Jesus Christ is alive. We thank You, Father, for Your grace. We thank You for this account of Jesus' resurrection that we're going to be looking at in Mark chapter 16. Father, we pray that You would bless our time in Your Word. We pray that You would teach us, encourage us, and give us the hope, the faith that we ought to have, because we serve a risen Savior. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We concluded last Sunday in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14, verse 42. And when we stopped there, it was in the darkness of night. Very early Friday morning, somewhere near midnight. Jesus went to meet Judas and this mob that he was bringing with him to arrest Jesus. Following that scene, there was a lot that happened in the next several hours. While it was still dark, Jesus was taken before two different Jewish religious leaders for trials that were not legal. They were not to happen during the night. They didn't care about that. By about 6 o'clock that morning, Jesus was taken to be tried by Pilate, then to Herod, then back to Pilate. And although they tried, nothing could be found against Jesus that would even be a cause for imprisonment, let alone the death sentence. not even a small fine, not even a little reprimand, nothing could be found to hold against Jesus, but only to appease the people. And for Pilate to maybe save his own neck, save his own position within the Roman government, he gave in to the demands of the people and turned Jesus over to be crucified. Nine o'clock that Friday morning, Jesus was hung on a cross to die. The sinless Son of God, the Creator, the rightful King of all of creation, the One who If everyone did what was right, would be bowing before Him, giving honor and praise. And they drove nails through His hands and feet and hung Him on a cross to die by those who He had created. At about three o'clock that Friday afternoon, Jesus died. Well, those Jewish religious leaders, they were so concerned with doing what was right. You note the heavy sarcasm. They didn't want any bodies left on those crosses during the Sabbath. So before the sun went down that Friday evening, when Sabbath would begin, the Roman soldiers made sure that all of those who were crucified on those crosses were absolutely, totally, and in all other ways, dead. Two men, Joseph and Nicodemus, asked for Jesus' body to give it a proper burial. They wrapped his body in linen, along with somewhere around 75 pounds of spices, In between all of the layers as they wrapped him, they laid him in a new tomb and rolled a very heavy stone over the entrance of that tomb. That stone was later sealed under the orders of Pilate, and the tomb was constantly guarded by Roman soldiers. Now those are some details that we find by comparing the crucifixion accounts from the four different Gospels four different gospel writers, one gospel. Let me clear on that. And some important details for us to keep in mind to realize just how significant the thing that happens next. And we cannot overstate the significance of what comes next. And we put a lot of emphasis on the cross. Probably not as much as we should. Probably nobody does. But we think about the cross quite often. We have a cross on our sign out here in front of the church. We talk about the cross often, and we should. But as we do that, we must be sure that we do not neglect the importance of what came next. The resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul very thoroughly makes the case in 1 Corinthians 15 that if Jesus has not been raised from the dead, everything about Christianity is a complete waste. The cross is meaningless. Your faith in Jesus Christ, you're wasting your time. If Jesus is not raised, we might as well throw it all out and try as hard as we can to make ourselves as comfortable as we can be, because if Jesus was not raised from the dead, this life is it. So enjoy it while you've got it. That is how important the resurrection is. Without it, we have no hope. All of Christianity, in fact, all of eternity, stands or falls on the resurrection. That is how important the resurrection is for us. So this morning, I want to take a look at one of the accounts of the resurrection as it's recorded in Mark chapter 16, verses one through eight, as we just read a little bit ago. Just to remind us of this truth that Jesus is alive and give us the opportunity to rejoice in that truth. And as we do, we will see this few details that remind us that there's proof that it is certain that Jesus Christ is absolutely alive. So we begin in verse 1 of Mark chapter 16. It says, when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices so that they might come and anoint him. Let's just observe a few things about this verse. What are they doing? Why are they doing it? That Saturday evening after the sun went down, that marked the end of the Sabbath. The Sabbath began Friday evening when the sun went down. It ended Saturday evening when the sun went down. And after the sun went down, the shops in Jerusalem would open for business for just a little while. These ladies went and bought spices to anoint Jesus' body. Now one very important reason for us to know for why they did that was because they fully, thoroughly thought that when they went to that tomb in the morning, they would find Jesus' body still there, still dead. They knew without a doubt that Jesus was dead. Everyone involved knew without a doubt that Jesus was dead. Just by human reason, when someone has died, a few days later, they are expected to still be dead. They knew there would be a resurrection someday. Just like Lazarus' sisters knew that, oh yeah, Lazarus will rise from the dead someday. And the resurrection, when everybody rises, Jesus would probably raise them too. But for now, they were certain they would find Him dead. They loved Jesus. They respected Him. But he died. It was over. All those hopes they had of Jesus being the Messiah. He was dead. I can't even imagine exactly what was going through the minds of those ladies. Maybe wondering if If evil had won? If Satan had conquered God? Because they had a pretty good idea that Jesus was something really special, if not knowing that He was God. Now He's dead. Will there be another Messiah? Was He not the Messiah and we're still waiting for the Messiah? It was over. But out of their respect for Him, they wanted to take these spices and anoint His body. And the reason that they would want to do that was because Jesus' body had not been embalmed. And that was something that the Jews did not do. So the body would begin to decay very quickly. That was the same reason that Joseph Nicodemus put those 75 pounds of spices all in the wrappings as they prepared his body for burial. Just to preserve a little bit of dignity. To mask the smell was the reason. Well, these ladies wanted to do something for Jesus because of their love for Him, so they thought that they would extend that dignity for His body just a little bit longer by buying these spices and anointing Jesus' body. Verse 2. Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. Very early Sunday morning. which is why we commemorate the resurrection by coming early on this Sunday morning each year. In case any of you rolled out of bed this morning saying to yourself or to your spouse, why do I have to get up this early? This is why. Blame it on these ladies. They went early to the tomb and found Jesus not there. Why would you want to be sleeping when you could be celebrating the risen Christ? Praise God for an early morning. This was the third day after Jesus had died. That is by the Jewish way of counting. Any part of any day was considered to be a day. So Friday, day one. Saturday, day two. Sunday, the third day. And as they were walking to the tomb on that early Sunday morning, verse three, they were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb? That stone was large. It was very large. It was heavy. The stone probably would have been sitting in a carved out groove that went downhill to the entrance of the tomb. So to move it, this very heavy stone would have had to have been pushed uphill. That was not an easy task. And remember, they were fully expecting that when they got there, they would find that stone still across the entrance of the tomb. and Jesus' body is still inside. So this was a problem. The stone needed to be moved so they could get inside to anoint Jesus' body. Verse 4. Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large. By comparing all of the gospel accounts, we find that there were at least five women in this group. And they knew for certain that there was no way that the five of them could move that stone themselves. I would assume that in that day, not unlike today, women were strong. Carrying kids around, toting the groceries, all kinds of chores to make themselves strong. The five of them knew that they could not move this stone. It was a big stone. But when they got close enough to be able to see on that morning that was still kind of dark, the stone had already been moved. Why had it been moved? Someone stole the body? That was their first thought. Someone must have come in the night and took the body of our Lord. That wasn't the reason. We don't have time this morning to go into all the details that we have looked some at in the past when we've looked at the resurrection. But we have seen that there is no scenario where that could be a possible explanation for that moved stone in an empty tomb. There is no way. It could not be a possibility that Jesus' body was stolen. Roman soldiers were there guarding it. It had been sealed with the authority of Pilate. The Jewish people wouldn't have taken his body, because if they had, they would have produced it after there were claims of a resurrection and said, see, he is not alive. We have his body right here. The disciples wouldn't have stolen his body to try to fake a resurrection, first of all, because they were cowards, and secondly, because Almost all of them died as martyrs because they thoroughly, completely believed that Jesus was alive. If they knew He wasn't, they would not have carried this lie that far to where they would have died as martyrs. He wasn't stolen. The stone also wasn't moved so Jesus could get out. There are some theories that Jesus didn't actually die. He just kind of passed out and the coolness of the tomb revived him and he moved the stone himself. I don't think so. Those five ladies knew they couldn't move it. Somebody who was beaten, hung on a cross, almost to death, was not going to rouse a little bit and move the stone himself. An angel didn't need to come and move the stone for Jesus to get out either. So I believe that Jesus was already out of the tomb by the time the stone had been moved. In His resurrection body, He no longer needed to depend on things like open doors to come into a room, or things like a stone being moved out of the way to exit a tomb. I believe the only reason that stone had been rolled away was so people could get in to see what these ladies saw. Verse 5. Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right wearing a white robe, and they were amazed. Matthew tells us that this young man was an angel. Now, that seems like that would be pretty amazing. If you walked into a room and suddenly saw an angel sitting there, you would be amazed. We would all be amazed to get to meet and talk with a real, live angel. But this angel said to them in verse 6, do not be amazed. Now, why should they not be amazed? They are standing there looking face to face with an angel. How could they not be amazed? Well, they shouldn't be amazed because he's just an angel. And there are much bigger things than an angel going on here at this time. This angel shouldn't even make the front page of that Sunday's newspaper. because there is a lot bigger news to be told than the appearance of an angel on that Sunday morning. Of much greater significance that they obviously missed, they had just been previously walking and talking with God in human flesh. They should have still been amazed by that. That is amazing. And now, the lead story for that Sunday morning paper should have been, and actually for all of eternity should be, today, when we get a newspaper, the front page news ought to be in every newspaper, every time a newspaper comes out, that after Jesus had died, He rose again. Every Sunday paper that comes out, the lead article on the front page ought to be Jesus is alive. Because when he rose from the dead, he defeated sin. He defeated death. He opened the way to God so sinners could come and be forgiven and actually know God, to personally have a relationship with their creator. This resurrection that had just happened was a much bigger deal than just some old angel. You know, it says he was a young man. He was a few thousand years old. Be sitting there talking to some humans. That's small potatoes in comparison to the risen Christ. Do not be amazed. They also shouldn't be amazed in the sense that although they went there, verse 6, looking for Jesus the Nazarene who had been crucified, they shouldn't be amazed that they didn't find Him there in that tomb, because really they shouldn't have expected to find Him there in that tomb. This should not have been new news to them. In verse 6, the angel said, He has risen, He is not here. Behold, here is the place where they laid Him. Now Matthew fills in a few more details of what the angel told these ladies. The angel said, He is not here, for He has risen just as He said. This wasn't new news. Jesus had already told them this was how it was going to be. So in one sense, they should be amazed by the resurrection instead of the angels, because resurrection is infinitely more important than angels. But in another sense, they shouldn't be amazed that Jesus rose from the dead. They should have expected it. He told you this. But that being the case, it doesn't seem that the angel is scolding them Why didn't you listen? Why didn't you pay attention? Jesus already told you this. We have to go over this again. He wasn't scolding them. Just reminding them. Do you remember? Jesus said this is how it was going to be. This is not a time for scolding. This is all the way around a happy day. A joyous occasion. He told you this would happen. And it did. He's alive. The single most important event in all of history for all of eternity. And these ladies got to be the very first ones to see it. What a blessing for those ladies. These ladies got to be the very first humans to be the very first evangelists to go and tell this good news that Jesus was alive. Verse seven, the angel said, but go tell his disciples and Peter, he is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him just as he told you. Why do you suppose he singled Peter out? Go tell his disciples and Peter. Why did he single Peter out? Do you remember the last couple of interactions between Jesus and Peter? The last time Jesus spoke to Peter was in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus rebuked Peter because Peter thought he was going to take on that whole mob with his little sword. Jesus rebuked him, put your sword away. I can handle this myself. The last time Jesus saw Peter, it was just after Peter had denied knowing Jesus for the third time. Jesus knew what Peter had done. Luke tells us that after that rooster crowed, Jesus turned and looked at Peter. When Peter knew that Jesus knew, he went out and wept bitterly. Can you imagine what was going on in Peter's mind that Friday, all day Saturday, clear through the night to this Sunday morning? Even if Peter had comprehended that Jesus was going to rise from the dead after what he had done, Peter probably thought he was done. or at hearing this news that Jesus had risen from the dead, it would be pretty easy to see how Peter would probably assume that after what he had done, Jesus wouldn't want to see him. So there's this special message for Peter. Jesus wants to see him too. Peter's not done. Peter has some more work to do for Jesus. You know at the end of the Gospel of John when Jesus restores Peter and gives him his mission to feed his sheep. We've been studying 2 Peter now on our Sunday mornings to see the leader that Peter became in the church. What grace this was from Jesus to single out Peter in the message from the angel. Make sure Peter knows. If you come to the disciples and Peter isn't there with them, make sure that Peter knows. Jesus wants to see him too. So they have their instructions. Verse 8 says, they went out and fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had gripped them. Again, Matthew fills in a couple more details about their response, that it was fear and great joy. Isn't it kind of interesting to hear those two emotions being had by the same women at the same time? Fear and great joy. Mark says, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. At least five women, and all of them were speechless. Does that ever happen? This must have been a pretty big deal, right? Five women had nothing that they could say. But in all seriousness, they found the disciples and they had something to say. Just think about what happened that morning. These grieving women had no doubt that they would find Jesus' body still dead in that tomb. All of their hopes had died with Him. It was all over. But then, within just a few minutes, everything changed. And I mean everything changed. Because Jesus is alive. And if you have put your faith in Him alone for the forgiveness of your sins, you have every reason necessary to have a hope of eternal life in heaven instead of eternal punishment in hell. That changed because of those couple of minutes or that instant when Jesus rose from the dead. Dead sinners can have life. God can forgive sin and give life and still be just because the penalty was paid. There is a gospel and we have hope because Jesus rose from the dead that very early Sunday morning. That's worth getting up a little earlier this morning, isn't it? To remember that. Jesus rose from the dead. Remember, Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that everything about Christianity depends on the resurrection. So here is Paul's conclusion. Because of the fact of the resurrection, here's what he concluded. This is what we ought to conclude because we know for certain that Jesus is alive. 1 Corinthians 15 58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. We have a purpose. We have a reason for living. We have a reason for serving. We have a reason for loving. We have a reason for sacrificing. Because Jesus is alive. That one event gives purpose to everything in God's Word. If you have put your faith in Christ, that has purpose, because Jesus is alive. Because He is alive, if you have put your faith in Him, you will live forever. Your faith has purpose, because Jesus is alive. Praise God. Let's pray.