ALIVE!
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
“I wish we had more inflation” - Said no-one ever.
Inflation is the diluting the value of money, reduction of purchasing power. At the same time, it’s the increase of the cost of goods and services… as if you hadn’t noticed!
But this leaves us stretching limited dollars to cover higher prices. Fortunately, we serve a God who’s quite able to bless beyond our resources!
Sin is like inflation. The more we have of it, the less we are able to gain of what matters. To be clear, God’s presence and His working through us to accomplish His mission on earth are what matter.
But sin is a weight we can’t lift, a sea we can’t swim out of. It is a stone that seals us in the grave that it placed us. We need mercy to be free of it!
As Paul pointed out, we can’t sin more to extract more mercy from God. We must choose Him over sin to find the blessing He’s promised in His presence. But that is more than we can do.
So sin is like inflation in that the more we have of it, the less we get of what matters.
But today, I want to show how sin differs from inflation. Inflation is a matter of fact by living in a society with poor fiscal policy. But if we are citizens of heaven, there is a power that can lift that from us.
Pray
1 When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” 4 And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. 5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. 6 And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” 8 And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Mark - the shortest account of the resurrection and events following.
Today will be our last message in Mark. … more in your Bible after this - why?
The earliest and best sources for Mark don’t include it.
There are about three ‘long endings’ of Mark, this is just the most attested to.
It’s almost certainly not original. Most likely not by Mark. But added by scribes later to aggregate the endings of the other gospels - to complete by commentary the ending of Mark to align with western literary sensibilities
This extension is not bad. It describes things that did happen to certain of the disciples as they proclaimed the message of Jesus. But, as it is most likely not part of the original Gospel, I’ll not include it in this series.
The main reason is that Mark without this long ended presents a suddenness that fit’s the rest of this book full of ‘immediately’. The book also starts off with a similar abruptness.
1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, 3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ ”
Then there at this end, we find that that ‘way of the LORD’ takes us not into, but through the grave. Crucified, but He is not here!
This sudden ending causes us to consider the sudden claim of the beginning: Who is Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
But added to that call to acknowledge who He is, we must also consider what He means to us, and how we should respond.
Mark really draws our attention to how these followers of Jesus respond. Let’s look at what he tells of of them, then ask questions of how we react to Jesus.
How We Respond To Jesus’ Resurrection:
How We Respond To Jesus’ Resurrection:
It’s meaningful because He was dear to them.
It’s meaningful because He was dear to them.
“When the Sabbath was past....” What was this waiting like? Pain, loss, but devotion and commitment. It was like no other Sabbath for those who loved Jesus.
They morned for Jesus, but they still worshiped God.
Time of reflection, and pain. But hope is sometimes secret. They did not expect Jesus body to be gone, there was hope, but they couldn’t see it.
When a thing is dear to us, it causes us more pain. I hurt much more when my grandmother passed than when Matthew Perry died. Her life was not more valuable than his, but it was much more meaningful to me.
Jesus was meaningful to them. So that day of rest from ordinary work, ordained by God from the beginning, would have been very hard. I suspect they prayed that day more and with more passion than any other.
Ultimately, they morned Jesus death because that was the result of sin. Jesus took the punishment of sin for every person. But others felt the loss too. The grave that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus laid Jesus in is the prison of sin. My sin, and yours. Because of our rebelion, Jesus died.
But if we don’t, or haven’t trusted Jesus to pay forgive our sin, pay for our sin, and clean us from our unrighteousness, we are still in the spiritual grave.
But if Jesus isn’t dear to us, His death wont affect us. It’s only the Spirit of God that can cause us to love The Son of God that We might choose Him and be forgiven by the Father.
It’s necessary because they served Him.
It’s necessary because they served Him.
“Who will roll away the stone for us...” They were unable to complete the task their devotion drove them to. They needed outside intervention to achieve their expectations.
These servant women who loved Jesus were going to complete the anointing process for Jesus body. But there was an impediment to completing their task. They has followed the men who placed Jesus body in the tomb, they knew where it was. But they also knew there was a very large stone blocking the entrance. See they are asking this question before they arrive, else they would have already seen it was moved.
But they served Jesus like they followed Him - in faith. Their love for Jesus drove them to serve Him. How do I serve Jesus? That is a hard question to avoid if I spend much time at all in the Bible. Apostles to disciples and martyrs to church leaders, attenders, and even children - we are given example after example how they served the Lord, served fellow believers, served their neighbors, and served their enemies.
Serving often takes faith. What God calls us to is very often beyond us. There is a large stone between our me and what God has called me to. There are a few things that stone can represent.
The stone of our sin-guilt. We must trust that our faith in Jesus to forgive our sins is effective. We can believe things about God, but that wont roll the stone away from our prison of sin-guilt. It takes belief and faith.
The stone of our sin-sick lives. We have habits and old desires that are from our life when we lived rebelling from God more than we loved God. Many of those habits don’t go away easily. But like the women at the tomb, we are called to serve God in faith that HE will roll that stone away; He will remove what prevents us from following Him. We were created to bear the image of God in the world around us. We broke that mold and bore the image of rebellion. Only HE can restore us to HIS image.
It is necessary to respond to Jesus because we are called to serve Him. I said the stone was one problem preventing them from anointing His body.... Well, there was one other complication that preventing them serving Him.
He wasn’t there! Or at least His corpse wasn’t! He was alive! Risen from the dead. All the faith, and hope, and trusting, and loving was still empty is Jesus was still dead. They would be nice things, but powerless things if we hoped in a dead man.
But we trust in a living, resurrected, God-Man. HE has conquered death. HE is victorious over even our sin. HE has the power to breath life into death, roll the stone away from the prison of sin, and shine the light of love and life into the darkest places.
He spoke the world into existence. He can speak new life into you and me. And into your neighbor. And your HOA board of directors! And your family!
How do we respond to Jesus?
It’s imperative because He’s transformative.
It’s imperative because He’s transformative.
“He has risen… But Go, tell...” As they are introduced to the resurrection of Jesus, the following command is to go and tell. It’s news that must not be kept silent.
Has Jesus transformed you? If He has, how can you keep silent?
These women who had come to perform a morbid task are in emotional, spiritual shock. They just wanted to love the master one more time, but the payoff was unimaginable.
Let me read you a story of another servant of God who was blown away by God’s transformative love.
Darlene Deibler Rose was a missionary in Indonesia during WWII. She was captured and held as a POW by Japan. She wrote a book about her experience called Evidence Not Seen.
Conditions were very hard, and what little food she was given was quite unappetizing. She had seen looking out through the small window in here cell and seen a woman smuggle a few bananas through the fence. She prayed to God for just ONE banana. But, she reasoned, there was NO WAY anybody could bring her a banana. She prayed, but gave God every out.
Several days later, God answered her prayer. The guards were usually cruel and degrading. But this day when the door opened, instead of forcing her to bow, they dropped a bunch of bananas. Not one. Not three. 92! She was overjoyed. Then filled with shame that she thought God couldn’t, or wouldn’t hear her. Those bananas were life and hope and strength for her. And they were God’s provision of love - abounding beyond all measure.
Jesus gave His live, took our shame and pain. He died our death because only He could break through the stone sealing our grave. His please for us is beyond measure! He provided beyond belief for the women outside the tomb that morning. And that provision was transformative.
He provides for us that same transformation. From prison to the presence of God. It’s imperative we respond to Jesus because His message in transformative. Yes, it’s transforms us. But we are called to share that message because it can transform others. If you had the ability to release the Israeli hostages being held in Palastine, I’m sure you would. But we have the truth to save others from an even worse prison.
Why is the resurrection so important? The gospel is in the empty tomb!
Let me close with three illustrations about the gospel.
Baptistry: Buried with Christ in baptism, to arise to a new life in Him. This is a picture of the work of Christ, and of the gospel. (What we do here can point to salvation)
Three Crosses Sticker: Jesus paid the price for our sins. We can choose to follow Him like the one on the right, or reject Him like the one on the left. (Have a tool to illustrate the gospel)
“Jesus died for my sin”: These words are the simplest expression of the gospel. You don’t need to know ever answer a gospel conversation might bring up. But they will never find an answer if someone doesn’t start the conversation. (Memorize a simple gospel phrase that can lead to conversation)