Please turn with me in the Gospel of Mark to chapter 15. We're going to read a little bit more than what's indicated in the bulletin. We're going to take up our reading where the reading at our Good Friday service ended. So, we'll take up our reading at Mark 15, verse 39, and read down through chapter 16, verse 8. Mark 15, verse 39, this is God's own word. And when the centurion who stood facing Jesus saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, truly this man was the Son of God. There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph and Solomon. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. And when evening had come since it was the day of preparation, that is the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died, and summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid. When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, brought spices so they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 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. So far the reading of God's Word. The accounts of the resurrection of Jesus in the Gospels are fascinating in several ways. One of the ways is that none of the Gospels actually records the moment of resurrection itself. We only hear about the resurrection after the event. We don't know exactly what happened in the moment that Jesus came back to life. We don't know if He was alone or whether there were angels there with Him. What we do know is that no angel has written a gospel. So exactly what happened in those first moments after His resurrection, we don't know. What we do know is that the Gospels make clear that for those who came initially to the tomb, they learned about the resurrection not by seeing Jesus, but hearing the Word preached that He was risen from the dead. And so those earliest disciples, in a sense, are in exactly the same position that we are. We have heard the Word preached that He is risen, but we have not yet seen Him alive. They would see Him alive, and we will see Him alive. But at the beginning, the truth of the resurrection was a matter of preaching, was a matter of the Word, was a matter of being told. And when the Word comes to us, it always comes with an unspoken question, do you believe it? Do you believe it? And that's the situation that Mark is recording for us here at the end of his gospel. He records this first Easter sermon, just two verses. Don't get your hopes up. We're going to look at that sermon, but we're not going to just look at that sermon. We're also going to look at what surrounds that sermon and realize that Mark tells this story of resurrection very much to shock us. As I've said to my Sunday school class, sometimes we can read the Bible too piously. And so we don't ask questions, we don't allow ourselves to be shocked, we just say, well this is the way it's supposed to be, so that's all good. But if we're really going to enter into the story as Mark tells it, we have to be willing to be shocked, because that's what he intended in the telling. And the first shock that we see as we read it is the shock of the women's expectations as they go to the tomb. Now, Mark has made a point of referring again and again to the women, to the women at the foot of the cross, to the women when Jesus was buried, and now to the women on resurrection morning. And he's highlighting their faithfulness, their devotion, their commitment to Jesus. And he is contrasting that with his own apostles. In Mark's telling of the story, the apostles all flee from Jesus in Gethsemane. And Mark doesn't talk about the apostles at the cross, at the burial, or at the resurrection. Jesus had prophesied that when the shepherd is killed, the sheep will be scattered, and that's exactly what happened to the apostles. But the women are there. The women who had followed him in Galilee and followed him from Galilee to Jerusalem and now were with him at the cross, at the burial, at the resurrection. Here are women who had known him. Here are women who had heard him for years. Here are women utterly devoted to him. And the shock is they haven't gotten the message. They haven't understood what he was saying. Now, Mark records this not to criticize the women, but to say, even here with those most faithful, even here with those most devoted, they have not really understood. Because even though Jesus had repeatedly, clearly, simply stated, we are going to Jerusalem where the Son of Man will be arrested, rejected, killed, and on the third day rise from the dead. Even though He has said that over and over in the Gospel of Mark, you notice that these women are not heading to the tomb on Easter Sunday morning in glad anticipation that they'll see a risen Savior. They are going to anoint the body of the dead. Jesus had died on the day of preparation. That was the day in which the pious got ready for the Sabbath. Jesus had to be buried before sundown, which was the beginning of Sabbath. and therefore his body had not been as carefully prepared for burial as it might otherwise have been. And these women, therefore, having rested on the Sabbath day in keeping the law, now go on Sunday morning to finish the anointing of the corpse. They go with no joy. They go as mourners. They go as those grieving. They go with no anticipation of resurrection. And the only big problem on their mind is that this tomb had been sealed with a large stone. Who would roll it away that they could get in? In those days, a tomb like this usually had an antechamber that you could walk into. and then a low door, maybe just two feet high into the actual burial chamber. So you had to really duck down or almost crawl into the burial chamber itself. And the burial chamber was often about six or seven feet square, six or seven feet high. And so these women see the stone rolled back, and they're not sure what to make of it. they move from a shocking expectation of death to a shocking experience. An open grave, an open tomb. And so, with fear and trembling, they enter this tomb and presumably crawl into the burial chamber itself to find a young man sitting there with a white robe. Now, Mark doesn't tell us, but almost always a white robe means an angel. Interestingly here, Mark doesn't seem so interested in the appearance of the angel as in the words of the angel. But nonetheless, the women our translation says were alarmed sometimes you wonder what's the matter with these translators this is a lot stronger word than alarmed I got up to make coffee and I didn't have enough coffee and I was alarmed this is not what's going on here these women are terrified terrified. These women are terrified. They have made this journey in grief. They have been surprised that the stone is rolled away. They have crawled through the low door. They have found someone sitting in what is otherwise an empty burial chamber. I think, at least I felt for myself, we haven't identified enough with the shocking experience of these women. We haven't thought sympathetically about what they're going through. If you've buried a loved one in a cemetery, imagine going with flowers two days later and finding the grave dug up and the casket empty. That's what these women have experienced. And it does not occur to them as the first line of thought, he's risen. They are simply mystified. What is going on? They can't understand it. They can't interpret it. They are shocked to the roots of their being, and they're terrified. And then comes this sermon with its own shocking elements. It's a three-point sermon. You'll be glad to know that the first post-Easter sermon was properly constructed. And the first point was, don't be terrified. don't be terrified. Wherever angels appear in the New Testament, I shouldn't say wherever, but most of the time at least, when angels appear in the New Testament, they evoke fear. And very often their first words are, don't be afraid. Don't be terrified. And of course, these words of the angel are exactly appropriate. aren't they? There's nothing to fear here. There's nothing to be terrified by here. Let me explain what's happening, the angel says. And that brings us to point two of this sermon. The angel said, you don't need to be terrified because He's risen. He is risen. You have come looking for Jesus, the Nazarene, the one who was crucified. You have come looking for the dead, but I have good news for you. He is risen. He is alive. Death could not hold him. The tomb could not hold him. The large stone rolled in front of the tomb could not hold him. The devil could not hold him. He is alive. It's so simple, isn't it, the words of the angel? It's so brief. I was thinking about that. Shouldn't he have said more? a preacher would not have been satisfied with what is really one word in Greek, he is risen. But when we pause and think about it, what a wonderful summary of the gospel this one word is. Now, there are various brief summaries of our faith in the New Testament. Jesus is Lord is one of them. But, you know, another wonderful summary is just to say Jesus is alive. Jesus is alive. It's 2,000 years since this event took place, and Jesus is alive. He's still alive. He's not alive just as a memory. He's not alive just as a spirit. He's alive as a full human being, body and soul, glorified in heaven. Jesus is alive. And if you can get people to think about that, Jesus is alive, it will necessarily lead to them asking questions, won't it? How can He be alive? What does it mean that He's alive? We'll have an opportunity to talk about how Jesus is the God-man. how Jesus is the Messiah, how Jesus is the Savior, and that the fact that He's alive is the promise that we'll be alive. I was in Florida when word came of the shooting at the Presbyterian School in Nashville, and a number of the people I was with there knew people in that church. And it was a horrifying event. And I saw a minister interviewed by CBS News and was really disappointed in what he had to say. And I don't say that to criticize him. I don't know how I would do when the news appears in the midst of all of that stress and puts a microphone in your face. But the question the reporter asked was, do we need gun laws? I didn't think of this at the moment. I only thought of it later. That's why I said I don't know that I'd have done any better than the poor man put on the spot. But I wish I would have thought to say, however valuable gun laws may be, it won't bring these six dead people back. However much increased security we may have at schools in the future, it won't bring these six people back. But Jesus can bring these six people back on the last day. Jesus is alive, and he gives the gift of life, Which does not make tragedy any less tragic. It does not make evil any less evil. But it reminds us that tragedy and evil and death do not win. Because Jesus is alive. Jesus is the Lord of life. Jesus is the conqueror of life. I'm always struck by those words in John 10 that served as our call to worship, where Jesus speaks of His own impending death, and He says, I have power to lay my life down, and I have power to take it up again. What an amazing statement. Jesus did not need to be raised by someone else. although surely the Father and the Spirit in the mystery of the Trinity were involved in the resurrection, but in a profound sense, just as Jesus laid down His life according to His timing so that He would rest on the Sabbath day, so He takes up His life when the Sabbath is completed to reign in life by His own power. What an amazing Savior. He is risen. He is risen. And then the angel, to underscore this point, says, He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. He is not here. See the place that they laid him. Now, an empty tomb does not prove that he was alive, does it? An empty tomb could mean that the body was stolen. An empty tomb could mean that he'd only fainted and wasn't really dead and got up and walked out. But the empty tomb reminds us that our faith in Christ is not irrational. is not absurd, is not ridiculous. It is supported by evidence and can be defended by an intellectual defense. The angel is showing that. Because when you really think about it, the notion that it was in anybody's interest to steal the body, or that someone could hang on the cross for six hours and not really die and then be strong enough to get up and roll away a stone? None of that makes the least bit of sense. From every angle, the great declaration of our faith that He is risen is supported by all the evidence that can be marshaled. But the evidence never really changes hearts, does it? It is the Holy Spirit who changes hearts. It is the Holy Spirit who gives the gift of faith. So when we hear the words, He has risen, we believe it. When we say, Jesus is alive, we mean it. That's what we see here. So we have point one. Don't be terrified. We have point two. He is risen. And then we have point three. Go and tell His disciples and Peter. We heard this morning in that wonderful sermon why the angel said, go tell the disciples and Peter. Peter stood out in his failure, and so Peter is singled out in the assurance that Jesus wants him, with the disciples, to go to Galilee, and that Jesus will see them there. Why back to Galilee? Have you stopped to think about that? Why back to Galilee? Well, what was Galilee? Galilee was the place of preparation. Galilee was the place of instruction. Galilee was the place where the Savior had spent time with them to teach them who He was and what He was doing. And they go back to Galilee because they haven't learned the lesson. It's like getting to be a senior in high school and told you have to go back to fifth grade. They hadn't gotten it. They hadn't learned it yet. They still needed to be instructed. It's almost shocking, isn't it, that they can spend three years with Jesus and have learned so little. But this reminds us how persevering the Savior is, how loving the Savior is, how gracious the Savior is. He doesn't give up on the F students. I don't know if we still have Fs in school. He doesn't give up on the F students. He's going to persevere with these apostles until they're ready. Ready in instruction. Ready in empowering by the Holy Spirit. to know what Jesus has done for them, to believe. And so the angel says, when you get to Galilee, you'll find Jesus there, just as He told you. He said in Mark 14, I'll go ahead of you after my resurrection to Galilee, and I'll meet you there. He prophesied that, and now He'll fulfill it. And I think implicit in what the angel is saying is, whatever Jesus told you is true. Whatever Jesus told you is what you need to know. Whatever Jesus told you is the message that you will carry from Galilee to the world. And what's the shocking effect of this sermon? You know, one of the challenges of being a minister is never being quite sure whether you've been heard, whether you've been believed, whether the sermon was a success or not. I remember Howell Jones, our friend from the seminary who worshiped a number of years in this church, and he preached for us, preached a marvelous sermon. It was about 50 minutes long. And he came out of the pulpit and he said, Oh, Bob, was it too long? And I said, not for me, Howell, it was wonderful. And he said, well, there seemed to be such good listening. And I didn't have the heart to say, how do you tell the difference between good listening and Dutch politeness? Just then his wife came up, and he said, oh, Nancy, was it too long? And she gave the greatest answer. She said, well, Howell, there were several good places to stop. So you don't know how effective a sermon may be, but Mark lets us know how effective the angel's sermon would be. It's a complete failure. He said, don't be terrified, and they went away fearful. He said, Jesus is risen, and they go away trembling, apparently not believing. He said, go and tell the disciples, and they go away without saying a word to anyone. It's hard to imagine a sermon that's a greater failure. And that's where the gospel ends. That's the great shock. Now, the ending of the gospel at that point was so shocking to the ancient church that they improved on Mark and added longer endings because they said, it can't end there. It would be too shocking to end there. It would be too terrible to end there. It would be too much a failure to end there. But that's where it ends. And why does Mark end it there? he wants to shock you and me he wants to shock you and me into saying oh no it doesn't end that way it doesn't end with disciples not believing it doesn't end with fear it doesn't end with no one saying anything to anyone Mark knew that Mark's writing 25 to 35 years after the event. He knew that all those early Christians reading this book would know that Jesus is risen, would know that people saw Him, would know that the Holy Spirit was given so that people would talk about Jesus. But he wanted you and me to read his gospel and be shocked. Shocked into believing. Shocked into speaking. Shocked into thinking. The hardest of all human activities. Should we be fearful as these women were fearful? No, we should be filled with joy because Jesus is risen. Should we be silent as these women are silent? No, we should be those who can hardly keep our mouths closed because Jesus is risen. Should we be those overcome with trembling? No, we should be those overcome with confidence and faith and assurance and joy that we have a living Savior. and we should join in the great enterprise of the church in making him known. Jesus is alive, and he's using us to make himself known and to bring life into our hearts, into the lives of many others. May that be our confidence on this Easter Sunday. Jesus is alive, and eternal life belongs to everyone who belongs to Him. Amen. Let us pray. O Lord our God, the truth of Jesus is in many ways shocking. It's shocking when He says, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. it's shocking to confess that he is alive it's shocking to confess that he laid down his life and he took it up again by his own power and authority but it's so comforting it's so wonderful to know that this is the Savior who has come to bring life to us. And we pray that we might always be those growing in confidence and in joy and in assurance that Jesus is ours. And in him, we have eternal life. Hear us and bless us with those great truths, O Lord. For we pray in Jesus' name, amen.