Long live the King!

Well, thank you.

Hello, everybody, again.

It's my great privilege to tell you the greatest story ever told.

It has been told probably to billions of people on this earth,

and today hundreds of millions will hear it again.

It may be the first time you'll ever hear it,

or you've heard it a lot before,

but I do want to say to you,

if you hear this story and believe it,

it will change everything.

In fact, this story is the story.

This story is the one thing that changes everything.

I wonder if you remember 9-11.

Judy and I were on our wedding anniversary,

and we thought we'd put the telly on.

We'd gone away.

I thought we'd put the telly on,

and there it was, a plane going into a building.

And I just remember we were consumed by the event.

We couldn't turn the telly off.

We were transfixed in shock,

and I could actually say we were bewildered.

Bewildered is the idea,

I don't know how to process this.

Bewildered is, I am completely thrown.

I've been hit for a six.

This is, I just don't know what to make of it.

And I do remember saying something like,

you know, the world will never be the same again.

That was sort of like what I thought.

As a person, you've certainly had your ups and downs,

and either way, you can be bewildered.

Bewildered is when you're just taken aback

by the enormity of what's happened.

Yesterday, got a phone call.

My brother-in-law, serious accident,

smashed in by a car, thrown, neck injury.

So I go and visit him in the hospital,

totally bruised, millimetres.

They said millimetres,

and he would have been a quadriplegic.

Can you imagine?

So I'm sort of going,

imagine if it had been a few more millimetres.

Everything.

Everything would have been changed.

Whatever you may have faced,

you can look back and say,

with the big things,

that you were changed in your life deeply.

And today is a story where I would say

that when you do get it,

I mean, everything.

We say, oh, now that I get this,

everything has changed.

Like, there is nothing without exception

that is not changed by what's happened.

Now, we're looking at a passage,

and it's quite intriguing.

This Bible passage is from the Bible,

and it's from a part of the Bible called Mark,

and what was just read to you

was from part of that Bible story.

And I want to talk about three people.

First of all, Mark, who is he?

Secondly, about a man called Peter,

who is sort of what the story is about,

though it's Jesus,

and then actually some women.

The women get a Guernsey,

they run,

and they win the race,

which is very appropriate.

So the story I have to tell,

remember I said I have a story to tell you,

the biggest story I've ever heard.

You won't get all of it necessarily,

but if I was to tell you the story

in less than a minute,

the God of all the universe,

there's only one who is the creator of all things,

loved his world so much

that he sent his son,

and Jesus became a man.

He lived on this earth the perfect life

that we could never possibly live,

but the reason he came was not to show off,

but to having lived the perfect life,

he chose to die the death we deserve,

because we've not lived the perfect life

so we could be forgiven.

That's the cross.

Then he's risen from the dead,

saying to anyone that puts their faith in him,

I now can forgive you,

and having conquered death,

I can give you life forever in heaven.

It's amazing.

Changes people's lives.

Well, let me start talking to you

about the three people,

because we'll get to that story as it unfolds.

Mark.

Who's Mark?

Now, I know you've done a series on Mark,

but please forgive me if everything I say,

oh, yeah, yeah, we've heard this,

but just be patient.

Mark lived in the first century.

When Jesus was crucified in the 30s AD,

he was still a boy.

In fact, he'd most likely met Jesus,

heard Jesus, seen him do miracles,

even followed him,

and when he grew up,

he wrote Mark.

Mark was a scribe.

A scribe was a professional writer.

People would pay them to write.

In Jesus' day,

virtually not a single person could write.

Do you remember what it was like in school?

First class, second class,

third class,

and I have all these couples

filling out their notice of intended forms.

They still can't write.

Writing is hard.

It takes a long time,

and back in those days,

you needed to be a professional scribe

who'd spent many, many years

learning how to write.

So Mark ended up being a scribe

for a number of people,

including the Apostle Paul,

writing a lot of letters,

and sometime in about 60s AD,

he helped Peter write his gospel.

Now, this is most likely how it worked out.

Peter was the boss of Jesus' disciples.

He was the leader.

He had spent the last 30 years

since Jesus had died.

Jesus died at the age of 33,

another 30 years,

telling the story of his eyewitness account

of being with Jesus

and seeing him do all the miracles.

And at some point,

he decided,

I'm going to have to have this written down.

I can't write.

So I'm going to get Mark to be my scribe.

And what would have happened?

Mark wouldn't have just said,

you know,

tell me a story and I'll write it down.

Now, they would have done it together.

And Peter and Mark together would have,

well, Peter would have told him

and they wrote it down.

And,

but it's really unusual.

How do you tell the story of Jesus

over three years

when writing took forever?

So even Mark's gospel,

which is only a few pages,

was extremely expensive to do and to copy.

So how do you do it?

Well, Peter decided,

let's ignore the first 30 years of Jesus' life.

We'll start at age 30.

And then he said,

also Jesus dying is really important.

So halfway through this book,

why don't we just talk about

the last few weeks of his life

and when he dies?

So that's an interesting way of writing a book.

And I'm particularly interested,

you may not have noticed,

but Mark finished

with the angel appearing to the ladies.

And then we're told the ladies are so frightened,

they run away and they're bewildered

and they don't tell anyone.

Now you think,

why did he finish there?

By the way,

obviously some people didn't think

that was good enough.

So later on,

some people added stuff at the end of Mark.

But we know that,

and if you look at your Bibles,

it says someone added this later.

This is not what Peter wrote.

So I'm just interested,

why did Peter finish like that?

Well, let's talk about Peter.

You've heard about Peter?

Be patient.

Peter was the leader of the disciples,

but as I put in the outline,

he was a tragic failure.

In fact,

Mark 14 just describes

how terribly hopeless

and despairingly,

betrayingly,

gutlessly,

he reacted to Jesus' hardship.

In fact,

I'm very impressed.

Peter was very honest.

He did not let Mark write his story

so that Peter was the hero.

Peter made sure that Mark wrote down

all the times he got it wrong,

so no one thought,

oh, isn't Peter amazing?

I'm sure if you had a chance

to have your biography written,

you would sort of come out pretty good,

but not Peter.

So a number of things happened.

Let me just,

I'm sorry I know you've heard this,

but let me just go back,

because apparently

I only got up to Mark 8 recently.

It's Thursday night.

Jesus gets crucified the next morning.

And what happens is

Jesus is walking to the Garden of Gethsemane

where he's going to pray

and be arrested.

And as he's walking along,

he says to his disciples,

actually,

you're all going to deny me

and run away.

Peter says,

well,

they might,

but not me.

Jesus says,

oh,

Peter,

I'm telling you,

tonight,

you're going to actually deny me

three times

before the cock crows twice.

And then Peter said to Mark,

write down what I said.

I said,

I,

Peter,

insisted emphatically,

even if I have to die with you,

I will never disown you.

Peter says,

write that down.

And that's what Mark writes down.

When they get to the Garden,

Jesus actually tells

just Peter,

James and John,

I am absolutely devastated.

This is what Peter told Mark

to write down.

Peter says,

Jesus began to be deeply distressed

and troubled,

saying,

my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow

to the point of death.

He said to them,

stay here and keep watch.

Now,

never really before

had Jesus ever spoken like that

to his disciples.

And it's just to Peter,

James and John,

he's saying,

guys,

I am overwhelmed.

I am frightened.

I am fearful.

Would you watch for me?

Peter goes and prays.

Sorry,

then Jesus goes and prays.

But what happens is

Jesus comes back

and he finds them asleep.

So Peter said to Mark,

write this down.

He came up

and he said,

Peter,

are you asleep?

could you not keep watch

for one hour?

Watch and pray

so that you will not

fall into temptation.

The spirit is willing,

but the body is weak.

I mean,

how did Peter feel?

How often did

Jesus reach out

and say,

look,

I've always been there for you,

but right now,

could you be there for me?

I really need your help.

I'm really frightened

and scared.

Would you be there for me?

And Peter falls asleep

with James and John.

Well,

he must have felt dreadful.

Jesus went away

and to make things work,

Jesus comes back

the second time

and they're asleep again.

And so we read

in Mark 14,

40,

when Jesus came back,

he found them sleeping again

because their eyes were heavy.

They did not know

what to say to him.

Peter was bewildered.

He was lost for words.

He could not believe

he'd fallen asleep.

And when Jesus woke him up again,

he's sort of going,

I'm so sorry.

I don't know how this happened.

Jesus went away

and comes back again

and again.

Peter's bewildered.

He's lost for words.

He's flummoxed.

But when the time comes

for Jesus

to be arrested,

Peter is all brave.

He actually has a sword

and I suspect

he'd never used it before.

And so when the baddies come,

he sort of goes like that

and cuts off an ear,

which doesn't sound

very fatal to me.

Jesus basically says,

stop it.

Don't do that anymore.

And he lets them arrest him.

And we're told,

Peter says,

write this down,

verse 50 of 14,

everyone,

everyone deserted him

and fled,

including Peter.

They all ran into the darkness,

including Peter.

But then comes

one of the really saddest points

for Peter,

the failure.

Jesus is taken

to the religious leaders

and because it's pitch dark,

I mean,

Peter could have done this.

He just would have followed

in the darkness,

the torches,

and eventually

they get to the high priest's place

and Jesus gets taken in.

But there's a courtyard

and it's all dark

and there's some fires burning.

So Peter sort of sneaks in

and warms his hand

and you probably know the story.

You know,

weren't you with Jesus?

No,

no,

of course not.

Then someone else,

weren't you with Jesus?

No,

I don't even know the guy.

Then the third time,

I'm sure you were with Jesus.

You are Galilean like him.

And Peter says to Mark,

write down what I said.

I began to call down curses on myself.

I swore to them,

I don't know this man you're talking about.

He called down curses on himself.

May God himself strike me dead.

I don't know this man.

Immediately the cock crowed

the second time.

Peter remembered the word

Jesus had spoken to him

before the cock crows twice.

You will disown me three times

and he broke down

and he wept

and he must have run out

and again,

the idea of being bewildered is

I am so overwhelmed

by what has just happened.

I cannot think straight.

I am weeping.

I am devastated.

All that I live for has been lost.

Peter was an abject total failure

and he says,

make sure that's down there.

Don't write me as some kind of super guy.

But then we come to the women

and I like this.

I didn't even occur to me.

I had to read the Bible.

Oh, the women are the heroes.

Go ahead, ladies.

That running thing was very clever.

Not sure how accurate it was.

If Peter's a total failure,

it turns out the women are the heroes.

In fact, from this point,

Peter is not even mentioned again.

We don't know whether he was at the crucifixion or not.

He's not mentioned.

I think he may have.

He's just not mentioned anymore.

He's probably away licking his wounds

and feeling sorry for himself.

Well, the passage that was printed,

sorry, the reason I did it a bit longer,

it starts with,

then Jesus, with a loud cry,

breathed his last and died.

And we're told in verse 40,

which is there,

the women were there.

So let me read to you from verse 40.

We now learn,

even though Mark has sort of recorded the disciples

and all the other guys,

we only now learn

that Jesus had been accompanied

by a number of women the whole time as well.

And basically their job, if you like,

was to meet the needs of Jesus and the disciples.

And just so you know,

the two that are mentioned,

there's four times the women are mentioned

and there's two that are in every time.

One is Mary the Magdalene

and the other one is Mary,

mother of James the Younger and Joseph,

which is actually Jesus' mum.

And then later on,

she's called Mary the mother of Joseph

and then again,

Mary the mother of James the Younger.

They're his brothers.

Very interesting.

Mary's never,

not really referred to as the mother of Jesus anymore.

She's the mother of his brothers.

Anyhow.

So the women are there.

All the disciples have run away

and we're told they're there watching the crucifixion.

Now we heard about it on Good Friday.

May I briefly tell you what they saw.

Because remember we hear them running away,

bewildered after they find the tomb empty.

What did they see?

I suspect the first time the women saw him,

they noticed that Jesus and the disciples

didn't come home Thursday night

or just the disciples.

And the first time they see Jesus

was when he was leaving Pilate's palace.

He was unrecognisable.

Spikes beaten into his head,

face swollen,

eyes and lips from being punched.

His whole body was covered in blood

because he'd been flogged.

It was horrific.

No doubt they were absolutely gutted

when they saw him.

Horrified,

screaming,

weeping,

sobbing.

Then they're there

and they see him crucified.

I won't go into great lengths,

but the way a person was crucified,

which is what they saw,

a major beam's there.

They would carry the cross beam,

they'd put it down

and then they'd lie the person down,

tie their arms on,

put spikes through their wrists,

put their ankles together,

spike through the ankles,

then lift them up

and drop the cross

in about a half a metre hole,

clunk,

hit a wedge so it would stay there.

They saw it happen.

They saw the next six hours

people screaming and yelling and jeering.

It's a little bit hard to imagine,

but in some respects perhaps not.

People go and watch stonings today.

People would go and watch crucifixions.

Not quite the same,

but like going to a footy match.

They'd all yell and jeer.

They'd probably take wages.

Who's going to cry for mummy first?

It was a terrible, voyeuristic,

gut-wrenching, bloodthirsty sport

that people like to watch.

And so the women saw them

yelling, ridiculing, mocking.

And then we hear Jesus

at the top of that reading,

verse 37,

he cries out with a loud cry.

He actually says just before it,

my God, my God,

why have you forsaken me?

And he dies.

Then we read at the end,

verse 47,

that what happens was

not only did Jesus die,

but eventually the others were killed

and all taken off the cross.

And what happens when everyone would go home?

So everyone went home,

the bodies are still on the crosses

and Mary Magdalene

and Mary,

mother of Jesus,

are just there.

And while they're there,

we're told a man,

stranger to them,

but obviously an important man

who's dressed up

in his religious regalia,

came to take the body of Jesus down.

Now, I've noticed paintings

have people lovingly

trying to get Jesus from the cross.

There's only one way

they'd get him down.

They'd lift it out of the thing

and it'd slam on the ground.

The only way to get the spikes out

would be to hit them like this,

which would totally destroy

hands and feet.

And then the corpse

was thrown into a grave.

Well, this man took his body,

put some kind of shroud on it,

probably on a donkey or something,

and took it to a tomb.

And we're told the women

followed them.

They actually followed them

and saw where Jesus was put.

Then we're told,

verse 1 of chapter 16,

after all,

so that was Friday night

and when the sun goes down,

the Sabbath began,

which means they couldn't do anything

except go to synagogue

and be sort of,

there's no markets.

So at the end of Saturday,

could you imagine,

just how devastated,

gutted,

grieving,

overcome,

bewildered you would be,

the one you thought

was the king of the world,

now dead.

So we're told that night

when the Sabbath was over,

they could go and buy spices.

Women were the ones

that normally would embalm the dead

and, I mean,

they weren't necessarily

thinking straight,

but he wasn't prepared properly,

so they were going to go

and do it.

And now we come to Sunday morning

and let me read to you,

it's printed there for you,

from verse 2.

Very early on the first day

of the week,

just after sunrise,

they were on their way

to the tomb

and they asked each other,

who will roll the stone away

from the entrance of the tomb?

See, they hadn't even thought about it.

How are we going to get in there?

We saw this massive stone

put across.

They weren't thinking straight,

this is what you do

when you're grieving.

They just hadn't worked out

what they were going to do.

But when they looked up,

they saw that the stone,

which was very large,

had been rolled away

and as they entered the tomb,

they saw a young man

dressed in a white robe

sitting on the right side.

They were alarmed.

The angel says,

don't be alarmed,

you are looking for Jesus,

the Nazarene,

who was crucified.

He has risen.

He is not here.

See the place

where they laid him.

But go tell his disciples

and Peter,

he's going ahead of you

into Galilee.

There you will see him

just as he told you.

Now, there is absolutely

no way in the world

these women expected this.

They saw Jesus

so brutally murdered,

they knew he was dead

and they had been

grieving enormously.

They were not thinking

straight about

embalming his body

but that's what

they'd come to do.

The last thing,

the last thing

in a million years

was that Jesus

would come back

from the dead.

The last thing.

It was absolutely impossible

for someone like that

to come back.

They just did not expect it.

So when the angel

said that,

it's like,

you know,

slap it,

I just cannot process

what you have just said.

My world has gone

from complete,

total devastation

to,

is it possible?

No,

surely not.

Is it,

is it,

I,

can you understand

what bewilderment means?

I just cannot

take this in.

And so we're told,

verse 8,

trembling and bewildered,

the women went out

and fled from the tomb.

They said nothing

to anyone

because they were afraid.

And that's how it ends.

That's how Peter

and Mark

decided

to finish the story.

Well,

why did it end

that way?

I mean,

we know this isn't

the end of the story

because they literally did

when they came to their senses

thinking hallelujah,

went and told the disciples

and off it went.

We know Jesus

then appears to them

and to the other disciples.

In fact,

that's how Christianity

started.

This is 30 years later.

Peter had been telling

his story

for 30 years.

Everyone who was a Christian

or heard of Christianity

knew Jesus had risen

from the dead.

In fact,

I think it would be impossible

for someone

in Mark's day

to not know

that Christians taught

Jesus died

and rose from the dead.

I mean,

if they knew anything else,

but they would have known that.

That's what Christians

were all about.

He died

and rose from the dead.

So why did they

write it like this?

Well,

who knows?

You realise

it was extremely expensive,

this gospel.

It would have been endorsed

by the apostle.

It would have been started

to be distributed

at great cost,

probably only to major

church leaders

or major churches.

Copies were extensively done,

but it took a long time.

And the only way

you would have heard it,

you wouldn't go to the local library

and get your own gospel.

You would have to be

in a group of Christians

and it would be read to you.

Why did they finish like that?

Well,

it normally would have been read

out loud

and I guess

when it finished,

people would have responded

and commented.

But I think more than anything,

they could have related

to the women's

bewilderment,

terror,

fear,

fleeing.

Their lives have been

turned upside down.

I mean,

this is the most significant news

of human history.

If Jesus did actually rise

from the dead,

that changes everything.

In fact,

I would argue

there's nothing more important

than Jesus rising from the dead.

You obviously have things

that you consider

very important

and the temptation

that every single Christian,

including people

who are not Christians,

sorry,

wherever we are,

we always have something

that's more important

than this.

That's what sin is all about.

And so,

I don't know who you are,

but there'll be some here

that I'm shocked,

I'm horrified,

except I'm not surprised

because I'm identical.

This massive truth

is no longer

the most important thing.

My prayer for you

would be

that you are bewildered,

that you are knocked

off your perch,

you are hit for a six,

you are totally

knocked to the ground

by this truth,

realising

what I'm living for

at the moment

isn't worth living for.

My latest statement is

if what you're living for

isn't worth dying for,

it's not worth living for.

And there's a lot of people

who think real estate,

money, career,

that's not what life's about

because believe me,

it's not worth dying for.

You never hear someone

on their deathbed

saying,

if only I'd invested more

in the share market.

If only I had just

nailed that deal

with that new real estate.

It's not important

and they know it.

So my prayer is

whatever it is for you

and same for me,

we will be totally bewildered

when we realise

this is worthless.

Okay?

And last thing,

Peter does get a mention.

Did you notice

verse seven?

Very wonderful.

The angel told the women

to tell the disciples

and Peter.

See verse seven?

Go tell his disciples

and Peter.

He's going ahead of you

into Galilee.

There is a very good chance

that Peter

had completely lost face.

Saw himself as having

absolutely no authority,

no credence.

He was immoral,

he was faithless

and he could not lead

and yet the angel says,

tell Peter,

tell Peter,

Jesus has said

he'll meet him in Galilee.

Can I just say

the last thing I want to say?

It does not matter

what you have done.

Peter could not have done

much worse

than what he did.

But Jesus says,

tell him,

tell him,

forgiveness and future,

forgiveness and future.

I pray for any of you

who do not yet

serve and follow Jesus,

I pray that you will be

bewildered

by the truth

that sets people free.

You will be so unsettled

by the fact that

what you live for

is just not worth living for

and you realise

this

is

everything

and it changes everything.

Let me pray.

Let me pray.

Let me pray.

We will take you