imagine if we had some memorial set up downtown to the famous Revolutionary War traitor Benedict Arnold, or maybe let's think a little more personal. Maybe Rick Pitino downtown, some memorial. I think both sides can agree. I don't hate him. But you understand. Well, let's get more serious. There's a memorial downtown to Osama bin laden. And somebody is going to go lay flowers at it and pay their respects. That's a weighty thing. You're making a pretty dangerous statement by doing that. And these women are saying, I don't care. We don't care. We love Jesus. We're willing to take that risk. This is how the Romans would have seen him, an enemy of the state. And you are going to align yourself with him. We don't care. The disciples, they're in hiding. Yeah. No, we don't want to be part of that. But these women, there's no there's no there's no wonder that Jesus is going to be the one to make sure they get the news first. They take a significant step of faith. Now here's what happens. They come to the tomb. They don't know if they're going to be able to get in or not. And we see here's what happens. Look back in verse four looking up. They saw that the stone had been rolled back. It was very large. And entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, do not be alarmed. And here's what's happened. They are coming, expecting the tomb is going to be closed. Jesus is going to be in there. And they encounter this young man, and he's going to give them what we know is good news. But to them, it would have been unexpected news. This is wasn't what they were expecting. They didn't come expecting to see that Jesus wasn't there. And there's some other guy in there. And of course we know he was an angel. The other gospels say that we know Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. All four record this account of Jesus's resurrection and the news of it being spread. We have four different accounts, so you can see it from four different perspectives. They're called the Gospels. Gospel just means good news. Mark's the shortest of them. And here we have them describe this person they encounter as he seems to them, a young man. But we know he's an angel. The word angel just means messenger. Someone who's bringing a message from God, and he gives them this unexpected news. And here's what he says don't be alarmed. You see Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, he is risen. He is not here. This is unexpected news. This isn't what they were planning to hear. But the question is, what are you going to do when you get this unexpected news? You're expecting things to go one way, that go another. How do you react to that? How do you respond? Well, here in particular, this angel gives them not just the news, but he also gives them a mission. I'm delivering the news, but I'm giving you something to do with it. I'm giving you a mission. Look back at verse seven. He says, go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him just as he told you. I've given you good news, and now I'm giving you a mission. He gives him the word go. Mark is a book of action. Almost every verse in the original language starts with the word, and that's the word you use when you're telling a story and you want to keep the action going in. This happened and then this happened, and then that happened. And, and and it's a book of action. And he's going to end the book here drawing to a close with action. Go, go and tell. It's the same word gave Abraham. Go, go to a place. I'll show you. It's the same word Jesus gives the disciples at the end of the book of Matthew. Go make disciples. Tell the world. And he says to them specifically, go and tell the disciples. And he says, And Peter, now why does he call out Peter individually? I think there's a couple of things that may have been going on here. First of all, Peter may not have been with the disciples. We know he tended to do his own thing, might have run off on his own, might have gone fishing. He who knows he he often was off separate from the rest of the disciples. So go find the disciples who were all caught up together. Go find Peter. But I think more significantly, is the reality that Peter was the one who said, Jesus, no matter what you say, is going to happen, I will never deny you. I will never leave you. I'll be right there with you all the way to the end, even to death. And he denied him and walked away most publicly. And this is just a hint of the forgiveness he's going to offer. Go and find Peter. Let him know I'm coming back. I'm here. I want to meet with you. Let's regroup. Let's go back to our hometown where this all began. Let me pull everybody back together and let's move forward. So he gives them a mission. Go, go until a very simple mission. Just go until now, when you get the mission, the question is, how will they respond to the mission? When they're told, go and tell, how will they respond? Look at how they respond in verse eight. 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. So their initial reaction is a positive excitement. You see the words trembling and a stunned astonishment. The word trembling in the original language sounds a lot like trembling, like tremor. The word for astonishment was more like, the word we would use ecstatic. It sounds like ecstatic, even in the original language. So that's a positive excitement. Wait, your team hits the game winning shot. There's a shaking, a trembling, an excitement. You're jumping around. It overwhelms you. That's a that's a good thing. You might even not be able to fully control yourself of the excitement. That's how it starts for them. Running out. Astonishment, excitement, trembling. But then it changes. It shifts from that, that initial enthusiasm. They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Okay, this is how. In fact, most Bibles have a little footnote here that says this is actually where the book of Mark, we think ended. There's a few extra verses that may have been added on later. That's a really strange way to end the story, to end the book. It reminds me of the book of Jonah when we went through it the way it ended with this question to Jonah, how are you going to respond? Where are you going to? Do you hear? They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. What does this mean for us today? We see the story. We see the story of them getting the good news, them hearing about the resurrection of Jesus. What does this mean for us today? I think there are three ways we can experience the resurrection and the power of the hope we can have in Christ today. As a result of the story. And the first is simply that I think we see in their example is to walk by faith. Walk by faith. That's been our theme for the year. When you came in, if you were able to see past the cinnamon rolls on the wall behind it was the theme walk by Faith. For our church this year. We want to be people who walk by faith. This is what they did. They came to the tomb by faith. They didn't know what was going to happen. And by the way, when the angel gave them the news, he didn't answer every question they might have. I'm sure they had a lot more questions about how this shook out. Sometimes we're called. In fact, we're all called to walk by faith. There comes a point and look. By the way, I know we all have questions that need to be answered, but there comes a point where there's no more questions to be answered. And there's a point where you've got to just take a step of faith and say, I'm going to follow him or not. So the first way you'll experience the resurrection power is to take that step of faith, to walk by faith, to say, I don't have it all figured out. I don't know all the answers. Life hasn't gone the way I thought it would. I've still got some questions about what you have for me, but we got to take that step of faith and walk by faith and follow him and trust that he is good and accept this good news. The second thing I think we see here with them as they walk by faith, but also in the midst of the confusion, this would have been a very confusing time. Everybody had their hopes set on Jesus being the Messiah, the one who would set everything right politically. And he's been killed. Look, in the midst of the confusion in their life, in our life, what they did was a powerful example to us move toward Jesus. When you're confused about what to do, about where to go in life, move toward Jesus. Move towards the things that will help you grow closer to him. Move toward the people who are also pursuing him. And by the way, conversely, move away from those things and people who are pulling you the opposite direction. I don't mean cut them out of your life completely, though sometimes you may need to, but what I'm talking about are the people who are having the greatest influence over you. You know, it's really interesting how the people who tend to be intentional to read their Bible daily, to pray regularly, to be involved in community, and a small group of some type where you're connected with other people who are pursuing Christ, who can be there with you in the hard times, who can be there with you in the good times. To celebrate people who regularly prioritize church attendance, who who make it a high priority in their life, people who are engaged in serving, giving. It's really interesting how those people seem to be growing more in their relationship with Christ than others. And I look, I know I've heard it many times. You don't. You don't have to go to church to be a Christian. That's true. You don't. I know you also don't have to go to the gym to be in shape, but who tends to be in shape? There's a correlation there between the people who tend to go to the gym and if you want to experience the fullness of what Christ has for you. Get around other people. Move towards Jesus. Move towards people who are also pursuing him. Let their life and passion and excitement for Christ bleed into your life, because you're going to need that at times. You can't wait until you hit the tragedy to find that it'll be too late. They won't be there. Be growing in your relationship with others. Move towards Jesus. Move towards the things that help you grow closer to him. Move towards the people that help you grow closer to him. And then lastly, I think what we see in them is that they step beyond their fear toward faith. They didn't stay stuck in their fear. Of course, that's how the book of Mark may have ended. They're right at verse eight, but we know it didn't in that way. We read the other gospel accounts, by the way, the fact that we have the Bible, we know it didn't in that way. They didn't just keep it to themselves. Word spread. We know that they got past their fear to go and share others. They they didn't just keep the good news to themselves. They went to make sure the world knew they. In fact, other versions say they ran to the disciples to tell them. Maybe there was that momentary bit of fear that said, this is too much for us. I don't know that we can go there. We're supposed to go and say, some dude in shiny clothes told us that Jesus is alive. How's that going to play? Well, they believe us. They went past their fear and they moved towards faith. This week I got a call. We got a call into the church on Wednesday. Gary got one of our longtime faithful members here. We got a call that he had fallen. He had been sick, very sick for over a year. A year ago we thought probably he would make it much longer. We got a call. He's fallen. E.M.S. is on the way. We're not sure that he's going to make it. And they just live a few minutes from here. So I immediately went over to their home and by the time I got there, there was already a sheet laid over his body. EMS had stopped working on him. They were just kind of standing, waiting for the next step, waiting for the coroner. But they're next to him on the ground. And I asked Barbara if I could share this. There was Barbara's sitting next to him. Shannon, their daughter, also Shannon's daughter with them, and they were just comforting one another, holding his hand. And of course, here I am coming on the scene. I just stay back, just kind of feel things out. I'm there to be a comfort at the right time, but not to just barge into things as people are grieving. But after a few minutes it became pretty clear there was a different tone happening. Yes, there was crying. But Barbara, actually, she she wasn't crying. In fact, she was talking to the EMS workers. So I came in a little closer, came up next to her, and she was saying, listen, the reason why I'm not derailed right now is because I know where he is, she said. I know actually he's in a much better place. Yeah, we're sad for us, but I can be full of joy for him. And then immediately she started to go, what about you? To each of the EMS workers. What about you? Do you know Jesus to the First Lady? Yes I do, yes. Do you know where you'll go? Yes, I do, I know I'm going to heaven. Well, how about you? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? On to the next one. We got her covered. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Yes I do, I know him, I love him. Okay, good. Great. Now, how about you, young man? So, guy sitting off to the side, kind of trying to figure out how to get out of here. You can see it on his face a little bit. How can I just slip away? And he said, he said, you know, if I die today, I don't really know what would happen. I'd probably be surprised wherever I ended up. And she. That's all she needed here. Listen, you don't have to be surprised. She started to preach to him. You don't have to worry. You don't have to wonder. You don't have to know. You can know for sure if you know Jesus. She tells him, all you got to do is believe in him and you can be rescued for your sin. You can be sure you'll go to heaven. You can walk with him in eternity. Isn't that something you want? And you can just see? He was like, In fact, he said, listen, I'll be very honest. I didn't grow up around religion. My parents didn't raise me that way. I don't, I don't know. And he wasn't defensive. I was I was really blown away by the way he responded. He said, but I tell you this, I was invited to go to church this weekend and I planned to go. And of course, Barbara was like, what kind of church is it? Right? You tell me. Let's talk about it. He's like, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Okay. And here's what she did. She said, you know what? I'm just going to pray for you. And she got up, stood up away from Gary, walked over to him, put her hand on him, and just started to pray over him. God, would you rescue this young man? Would you help him to meet you and know you? Would you meet him where he is? Would you reveal yourself to him and just prayed over him and prayed over him and prayed over him? And of course, I was still kneeling over near Gary and Mike Hampshire next to me. Shannon's husband and he and I were just both speechless. In fact, at some point we finally kind of mumbled to each other. I hope I have that kind of strength in a moment like that. I don't know that I would. I think that is uncommon. I think we all would say that. And Barbara acknowledged. Look, I know everybody grieves differently. I know I'll have my moments. I'm sure it's coming. I'm sure waves are coming. All right. But in that moment, she moved past the fear toward faith. And that's an extreme example. But, man, I know God has people in our lives who need us to press past and present, past the fear toward faith and make sure they know him. There may be someone in your life who needs that. You may need that. Today may be the day where you say, you know what? I've never accepted Christ into my life. I've never chosen to follow him. Don't let another day go by. Let this be the day where you say, yes, I believe in Jesus Christ, I know him, I love him, and I will choose to follow him. I'm going to pray to close off the sermon. I'll have one other thing to mention. But if after the service you want to talk with anyone about what it means to follow Jesus, I'd love to talk with you. We have a number of other pastors here and elders who would love to talk with you as well. I'll be probably mostly around the front. I'd love to talk with you. And of course keep the family in your prayers in the coming days. They have the funeral this week and a lot on their plates, and I know many of you have experienced that and can relate to that. God, thank you that we could come this morning to celebrate the resurrection. Thank you that you died on the cross for our sins. But you didn't stay dead. You rose again. Help us to walk in the newness of life we have in you. Help us to walk in the celebration, to walk by faith, to move past fear toward faith, to tell the world the good news. The life changing news that you are alive. Jesus, we love you. That's in your name we pray. Amen.