About this sermon
Mark’s Gospel reaches its climax at the empty tomb. Three women come early on the first day of the week to anoint the body, and a young man in white, an angel, tells them, ‘He has risen; he is not here.’ Trembling and astonished, they flee. Death claims thousands every hour, and the resurrection of Christ is the only answer to it, because he has conquered sin, death, and hell for all who trust in him.
Sermon transcript
standing for the reading of God’s Word. My sermon text this morning is Mark chapter 16, verses 1 through 8, which is the shorter ending of Mark’s gospel. I’m going to read through verse 20, which is inclusive of the longer ending, but our focus will be on Mark chapter 16, verses 1 through 8. Let’s hear God’s holy word. 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. Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. They were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb? Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large.
Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right wearing a white robe, and they were amazed. And he said to them, Do not be amazed. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene who has been crucified. He has risen. He is not here. Behold, here is the place where they laid him. 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. They went out and fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had gripped them. And they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons. She went and reported to them who had been with Him while they were mourning and weeping.
When they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it. After that, He appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking along on their way to the country. They went away and reported it to the others, but they did not believe them either. Afterward, he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table. And he reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen him after he had risen. And he said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved, but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. These signs will accompany those who have believed, In my name, they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues, they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them.
They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word by the signs that followed. Amen. May God add His blessing to this reading of His holy word. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, sovereign and eternal God, we pray that by your spirit you would once again open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word and we ask that you would grant me wisdom and grace and clarity of expression as I proclaim your word today. This is the glorious good news of the empty tomb. May we be attentive to it and may we stand in awe of this good news.
We pray these things through Christ our Lord and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. Once again, I want to direct the attention of the children to the key words that you’ll find on your sermon outline. I’d encourage you to follow along and count the number of times I say these words if you find that to be helpful in following along in the message. Well, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our tour through the Gospel of Mark is about to come to an end. Mark had begun his gospel account by informing his readers that he was going to be writing about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As he says back in chapter 1, verse 1, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
That has been the main thrust, the main theme throughout this gospel account. And as we’ve worked our way through this particular brief gospel account, we’ve noticed that Mark’s gospel is primarily a gospel of action. That is to say, Mark places his main emphasis on the mighty deeds, the mighty acts of the Lord Jesus, more so than on the teachings of Jesus. Although, of course, Mark’s Gospel includes samplings of our Lord’s teachings, some extensive samplings, such as the Olivet Discourse. But again, the main focus is on the mighty works of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Mark teaches us important truths about the life and the ministry and the atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ, all culminating in Christ’s glorious resurrection from the dead. Now, in our passage for this Lord’s Day morning, we will be considering this climax, this pinnacle of this gospel account in particular.
Indeed, it is the climax of the good news about Jesus Christ in general, namely the good news of the empty tomb. The glorious message that the crucified Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God incarnate, is indeed risen from the dead. As Bible scholar Dr. Walter Wessel writes in his commentary on Mark, he says, the climax to Mark’s gospel is the resurrection. Without it, the life and death of Jesus, though noble and admirable, are nonetheless overwhelmingly tragic events. With it, Jesus is declared to be the Son of God with power, Romans 1, verse 4. And the disciples are transformed from lethargic and defeated followers into the flaming witnesses of the book of Acts. The good news about Jesus Christ is that God, by the resurrection of Jesus, defeated sin, death, and hell. It was this message that lay at the heart of the apostolic preaching.
And you’ll find that if you read samplings of the apostles’ preaching of the gospel in the book of Acts, you will see that they placed heavy emphasis on the resurrection of Jesus and the fact that they had been eyewitnesses to the resurrected Jesus. So as we approach our text for this Lord’s Day morning, as you’re following along in your sermon outline, the first thing I want us to consider is the unexpected and astonishing message of the empty tomb. The unexpected and astonishing message of the empty tomb. As we will see The disciples of Jesus were not expecting Jesus to rise from the dead. It was totally beyond their expectations, and they were astonished by it. Now, remember the context here, friends. Remember that Jesus was crucified on that Friday, what we call Good Friday. And remember that the Jews reckoned their days from sundown to sundown.
Many folks have pointed out, skeptics will sometimes point out that, well, Jesus wasn’t really raised on the third day. He wasn’t really dead for three days. He was crucified on Friday. He died about three o’clock Friday afternoon. And he was, according to the Christian proclamation, he was raised early in the morning on Sunday morning. So again, Jesus had died around three in the afternoon Friday. However, by Jewish reckoning, Jesus was dead for three days. He was dead part of Friday, all day Saturday, and part of Sunday morning. So even though Jesus had not been dead for a full 72 hours, which would be three full days by our technical reckoning of days, nevertheless, he was dead for three days by Jewish reckoning. And so it is, the scriptures are not in error when they proclaim that Christ rose from the dead on the third day.
So keep that in mind as we make our way through this passage. Now, if you have read the gospel accounts, and especially if you’ve compared the resurrection narratives in the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, one of the things that you will notice is that while the general storyline is the same, there are differences in perspective, differences in detail. Some would even say that there are contradictions or discrepancies. Now, I don’t believe, friends, that there are genuine, actual discrepancies, but there are surface-level tensions, if you will, between the gospel accounts. And so how do we explain that? What are we to make of the slight differences in details and perspective and alleged minor discrepancies that exist between the four gospel accounts in their recordings of the details surrounding the resurrection of our Lord Jesus?
Well, I like what one commentator writes about this. He says, the accounts of the resurrection differ in details as all genuine eyewitness evidence does. But the main outlines of the day’s events are clear. And just to give you an illustration that I found helpful, let’s say that there is an accident that occurs at a particular intersection. Let’s say that there are four eyewitnesses to this particular accident. each witness is standing at a different corner of the intersection. Let’s say that you’re one of those witnesses and you’re standing, say, on the south side of the intersection. Well, you’re going to see the accident from your particular vantage point or point of view. And when the police come and ask you for your eyewitness testimony to this to this event that you’ve seen, this accident that you’ve seen, you’re going to highlight perhaps particular details that you saw from your perspective.
But the other eyewitnesses standing on the different corners of that intersection may report slightly different details. There’s no contradiction between your eyewitness testimony to the accident that you’ve all witnessed. There’s just different perspectives, different things that each of you might have seen. So I think that’s helpful when it comes to some of the minor differences that you might notice in the gospel accounts in the resurrection narratives. And by the way, if you struggle with this, if this is a struggle of faith, I would strongly commend to you Dr. Gleason Archer’s excellent article where he harmonizes the four gospel narratives on the resurrection in his helpful volume, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties. He does an excellent job of showing that there’s not contradiction or disharmony, but that all of the accounts can be harmonized together very well if you study it carefully and go beyond the surface.
Well, anyways, dear ones, here we are at verse one of our passage. We read this. 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. Now, verse one of our passage mentions three women, three women who were devoted and committed followers of the Lord Jesus. These women were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome. We’re told in verse one that after the Sabbath was passed, they bought spices, why? So that they might come and anoint him. This was customary, it was a Jewish custom to show honor for the dead by anointing the dead body. And this didn’t have any kind of embalming purpose to it. It may have served the purpose of helping to counteract the stench of a rotting corpse, but nonetheless, it was done to honor the dead.
Now sometime after 6 p.m. on Saturday evening, that would have been when the Sabbath would end by Jewish reckoning. Sometime after 6 p.m., that Saturday evening, these women go and they buy spices. Now why did they buy these spices again? Well, the answer, dear ones, is that these devout women who had so faithfully loved and followed the Lord Jesus during His earthly ministry, they were preparing to carry out one final act of love and devotion to the Master whom they had loved so dearly. They had bought these spices so that they might go to the tomb in order to anoint the dead body of Jesus. Now, let me again, let me ask you, were these devout women expecting Jesus to rise from the dead based upon their actions? Were they expecting Jesus to rise from the dead?
Were they preparing for the resurrection of their master? Well, the answer, of course, is obviously not. After all, here we read of these three devout women purchasing spices with which to anoint the dead body of Jesus. Now friends, for a moment, I want you to put yourselves into the sandals of these three devout women. Imagine how they must have been feeling that Saturday evening after they had purchased the spices and made their plans to go to the tomb of Jesus early the next morning. Remember, Jesus was in a borrowed tomb, the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, which we considered on the last Lord’s Day. How must they have felt? How would you have felt if you didn’t know that Jesus was going to rise? They must have been terribly despondent just a little over 24 hours ago, from their perspective, just a little over 24 hours ago, the master in whom they had placed all of their hope, all of their trust, had been brutally crucified before their very eyes.
And friends, in the first century Jewish mindset, a crucified Messiah would be a failed Messiah, no Messiah at all. So their hopes were dashed. Their hopes were dashed. The flame of joy in their hearts had been snuffed out. The most righteous man who had ever lived appeared to have been defeated by the ultimate enemy, the enemy of death. His cold, dead body lay still in a borrowed tomb. Oh, how unimaginably depressing all of this must have been to them. But even though their hopes had been dashed, even though their joy had been snuffed out, and their faith had all been sunk in the mire of it all, their love for Christ persists. And so, as we’re told in verse 2, they arise very early on Sunday morning, the first day of the week. And they arrive at the tomb when the sun has risen.
Look at verse two. It says, very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. Now, I believe one or more of the other gospel accounts indicates that these women headed out to the tomb while it was still dark. So when we compare scripture with scripture, apparently by the time they came to the tomb, the sun had risen. And they come very early in the morning to perform this act of devotion and love. Again, they’re determined to carry out this one final act of love. However, apparently in their confused and grief-stricken state of mind, they had forgotten just a little detail. Actually, a very important detail. You see, the tomb in which Jesus had been buried had a very large circular stone rolled in front of its entrance.
Perhaps you’ve seen pictures of the type of tomb that Jesus was buried in. Very large circular stone rolled in front of the entrance. This stone was set in a groove, a sloped track, and once such a stone was put in place in these ancient tombs, it was very difficult, not impossible, but very difficult to remove these stones. And certainly, it would have been beyond the strength of these three women to remove it by themselves. And so this detail that they had overlooked doesn’t dawn upon them until they’re on their way to the tomb. Look at verse 3. It says, they were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb? Now you might look at that and say, well why didn’t you guys think about this the night before?
Well again remember their state of mind. They’re grieving And if you’ve been through a time of deep grief and depression, you know that you don’t always think clearly. You don’t always think logically and so forth. And so they’re in a state of deep grief, but they realize as they’re going to the tomb, oh, by the way, who’s gonna remove this huge stone so that we can have access to the body of Jesus and perform this act of devotion? But then as we read on the plot takes an astonishing turn, an unexpected turn. Look at verses 4 and 5 once again. As they head to the tomb it says this, looking up they saw that the stone had been rolled away. Mark doesn’t tell us how it had been rolled away. Matthew’s Gospel tells us that a mighty angel rolled away the stone and that the guards that had been posted saw the angel roll away the stone and became like dead men.
They were so terrified of this mighty angel. But it says They saw the stone rolled away, although it was extremely large.” Again, Mark emphasizing the largeness and heaviness of the stone, but it had been somehow rolled away. And then verse 5, entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right wearing a white robe, and they were amazed. They were amazed. The New English Bible translates that word amazed as dumbfounded, the N-E-B being a sort of a British English translation of the scriptures. They were amazed, they’re dumbfounded. What’s going on here? Wow, what a turn of events. Now who is this young man wearing a white robe that is mentioned in verse five? Well, beloved, In Matthew 28 verse five, Matthew indicates that he was an angel. See, on numerous occasions in the Bible, we read of angels having the ability to take upon themselves, temporarily take upon themselves human form and appear in human form.
And so that is what we are to understand of this particular young man clothed in white. This, in fact, was angel. No wonder these poor women were alarmed or dumbfounded. Here it was Sunday morning. The stone had been rolled away. The body of Jesus was nowhere to be found and sitting there inside the tomb was this young man clothed in a white robe and sitting on the right side. But then this angelic being, in the form of a young man, announces the greatest good news that these women could ever hear. The good news of the empty tomb. The good news of the risen Lord. Look at verses six and seven. It says in verse six, and he said to them, do not be amazed. The angel knows what they’re thinking. He knows they’re dumbfounded. He knows they’re amazed.
He says, do not be amazed. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, or Jesus of Nazareth. who has been crucified. He has risen. He is not here. Behold, here is the place where they laid him. But go, then he gives them a charge. He says, but go, tell his disciples and Peter. Notice he mentions Peter. Why? Because Peter had denied the Lord three times. but the Lord had not abandoned Peter. The Lord in his mercy was going to restore and forgive Peter in spite of Peter’s denial of the Lord. Go tell His disciples and Peter. He is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see Him just as He told you.” Now why are they directed to tell the disciples to meet Jesus in Galilee? Galilee was where our Lord conducted much of His earthly ministry.
Why not in Jerusalem? Why not meet Him in Jerusalem? Well, there may be many reasons for that. Jesus had many followers in the region of Galilee, and perhaps that’s where Jesus had appeared at one time to more than 500 eyewitnesses at once, as the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15. But I would suggest to you that another reason why our Lord appeared to his disciples after his resurrection in Galilee instead of in Jerusalem is because, again, remember, that our Lord’s disciples, like many of the Jews in the first century, were expecting a military, political Messiah who would reign from Jerusalem. So perhaps our risen Lord Jesus, through this angel, is directing them to go to Galilee because he doesn’t want them to imagine, oh, finally, now the Romans are gonna be defeated. Now our risen Savior is going to set up a political kingdom in Jerusalem.
So perhaps that’s what’s going on in his mind. But in any case, How did these devout women react at first to this glorious announcement? Well, we’re told in verse 8. They went out and fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had gripped them. And they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. Now I will clue you into that there is a textual issue here. In many ancient copies of this gospel, verse eight is where Mark’s gospel ends. Other copies include the longer ending in verses nine through 20. And there’s debate among the Bible scholars as to whether or not verses 9 through 20 were originally part of Mark’s gospel. Wherever you might come down on that particular issue, the church has traditionally regarded the contents of verses 9 through 20, whether written by Mark or added later by a later scribe, the church has traditionally understood this longer ending to be part of the canon of Holy Scripture, but in any case, if in fact, Mark’s Gospel ends with verse eight, it’s kind of a dramatic ending, isn’t it?
The women go out, they’re trembling, they’re astonished, and at first at least, they’re speechless, they don’t know what to say, they don’t know what to say. No doubt their hearts were racing. They tear out of the tomb, dashing away their emotions, a mixture of terror and joy. Why? Because these turn of events were totally unexpected on their part. They weren’t expecting a resurrected Jesus. And so they are so afraid by this unexpected and astounding news that at first at least they are afraid to tell anyone about it. They’re terrified and amazed by this message, so much so that at first they don’t know what to make of it. The events of that resurrection morning had defied all of their natural expectations. They stood in awe. Now when we compare scripture with scripture, we read that at least in the case of Mary Magdalene, it seems that Mary was focused on the fact that the body of Jesus wasn’t there because John’s gospel tells us in John 20 that Mary goes and finds Peter and John and says, they’ve taken away our Lord.
We don’t know where they’ve put him. And then Mary goes back to the tomb, and it isn’t until later that our Lord Jesus reveals himself to her. So apparently Mary had heard the part about he’s not here, but the part about it that he has risen hadn’t really sunk in. And again, how do we explain that? Well, we explain it by the fact that, again, imagine the state of mind that these women were in. They’re confused. they’re still taking it in, they’re still processing it during all of this. But what do we learn from this? What are some lessons that we can learn from what we’ve observed in this passage? Well, my dear listeners, let me ask you, does the message that the angel proclaimed to these women on that resurrection morning, the message of the empty tomb, the message that Jesus is not here, he is risen, Does that message fill you with amazement?
Does it astonish you and cause you to tremble as it did these female witnesses to the empty tomb? When you affirm in the Apostles’ Creed that the third day he rose again from the dead, is your heart stirred with awe and wonder as you publicly confess along with the rest of the Christian Church this vital central truth of our common Christian faith? See, the danger of being church people is that we’ve heard this all our lives. And when you hear something over and over again, it can have a tendency to lose its awe, its sense of awe and specialness. But think about it. We serve a Savior who was stone cold dead, but who rose from the dead. God literally, supernaturally raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, proving that our Savior has conquered death, proving that death, which is an enemy to all of us, death will not have the final say.
Dear ones, let us stand in awe of the glorious gospel truth that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, is indeed risen from the dead, and let us proclaim the good news that Christ has conquered sin and death and hell. Dear listener, do you believe this good news? Have you embraced by faith this risen, resurrected Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, as your very own Lord and Savior? Well, we’ve gone through this passage, but I have a couple other brief points to make from this passage before we close our time in the Word today. And this is the second point in your sermon outline if you’re following along. Beloved, understand that the resurrection of our Lord was a literal historical event. The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ was a literal historical event. Now friends, it would be a fascinating and faith-strengthening study to examine all of the historical evidence for the physical bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
And I would present to you or suggest to you that there is indeed much evidence that we could consider. But we simply don’t have the time to work through all of that today. But for now, let me simply state that there are few historical events that are more powerfully supported by the evidence than the historical fact of the physical, bodily, glorious resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead. Contrary to what the skeptics and the modernists and the rationalist Bible critics often claim, the resurrection of Jesus Christ was not a myth invented by the early church. The early church would have no motivation to invent such a story because what did that story get the early Christians? Did it get them money and fame and power? No, it got them persecution. It got them ostracism.
They were rejected. They were cast out, often persecuted. It was not a myth, no dear ones. The resurrection of Jesus was a genuine historical event that took place in real space-time history. It’s not just a metaphor for the rise of new hope within our hearts. It’s not some subjective thing. This was an objective historical event witnessed. The risen Christ, the resurrected Jesus, was witnessed by multiple eyewitnesses after his resurrection. As the late evangelical theologian John Stott wrote in his popular book, Basic Christianity, Reverend Stott writes, the body had disappeared. The grave clothes remained undisturbed. The Lord was seen and the disciples were changed. There is no adequate explanation for these phenomena other than the great Christian affirmation, the Lord is risen indeed. And biblical scholar, Dr. C. E. Graham Swift, puts it well in his commentary when he writes, evidence for the resurrection is unimpeachable.
The tomb was empty and no one could produce the body. His friends could not have stolen it and his foes would not have done so. If further evidence is needed, we may find it in the very existence and survival of the Christian church. And then to offer another witness, While the late Scottish New Testament professor William Barclay, the author of the Daily Bible Study series, was certainly not entirely orthodox or Bible-believing or sound in all of his theological views, he was very correct and spot on when he wrote the following about the resurrection in his commentary on Mark. Barclay writes, one thing is certain. If Jesus had not risen from the dead, we would never have heard of him. There were all kinds of pretended messiahs in the first century among the Jews. And Barclay is correct.
If Jesus had not risen from the dead, we would never have heard of Him. He would just be another one of those false failed messiahs. But Barclay goes on to say, the attitude of the women was that they had come to pay the last tribute to a dead body. The attitude of the disciples was that everything had finished in tragedy. By far the best proof of the resurrection is the existence of the Christian church. Nothing else could have changed sad and despairing men and women into people radiant with joy and flaming with courage. The resurrection is the central fact of the whole Christian faith. Amen. Dr. Barclay. Dear ones, let us confidently believe and proclaim the good news of the empty tomb, the good news of Christ’s resurrection. But this leads me to my final point.
Why is the resurrection of Jesus such good news? Well, beloved, the resurrection of Christ is good news because it demonstrates that Christ has conquered man’s greatest enemies, sin, death, and hell. Let me repeat that. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is good news indeed because it demonstrates that Christ has conquered man’s greatest enemies. And our greatest enemies, your greatest enemy is not financial distress or job loss or the threat of a pandemic or whatever the case may be. Our greatest enemies are the enemies of sin, death, and hell. The British evangelist John Blanchard in his book Whatever Happened to Hell, in that book he quotes from a theologian who says the following, death is the most democratic institution on earth. It allows no discrimination, tolerates no exceptions. The mortality rate of mankind is the same the world over, one death per person.
And then in that same book, a few pages later, Reverend Blanchard presents some sobering statistics, and these are statistics of, worldwide statistics. He says this, three people die every second, this is worldwide, three people die every second, 180 every minute, nearly 11,000 every hour, about 260,000 every day, 95 million every year. Now think about that, brothers and sisters. Statistically speaking, in this brief hour of worship that we’ve spent together, worldwide about 11,000 people have passed into eternity, either an eternity in heaven or an eternity in hell. And in just the last minute, statistically speaking, at least three people have passed into eternity. Dear ones, it is the universal, constant, and grim fact of death that makes the message of the empty tomb such astounding and glorious good news. You and I do not have the power to conquer death.
If the Lord tarries, you and I will all one day breathe our last. But if you, by the grace of God, if you have faith in Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, as your very own Lord and Savior, God’s word promises that death will not have the final say in your life. Indeed, you need not fear death or hell, because Christ has conquered sin and death and hell by his obedient life, his sacrificial death, and his glorious resurrection. And the empty tomb, the risen Lord Jesus, is proof of that. Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him might not perish, but have everlasting life. Put your faith and trust in Christ, the perfect, all-sufficient Savior who died to save His people from their sins and rose for our justification.
Put your faith and trust in Christ, and you, by the grace of God, will live forever in the new heavens and the new earth. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, We do thank you and praise you for this central tenet of our faith, but it is not simply an abstract doctrinal point. It is the very lifeblood of your people. This is the very pulsating life of the church, the good news that Jesus our Lord is indeed risen from the dead. Grant us the grace, Heavenly Father, to have the awareness in our walk with Christ that we serve a risen Lord, that death is not the victor, that Christ is the victor, and may we live our lives by faith in his victory. We pray these things, Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, Amen.
Let’s respond to what we’ve heard from the Word today by rising and we’ll sing together number 365, thine be the glory, 365.
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