jesus was placed in a tomb they came to the tomb and the tomb the stone on the tomb was rolled away the stone was rolled away why because the gospel writers and god wants you to see you have to deal you have to answer the question why is there an empty tomb over the past few weeks we have been building and looking towards the ending of the life of our lord and savior over the past few couple three weeks i wanted to stress to you and stress to me that our king subjected himself placed himself gave himself over to the most evil of all evil people in the world we saw last week that our king conquered by giving up i don't know about you i've never heard of a military strategy that said let's lay down our arms hold up our hands and let them kill us and we will win never heard of that military strategy but that was god's strategy and it paid off big time so often we read the bible and we neglect to think deeply about the things we are reading so i love christmas is because the christmas story gives us the thing we hear every year it gives us a way to think through these things afresh how do we hear this afresh and as i was thinking of the birth of our savior i recognize that without the death of our savior his birth would just be another random miracle we wouldn't celebrate it we wouldn't stop it for anything without the death of our savior his life is meaningless and pointless he's just another teacher but we celebrate his birth because he went to the cross and this is worthy of all of our awe and wonder and worship a verse that many people know you don't even need to really be in church that often to know this it's the one that's just quoted the most of any bible verses john 3 16 for god so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life you can take that verse you can slap it onto a bumper sticker put it on the jumbotron at a sports event but have you ever thought about those words have you ever taken those words and just digested those words piece by piece one thing that struck me as i was thinking through the christmas story is john says he loved the world so much he gave his son so i asked a question who did he give his son to and you might very quickly answer well he gave it to us and i would say great who's us think about who god handed his son over to first he handed it his son over to a teenage girl you'll be with child prince of peace mighty counselor that son then went forward grew up wisdom and stature john the baptist cries out the voice crying in the wilderness that's the king there he is prepare the way of the lord that is our king that is my king and he walks for three years through israel teaching casting out demons gaining a following and then the week before he is to be crucified he rides in on a donkey on a colt they throw their cloaks down on the ground wave palm branches and they say that's my king he goes into the temple he cleanses the temple he teaches about the temple teaches about end times and then he does what any great leader does he grabs together his followers and he said let's have dinner and he reminds them about what is to happen but they don't believe him do they

god then hands his son over to one of his best friends who hands him over to his enemies the chief scribes and pharisees do you remember what they did had a trial a trial where they found him guilty of being god they tear their clothes they spit on him and they say away with him those chief scribes and pharisees then hand our lord and savior over to pilate pilate then hands our lord and savior over to the executioners who hand our lord and savior over to a roman cross where his hands and his feet are nailed into that cross but what many people neglect to realize is when they handed him over to the cross they actually handed our lord and savior over to the father and on that cross the father crushed his son

who did god give his son to

to you to me to the worst of the worst to those who think i don't need god i am godly on my own because i claim myself to be god and king over my life that type of attitude led to the crucifixion of the god of the universe but why i say why i stress to you that on that cross christ was handed over to the father is because christ himself himself said this no one takes my life from me i lay my life down on my own accord listen to this according to the command i received from my father

this is the message of the gospel that christ became a curse for us so that we could be the blessing of god in a world that hates him and this is defending him paul picks this up beautifully in romans chapter 3. i find it funny we all memorize romans 3 23 but we don't memorize the next part of it for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god and are justified justified made right counted right by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in christ jesus whom god put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith this was to show to demonstrate god's righteousness his goodness to the whole world so at the present time he might be the just and the justifier

of all who have faith in jesus god handed his son over to you and to me and he laid on him the iniquity of us all therefore all who believe in christ all who put their faith and trust in christ christ has paid for your sins and he's paid it in full well how do i know how do i have confidence that that actually happened and that's what we're going to look at today so if you have your bibles go ahead grab them we're going to be in mark chapter 16. mark 16 is going to be our text this morning a fitting end to the greatest story the linchpin the the part that every person who believes in christ holds on to and refuses to let go the resurrection that's what we're going to look at this morning the resurrection and so here's what we've got to do in a short amount of time is we've got a lot to uncover this morning because the ending of mark is weird and it's intentionally weird and so i want to be able to walk that through with you not quickly but help you understand um why it's weird and why it's a good thing it's weird because weird is a lot of fun uh when you get to preach these kind of messages so would you pray with me and we'll dive in

father god we come before you and we thank you we thank you for the cross god we thank you that you sent your son god you handed him over so that he could be handed over to you and god you the just have also become the justifier and so god we thank you for that we praise you for that and so father god we ask you to do a mighty work during this time as we read your word your perfect holy word and god would your word penetrate our hearts now church such pray for me pray that i'll be helpful to you this morning pray that god will loosen my lips god pray that god will humble me behind beneath his cross this morning

now church has to pray for yourself pray that god open up your ears your heart your mind to hear from him this morning

holy father we ask you to do a mighty work we pray these things because of your son's atoning work on the cross through a spirit that's alive and active within all who believe amen one of the rules is when there's an elephant in the room the best thing to do is to introduce it if you look at your bible you're going to see some parentheses or some some sort of indication it's going to say something like this in your bibles quote some of the earliest manuscripts do not include 16 9 through 20. now i have called i have talked to a lot of pastors who preached through verse by verse exposition and i've gotten all their opinions on how you're supposed to walk through this and it all there are great advices great opinions but the problem is is what i'm gonna put before you is that mark intentionally ended his gospel at verse 8. so the kind of the prevailing wisdom is just skip it no one's going to ask any questions and they don't really pay attention to you anyway so just do that the problem is is i am literally telling you mark ends his gospel at verse 8. and so it would be weird for me to tell you that and me never actually explain what's going on and so a few things i want to make sure uh we understand about this number one 40 50 60 years ago in this country um if you're an atheist you just were like you know what the church can be over there they could do their things i'm going to live my life i really don't care they don't bother me i won't bother them that was the prevailing thought for most atheists in this country however we live in a whole different time especially if you've been around for a while you know the world in this country is radically different what has come to the surface is what is called new atheism what new atheism is is no longer hey church you go over there you all have fun you all sing your songs you all listen to the guy hammer on for about 45 minutes now the new atheium is we want to prove that you are wrong in your belief the number one objection any new atheist or any muslim will bring to you is what you cannot trust your bible that's the number one objection and what we have found especially if you've had any kind of discussion with anyone who doesn't believe in god is that most people in the church is ill-equipped and ill-prepared for that kind of an objection and when you get to things like mark 16 verses 9 through 20 when you get to john chapter 7 john chapter 7 starting in verse 53 through 8 11 it's the same language the same thing that's happening is most people are ill-prepared for what is actually saying and so a new atheist and especially our muslim friends will come to us and say it's right there this has been tampered with you can't trust the bible so how do we understand this and this is why we have to have this conversation this is why we must have this discussion who put that quote there i'll tell you who put that there biblical scholars who are committed to the inerrancy and the supremacy of scriptures put that there so that you as the people of god would have confidence in the word of god okay this is the opposite of a conspiracy theory if the church was being a conspiracy theorist what would they do they would try to hide this they would try to you know bury it so that no one would see they just wouldn't say anything but we have the direct opposite they not only have it but they have it in big letters so that you may see it these are the scholars the people you and i trust the people you and i lean in for teaching telling you and i some of the earliest manuscripts do not include 6 19 19-20 so let's talk about these real quick there's only two sections in scripture that have this here in mark and in john chapter 7 53-8-11 there's also especially in your new testament you're going to have what they call the missing verses okay that's going to be as we saw last week in mark chapter 15 mark 15 uh 28 there's one in john chapter 5 and you'll see a little asterisk in most of your bibles that say the same thing some of the earliest manuscripts don't hold these so how do we understand this again i tell you who put this in but scholars biblical scholars who are committed to the inerrancy and the supreme supremacy of scripture put this in i want to put before you i agree with the majority overwhelming majority of scholars that say this was not mark's original words i believe mark ended his gospel purposely on a cliffhanger in verse 8. now what happens if you're in here and you're like man i disagree with that you're messing with scripture here two things this week we're going to send out an email with a couple of videos for you of a few people dr piper dr macarthur there's one more i've got i can't think off time ahead this is going to help you understand what we call the science the theology the study of textual criticism and what you need to know is these are bible believing men who are committed to the scriptures now you might be in here and you met blake i still disagree with you here's what i'm going to tell you here's the good news about mark 16 john 8. this changes theology zero it affects the theology it changes our theology absolutely zero there's not a first tier second tier or even third tier doctrine that is changed by the adding or the removing of these scriptures so this that tells us one thing this is not something that we should ever ever ever ever ever never divide over now that doesn't sit right with you i will tell you this i would love to be wrong okay i would love to come in and hear your perspectives on this and i would love for us to look at this together because why when you go and you do apologetics these verses will come up and so i know that this is going to be for the good of you that we know these things so if it really bothers you please have a meeting with me i'd love to come and sit and talk with you but as for this morning we are going to we are going to end at verse 8 on the cliffhanger i believe mark ends on so here we go mark 16 verses 1-3 when the sabbath was passed mary magdalene mary the mother of james and salome brought bought spices so that they might go and anoint him and very early on on the first day of the week when the sun has risen they went to the tomb and as they were saying to one another who will who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb jesus has died we saw this last week everyone who everyone was counting on this is the messiah he died he gave up his life they took down his body from that cross this caused great grief for all of jesus's followers great turmoil because why jesus was supposed to come and set the country straight he was supposed to come in and conquer the romans and now he is dead but as we saw last week he did exactly that he started his conquering ministry with who a roman centurion who said what truly this is the son of god so last week jesus on the cross mark tells us he gave out a loud cry we saw last week in our sermon we know exactly what that loud cry was that loud cry was it is finished and he gave up his last breath this was all to quote psalm 22 where the suffering servant at the end would say what the world the church the people of god would say he has done it he has done what he has paid for the sins and full of all who would believe in him even mark tells us in mark 15 it was even weird for pilate they came up with pilot and said hey jesus is dead already and he was like man already that was quick because most people would be hang on the cross for maybe days before they would actually die but mark 15 has a very interesting ending why because a guy a very rich man named joseph joseph of arimathea he was one of the sanhedrin one of the ruling class god grabbed a hold of his heart and joseph arimathea said truly this is the son of god joseph arimithia asked for pilate to give him the body of jesus and joseph of arimathea put jesus's body in the tomb that he owned now you and i have some questions why did this guy joseph show up out of random we've gotten through mark we haven't seen joseph of arimathea at all why is it this guy wound up god saved joseph of arimathea because he had a point to prove to the world what would happen is most of the time uh almost unanimously when someone was crucified they were considered by not only the jews but also by the romans cursed they were a travesty they were not someone you wanted to associate with because they were a criminal so what would they do is they'd take these bodies off of the cross and they would throw them in a ditch and forget about them that's what happened with most bodies however think about what is to come the resurrection of our lord is to come so therefore if jesus would be thrown in a ditch what would be the story well one of his disciples came and stole it so what god is doing by conquering the heart of joseph of arimathea is he's creating for you a case that jesus truly resurrected from the grave that you're going to have to deny some pretty heavy evidence

in this story and so what would happen is joseph arimathea took jesus john tells us also nicodemus was involved in this and he placed him in a tomb and it says that he rolled a big stone over the entrance of the tomb and he sealed it so now we have a couple of women a few women and they're coming to the tomb and they've got spices now you might be like well that's confusing because you got one guy who can seal and you've got four women that are like we can't unseal it so what's going on there what would happen is is the tomb would be or the two mentions would be set here the rock would be sitting here and they would dig a ditch down here so gravity would actually seal it so it's easy to roll the the stone in hard to roll it out so it would make sense that joseph of arimathea himself could roll the stone in and the women couldn't roll it out because they'd have to fight gravity if you don't know what i'm talking about you probably don't work out so this is what is happening it would take many men to remove this stone and so here is what is going on jesus has cruz been crucified he died on what friday before the end of the day he died on what the jews would call day six so if you remember back to genesis you have seven days of creation what happened on day six the creation of man so on day six you have the creation of man in genesis and you have the redemption of man in the gospels then he was placed in the tomb before sundown before the sabbath sealed before the sabbath he rested on the sabbath just like his father did and he is resurrected on the new day of

creation now you have the women you have the women and they are coming and what they have with them a lot of spices a lot of oils and then they say what how are we going who will roll what roll away this stone for us from the entrance of the tomb now you might be in here this morning like how can they forget about this little detail well if you've ever been in a state of mourning if you've ever lost someone that you loved you know you don't think really straight do you you don't make the best decisions do you your mind is flooded your emotions are roaring it would make sense that these women their emotions are so roaring because they just lost who they believed was the savior of the world they're heartbroken

you also as you've been reading through mark together you remember what jesus said the son of man must suffer he must be ridiculed he must die and he must raise that was mark 8 mark 9 mark 10. he must suffer he must be ridiculed he must die he must raise he must suffer he must be ridiculed he must die he must be raised so you might be in here and you might be thinking well how could they forget jesus said it where is their faith and i would remind you that there are so often where we read in god's word something and we go yo okay dad the proverbial teenager or we hear it but we don't actually believe it we don't actually walk it out as we see this story we can remember that it is so easy to sit some 2000 years later on the sidelines just like most people do when they watch sports and go this stupid coach how dare he do something so dumb like that it is easy to sit on the sidelines and critique from afar it's easier to critique from the sidelines than in the game i find it funny that everyone seems to be experts in fields they know nothing about and most people do this with these women how could they not think forward of rolling away the stone what are they doing and this is the truth of the gospel the more you learn about god the more you learn you don't know about him one of the sure signs of immaturity in your faith is when you think that you know everything about him but you and i both know that as we walk through life god has a way of humbling you beneath his word teaching you about himself in ways you could never imagine

and this is a great joy for the christian what these women show us is something so beautifully for the christian walk you don't need to know everything to be effective for the kingdom of god you don't need to have all the right answers you will have faith that will struggle it will battle it will wrestle it will never be perfect but god uses imperfections he uses struggles he uses yours and my weakness for his greatest glory that's what the apostle paul says when i am weak he is made strong so here you have some women and their faith is weak because man they're just crushed by this

and these women give me hope because i know that there's times where god has called me to things and i'm like i am so ill-equipped ill-prepared i'm the wrong brother for this gig but in my weakness he is made strong next we see the great irony of mark 16 and the resurrection we see that you have some women who are full of life but are consumed with the death of another and they're coming to what they presume will be a lifeless body who is now consumed with life the body that was consumed with death is now consumed with life

next you see their heart towards their savior what are they doing think about this for a moment all that's happening is this body is sitting in a tomb somewhere no one's going near that tomb no the jews don't like to go near dead things it's not it makes them unclean so no one's actually coming to this tomb but what are they doing they're coming to the tomb to anoint the body with oil spices perfume

why this is great devotion let me tell you this act is not something that like is just i mean everyone wanted to do this is a very low very low act of servanthood it's a very meaningless act for most people in society but this is exactly what mark is getting across tonight this is exactly what god through his word is getting across to the little things are the great things in the kingdom of god don't despise the little things don't despise a time where you can take out a brother or sister to lunch or coffee and encourage them in the lord don't despise the time of those those like text messages of great encouragement and you and i might be tempted to think man what's that going to do i'm not going to put a dent in the craziness of this world run by satan and i'm going to say oh ye of little faith god never despised the little things in fact he used the little things for his greater glory and so therefore we as the church should never despise the little thing should we

my friends the little things are the great things in the kingdom of god how do i know that jesus said if you want to become greatest you must become the least you want to find your life you must lose your life

are you doing the little things at your job are you doing the little things in your house especially in your job what are you going to say that's not my job i don't have to do that god honors the little things does he not at your house you might think man that's that's my wife's gig not mine do the little things let god exalt the humbled or he will humble the self-exalted don't neglect the small things if you still don't believe me on that by the way you still want to argue with me in your mind just remember the cross not only was that a small thing it was just a despising a rejected thing that our savior took on with the joy set before him he endured the cross verses four through six and looking up they saw that the stone had been rolled back it was very large i love that by the way just fantastic it was very large circle that 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 so first thing all four gospels agree on and that there is jesus was placed in a tomb they came to the tomb and the tomb the stone on the tomb was rolled away why is this important number one why was the stone rolled away it was not so jesus could get out it so that the world could peer in do you think a stone was gonna stop our risen savior i mean the brother like the other gospel say that he just like appeared right like doors are not an issue for christ the stone was rolled away why because the gospel writers and god wants you to see you have to deal you have to answer the question why is there an empty tomb and so they come into the tomb there's a young man sitting he's dressed in white and they are terrified so who is this brother who's this young man sitting here well most likely and with all probability this is an angel how do we know that because what's the first thing he says do not be alarmed you all ever noticed that during the christmas season like people become obsessed with angels and there's these cute little white angels that are just oh and they look so pretty what's funny is when you read scripture every time an angel comes what do people do they scream they're like pee their pants terrified when they meet an angel why because angels are a direct reflection of god in his glory

so what is the role of angels what are the role of angels two things i think are most important that the bible consistently puts before us as the role of angels number one i think this is their secondary rule is to help execute the will and the judgments of god all right so let me give you an example genesis sodom and gomorrah what they tell them hey you all better leave because we're about to do work on this city of these two cities and they went and they executed judgment how about jesus garden yoxemity matthew right here comes 600 soldiers here comes peter he's like i'm going to defend you jesus he is so bad he like misses cuts off a dude's ear and what does jesus say to him put your sword away do you think that i cannot appeal to my father and he will at once send me more than 12 legions of angels i think 600 people are a lot for me and my angels so that's the secondary role in which angels have the primary role is the role we see here messengers for god messengers for god how do we know that because angel literally means messenger they're here to deliver they're delegates of god here to deliver the message of god so what does this tell us god did the work in raising his son and he sends a messenger to interpret the work he has given god interprets the work he has done

next who is here at the resurrection think about this who's here at the resurrection you have a group of women what paul says in first corinthians 15 is if there is no resurrection there is no christian faith if there is no resurrection we are all in our sins if there is no resurrection we the church are to be pitied most amongst all men so therefore the doctrine of the resurrection the fact that christ actually raised from the grave that's the linchpin of the whole gospel without the resurrection we have nothing and who is the first people our lord our god tells about the resurrection for women why is this important think through this for a moment why is women so important that they're the first person to hear this message in those times both in roman and jewish court of law women did not have a voice they could not testify in the court of law so if you are making up a story if you're making up a fairy tale and you're trying to sell it as truth what would you not do you would not use women as your prime example as the first people who heard the gospel why because if you're making up a story you wouldn't want to add more scrutiny to your story than already needed therefore the only explanation the only explanation is that this is a true story and that's why mark gives us their names because what is he telling the church if you don't believe me ask them if you don't know who they are ask somebody who knows them who's talked to them this gives us an account of a true story

next god uses women because god often uses what is despised what has rejected what the world sees as small for his greatest glory isn't that true about the church sometimes it feels like we're losing in this world and god says it's not about size it's about who i am

now we see what the women come in and there's what an empty tomb so i want us to understand this even to today the apostate jews who hate christ and hate his message still claim there was an empty tomb josephus tacitus both the jewish and the roman historians agree there is an empty tomb mark excuse me matthew even tells us they made up a story about the empty tomb so therefore let's not be silly in our discussions about jesus and say they went to the wrong tomb why because if they did when did his enemies be like hey dummies y'all went to the wrong tomb here it is you have to explain the empty tomb now you've got two options with the empty tomb because this is the these are the only viable options in explaining jesus and the crucifixion option one these nobody fishermen who again i always say that if they were if they were a flavor in 31 baskin robbins 31 flavors they'd be vanilla right like so these nobody dudes who by the way messed up like literally like ran right a few nights ago have now become seal team 11 and now have like overpowered two roman trained guards who by the way if there there's a missing body they lose their lives and so would all their family you think these guys are going to let sleep overtake them no because they've got their lives and their family lives at stake they're military trained guys and you would have to assume that not only did these 11 guys overtake two military guys but no one sustained an injury not one died not one got stabbed so that's your option one option two as christ actually rose from the grave

so why is the resurrection so important if you've ever been a costco um it's a joy uh you spend way more than you need to you buy like 600 rolls of toilet paper because you never know um what will happen and then you go through the line and then they scan everything right and there's always a bigger number than you anticipate but you you talk yourself into it like it's gonna be okay we're gonna need this yes we're gonna use this whatever and then you swipe your card or give them cash and then on the little screen it says what payment accepted they print out for you a receipt you head to the left you head out the door you grab a hot dog and a coke which is best meal today dollar fifty is great you wait in this long line and you're just like i wanna get out of here there's too many people i hate people whatever you're saying and someone is there and they say can i see your receipt and they take your receipt and they look at your cart and they go and then they put a mark on it and they say here you go what a receipt is is it's a binding document saying that you have paid for those goods and that it no longer belongs to costco it now belongs to you the resurrection of jesus christ is the receipt that christ paid for you all of your sins in full the resurrection is the receipt where you get to say here it is paid in full satan you don't own me anymore he does that's what the resurrection is it is proof of payment what does paul say in philippians i want to know him in the what the power of his resurrection a few texts for you to jot down colossians 3 put to death what is earthly in you galatians 2 i have been crucified with christ it is no longer i who live but christ who lives in me

the crucifixion and the resurrection go hand in hand why because that's the christian life we put to death the earthly things so that the godly things may be raised to goodness in our own self so that we bear fruit as we saw in romans chapter seven the crucifixion or the resurrection is the power that god gives us through his spirit to put to death the deeds of the flesh so that the spirit may reign and rule in our mortal bodies

so when someone puts their faith in jesus christ it becomes a funeral to the world and it becomes the delivery room to the church and they start walking in newness of life one last verse for you romans chapter 6 you must count yourselves dead to sin but alive to christ so how do you fight sin you fight sin by looking at the cross and the resurrection put to death the deeds of the flesh so the spirit may reign and rule finally one last point for you on the doctrine of resurrection if you are young you might not realize this yet but you will hang out with someone who's got a little bit more gray hair than you can imagine and they will tell you that their body has started to decay if you hang around people at all who are a little bit older they'll tell you about the hurts and the pains that they've got from life and everyone says the same thing right that's never going to be me

you might even sit at a hospital bed and watch as cancer ravages a mortal body

and you know you know that for those who are in christ christ has promised resurrection bodies in eternal life which means what in eternity this clay pot this breakable clay pot will be thrown away as far away from the east and the west and we will be made perfect and when we are made perfect there is not a hint of sin death or decay on us and we will spend eternity with god this is the resurrection this is why the resurrection matters because when you sit with that person at that hospital bed and when you watch the life go from them you get to say he or she is going in glory and no they will not be made an angel why they'll be made greater than the angels is what romans excuse me first corinthians said and no one knows what that means but we know that's what it says that we will reign and rule why because we'll become greater than the angels why because we have been redeemed from the pit of hell

the gospel matters

and for those who don't have christ john 3 36 the wrath of god remains there is no heaven there is no glory there is no celebration with the saints

verses seven through eight 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 what a weird way to end the story is that not just the most awkward way to end a story yet if you really think about if you really read through mark carefully you would see that that's exactly how mark would end any story mark has been all about movement action hurry up hurry up hurry up hurry up he doesn't deal with even sweet baby jesus in the manger he gets right down to it here is the king here's his baptism and here he goes mark's favorite phrase throughout his whole gospel has been two one immediately and the other has been and then he did this and then he did this and then he did this mark has always been moving us and moving us in to action why because mark is writing to a group of christians in rome who are heavily persecuted and he wants to leave you and i he wants to leave you and i with the thought so let's think about the whole doctrine the whole area of mark let's think about the pharisees almost from the word go the pharisees have been a thorn in jesus's flesh it reaches its point in the middle of mark where they say what give us another sign and we will believe it reached the pinnacle at the cross when they said come down from there and we will believe and you recognize one thing pharisees have no interest in believing i want more signs and want more wonders i want more evidence and here there's an empty tomb and we know what they will not believe and so mark is saying what you've got to deal with this evidence you have got to answer this evidence what do you do with the empty tomb if christ is raised from the grave it radically changes your whole life and you do not live the way you want to you do not live the way you are you are a whole new creation and you say my king reigned and ruled from the cross and that's where i will be

the other theme mark has carefully put before you and i is this plea that the angel gives and what does he say just as he told you you see it's not evidence it's not evidence that gives us faith it's the word of god that gives us faith do you believe it do you trust it or do you reject it discipleship is being a follower of jesus it's doing what the lord commands the christian faith is not based on signs and wonders but based on giving up everything to follow christ and so the question we're left with is are you going to believe the word of god or not

and so i think mark does this so carefully it's so beautiful how he ends this because guess what you've seen all through mark you've seen people cheer for jesus you've seen people reject jesus you've seen people spit on jesus you've seen people mock jesus you've seen people walk away from jesus

and here mark is saying how will you answer the empty tomb are you going to be those that are going to walk away or are you going to be those that are going to walk with him following him picking up your cross and following him here we see these women and what does it say they said nothing to anyone but to you and i we know the end of the story right they had to go tell somebody they went they at first were imperfect they they at first just like the disciples did at the transfiguration failed misunderstood but eventually god got a hold of them they told the disciples the disciples told everyone and the gospel has spread and it has spread and it is spread and there are countless people in the glory of heaven because why people did what their king commanded

and so this leaves us with question since there is an empty tomb are we going to walk in discipleship of our lord or will we be like the pharisees saying i need one more piece of evidence i need one more piece of evidence i need one more piece of evidence

never knowing the joy and the satisfaction of being called a disciple of our lord are we going to ignore such a great salvation are we going to be walking the freedom of being part of the saints the church who love god and are called according to his purpose so what do we do with all this how do we walk this out how do we live this on purpose a few thoughts for you this morning first the empty tomb leaves you having to answer the question how will you respond will you be like the pharisees send me more evidence send me more evidence

this type of attitude will ultimately harden your heart deepen you in sin causing you to reject the cross that only the cross can save you or will you receive him follow him love him and therefore love his church those who are my disciples will love one another will you count yourself dead to sin and alive to jesus the empty tomb the empty cross demands your response next seeing is not believing but believing is seen two sets of people saw a crucified savior two sets of people saw an empty tomb two sets of people heard the gospel and both these sets of people had an opposite response one ran further towards god one ran further away from god the difference between these two groups is one group recognized their need for a savior their need for god the other group claimed they were god and they don't need god and are lost in their sins those who think little of their sins will think little of their savior we all have great sin but praise be to god we have a great savior for our great need see the empty tomb and know that salvation has come believe in him receive the holy spirit walk in newness of life finally the only way to fight sin is with the power of resurrection satan is a real and true adversary he hates you he hates your family he hates your kids he hates your marriage he hates this church i guarantee you that he hates your pastors he hates your elders he hates your home group leaders

yet when you hold that voice up to an empty tomb that voice goes silent

because the church the people of god can look at satan and say you have no authority here my savior conquered death conquered sin and therefore you have no place here satan be gone you little scoundrel friends the only way to live your life is to hold up the resurrection in the face of evil the resurrection is to guarantee the sure promise that christ has paid for your sins and paid them in full is that your savior or do you want more evidence what more evidence do we need let us pray father god we thank you god we thank you for your word god we thank you for the cross we thank you for the empty tomb we thank you that we though we die those of us who are in christ will be welcomed into the newness of life into the glory the majesty of you forever god that sin and death has been defeated

and we are one with you

our father we ask you to help us in our great time of need may we point people to the empty tomb we pray this in your son's holy and precious name amen

hi i'm pastor scott pastor of the oasis church listen we are so excited that you decide to join us for the preaching and teaching of god's word we just pray that this will stir your affections towards christ but we have one encouragement we want to leave you with please do not allow this to take the place of the local body of believers we pray that you will be involved in a local congregation a local church that you can find yourself submitting under the eldership and the leadership of a local church we pray that you will find yourself stirred towards christ and that your joy in christ will be ever increasing