Do You Believe?

So sermon title this morning is Do You Believe?

Do you believe? We're coming to the close of our

sermon series and the Gospel of Mark.

And if you followed us, you will notice that we have not covered

every story in the Gospel of Mark.

And part of it has to do with because we didn't have time in

the time span we allotted ourselves for the Gospel of Mark

to cover all the stories. Not that one story is not as

much valuable or worth as much as another.

We just didn't have time to cover in depth the Gospel.

We could easily make it into almost a year if we wanted to.

But this morning we want to look at one more story and the story

of the resurrection, the story where Jesus rose from the dead.

And as I said, we we skipped a lot of stories.

We skipped the story of, of the the arrest, the crucifixion.

Part of it had to do with a guest speaker coming and so on.

They're all good stories, but the story of the resurrection is

a very powerful story, and we want to pay good attention to

that one. The most powerful story of all

the Gospels is the story of the resurrection.

That's the most powerful story. Every Gospel has that story.

But is the story the least believed one?

Nobody doubted that Jesus was the Messiah.

Nobody doubted the miracles. They saw him, do they?

They believe that they believed him when they saw him heal

people. They believed him when the sick

were made well, when he fed the crowds with a few loaves and

fish. They believed all that.

But when it came to the story of the suffering and dying, the the

the most unbelieving were his disciples.

And they were the ones who were told, of course.

No, no, no, that's not going to happen to you.

It's not going to happen to you. He's not going to die.

And Peter, in fact, took him aside.

Master, it's not going to happen to you.

Jesus rebuked him and said get behind me, Satan.

But that's the story that really did happen.

It didn't sink in until it happened.

It didn't register until it happened.

It did happen, and then there's a prize.

He said it would happen and they found it hard to believe that it

would happen. And he can't die.

He's the Messiah. But then he did die and then

they believed it. And then it was, of course, the

opposite extreme. It's all over.

It's history. It's nothing.

The Messiah story is not true after all, and he's never going

to rise. That was the thinking we do well

to ask ourselves sometimes, how do we feel when we try to

convince someone of something and they don't believe us?

We we communicate something, but we can tell they don't believe

us. They tell us they don't believe

us and then they're proven wrong.

And then we feel like saying I told you so.

We don't find Jesus telling his disciples ever.

I told you so that he does sometimes say, remember, he does

that. It's easy to believe when it's

easy to believe. But when it's something so

improbable or so impossible, then it's a different story.

But one thing we have to admit in our lives is behavior always

reveals belief, and belief drives behavior.

This is reality. Let me repeat that behavior

always reveals belief, and belief drives behavior.

Stories told of Martin Luther the Reformer in the 1500s.

One morning, for a while he has he had been very depressed, very

discouraged, despondent, and just gloomy.

So his wife comes downstairs one morning out of the bedroom

dressed in total funeral garb, dressed in black, and Luther's

sitting at his desk there and looks up and sees his wife who

died. He asked her.

She said God died. Why would you say that?

She says, you look like it. He had been so discouraged and

despondent and gloomy and depressed.

This was her way of communicating to him how he was

living and whether the story is actually true.

I haven't fact checked it, but the story nevertheless

illustrates a very valid point. What we believe is always

revealed in what we do in response to the circumstances we

face. This is a reality.

You see, when Jesus walked to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the

disciples believed. They believed, not just

believed, they knew. He's the Messiah.

In a matter of time, he's going to take over.

He's going to be in the temple. He's going to reign.

He's going to rule. He's going to be the king of the

Jews. And he got that title on the

cross, of course, but not in the way they had hoped and nobody

expected. But the disciples believed he

would be crowned king. He would soon reign, and they

would reign with him. And everything sounded like it.

And then what's called a passion week.

And then he's in the temple, He's teaching, he's he's

rebuking the Pharisees. He's getting into all kinds of

trouble. And on Thursday night, the Last

Supper, things don't look good. The disciples still don't get

it. And then he goes out to the

Garden of Gethsemane, and there he has this burdensome

experience of taking on the world sin, and he's sweating

drops of blood. And then he gets arrested and

bound and led to the high priest and the disciples all scattered.

And Peter kind of follows in the distance and they're through the

mockery of a trial Jesus condemned.

And then he's taken off to to pilot early morning hours

because the Jews couldn't kill anybody.

That was against the rules. They could get the Romans to do

their killing for them, but they couldn't kill anybody on their

own. So they had to get pilots

permission or pilots guys to do it for them.

They were in for the shock of their lives.

This was so beyond what they had ever expected.

This was just not supposed to happen, but then they believed

after it did and as far as they were concerned, Jesus is dead.

He's gone, it's over. No Messiah, no Kingdom of Israel

that whole three years. Come and follow me, I'll make

you fishers of men was all nothing, all gone like mist.

Well, that was not the ending. Today we'll look at the ending.

Let's read Mark chapter 16 beginning verse one.

Mark 16 · chapter mention

Now when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother

of James and Salome brought spices that they may 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?

Let's stop there. The story of these women is

remarkable. What they believed was 100%

evidence. What they what they were doing

was 100% evidence of what they believed.

Their beliefs were driving their behavior.

Do you think they slept much that night or the previous few

nights? I don't think so.

Their minds were feverishly rehearsing and regurgitating

what happened. How did this happen?

OK, what now? What now?

Well, the least we can do to our friend Jesus is anoint him.

But there was no time Friday night to put him in the tomb and

clothes that rolled this big stone in front of it.

There's nothing we could do. And so we'll have to wait till

Sunday morning because the Sabbath was a day of rest and no

working allowed. So their deep grief, pain and

agony, they had witnessed this. They waited out that long

Sabbath and then Sunday morning comes in early at sun up there,

there, and they are going to anoint the dead body.

That's what they can do. No work on the Sabbath.

But Sunday was a work day, the first day of the week, and they

lost no time making their way to the tomb.

And they had already gotten their spices and their

ointments. Whatever they had, they lived

out what they believed. They lived out what they

believed. They had come to anoint the dead

and verse 3 and it says they said among themselves, who will

roll away the stone from the door of the tomb, from the tomb

tomb for us. The woman believed Jesus was

dead and they lived like it. It may be easy for us here this

morning to point to the women and comment about how they

failed to grasp the teachings of Jesus about his death and

resurrection. But our story is not that

different from the story of these women, except in their

case, Jesus had not yet returned to heaven and sent the Holy

Spirit. Other than that, we're pretty

much in the same boat very often.

Notice their words, which they ask, Who will roll away the

stone? This was in their hearts a fixed

reality around which they had constructed the day's event,

their schedules, and their plans.

You see, words we say have a way of letting out what's inside our

hearts. That's just how it works, and we

may not mean anything ill by what we say sometimes.

I'll share a little story here between my wife and I Didn't ask

for permission, but I'm sure she would grant me.

So I bought a computer way back in the day and I wanted a

computer. I, I needed it, but I really

wanted to need it too. And so I bought a computer and

she and I did not quite see eye to eye on this computer thing

anyway, So I went to Steinbach Bible College, took it along

and, and was working on my computer.

And one night I said, I have to do some, some, some work on my

home assignment yet on my homework assignment yet.

And anyway, so we're had company and things got busy and, and she

didn't get it done. And later on the evening she

said, Oh yeah, you wanted to play on your computer yet.

I said, is that what it is? It's my homework assignment.

It was funny. She didn't mean it that way.

But to her, a computer was a recreational tool, a toy almost.

To me, it was a tool. And so the way we view things

just slips out. I've done the same thing.

I remember a guy wanted to go on a mission trip, and I said, oh,

yeah, we plan to go on vacation. Didn't you?

No. A mission trip.

And So what we think blurts out, and we live that way.

Words have a way of just coming out.

Well, these women were actually living out what they believed.

And you know what? They had gone.

They had gone and got spices, bought spices.

They didn't know. They didn't have to worry about

any of that. The thing they're worried about

actually did not exist. They were worried about a closed

grave. How would, how are we going to

open it? How are we going to get in?

How often do we find ourselves preoccupied in our hearts and

minds with things that are very real to us and they don't even

exist? Oh, it's important to us, but

not to God. We're prepared, all geared up,

it's the real thing, only to find out it's not real.

And So what do we do? We bring our packages of

solutions to the problems that we're going to address only to

find out they don't really don't exist.

So these women that cure their ointment containers and

solutions to this anointing ceremony, not knowing they're

going to face an empty grave, Well, let's read.

But when they looked up, they saw the stone had been rolled

away, for it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw

a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right

side. And they were alarmed.

But he said to them, do not be alarmed.

You see, you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.

He is risen, He is not here. See the place where they laid

him. This was the shock of all

shocks. In their state of mind, they

could not have anticipated, expected or believed it.

And yet not just was the stone rolled away, giving them access

to the tomb that was empty. Unbelievable, unbelievable.

And the young man they see sitting inside with his long

white robe says, don't be alarmed, you seek Jesus of

Nazareth. He knew who was crucified.

He's risen. He's not here.

Let's just stop for a moment. Imagine you were one of these

women. We don't know what may or all

have gone through their hearts, but I think if I had been one of

those women, my nice little expensive box of ointment, it

wasn't cheap stuff. I would have been shocked to

maybe embarrassed. OK, what I'm going to do with

this now he's risen. It's useless, of no value.

I would have been scared and maybe embarrassed.

They had good intentions. They had good intentions.

You see, sincerity of intentions does not translate into right

actions. A person can be totally sincere,

totally wrong. It's a bit like reading a map

and saying, you know, I know it says that, but I feel I should

go that way. I'm going to go that way.

You can trust the map, the word of God, you can trust it.

If the map says it's this way, it's this way.

In this story, Jesus was not there.

What they believed was, after all, not true.

Instead, what should they have believed?

What they should have believed was so far from what they did

believe. It didn't even connect.

We can say it was maybe eternities apart.

These women had good desire anoint the dead body of their

friend Jesus. But they were wrong about what

they believed. Very wrong and their wrong

beliefs were the rule, the guide, the path that had

directed their useless efforts in trying to go and anoint the

dead body. There's a very powerful verse in

the Gospel of Luke, Luke 24. It talks about the women coming

to the tomb and there it talks about angels meeting them.

It says this as they were afraid and bowed their faces.

They, the Angel said to them, why do you seek the living among

the dead? That's a powerful, powerful

verse. Why do you seek the living among

the dead? The thing that was on their

hearts and minds was the reality.

Jesus dead. We got to anoint him.

That's how they had lived the last few days and he was dead.

But he had risen and they're focused on the dead, but he was

no longer dead. Maybe we should sometimes stop

and ask ourselves when we get into a predicament, when life

gets hard and difficult and we get tired and frustrated and all

those things, we should stop and ask ourselves what's going on,

what's happening? What is it that we're looking

for? The answers to our problems are

not to be found among the things that die and are dead.

Let's look at it this way. Kingdom of God, people should

not be focused on Kingdom of the world priorities.

Kingdom of God, people should not be focused on Kingdom of the

world priorities. And often times what we're

seeking, what God is trying to offer us is so different that we

would be embarrassed if we only knew.

Well, the Angel did not leave the women where they were in

Mark chapter 16. He instructed them.

Mark 16 · chapter mention

He gave them an assignment instead of anointing a dead body

that doesn't exist. No, you have a job to do.

Listen to this verse 7. But go tell his disciples and

Peter that's important. And Peter, that he, meaning

Jesus, is going before you into Galilee.

There you will see Him as He said to you.

So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb for the

trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone,

for they were afraid everything, their House of Cards had

collapsed. All this structure, this

organizing, this, this planning has nothing now and and was in

fact it was good that it was nothing.

The Angel told the women, Go and tell the good news, this

unbelievable glorious news, but only a moment ago didn't exist,

didn't exist. They never never even thought it

possible. But now not just have you seen

it, now go and talk about it. Go tell his disciples.

And Peter has mentioned, and I think very specifically, I think

it brought somewhere else in the sermon series that it's believed

that Mark received his gospel from the apostle Peter.

We don't have a definitive proof for that, absolute proof, but

that's highly possible and it may well be true.

But Peter had messed up big time.

And so when the Angel say go tell his disciples and Peter,

Peter need an extra measure of the grace because he had denied

Jesus and he needed a word of hope from the Lord.

He denied and swore and cursed that he knew Jesus and he had

gone back to fishing in Galilee, back to his old business, and

yet he was accepted and forgiven.

We know from the Gospel of John what Peter did.

Jesus rose from the dead and he met the disciples, but but

Peter, he needed a special encouragement.

We do we do know from John, I think it's 21 where Jesus

specifically invites Peter just by himself yet and restores him.

But here on resurrection day, Angel says, you women, you go,

go, go and tell, tell his disciples to go to Galilee.

From reading these gospels, it seems to me God's angels were

quite busy on resurrection day had a lot to do with these

people that needed to be brought back up, that needed to be

strengthened and encouraged and and lifted up again.

Well, the women leave the tomb, Mark writes.

They fled. When somebody flees, they run as

fast as they can. When you see somebody running as

fast as they can, as a sight to see, they fled from the tomb

trembling, scared and amazed. It must have been one of those

eye rubbing, self pinching feelings.

You know, like did this really just happened?

Did this really happen? It says they fled from the tomb,

but then what did they do? They did nothing.

According to Mark's gospel, they did nothing.

I think it was too much of A shock, was too unexpected, and

especially considering what they had been planning to anoint a

dead body. But we must ask ourselves this

question. Does this story change us?

Do we live as if Jesus is alive, or do we live as if he's dead?

How do we live? Do we believe?

Does my lifestyle, does your lifestyle look more like Jesus

as time goes on? Or does it look more like there

is no Jesus who rose from the dead?

Many people have heard the good news.

They're still afraid. Many people claim to believe in

Jesus, Don't live lives that indicate in any way that they

believe in Jesus. A writer that I've used, a

commentary writer that I've used for the series, his name is

Timothy Geddert and his commentary on Luke wrote a

summary on the women who came to the tomb and I'll read it, read

it. There's a piece here.

They prepared in vain for an anointing they that could not

happen. They worried for nothing about a

stone that was gone before they arrived.

They responded to the messenger with alarm and he promptly told

them not to be alarmed. He gave them a message to tell

and they did not tell it. They did not leave in respectful

silence. They fled in terror, disobeying

the messenger by keeping the resurrection message to

themselves. God has to have so much grace

and patience with us. Some people live like that in

the past, busy seeking to anoint what has no value or the dead.

Some people come and see the present, but then they don't do

anything with it. Fear keeps them bound and quiet

and shut up. Don't proclaim anything.

Then there are those who accept the faith and they receive and

share the good news. We come now in Mark chapter 16

Mark 16 · chapter mention

to a passage of Scripture that is has been deemed

controversial. And there's a lot of controversy

on this passage. In fact, gospel writers mean

historians and scholars and theologians.

They say the earliest writings of the Gospel of Mark don't have

anything past the Gospel of Mark chapter 16 past verse 8.

Mark 16 · chapter mention

Verse 9 and onward, it's actually not there.

Then later manuscripts have it. So the arguments are what

happened. 1 conclusion that some historians and theologians say

may have happened is that Mark did not get to finish his gospel

and so it just ended there and somebody put a little extra in

there. Or maybe Mark did finish it and

the ending part went missing for some reason.

Maybe a page got torn off or something.

And it's also suggested that maybe Mark just ended it right

there and left it like that unfinished.

Whatever way people may look at this part of Scripture, we take

it as Scripture. It's, it's God's word and it

does not add or distract or subtract anything from the

gospels. There's one small point there in

this part about drinking poison, handling poisonous snakes.

We'll look at that in a bit. But Mark's gospel continues.

So let's look at the disciples and see how they managed.

Let's read that Mark, chapter 16, verse 9.

Mark 16:9

Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, it's kind

of like a retelling of the story from a different, different

lens. He appeared first to marry

Magdalene, out of whom he had cast 7 demons.

She went and told those who'd been with him as they mourned

and wept, and when they heard that he was alive and had seen

was had been seen by her, they did not believe.

So she told she wouldn't spread it, but they did not believe.

After that, he appeared to another in another form, to two

of them as they walked and went into the country, and they went

and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them

either. Later he appeared to the 11 as

they sat at the table, and he rebuked their unbelief and

hardness of heart because they did not believe those who had

seen him after he had risen. What is noteworthy is the

disciples struggled with this belief.

And we do know that that's true from even the other Gospels.

This was, yeah, this just doesn't happen.

People don't just walk out of graves and Mark makes makes it

the gospel. Mark emphasized that quite

strongly. So the disciples, they believed

he was dead. When the disciples had seen that

he was killed, they believed. They didn't doubt, they believed

they he had told him I'm going to die.

They did not believe that. But now that he was dead, they

believed he was dead and he was going to stay dead.

And they were. The way they behaved, it looked

like it. We have no trouble imagining the

disciples on Palm Sunday, as I mentioned before, walking and

praising and worshipping and shouting.

Just the confidence, the optimism, the excitement, the

anticipation. On Thursday night, the

Gethsemane experience, and then on Friday morning the house

comes crashing down around them. Then he dies and then he's

buried and it's over. Well, how?

How do you think the disciples look now after Friday?

On Sunday, I mean in the Sabbath and on Sunday, panic stricken,

terrified, scared to death. To them it was over when he rose

from the dead. They didn't think so.

They didn't believe for fear of the Jews.

They were in hiding behind locked doors.

To them it was not a question of if we're going to get attacked

and maybe killed. It was questioned when's it

going to go down? Whenever.

When are they going to find us? When will we get caught?

They were in hiding. Any thoughts of Jesus being

alive was about as far from their minds as they could

possibly be. And then when Jesus did meet

with his followers, 2 of them on the road, they didn't recognize

him. Later in the room in Jerusalem,

he appeared and some doubted. I think we would fit well with

this group of 11. We may think and say, well, if

we had seen what they saw and if we had heard what they heard, we

would believe. Really, Do we believe today this

book is true? Don't we see Jesus at work

today? That little video that we just

watched? I love that little story.

Too often, unbelief is the benchmark from which we make

decisions. So if we're going to grow in our

walk with Jesus, we're going to have to trust Him.

It's a decision we make. It involves risk.

It's going to be uncomfortable. It's not always going to be safe

either. Our lack of ability or lack of

understanding is not the benchmark from which Jesus tells

us what to do. Notice what he told his

disciples. He told them, go and spread the

gospel. Let's read Mark chapter 1615.

He said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to

every creature. He who believes is baptized will

be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned.

And these signs will follow those who believe in my name.

They will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues,

they'll take up serpents, and if they're drink anything deadly,

it will by no means hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick

and they will recover. So then after the Lord had

spoken to them, he was received up into heaven, sat down at the

right hand of God, and they went out and preached everywhere, the

Lord working with them and confirming the word to the

accompanying signs. Amen.

That's the end of Mark. Mark chapter 16.

Mark 16 · chapter mention

We have a promise from Jesus that a servants will be

protected. And the other gospels say the

same thing. This is not whoever, an

exemption from danger, from risk.

God is not always spare us his Saints.

And this passage about drinking poison or handing poison to

snakes? This is not something that's

intended to be interpreted literally, although some have

taken it that way. The Gospel writer communicates a

different message. Whatever there is in the world

will only go as far as God allows it to happen, whatever

that may be. There are many stories where

God's Saints have been protected through extreme danger, and

sometimes His Saints die. It doesn't refer to actual

physical drinking of poison, but difficult circumstances,

handling poisonous snakes, but dangerous situations.

God has called us to use our minds and to use common sense,

yes, but I suggest that when we face injustice and hardship and

oppression and persecution, let's not be surprised.

Whatever God allows us into our lives, He allows us to happen.

He's aware He can still protect us, spirit, soul and heart.

And if our time has come to to leave, then it's time to leave.

But He wants to bring Himself glory through us, His Saints.

We know the story. The disciples did go out and

spread the gospel. But now what about us?

Our lives show what we believe. So do we believe?

We have a passage in James chapter 2 verse 19 and to 20.

James 2:19

If you believe there's one God, you do well.

Even the demons believe in tremble.

But do you not know a foolish man that faith without works is

dead? So saying we believe is a start,

but that's not where it's at. Believing in God really means

serving God. We're saved by grace, but grace

isn't cheap. It cost God everything to save

us from our sins, and it will cost us everything to walk in

relationship with Him. If we're going to believe, we're

going to believe in God's terms, not ours.

We will believe not just with our mind, not just with our

brain, but with our heart, with our hands and our feet.

On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit filled the apostles and they

were never the same again. The message of the resurrection

took hold and thousands and thousands were converted and

continues on to this day. The message continues on in our

times. Did you?

Bonhoeffer wrote a book called Discipleship, and in his book he

talks about cheap grace where people want to kind of water it

down or dilute it and so on. Let me just read a bit of it.

He said cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without

requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline,

communion without confession, absolution without personal

confession. Cheap grace is grace without

discipleship, grace without the cross.

Grace is grace without Jesus Christ living in Incarnate, he

says. Costly grace is the gospel which

must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked

for, the door at which man must knock.

Such grace is costly because it called us to follow, and it is

grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.

It is costly because it costs a man his life.

It is grace because it gives a man the only true life.

It is costly because it condemns sin, and it's grace because it

justifies the Sinner. And above all, it is costly

because it cost God the life of His Son.

We were bought at a price that cost God so much.

Our question we must answer for ourselves today is do we believe

what we believe is evident by what we do.

We've looked at the Gospel of Mark and so now the question is

what now? Timothy Getter and his

commentary mentions it began in Galilee and that's where he told

him to go back to came full circle.

We never leave that place. It begins at the cross and

that's where we walk. Takes a lifetime.

We do not finish it in this life.

We finish it when we breathe our last, that's when we finish it.

My heart's desire is that we will be faithful.

God will say to us on Judgement Day when He comes to take us

home and say, well done, good and faithful servants, so let's

go and live out this gospel that we say we believe.

Let's pray. Lord, thank you.

Thank you for your word to us. Out of the Gospel of Mark.

At the very end of your earthly presence, your people struggled.

And it was not until after you left and sent your spirit that a

greater part of the picture came into view.

Today we have a story of your life that continues on.

You're not dead. You rose from the grave.

That's our greatest comfort. You give eternal life to all who

repent, put their faith and trust in You.

I pray, Lord, this morning that Your word will continually grow

in US, shape US, form US evermore into your image.

Thank you Lord for your presence in our lives.

Help us, Lord to be the image bearers that reflect you in this

world. Thank you, Jesus.

Amen.