Well, this morning we conclude our study in Mark's Gospel, and maybe you have your Bibles open right now and you're a little confused. Wait a minute, there's a whole section there, Pastor, you didn't read. In fact, you'll notice there's brackets there that say, at least this ESV Bible says, some of the earliest manuscripts do not include verses 9 through 20. I don't know if you are familiar with the discussion surrounding the end of Mark, but those brackets at least are everywhere in almost every Bible. You have to look at this and consider what this means and why it's there. It's really remarkable that there are only a few passages that we come to in the New Testament like this, where there is some question about the authenticity of what is before us. We have, of course, thousands of manuscripts that were copied from scribes from the original autographs. Remember, the original was inspired in Greek. And to have your Bibles handed to you as they are today, you had scribes sitting up late night doing a lot of copying and writing. And at times, an extra word may have been inserted in the copies that we have. Well, what linguistic and biblical scholars do is they evaluate all the manuscripts, and they look at, I mean, we have thousands of these, thousands of manuscripts. They look at the best traditions of manuscripts. They get together and look at all of this and ask, what are the most reliable, what are the earliest, and most faithful that have been received in the history of the church? And what has been concluded, an overwhelming consensus, is that at some point somebody said, verse 8 can't be the ending. I mean, come on. That is a terrible ending. So they said, something's missing. So they looked at the Scriptures and they put together an ending and felt what would be an appropriate way that would make the book complete like the other Gospels. The majority consensus is verses 9 through 20 are not original. The early fathers did not even know of them. You'll find 14 words, this one really affected me, 14 words in these verses that Mark has not used the entire gospel. It's somebody else. So what do we make of this very abrupt ending in our study of Mark? And this is not what you want to hear about on the resurrection, is it? I'm going to show you why this is important. That's my goal. Others say, well, Mark stopped at verse 8, but he didn't really want to stop at verse 8. Every pastor knows that. You know that about every pastor. Nobody really wants, the pastor really wants to stop, even though you want him to stop. The question, of course, is for me, as I hear that argument, and that's a common argument that Mark didn't really want to stop, but he just got cut off, is that, well, what about the Holy Spirit in all of this? Maybe the Holy Spirit wanted him to stop. Is there anything that, if there's anything that we've learned from Mark's gospel, is that he really has done nothing conventionally, has he? Nothing according to how we think it should go. The sentimentalists are really bothered with Mark throughout the centuries because he gave no birth narrative. Come on, can't even celebrate Christmas from Mark. Guy's not a very sensitive guy, is he? And you'll notice, you remember how jolting and fast Mark has been moving through these narratives in a very sort of fast, and remember the word immediately has been all over the Gospels. What we think he should have done in the Gospel of Mark, he didn't do. He's proved that to us. Fast-moving, jolting, hard-hitting narratives that strike us with the truth. In a very powerful manner. Power, we think of Mark. Well, I believe what we have, we have to think a little bit about this morning, is why Mark ended the book the way that he did. Why, in the providence of God and the Holy Spirit's direction, do we have an ending at verse 8? I take it that way. I believe that's correct. That verse 8 ends this gospel. Listen to it. 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. Huh. Come on. That's how you're going to end? It's a very fascinating ending when you think about it for a minute. It gave no response to the resurrection. It's the only gospel you have no red letters from Jesus, by the way. What is the proper response? In other words, Mark, you've not helped us so much with the resurrection. Or has he? Or has he? You didn't give us the things we think you should give us. And I think this morning as we look at this and think through what Mark is doing in chapter 16, I titled my sermon, Mark's Magnificent Ending. And maybe that's a little bold, but I really believe Mark has done something very special here. It helps the church to think about what it means and what it is that Jesus has triumphed over death and what is to be our response to that. which means that this really could be one of the most practical and effective endings in any book of the Bible. As we conclude Mark, we really do zero in on these women. We zero in on these women as he provides a record of the resurrection. And one of the things that Mark has made very clear is that these women were witnesses to the fact of his death and his burial. Mark has wanted to show us that. They were there, remember, at the cross. In our last section, when Jesus was crucified that we considered on Friday evening, we read that there were women looking on from afar. These women were very affected by the Savior and loved him. Mary Magdalene, remember, is there. Mary, the mother of Joseph, and we have here today the Mary, the mother of James, Salome, and other women who in the course of Christ's ministry had cared for him and provided for him and loved him and gathered around him. He had done wonderful things for these women. You could imagine for a minute the heartbreak that went on in these women, the devastation that Mark says that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there at his burial. They watched him die. They saw him die with their eyes. You remember even Jesus' mother Mary was there, and Simeon had prophesied years earlier that a sword will go right through your heart when you see your son die. And it did. Crushed her. Crushed her. death is um death is awful death is death is terrible we we we've sanitized it today and do the best we can to sanitize it but it's just an awful reality i think i mentioned the other night that i first time i experienced it in a hospital room uh apart from movies somebody dying in front of me and the effect immediately upon the family the wave of sorrow that hit the room I just remember saying Lord help me I have no idea what to do right now have you experienced it? You know it you feel the pain of this it's a wave of of emptiness that you can't really make go away this was their savior this was jesus they watched the most cruel tormenting awful death ever given to a man and they believed in their heart he did nothing wrong all he did was love all he did was help All he did was care, heal the sick, bind up the brokenhearted, preach the gospel, give sight to the blind. He fulfilled the scriptures. He was good. Gave everything. You saw the world's response last week to a man who took a few unjust blows on an airplane, didn't you? Huh. Look at that. Look at the outcry. He got none of it. Nobody stepped in. As a matter of fact, those were your blows, and he stepped in your place. Just endured the shameful. I think that's what we have to capture in Western culture again is what would have been very understandable to them is shame. We look at it a lot from guilt perspective, but shame of this, the shame of this death. Stripped, naked, beaten, mocked. And his response had only been, love. Awful. Motivated by love, motivated by sincere love, these women. When the Sabbath had passed, it's Sunday. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Siloam, brought spices. You'll notice here in verse 1, they brought spices so that they might go and anoint him. He had already been anointed for his burial by Mary in that special, which really highlights that as a remarkable act. And here they are, here are a series of Marys again. They've come to pay last respects. The reality of death, when it happens, then comes the interment. And there's that sense of finality, isn't there? There the body goes into the grave and we have a process, all of us know, we have a process of saying goodbye. It's the most difficult moment. It used to be in funerals that we would do it in a service. They did this with Eric Fenema's service when they had the open casket in the service. And that had been the first one since my grandfather in my lifetime that I had seen done anymore because we'd moved that out. But they put the body there. But we still know the experience in the funeral home where we have, on a night before that service, the mortician will come out and he'll say something like, Like, this is the moment. Casket's going to go closed for the last time. If you want to say your goodbyes, here you go. And there's something about seeing that body. You know it. It is a wave of reality. It's the last contact with the body. It's a pain, unlike anything else. I hate the moment. I absolutely despise the moment when that mortician gets up and says those things. Come pay your last respects. Here we are. They want to come pay their last respects. I think the world would be there, wouldn't you? A few women. Disciples have all abandoned. They've been scattered. It's early in the morning. As they come to the tomb, they have a great problem, don't they? This big stone has been rolled up over the door, this barrier. And Mark has been very purposeful in giving us additions about this and purposeful in explaining these things to us. There was a very large, it says, stone. A few women aren't moving that. It's an interesting moment how Mark describes it. You catch it, they came to the tomb, they looked, who's going to move the stone? And then, verse 4, and looking up all of a sudden. The problem's been taken away. The stone has been rolled away. It's as if Mark says there was a barrier there they couldn't cross, and they knew they couldn't cross it, and all of a sudden, as they looked up and looked again, The barrier had been removed. I think Mark's being very intentional here. Mark has been showing us barriers from the beginning of the Gospel. The very announcement of the Father when the Son had come was God ripped open heaven. The Holy Spirit fell. And He said, this is my beloved Son. And then at the cross, there was another barrier there to getting in. Remember, it was the veil of the temple. No one had access to God. And there that barrier, same word from Mark 1 is used again. It was split open from top to bottom. And now the same kind of barrier this time forcefully is rolled away. It's really a moving scene when you think about what has just happened. The barrier has been ripped apart. Mark has been saying this the entire time. The beginning of the gospel of the Son of God. Now the barrier of the stone has been rolled away. They come to the tomb. And they look and they see a young man sitting there in a white robe. And in a moment of glorious announcement, this young man says, Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He's risen. He's not here. See the place where they laid him. How do you process that? This announcement all of a sudden is made. He's risen. He's overcome. He's been raised from the dead. He's not dead anymore. He's not here. He's going before you. There you will see him. As he said. Any of this sound familiar? Well, it should. It really is embedded in this, the whole program of the gospel. What is the announcement that's being made to you right now? He's risen. And we should all say, oh, come on. He is risen. Amen. And what does Christ say to us? Go, tell, doesn't He? See, I think if we pause at this moment, we're right in the place of these women. We're right in the place of these women. Think about it. The greatest claim has just been made to you. A radical claim. A claim that is so, in a human sense, unbelievable to us. He's risen, and you just said it. He's risen indeed. You gave affirmation to it. And he says, go and tell. That's the whole program. It's right there that we are, in terms of the interim between being told to go and to tell and seeing the one who has gone before us. You're going to see him again. He's not here right now. You'll see him again though. Mark has stuff embedded here I didn't really think about. In other words, Mark has the print of the Great Commission here. He's gone before you. You'll see him again. But what's the problem that Mark outlines? What is the problem that Mark outlines? What is the problem that Mark is leaving us with? Have you caught it? At the end of verse 5, when they saw the young man, it says they were alarmed. It means distressed. Verse 6, but he said to them, do not be distressed. Verse 8, after they're told that, they fled the tomb. Why? They trembled and were bewildered. So that conclusion, they said nothing, for they were afraid. End of the book. That should stand out to us. They said what? Nothing. That's quite a moment. Did you hear that? He just told us that the greatest hindrance, which results in, and think of all the themes we've considered in Mark, stopped up mouths, stopped up ears, stopped up tongues, the greatest hindrance that results in these things is what? the greatest hindrance to the opening of the mouth is doubt, bewilderment, and fear. If Mark was written to struggling Roman Christians who were in catacombs hiding for the faith, and many of them were to face such pressures, what an impression this gospel leaves us with. If I have doubt and bewilderment, according to the truth of all of this today, what good am I as a follower? I'm not going to be a very effective follower. But just as important, if I'm led in fear in this life, if I'm led by fear, if it's fear that governs me, if it's fear that governs life, and you know society is driven by this right now, it's what news makes us live in, is fear. Fear has a silencing effect on who I am. What is the greatest fear of our lives? What is it? There are many things we fear. I fear financial things, fear children. I just watched North Korea roll out some nukes yesterday. Right? Everyone's flexing right now. We're dropping Moabs and North Korea's flexing with their nuclear bombs. I think that's creating fear. Nothing do we fear more that is looming over all of us right now than the fear of death. If I'm going to sum it all up, it's that. That any moment this reality could happen, any moment, any one of us, us or our children, could die. That's awful. It can strike the infant in this room. It can strike the aged. And we know it. And we cover, but we live in this sphere. In all of its ugly forms, in all of its awful assaults on life, the enemy strikes relentlessly and is coming for all of us. You're not guaranteed to run the course in this life. You're not guaranteed to grow old, have grandchildren, sit back, have the good life. None of you are guaranteed that. And if you're enjoying it, it could be taken from you tomorrow. There were these women faced with sorrow. But the death of Jesus, wait a minute. Now they face the prospect of being alone. These were women without husbands. We know Joseph was dead by this time, at least for Mary, the mother of Jesus. It was Jesus' very concern to John on the cross. Behold, your mom, you care for her. Isn't that what death brings? Isn't that just what death brings? How are we to go forward and it strikes and it strikes a loved one next to us? And we think of this dilemma. Think of the dilemma. How many of you have lived it? How are we to go forward in this? How in the world am I to go forward when death has struck my husband or my wife? What about their Savior? It's the worst fear. The greatest treasure of their life has just been ripped out from their hands, their arms, their hearts. What does it mean about life now? What does it mean about future? What are we going to do? How are we going to make it? What is the answer? All of a sudden, they look up and they're faced with an open tomb. And in the next breath, they're given a gospel announcement. What a marvel it was that at the very place of Jesus' resurrection, where the stone was rolled away, their greatest fear was addressed. and all of a sudden, in glorious array, they're getting a gospel proclamation, a proclamation, a preaching of the cross and the resurrection now. He's risen. He's beaten it. He's gone ahead of you. And that's why we see bewilderment and doubt and fear all bound up as one. These women, right in the moment, were given now and faced with and forced to think about the implications of what it meant that Jesus was raised. What does that mean for us? Haven't you struggled with that? We celebrate this glorious truth in the resurrection and it just kind of sits out there, doesn't it? What does that really mean for us? When you're at this place and you're going through it, you start to think about these things. This is why when John Rainbow, one of my mentors, was dying. His wife said to me, she said, at the end of his life, all he wanted to think about was the resurrection. It was the heart of his preaching. Doubt will cast a shadow over the whole thing so that you don't enjoy it, so that you don't see it, so that you don't understand it. Fear will be a barricade to the sun that is shining down upon you like a dark cloud. And that's why Paul would say so beautifully, you see, if He's not raised, we're still in our sin. And if we're still in our sin, then we know that a fearful, fearful expectation of judgment is coming. But if the resurrection is true, then my sin's been dealt with. And if that's true, then He's a Savior to me. And the consequence of this is the removal of death's sting. There's a reason it's proclaimed throughout the Scriptures. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? For Christians, Christ's resurrection means that He has cast fear out in His death and resurrection. I love to think about what our Heidelberg says about the benefits of this. Why is this resurrection benefiting us? What is the benefit of Christ's resurrection? First, by His resurrection, He's overcome death so that He might make us share in the righteousness He won for us, obtained for us by His death. You understand that? Since He's overcome death, it's overcome. Second, by His power, we too are raised up to a new life. And third, Christ's resurrection is a sure pledge of our glorious resurrection. What does that mean then? It means this, that all death has been overcome. The greatest fear of your life has been dealt with. The resurrection addresses your greatest fear. And now I'm owned, I'm purchased, he's living. I'm in Him. Do you hear what the resurrection is saying to us today? You know, at this time of year, this celebration of Easter is a cultural celebration in our culture. I mean, when I'm at Vaughn's yesterday and see you can do an Easter egg hunt, I know something's wrong. It's just a cultural thing. churches are full. I used to get really agitated by this. And I used to say, and believe it or not, people joined the church from this, which is just remarkable, in Linden years ago. And say, if you're here today, once a year, thinking you're going to please God, I want you to know by your attendance in church, this is an offense to him. They'd never heard that. I've rethought that approach. I think what has to be said is today you've come and you've heard a glowing report. You've heard a glowing report, the same report that was announced to these women that day at the tomb. He's risen. He's risen. His tomb is empty. See the place where he lay. That's the report. We have a testimony and a record of witnesses. Same report. People who stay away from Jesus and refuse to worship him every Sunday is a glaring evidence in their life that fear and doubt overcomes them. If the resurrection is true, and you have come by faith to believe this record, then all of your sorrows, all of your hardships, all of your misery, all of your fears, everything that you worry about, everything that you stress about has been answered. Don't you think there's a reason Christ would say the same power that raised him from the dead is given to you and therefore don't worry about a thing in this life? What are you worrying about? Don't be anxious. But everything, with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. Talk to him and his power will rest upon you. If it's true and you receive it by faith, stop living a doubtful, unbelieving, bewildered, fearful life. It's not compatible. It's not compatible. And when you do, something's going to happen. I know he's not here, but I have to put him in. I think of doubting Thomas. The man was full of fear. He wasn't a strong man. That was a fearful man. Thomas says, I won't believe unless. And Jesus appears to him and says, Thomas, touch. Touch the holes. feel them. You believe because you saw. Blessed are those who believe who do not see. The effect on Thomas was immediate worship. The effect on Thomas was a recognition, I'm falling before him. And that's what this day is all about. That's what every Sabbath is all about, Sunday, as Christians. It's worship. It's worshiping the risen Christ. It's falling before Him, believing Him. That's why the resurrection is a Sunday as they are gathered here as a pattern for the church and was a pattern for the church throughout all these years to gather and worship. Notice this this morning. He's gone before you, but you will see him again. Until then, go and tell. Go and tell. Jesus gives us a basic responsibility that freeing us from fear, you're witnesses to this truth. You'll never be able to talk about this with an open heart and an open mouth. You've got to get them stopped, as Mark has told us. until you're set free. You'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And perfect love will cast out all fear. For where there's fear, there's judgment. But that's not for you. So don't fear. Mark has presented to you the gospel of the Son of God. You've learned it. You've seen it. You know it. It ends like this. Here's the ending of Mark's gospel. So they went out quickly and fled the tomb. For trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Feel the effect of that? Remember the ending to the book of Jonah? Jonah had refused to go to Nineveh. Finally, when he did, God actually saved the city. and Jonah was scared. Jonah was angry. Jonah was scared. Jonah was filled with doubt. All these things that we've talked about. Remember how the book ended? Very unconventional ending. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left and also much cattle? End of the book. If Jesus is risen, Should we be saying nothing in our lives about that? If Jesus is risen, should we be saying nothing to anyone and go out and live in fear now? Should you close your mouth and live in worry and fear if he's risen? You know the answer to this question. And so do the Christians in Rome. And what a marvelous way to end the gospel. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for instructing us in your word. We trust your purposes in this. That you have told us a complete story and you've given us the greatest hope in the world. Jesus is risen. We're free. What are we ashamed about? Remove all doubt and fear from our hearts. We belong in body and soul, in life and in death to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who has purchased us with his precious blood and set us free from the tyranny of the devil and also watches over us in such a way that not a hair falls from our head, but the will of our Father in heaven. You've told us all things, in fact, work together for good for our salvation. because we belong in body and soul, may our whole lives then be brought into thanksgiving and to be witnesses of the power of the resurrection, the very power that raised Christ now lives in us, so that our whole lives should now be set apart as an offering of thanksgiving. Thank you for your word to us this morning, and thank you for the gospel of Mark. May it encourage your sheep. May they remember who they are. May they go out leaving and understanding. All their fears have been dealt with. They're answered. Jesus is risen. He is risen indeed. And that brings about the greatest amount of praise for your name today. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen. Let's rise together this morning and sing together. Number 357, Lo in the grave he lay. Lo in the grave he lay. We'll sing.