Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father and our God, we come before you again, knowing that you are our God, and we thank you for your goodness and your grace, which is so evident each and every day. We pray, Father, that you would bless our time together as we come now to open up your word. We pray that you would speak to us that you would give us the truth that we need to know so that we might rightly apply it to our life. We thank you, Father, that you have not left us to ourself, but you have given us your spirit that lives within us and guides us even this day as we come to your word. We pray, Father, that you would work in the lives of sinners, open their minds and hearts so that they might come to Christ that they might repent of their sins and trust in him alone. We pray, Father, that you would work in the lives of Christians to cause us to see how we are to be obedient to you in all things. We pray, Father, that we would seek to bring honor and glory to you through our lives each and every day. We pray, Father, that you would use us in this world of darkness to be light. to proclaim the truth that Christ is risen, that he lives again, that he is our Savior and our Lord. We pray for those, Father, who are unable to be with us this day, that you would bless them as they watch by internet, and that they would feel a part of this service. We pray for those, Father, who are sick and need your healing hand upon their body, that you would be pleased to restore their health and they would praise you for your goodness in their life. We pray, Father, for those who would be away traveling, that you would give them safety and bring them back to us. But we also pray for those, Father, who would not be here today due to the lack of concern for their own spiritual condition, that you would work in their heart to bring them eviction and repentance so that they might not forsake the assembling together of the brethren. Again, we pray that your spirit would guide us in truth and bless us this day. And it's in Christ's name that we pray and for his sake and glory. Amen. Chris, would you go get my computer off my desk? Thank you. If you would, turn with me to Mark chapter 16. We are returning to the gospel of Mark. We spent the last two weeks, as you know, in Philippians, looking at working out your salvation with fear and trembling. So we come back to Mark chapter 16, as we begin chapter 16, and we will read verses one through eight. Now when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene married the mother of James, and Saloni brought spices that they might come and anoint him very early in the morning on the first day of the week. They came to the tomb when the sun had risen, and they said among themselves, who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us? But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, for it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in long white robes sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. But he said to them, do not be alarmed. You see Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, he is risen. He is not here. See the place where they lay him, but go and tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you into Galilee for you will see him as he said to you. And they went out quickly and fled from the tomb for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. Technology is wonderful when it works right. All four of the gospels record the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And each writer of the gospel gives us unique information about the resurrection that we bring together for one of the most powerful, glorious, inspiring accounts of this magnificent historical event that we just read. When you bring Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John together, nothing is missing. Now, it's interesting to try to read all the accounts and put it together. I think there are those who have tried to do that. I could not find it as far as word for word being put together. I found a parallelism of the four gospels, but I think there are those that have been working on it to try to put every single thing in place so that you can have a firm grasp on actually what transpires on this first day of the week. There's one thing that we would like to know that isn't recorded in any of the four Gospels. It is the actual resurrection of Jesus Christ. In other words, what I mean by that, no one saw him actually come forth from the grave. It was all after fact and we are told about that. The gospel writers do not record what exactly happened as far as Jesus physically coming out of the grave. We know he physically came out of the grave, but none of them say this is what happened as far as him walking out of the tomb. No one describes that because no one was there to see it. God ordained that that glorious event be observed only by the heavenly host. How it happened may be incomprehensible to our mind. That might be why it's not recorded. The supernatural resurrection can be compared, in one sense, to creation. I mean, we know that God spoke. And what? And it was. Now, can you comprehend that? I mean, we can't do that, right? We can seek to comprehend it, but can we really comprehend if I were just to simply speak and something appear? Well, that's what God did. God spoke and the world appeared. God spoke and there was land. God spoke and there was sea. God spoke and there was heaven. God spoke and there were animals. Over and over again, we see in Genesis that God spoke and then it existed. Now we know that Christ rose from the tomb for we have record of him speaking, eating, touching, and being seen by many during the 40 days after he rose from the grave and before he ascended back to the Father. Even as he ascended, we are told that 500 were there watching him. 500 eyewitnesses. Now Mark's account is the most brief, but that of course is not unusual. We saw that at the very beginning as we discussed going into the gospel of Mark. We know that it is the shortest of all four gospels. As I have often pointed out, he seems to always be in a hurry. He uses over and over again throughout his gospel, the word immediately. Now, We also know that as he gives us this information, even though it is the least amount of information, it's very important that we have what he says. Now, the other four gospels give us special details as well as Mark about the resurrection. We know that John gives us the most information. Luke gives us the second most, Matthew the third, and John the least, I mean Mark the least. You can go and you can look at those passages and you can see in each one of them what the Gospel writers speaks to us. Matter of fact, the Gospel of Matthew, it takes you two and a half hours to read it word for word. The Gospel of Mark, one hour and a half. So that tells you how much shorter the Gospel of Mark is. Luke, again, two and a half hours, and John, two hours. One thing we need to remember is that each gospel was written by a particular individual to a particular group of people. Matthew was written to the Jews. That's the reason why it has so much kingdom language in it. Mark was written to the Romans, to the Gentiles. Luke was written to the Greeks. And John was written both to the Jews and the Greeks. So they had a particular audience that they knew and they were writing to them and they were writing so that particular audience would understand to the best of their ability. Of course, we know that no understanding comes except by the Spirit of God, but so that they might understand the truths that they were teaching them. The gospel writers revealed to us that they were a part of all that was happening. Of course, we know that Mark was with Peter, and Mark's gospel is really Peter's gospel, as he sat at the feet of Peter. And eventually, we know that the gospels were first oral gospels. Matthew was not written till 25 years after The events had taken place after their resurrection. All of them were written later when they began to realize we must write this down so that generations after us can have the very words of God. But yet it was ordinary men desiring to speak what they had seen. Now, it wasn't writers simply recording historical events from some source, as some will seek to try to tell you, that there was a, quote, a Q source, and everybody went to that Q source and got their information. But if that was the case, then you wouldn't have this difference of Matthew being almost twice as long as Mark. They would all be similar, right? If you had one source and everybody was going to that one source to get their information to write their gospel, there would be a whole lot more similarity, exact information. But what we have is the divine Holy Spirit inspiring each writer to record exactly what happened. And of course, as I mentioned already, Mark is recording what Peter experienced. as he was an apostle. John MacArthur writes, the providence of God takes all of the experiences, all of the words, all the feelings, all the writings of these men, and they write what is on their heart. They write in a way that they are understanding it, and the Holy Spirit overrules all of it so that by the providence of God, perfectly and I could add without any error whatsoever. So as you read scripture it should be simply amazing to us how much it proves divine authorship that the words come from God even though he used men as instruments to write these words down from their personal experience it comes from God. of God, without any error. As the first paragraph of the 1689 states, the Holy Scriptures are the only sufficient, certain, and infallible standard of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. The light of nature The work of creation and providence so clearly demonstrate the goodness, wisdom, power of God that people are left without excuse. However, these demonstrations are not sufficient to give the knowledge of God and his will that is necessary for salvation. You see what he's saying there? That simply seeing everything doesn't give you enough to know God. So what do we need? Well, he goes on and says, therefore, the Lord was pleased at different times and in various ways to reveal himself and declare his will to his church. to preserve and propagate the truth better, to establish and conform the church with greater certainty against the corruption of the flesh and the malice of Satan and the world, the Lord put His revelation completely in writing. The Holy Scriptures are absolutely necessary because God's former ways of revealing His will to His people have now ceased. That's why we have the Word of God. That's why we say there's no new revelation. That's why we say there's no longer any prophets. Because we now have the Word of God in its fullness and we don't need any new revelation because we have all that we need within these pages. Now all four Gospels record the death of Jesus Christ. As we've looked at before, Christ truly died. Jesus was on that cross. He was put to death and Pilate made sure he was put to death. Remember our last sermon when we were looking at Mark 15, that the centurion went to Pilate and Pilate asked him, is he dead? He was surprised that he was dead so quick. He said, he's dead. The centurion knew he was dead. And then they took his body off the cross and they placed it in a tomb there that Friday evening. That tomb then was sealed with this great stone. And then we see that Pilate put his seal on there so that no one would break that seal. But yet all the gospels also tell us that Jesus Christ rose from the dead on Sunday, the first day of the week. also recorded in scripture is that angels were there at the tomb who explained to them that the tomb was empty, that Jesus had risen from the dead. And we see the first appearance is to Mary Magdalene and then to others. So all four gospels give us this full blend of information concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now as we study the resurrection of Christ, I want us to see four truths this morning so that we might allow these truths to sink deep into our heart and soul and know them, but also so that we might press them upon others in our day because more and more people are rejecting the literal resurrection of Jesus Christ. First of all, Jesus had told His followers many times that He would be put to death and then three days later He would rise from the grave. At the very beginning of His ministry there in Mark chapter 2 verse 19, He said, If you destroy this body, three days I will raise it up. And in Mark's gospel alone, three different times it is recorded in chapter 8 and chapter 9 and chapter 10 that he says that he will be put to death and that he will rise again. I'm going to die. I'm going to rise. And each time he identifies the period of time as being three days. We say it also. In John 2.19, Matthew 12.40, Luke 13.32. Every time he says it would be three days. Now we can't help but ask a particular question. Why did his followers not believe him? Why did they not prepare for the resurrection? Why were they not there on Sunday morning waiting outside the tomb to wait and see Christ come forth? He had told them, I'm going to rise from the grave. They weren't there. They were not there to see him come out of the grave. Now they were going to the tomb to anoint the body, but they were not there waiting for him to burst forth from the grave. Why not? He had told them. Why did they not believe him that he would rise from the tomb? Well, we see on five different occasions, even after he had come out of the tomb, they still didn't believe it. Let me mention those occasions so you can go back later and look at them. Of course, here in Mark chapter 16, 1 through 3, they're going to the tomb to anoint his body. So what are they saying? He's dead. He's in the tomb. And then in Luke 24, 1 through 12, as well as 13 through 35. And John 20, verses 1 through 18, as well as 24 through 29. All of these are speaking about them going to the tomb, about them hiding in the upper room, about them denying the women's testimonies, about them denying the disciples, the two disciples, remember on the road to Emmaus, they denied their testimony, as well as Thomas doubting after Jesus had appeared and he said, I will not believe unless I touch his body, his hands and his feet. I mean, isn't it not amazing how hard-headed we can be as human beings, even when the evidence is right before our eyes, to reject it? So why? Why did they reject it? Well, when we have preconceived ideas, it can affect us greatly. I mean, they just could not accept the fact that the Messiah, the one that they had waited for all of their life, that this Messiah would actually die and rise from the grave. There was no way their Messiah was going to die. Their Messiah was to come and their Messiah would rule. not die, that was the furthest thing from their mind. They just simply could not accept it because of their preconceived ideas, what they had been taught. Now we, likewise, must be careful with preconceived ideas. We all say our beliefs come from the scriptures, right? Oh, I can show you the passage, the verse, where I get this particular teaching. Guess what? The disciples could have gone also to the Old Testament and shown you, well, here it is. Here is what we believe as far as the Messiah is concerned and how he will rule here on this earth. And nothing is said in here about his death, his burial, and his resurrection in their minds. So they just could not accept this. But likewise, we face the same thing today. We have to remember, folks, that it is very easy to misinterpret scripture, to isogeet instead of exogeet. Isogeet is to read into scripture instead of allowing the scripture to reveal to you what it's saying. That's the reason why there are over 200 distinct Christian bodies in the United States. Do you hear what I'm saying? Over 200 Christian bodies. I'm not talking about all of these other groups. I'm not talking about all the different religions. I'm talking about those who call their self Christian. Denominations and associations, over 200. We have to be careful about being so dogmatic on things that are not essentials to salvation, even though some essentials are more important than others. Now, do you understand what I say? When I say that there are some essentials more important than others, non-essentials, I mean. I mean, to say, okay, it's non-essential when we said don't bring coffee into the sanctuary. That's a non-essential. Even though maybe one of our leaders in the church gets up drinking coffee and gives an announcement, it's still a non-essential. We're not gonna excommunicate a person for that. And there's reason behind it. And if you talk to Fasan and Dume who clean our building for you, they will tell you the reason behind that. So that's a non-essential way down there. But let me bring a non-essential way up. Baptism. Now, it's a non-essential as far as salvation. A person can be saved without baptism, but it's a essential, non-essential, high up. What do I mean by that? Well, if you want to be a member of a Baptist church, then you what? You have to be immersed. You have to be baptized, not sprinkled. So if one comes to our church and they say, we want to be a member of Grace Baptist Church, and I say, have you been biblically baptized? And by that I mean that you've been immersed. And they say, no, I've had a little water sprinkled on my head. I say, well, that's not baptism. So therefore, even though it's a non-essential as far as your salvation, it's essential for us as a church body because we believe that baptism is biblical as far as being immersed. So unless a person is immersed, we will not accept them as a member of a Baptist church. Now they can continue to worship with us and they can continue to come and we would encourage them and press upon them their need to be baptized and hope and pray that they would eventually be baptized. But yet, as far as membership, it would not be so. But we cannot be so dogmatic on other things or other beliefs. For instance, end times. There's at least four major positions on end times, and those can even be divided up into even more positions on end times, but yet, very few churches require that someone submit to their position. There are those churches, wrongly so I believe, that say you have to believe this particular position on end times. But yet again we have to understand that is not clear in scripture. That's one of the things that we don't truly understand completely. None of us completely understand the end times. We can seek to derive what we believe the end times is telling us, But yet we can't be dogmatic on that. I mean, there will be those that will be standing around when that trumpet blows, they're gonna say, wait a minute, Lord, you can't come back now, you were supposed to come in 1988. Remember the book, 88 Reasons, some of you don't, because you weren't born by then. But in 88, 88 Reasons Why Jesus Will Return in 88. So they're gonna stand there and say, you missed it, Lord, you know. Or there's some, the others stand there and say, Lord, you can't come, it's too early, you know. We don't know because scripture tells us we don't know. No one knows the time that Christ will return so therefore we can't be dogmatic about certain things like that. Now of course the disciples had a clear teaching from Jesus Christ. The clear teaching was what? I will die and I will rise again. But yet their preconceived ideas caused them not to receive what Christ had taught them. Now I pray that that will not be the case with us, that we will receive what God teaches us in His Word. And we must pray that we will not be blindsided, that we will not allow preconceived ideas to override our understanding of the essentials of the faith, that God would give us wisdom to live them out. And the resurrection is essential. Paul makes that very clear. If you would turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, where he makes it very clear. As he writes to the church there at Corinth, he begins to speak about the resurrection. He says, beginning in verse one, moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preach to you, which you also received, and in which you stand, by which also you were saved, if you hold fast to the word which I preach to you, unless you believe in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which also delivered that Christ died for our sins according to scripture and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scripture. And that he was seen by Cephas, then by 12. After that, he was seen by over 500 brethren at once of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep." That means died children, not like some do in a sermon. After that, he was seen by James, then by the apostles. Then last of all, he was seen by me also as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles whom am not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church. And then jump down for verse 12. Now, if I preach Christ, he has risen, has raised from the dead. How do some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, our preaching is vain and your faith also vain. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins. Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in the life only we have hope in Christ, we are all men of most pitiful. But now Christ is risen from the dead. and has become the first fruit of those who have fallen asleep. So Paul points out how important the resurrection is. It is of utmost importance. You cannot be a true Christian without believing in the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. To deny the resurrection is to deny what Scripture teaches about the work of Christ in saving His people from their sins. To reject Scripture is to reject Christ and what He said about Himself dying and living again. Why do people deny the resurrection? Has the evidence changed over the years? No. But it is now fashionable to deny or at least to cast doubt on it because we today have modern minds. We're intelligent people, they think. And we know that once a person dies, that person is dead, or at least as they think, just wound it seriously and is recited because we're so much smarter. We know that there's no such thing as miracles. All of these so-called miracles can be explained and we're more brilliant because we understand that science is our God and everyone knows that you can't go against science. See, that's the mindset. of a lot of people today and therefore they began first of all attacking Genesis and creation and that this world did not come about simply because God spoke everything into existence but this world evolved. It evolved from that little something but of course the question then comes where did that little something that exploded and made all this come about, where did it come from? They're not able to answer that question. But yet we have to realize that not only do they attack creation but they continue to attack, they attack all the miracles of the Bible and eventually they come to the resurrection and they deny the resurrection. And oh by the way they don't believe in the coming judgment nor in the God that is going to bring about this judgment. Now, of course, the disciples also were initially skeptic. They were skeptical about the resurrection of Jesus and were not convinced until they actually saw, heard, and touched him that he had actually risen from the grave. Now, an interesting fact, also with liberals. including the media, they only attack Christianity. I mean, they don't seek to discredit Islam, especially during Ramadan, or Judaism during the Passover, but yet Christianity to them is fair game. Let's attack Christianity. Now, why is that the case? Why do they attack Christianity and not these other religions? Because see, Christianity condemns them. Christianity tells them that if they don't repent and trust in this Christ, then they will spend eternity in everlasting hell. And they don't like the good news because they don't see it as good news. Christianity doesn't need their approval to continue to proclaim the truth that Jesus Christ is risen. And one day every knee and every tongue shall confess him as Lord and King. The second thing is that we have the testimony of the empty tomb. It's a historical fact. No one claims Jesus' body was found. I mean, both the Jews and the Romans who say that Jesus Christ did not rise again back on that particular day, they blew it. Now what do I mean by that? I mean, all they had to do is produce a body. That would have hushed up everybody, right? I mean, they had the military, they had the people that could have revealed the body. But they produced no body. Why did they produce no body? Because that body had risen. They could not prove that Jesus Christ did not rise because they had no witnesses to confirm this fact. Matter of fact, the very witnesses they had were against them. As we see the guards and what they experienced. So on the other side of the argument, there are literally hundreds who saw Jesus Christ during that 40 day period of time after his resurrection. And there's that evidence of those guards, those officials who were there at the tomb, who were to watch the tomb, and they saw the event take place as far as the angel coming and rolling away the stone, but yet they were paid to tell a lie. The evidence of Jesus Christ coming forth from the grave is solid. And for the first 1700 years, nobody denied it. Thomas Arnold, who was former chair of the modern history of, or at Oxford University said, I know of no one fact in history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort to the understanding of a fair inquirer that the great sign which God gave us that Christ died rose again from the dead. And he's right on target. Jesus said that he would rise again the third day and all Mark is doing for us here in these verses is showing us the evidence. Look at the evidence. Here the evidence is and it begins with the empty tomb. First verse there, when the Sabbath was over, Now, children of Sabbath day began at 6 p.m. and went to the next day at 6 p.m., unlike our days. Our days do not start at 6 p.m. in the evening. Our days start, what, at 1 a.m. or a little bit after 12, I guess 12 or 1 a.m. So we have a different timetable. Now some say that Jesus wasn't in the tomb three days and nights, but you have to understand that Jews view any part of the day as a day and night. So in other words, Friday, there was a little bit left on Friday, so that was a day. That was a day and night considered to the Jewish mind. And then we had all the 24 hours there on Sabbath, Saturday, and then we had that short time on Sunday morning, so all three days are included in that when he says three days. Luke says, now the first day of the week, very early in the morning. In other words, actually before light we see. And then John says, now the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb while it was still dark. So back then we have to understand that we did not have Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and so on. They used the Sabbath day as the initial day to tag all the other days. So in other words, it was the first day after the Sabbath, the second day after the Sabbath, or you could just say the third or fourth, not even use the word Sabbath and so on. Now we see that Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, the same women who came to the cross are the same women that are coming to anoint the body of Jesus. They headed out while it was still dark. Now on Friday, they had already been to the tomb. They went to the tomb with Joseph of Arimatheus and Nicodemus. So they knew exactly where the tomb was, which again discredits those who say, well, they went to the wrong tomb. I don't know if you've heard that one before or not, but some say they went to the wrong tomb. No, they didn't go to the wrong tomb. They knew exactly where it was. They went there to anoint the body and they carried their spices. to anoint his body. And even though the two men had already anointed the body, remember we looked at that last time we were in Mark 15, they carried that 75 pounds. It seems like that would have been enough. But yet these women wanted to go back and see their Savior's body. They wanted to be there because they wanted to anoint him themselves. So they followed them that day and then they went back on Sunday. They were his followers. They had been with him for three years. He was their Lord. And it's inconceivable for us to be able to understand the agony that they had gone through. I mean, I cannot fathom what they went through from Friday evening to Sunday morning. I mean, the horror, the questions, the doubts, the fears, the anxiety. They probably asked over and over, how in the world can this be? How could this have happened? But they didn't lose their sense of affection. They went back to the tomb to see his body. And as they went, they asked this question, who will roll the stone from the door of the tomb? Now evidently Mary Magdalene arrived before the other women. It seems as if, and we don't know for sure because again, it's hard to really put it all together, but Mary Magdalene I think evidently outran others. And she appears to have arrived before the other lady, and immediately she saw the stone rolled away. It doesn't appear that she saw the angel. And immediately when she saw the stone run away, she took off to go tell Peter and John. And then the other women arrived and they saw the stone rolled away. And of course, they're amazed. They are shocked. And they came to the same conclusion that Mary Magdalene had come to, that evidently someone had stolen his body. Why? Why did they come to that conclusion? Because they did not think he would rise from the grave. They were shocked to find out later that he had come forth from the grave. We must remember that the Roman guards had been posted there at the tomb and they had fled before the women had arrived. Remember there was an earthquake, the scripture tells us, and the stone had been rolled away. They had literally been scared to death. They were like dead men, the scripture tells us. They were frightened. And when they finally came back to their senses, they got out of there. They didn't want anything to do with angels. As we see there in Matthew 28, 2, Behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning and his clothes white as snow. As the guards shook for fear of him, they became like dead men. I think we have become like dead men too. That was a frightening experience. Can you imagine? Out there by the tomb, out in a graveyard. Now, how many of you would like to go out in a graveyard at night time, first of all? Pitch black, and then suddenly an earthquake, and then a blazing light that rolls the stone away, and there's an angel sitting on the stone. I mean, they were shocked. They were speechless. They had no idea what had hit them. And as soon as they got their senses together, they got out of there. And they went to report to the Sanhedrin what had transpired. So everything Mark is saying is recorded for one reason, to prove that the tomb was empty. And that's what each gospel writer tells us. Now, of course, we see that when they ran back to the Sanhedrin and they told the Sanhedrin what had transpired, they actually paid the soldiers to lie and say that the disciples had stolen the body. Of course, this is absurd because the disciples, the apostles, they were hiding. They were scared to death for their own life. They were too afraid to even go to the tomb. We see that the women had more courage than them. Also, the first disciples did not believe that Jesus had risen from the grave. Even after the women and the angels informed them that Jesus was not in the tomb, they still did not believe. But yet one thing is for sure, the tomb was empty. Everyone knew that the body was gone and it had not been stolen. It's amazing. how deeply profound unbelief can be. Not only for these religious leaders who denied the miracles of Jesus Christ after he had performed them, they even went as far as attributing them to Beelzebub, Satan, and now they encourage these guards to lie and they pay them to lie. They bribe them with the money. And they tell him, say, look, look, we will cover for you. We will make things right. And tell this lie that his disciples came at night and they stole the body while you were sleeping. Now, for God to fall asleep on duty may have meant his own execution. And of course, the religious leaders tell them that they'll make sure that it's okay with the government so that they are not harmed. But this lie was still being circulated because Matthew tells us right here that it's still being circulated when he writes his gospel. So 25 years later, it's still being circulated. But yet no one ever denies that the tomb was empty. They're just simply saying it's empty because the disciples stole the body. But yet we know that it was empty because he came forth from the grave. So the testimony of an empty tomb is a very strong argument. Thirdly, we have the testimony of the angels there in verse 5 when he tells us, in entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in long white robes sitting on the right side and they were alarmed. Now Mark doesn't give us as much information as Matthew and Luke. Like, yeah, soldiers had seen The angel and there in Matthew chapter 28 verse 5, but the angel answered and said to the women, do not be afraid. I know that you see Christ who was crucified. He's not here for he is risen. He said, come see the place where the Lord lay and go quickly and tell the disciples that he's written from the dead. And indeed he is going before you into Galilee. There you will see him. Behold, I have told you. And then Luke tells us in his gospel in Luke chapter 24 in verses 4 through 7. And it happened as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then as they were afraid and bowed their heads to the earth, They said to them, why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee saying the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified in the third day rise again. So Matthew states that the angel rolled away the stone and sat on it. And we see that the guards were speechless. And then we see that Mary Magdalene arrives and the guards had already fled. John tells us that she ran to see Peter and John. And then we see that later, Peter and John arrive at the tomb. And Mary Magdalene is back at the tomb. And there meets the two angels. Again, we see that there were two angels here. And when the other women had arrived, Luke tells us that they had met the two angels. who showed them the empty tomb and told them to go and tell the other disciples. Now, why two angels? Well, one reason could be Deuteronomy 19.15, truth is confirmed by what? Two witnesses, in the mouth of two witnesses. And these women, even though they were alarmed, the Greek word there really could be translated terrified, Now not fearing for their life, but the sense of unable to grasp the situation. They were bewildered. Luke tells us they bowed their face to the ground. Literally, they fell face down on the ground. And the angel told them, do not be amazed. I mean, how do you not be amazed? But that's what the angels told them. Do not be amazed. Easy for them to say, right? Now what the angel says next is very important. One Greek word in the past tense translated HE IS RISEN. HE HAS RISEN. It's in the past tense. So why are you seeking a living one among the dead? So this heavenly testimony came from God. His messengers, the angels, to inform them that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead. And therefore, they must not deny God's word. They must believe God's word because it's God's message. Then fourthly, we have that witness of eyewitnesses there in verse seven. He says, but go and tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you in Galilee there you will see him as he said to you again we have more information in the other gospels the angel commands them to go and tell the disciples in Peter we see In Mark 14, 18, Jesus said, but after I have been raised, I will go before you in Galilee. So again, before he even went to the cross, he gave them that warning. After I've been raised, I'm going to go before you there in Galilee. And we see that the group that huddled together there in the upper room after his crucifixion, heard the story but they did not believe the story they remained faithless in the upper room in fear and of course later that day Jesus appears to the two there on the road to Emmaus And then they run back to be with the disciples. And then Jesus appears there in the upper room with those two as well as the other disciples. And then we are told that he appears to Peter privately. He appears to James privately. That's James, the stepbrother of Jesus. And then to others he appears. And then finally there, 500 at his ascension. There's at least 10 appearances that are recorded in the 40-day period. after his resurrection before his ascension. These women were the first eyewitnesses of an empty tomb. Mary Magdalene was the first eyewitness of Jesus himself and they were told to go and tell others of what they had seen. The resurrection is established as a fact of history. as a fact of theology by the angelic testimony, and most important, the event is history, is the greatest event of history. I mean, there's nothing more important in your life and my life than the resurrection of Jesus Christ because by the resurrection, we are justified. To deny it is to deny the fact is to deny the angels and is to deny the eyewitnesses. But more importantly, it's to deny your very own salvation. Because without the resurrection, as Paul says, we are pitiful people. If the dead do not rise, we are in terrible shape. We have no hope whatsoever. But Paul says we have been raised with Christ and Christ is risen. So therefore, to deny the resurrection is to deny the truth of God, is to deny Holy Scripture. It leaves you hopeless, as Paul says. Sinclair Ferguson said, since the days of the infant church, men have tried to disprove the resurrection of Jesus. They have argued that the disciples stole the body, or the Jews stole the body, or Jesus did not really die on the cross, but was resuscitated. But when we read the testimony of the Gospels, all of these arguments fall to the ground. The testimony of this messenger remains. The testimony of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John remains. I close with these words from Jeff Thomas, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day. Jesus Christ is more powerful than death. The grave fell to keep his grip on our Lord. He lives who had been killed. He arose from the grave. He returned from the rim of death. He came back across the river. He has risen. And the implication for me and for my life is immense. Such as this, that what is crucial is not this life, but the life that begins at death. How I relate to the Son of God in this life will determine my relationship to Him in the life to come. Now listen to this. Ignore Him in this life and He will ignore me in the next life. So let me love and serve Him. Let me use my hours and my days for Him. Let me worship Him. What is my chief end of life? To glorify and enjoy the risen Christ. So I must live not as one bound to die, but as one bound to meet with death's conqueror. Jesus has risen. And I'm trembling because there's no way that I can dodge Him. Will I meet Him as my enemy? Ask yourself that question. Or as my eternal friend? Am I following Him? Am I doing His will? Christ lives. How fearful. He is risen. He is risen. He is risen. May He become my friend. Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. May your bloodshed wash me. May your righteousness clothe me. May your spirit indwell me so that from now on I live for you and look forward to the time when I see you, when I meet with you and be with you forever. Help me to live for the ever-living one. Be my advocate with God. Be my mediator. Help me, God. You must help me. I shall die unless I live for Him. Help me, God. Help me, God. Help me, God. Let us pray. Father, that's our prayer this morning. Help me, God. For left to myself, I'm a sinner undone. Left to myself, I am hopeless. How I pray, Father, for any this day that are without Christ, that today would be the day that they would look to Christ and live, that they would look to Christ and have their sins forgiven, that they would look to Christ and have hope. Father, we thank you. for this great salvation that is found in Christ and Christ alone. May today be the day of salvation for any who do not know him. May they turn from their sins and turn to Christ alone who is able to save them. May they not continue in their sin and in their hopeless condition. But may they cry out to God, help me God, help me God, help me God. In this we pray in Christ's name, amen. We come to the point to observe the Lord's Supper. Each time it's a special time in the life of our church, but even more special.