"He Has Risen"

When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, bought

spices so that they may go and anoint him, thinking the corpse of Jesus.

And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb

and they were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance

of the tomb?

And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back.

It was very large.

And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white

robe, and they were alarmed.

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?

But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he, Jesus, is going before you to Galilee.

There you will see him just as he told you.

And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishing had seized them.

And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

That's a rather odd way to end the gospel.

Kind of leaves you hanging.

We've experienced a lot of that this year.

What a year it has been.

It's been one crisis after another, hasn't it?

And each crisis seems to raise its own set of issues that you need to make decisions on.

In order to make decisions on that, you need to gather information.

In order to gather information, you need to have sources of information that you can trust.

Who do you believe is telling the truth?

Who's telling the truth about the coronavirus?

Remember that a year ago.

Who's telling the truth about masks, about social distancing?

Who's telling the truth about George Floyd, Jacob Blake, and all the social justice issues that have erupted?

Who's telling the truth about the future of our nation?

Presidential debates.

What is fake news?

And what is true news?

What a year.

And even though the coronavirus, matters pertaining to social justice, the future of our nation, these are all very important things.

None of these is what is most important.

What is of first importance.

And what is of first importance is what is true about Jesus of Nazareth.

Because eternity is riding on what you believe about him.

I've been talking to a friend about Jesus.

And she's at this really interesting intersection.

She wants to know more about Jesus.

And she's open to talking about Jesus.

But she has got questions about whether she can trust what the Bible says about Jesus.

It's valid.

Is the Bible a source of fake news about Jesus?

Or is the Bible true news, good news about Jesus?

You see, the Bible and the Gospels in particular claim to present true good news about this person, Jesus of Nazareth.

Now, I'm not going to make a defense of the reliability of the New Testament this morning.

But if you're not a Christian and you've been wondering about how reliable are the Gospels, these biographies of Jesus, I've got two of these books.

You can grab one for me at the Kringle table out on the sidewalk on your way out.

I'd be happy to give this to you.

This helps you understand why you can actually trust that what the Gospels are saying are true.

What the Gospel writers assume is that the reader will take what they're saying at face value.

They present their information about Jesus as eyewitness accounts.

So, this morning, if you're not a Christian, would you approach the Gospel of Mark with me?

At face value.

That these are eyewitness accounts of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

So, let me, as you can see on the back of your bulletin, there's a little outline.

I'm going to give you the Gospel background of the Gospel of Mark.

And then we're going to kind of dive into those eight verses in Mark chapter 16.

Mark 16 · chapter mention

And then I'm going to point out the extraordinary claim that's being made here.

And at the end of the sermon, I'm going to kind of bring it to bear on where each of us is living in this room.

The Bible can be divided into two big sections.

The Old Testament and the New Testament.

And the Old Testament is about a promise God made to a people, Israel.

And Israel ended up failing to keep that promise.

But all throughout the Old Testament, there are these prophecies, these anticipations of someone who would be coming.

The Messiah.

The Christ.

A king who is from the line of David.

And he would come and he would establish a new covenant.

A new promise God makes to a new people.

And what you need to understand about the Old Testament, all these sacred writings were written before Jesus came.

The New Testament are God's sacred writings after Jesus came.

And what the New Testament, it claims and explains is that Jesus is that long-awaited Christ.

The Messiah.

The king.

The king.

And he came to establish a new relationship between God and sinners through his blood.

At the beginning of the New Testament, you have four biographies.

They are called Gospels.

And each biography is presenting Jesus to the reader, to the hearer, to show Jesus as the Christ.

This king who does miracles, whose teaching is unlike anyone else.

How he engaged people was absolutely phenomenal because it was God engaging with people.

These four Gospels point to Jesus being the Christ.

And each Gospel has its own emphases and its own audience that it's aimed at.

The Gospel of Mark emphasizes, it shows the eyewitness accounts of Jesus.

They're believed to be the actual eyewitness accounts of the Apostle Peter that Mark shares with us, the readers.

Now, I'm going to ask Robin to put up Mark 1.1.

This is the very first verse of this Gospel.

And why I'm asking her to do that is to let you know what Mark is setting out to do in writing this biography for us.

At the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, Mark says,

The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

And here's what you need to see.

You need to see three things.

Jesus is the name of this man who is totally man.

You see at the end that title, the Son of God.

That's a claim that Jesus, the Christ, is totally God.

And Jesus Christ, Christ isn't his last name.

It's a title.

He also goes by that same title, the Christ.

Jesus talks about himself as the Son of Man.

That's another way of describing himself as the Christ.

And so all throughout the Gospel of Mark, Mark weaves these claims together.

God the Father at Jesus' baptism says,

My beloved Son with whom I'm well pleased.

At Jesus' transfiguration he says,

This is my beloved Son.

Listen to him.

God is claiming this man to be his son.

And this all climaxes.

Jackson did such a great job this past Friday night.

Showing us from Mark 15 how all this weaves together.

Because in Mark 15 you have these six claims of Jesus being the King of the Jews.

The King of Israel.

And they were all designed to be mocking Jesus at his crucifixion.

It ended up being true.

That title King of the Jews is a claim of Jesus being the Messiah.

It's just another way of saying Christ.

And it's at the very climax of Mark 15.

That Jesus has this piece of wood above his head saying King of the Jews.

Jesus cries out, Eloi, Eloi, Lema, Sabachthani.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

He breathes his last.

And in the book of Mark,

the only human being that recognizes him as being the Son of God

is one of the Gentile Roman centurions who oversaw his death.

Truly, this was the Son of God.

And then in verses 40 and 41 of chapter 15,

we see three women at the cross watching what just happens.

Mary Magdalene.

Mary, the mother of Joseph.

Moses and James.

That's Jesus' mother, Mary.

And Salome.

And then at the burial in 1542 through 47,

two of those three women watch where Joseph of Arimathea lays the corpse of Jesus.

Joseph laid the corpse of Jesus in his own tomb.

It was the tomb of a rich man.

And Mary and Mary saw exactly where that body was laid.

Jesus had been removed from the cross and entombed in Joseph's tomb all before the Sabbath set.

That's a little background that leads us up to Mark 16, 1 through 8.

And in Mark 16, 1 through 8, there are actually three scenes.

There's a scene of these women going to the tomb.

That's verses 1 through 4.

There's a scene of these women in the tomb.

That's 5 through 7.

And then there's the scene of these women coming from the tomb.

That's verse 8.

When it comes to these women going to the tomb in verses 1 through 4,

I just want you to notice a few things.

Remember, notice who these women are.

Mark names the three.

Mary Magdalene.

Mary the mother of James.

That's Mary the mother of Joseph as well.

The mother of Jesus.

And Salome.

These are the women that had just seen Jesus crucified just a couple days before.

And these are the women who saw Joseph lay the body of Jesus in the tomb.

What I also want you to notice in verses 1 and 2 is when this is taking place.

This is after the Sabbath.

The Sabbath has passed.

Verse 2, it's very early in the first day of the week at sunrise.

They're getting an early start.

They have fragrant spices to anoint the body of Jesus with.

But here's what you need to understand.

In the Jewish mind in the first century,

they thought of a day differently than we think of a day.

We think of a day starting at kind of like 12 a.m. going to 11.59 p.m.

For the Jew, they thought of a day in terms of sunsets.

One sunset to another.

And so for the Jewish mind, the Sabbath was Saturday.

And it actually began on sunset of Friday.

And that Sabbath go from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday.

What we see here is that these women, very early Sunday morning,

the first day of the week,

what we as Christians call the Lord's Day,

because it's the day that Jesus was raised,

they're on their way to the tomb.

In verse 3, notice what they're saying to each other.

They're talking about who's going to roll away the stone.

This is the massive stone that was rolled in place by Joseph of Arimathea.

You can see it at the end of Mark 15, verse 46.

Mark 15:46

Most likely it was Joseph and a couple other guys that moved the stone in place.

These huge stones were usually on little ramps that use gravity to drop into place

before this tomb cut out of a cliff side.

So they're wondering,

who's going to move this stone for us?

So let's not miss what's going on here.

These three women, early Sunday morning, are calm.

They're in their right mind.

And they are expecting to see the corpse of Jesus in the tomb.

Verse 4, they look up,

and they see the massive stone has already been removed.

There's no sense of panic.

I'm guessing they're kind of relieved.

Oh, great.

Somebody move the stone.

Let's finish our work.

This is the first scene of the resurrection account.

Everything changes in this next scene.

Verse 5 and 7, in the tomb,

this is the hot spot of the resurrection account.

And you know how you can tell?

By what happens before and after.

Before we have these women who are in their right mind,

they're expecting to find the corpse of Jesus,

and then in verse 8, if you look at verse 8,

they've completely freaked out.

They are trembling.

They're astonished.

The whole gospel of Mark ends with the word fear.

Whatever happened in between them going into the tomb

and coming out of the tomb

was some kind of forever life-transforming experience.

So what happened?

Let's look at verse 5.

They walk into the tomb,

expecting to see the corpse of Jesus

laid out on a platform,

cut into the rock,

and look at what they find.

And entering the tomb,

they saw a young man sitting on the right side,

dressed in a white robe.

He was sitting on the platform

where the body of Jesus would be laid,

at the right side of that.

He's wearing white.

This is an angel.

And for those of you who are not familiar,

all throughout the Bible,

angels are those who are messengers of God.

They declare God's news.

He goes unnamed.

But the freak out commences.

Look at the end of verse 5.

Mark writes it,

and they were alarmed.

That is like a massive understatement

because they were completely flipping out.

Could you imagine if you were one of these ladies

going into this tomb,

what would be rolling through your mind

if you didn't see the corpse of Jesus

but saw this cute, young, white guy

in a white robe?

I'm not sure if he was a white guy,

but he was in a white robe.

I think you'd be flipping out too.

And then we're drawn into what this angel says.

So they're freaking out,

and this angel says to them,

ladies, don't freak out.

Don't be alarmed.

Don't panic.

You're in the right place.

He knows who they're seeking.

You seek Jesus of Nazareth.

Do you know how that would have struck Mary,

Jesus' mother?

You seek your son.

And then he said,

who was crucified?

This angel in the tomb

on the third day since Jesus' crucifixion

knew that Jesus had been crucified.

In fact, all of heaven knew

that Jesus, totally God, totally man,

had been crucified on that first Good Friday.

all heaven knew.

And then he says this.

He has risen.

He has risen.

He's not here.

He's not here.

He's not here.

He's not here.

He's not here.

And then what's really interesting

is that he then points to the empty platform

and says, see, here's where they laid him.

Nothing.

He's not here.

He's not here.

He's not here.

He's not here.

This is the extraordinary claim

at the end of the Gospel of Mark.

The claim is that Jesus is alive.

And what you need to recognize

is that it's not a man making this claim.

It's a messenger of God making this claim.

In other words,

this is God's announcement.

This is God's announcement

that the one who was crucified

has been raised from the dead.

He is alive.

This is God's good news.

This angel goes on to say to these women

in verse 7,

Galilee, if you're wondering,

is the place where it all started

for Jesus and His disciples.

That's where His public ministry began.

That's where He called His original disciples,

where they came together

and He started to teach and heal.

And so what's going on here

is after His death and resurrection,

He is seeking to regather His disciples

after He's been raised from the dead.

I hope you noticed

that the very first eyewitnesses

to the empty tomb

and those who are being commissioned

by an angel

to go declare that Jesus is alive

are three women.

That's risky for Mark.

I'll come back to that in a second.

But did you also notice

that He singles out Peter

in verse 7,

but go tell His disciples

and Peter

that He's going before you to Galilee?

I'll come back to that

in another second.

At the end of verse 7,

we read,

there you will see Him in Galilee

just as He told you.

Just as He told you.

When did Jesus say that?

If you've got your Bible,

look at Mark chapter 14,

Mark 14:26

verse 26.

This is right after

Jesus has totally

kind of Jesus-ified

the Passover meal.

He says,

now the Passover,

do it in remembrance of me,

which is phenomenal in itself.

But after the institution

of the Lord's Supper,

Jesus in verse 26 says,

and when they had sung a hymn,

they went out to the Mount of Olives

and Jesus said to them,

you will all fall away,

for it is written,

I will strike the shepherd.

That's a reference to His death.

And the sheep will be scattered.

28,

but after I'm raised up,

I will go before you to Galilee.

There it is.

That's what this angel is referring to

when He says,

just as He told you.

But it's more than that.

Because if you flip in your Bible

back to Mark chapter 8,

Mark 8:31

verse 31,

Jesus talking about Himself

as the Son of Man,

the Christ,

He starts saying things like this.

The Son of Man must be handed over.

He must suffer and die

and on the third day

be raised from the dead.

He says that in chapter 8,

verse 31,

and then chapter 9,

verse 31,

He says the same thing.

The Son of Man must suffer,

be handed over,

die,

and be raised on the third day.

And if that's not enough,

in Mark chapter 10,

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Jesus says,

See,

we are going up to Jerusalem

and the Son of Man

will be delivered over

to the chief priests

and the scribes

and they will condemn Him to death

and deliver Him over

to the Gentiles

and they will mock Him

and spit on Him

and flog Him

and kill Him

and after three days

He will rise.

Jesus

predicted

not just His own death,

but His own resurrection

three days later,

which was all fulfillment

of Old Testament prophecies

of the Christ

in Psalm 16

and Isaiah 53

that would talk about

this Christ

who gives Himself

and comes back to life

for His people.

That's what happens

in the tomb.

And in verse 8,

we see the scene

of these women

coming out of the tomb

and what do you expect?

You read these accounts

in verses 5, 6, and 7

and you're thinking,

okay, this angel

is commissioning

these women to go.

They're going to go

tell the disciples.

Right?

Well, they definitely

hightail it out of the tomb

but in verse 8

you see that this hightailing

was a fleeing

from the tomb.

They were terrified.

They wanted to get out

of there.

Trembling,

astonishment,

and fear

completely shocked,

disoriented,

and terrified.

And then they don't do

what the angel

tells them to do.

They don't tell anybody.

All throughout

the Gospel of Mark

there's this theme

of the disoriented

and unbelieving disciples

including these three women.

These three women

respond to this news

in fearful silence.

And it's in stark contrast

to the centurion

in Mark 15, 39

who upon seeing

the crucified Jesus

breathe his last,

speak with faith-filled confession.

truly,

this was the Son of God.

Why would Mark

close a Gospel

open-ended like this?

Why would he leave us

hanging like this?

I mean,

don't you want closure?

Well, we know what happens

to these women.

We know the rest of the story.

We know these

from the other Gospels

that these women

come to their senses

and they go tell the disciples

and they go meet Jesus

in Galilee

and they see Jesus.

We learn from the Apostle Paul

that Jesus not only

appeared to them

but to 500 other

of his disciples.

And these women,

these same women

in the book of Acts

are part of the early church

that empowered

by the Holy Spirit,

they go and declare

to all people

that Jesus

is the risen Christ

who died

on the cross

for sinners.

We know the rest

of the story.

But why?

Why would Mark

close like this?

It's open-ended

by design.

It's to bring you

into the tomb.

It's for you

to ask the question,

how would I respond

if I were in that tomb

with that angel

and know Jesus present?

How would you respond

to this extraordinary claim

of this angel

that he has risen?

In verses 1-8,

there's this extraordinary claim.

That's where I'm at

in your outline

in the bulletin.

The extraordinary claim

is this.

Jesus is alive.

That's the claim.

And not just

that he's on,

that he's alive,

he's on the move.

He's on his way

to Galilee.

Are you guys familiar

with C.S. Lewis?

C.S. Lewis wrote

the Narnia series

for children.

The Lion, the Witch,

and the Wardrobe

was one of those books.

And we learn

in this novel

of the great lion Aslan,

the king of Narnia.

And it comes to a head

when this lion Aslan

is slain on an ancient rock altar

by the wicked

and icy queen of the north.

But soon after his death,

this altar breaks in two

and Aslan is raised

from the dead

and he's on the move.

And he's on the move

breathing life

onto all of those

who've been put under the curse

by the queen.

Thawing them.

Thawing them to life.

breathing back to life.

All those under the curse.

And gathering to himself

a kingdom of beloved creatures

brought back to life.

C.S. Lewis was a Christian.

And Aslan was a Christ type.

And that beautiful scene

in the Lion, the Witch,

and the Wardrobe,

he's making a claim

that Jesus has been raised

from the dead.

C.S. Lewis also wrote another book.

It's called Mere Christianity.

I have a number of these copies.

If you're interested,

I would be glad to give you one.

I'm going to read a section of this.

Because Lewis was also

a Christian apologist.

Which means he sought to

make a case for Jesus.

Listen to this.

I'm trying here to prevent

anyone saying

the really foolish thing

that people have often said

about him, Jesus.

Quote,

I'm writing to accept Jesus

as a great moral teacher,

but I don't accept

his claim to be God.

That is the one thing

we must not say,

says Lewis.

A man who was

merely a man

and said the sort of things

Jesus said

would not be a great moral teacher.

He would either be a lunatic

on a level with the man

who says he is a poached egg,

or else he would be

the devil of hell.

You must make your choice.

Either this man was

and is the son of God,

or else a madman

or something worse.

You can shut him up

for a fool.

You can spit at him

and kill him as a demon,

or you can fall at his feet

and call him Lord and God,

but let us not come

with any patronizing nonsense

about his being

a great human teacher.

He's not left that open to us.

He did not intend to.

If this extraordinary claim

is true,

that Jesus is the Christ

raised from the dead,

that he is alive

and on the move today,

it changes everything.

He's breathing life

on the dead under the curse.

He's gathering for himself

a new people

under a new promise.

He's gathering for himself

people from every tongue,

tribe, and nation

into one people.

It's called the church.

You can fall at his feet.

You can fall at his risen

from the dead feet.

This extraordinary claim

is made in an extraordinary way

that he's alive.

We know the rest of the story

of the Marys and Salome.

They went to tell the disciples

and they themselves

saw the risen Jesus.

These three women

were the first eyewitnesses

bearing testimony

to the resurrected Jesus.

But here's what you need

to understand.

In the first century,

women did not have

the same rights as men,

especially when it comes

to credible,

credible testimony,

believable testimony,

whether that's in a court of law

or somewhere else.

The question becomes,

why would Mark

risk the credibility

of the claim of his gospel

that Jesus is alive,

that Jesus is the Christ?

Why would he risk that

by including this account

of these three women?

Because it's true.

It really happened.

So confident

was Mark

of the reality

of this account

that he has nothing to hide.

And in fact,

it strengthens

the witness.

Do you know

what a linchpin is?

I've got a picture

of a linchpin for you.

A linchpin is,

you see that spike

going through the axle

of that wagon wheel?

A linchpin keeps a wheel

on the axle of a wagon.

You pull out that linchpin

and the wheels fall off.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ

is the linchpin

of Christianity.

It keeps the wheels

on Christianity.

It is the definitive

validating claim

that Jesus

is in fact

the Christ

who came

to die

for sinners

to bring them

into a life-giving

relationship

with the one true God.

If Jesus

was not raised

from the dead,

he is not

the Christ

and there is

no salvation

in him,

you are still

in your sins.

But if he was

raised from the dead,

he is

the Christ.

Totally God,

totally man,

sent to die

as a ransom

so that you

could live forever

in a right

relationship

with God.

that's good news.

The resurrection

is why I personally

am a Christian,

humanly speaking.

I reached a point

where I could not

explain

the resurrection

of Jesus

in any other way

than that it

actually happened.

It demonstrates,

it sheds light

on the rest

of the claims

of Jesus

about himself

and what he's done.

The question is,

how will you respond?

The simple question

I'm asking you

to answer

this morning is,

is it true?

Did the resurrection

happen?

Is Jesus

alive?

Totally God,

totally man?

Let's say

you're a genuine

follower of Jesus Christ.

Christ.

You believe Jesus

is totally God,

totally man.

You believe he's

the king,

the Christ,

the son of man

who died

in your place

to give you

a place

among God's people.

When you hear

of the resurrection

of Jesus,

that he's alive,

you should be assured

because your faith

does not rest

on thin ice,

brother,

sister.

Your faith

rests on

the historic

granite

granite

of the real

bodily

resurrection

of Jesus

the Christ.

You've not

made a mistake.

Let that assurance

turn to perseverance.

Press on.

If you're a

21st century

follower of

the risen Jesus,

you love him.

And because you love him,

you're going to

constantly be

learning from him

so that you

constantly be

living for him.

Press on.

He's alive.

But there's

one more piece

of this.

If you're a genuine

follower of Jesus,

it's called hope.

Your risen king

has defeated

death

for you.

You will see him.

Not in Galilee,

in glory.

And you're one

day closer.

Jesus is alive.

Now let's say

you're a nominal

Christian.

A nominal

Christian is a

by name

only

Christian.

There's two

things you should

be aware of.

You remember

Scott's testimony

like Scott

who before he

was converted

to Christ,

he thought he was

a Christian

by virtue of

those who

are around him.

Cultural

Christianity

is a claiming

to be a Christian

by virtue

of your surroundings.

A genuine

Christian is a

follower of Jesus

by virtue of a

changed heart

and a changed

allegiance.

A genuine

Christian dies

to themselves

daily

in order to

learn from

and live for

Jesus daily

because we love

him.

are you a

nominal

Christian?

Jesus is

alive.

And he's

calling you

today,

come,

die,

live for

me.

But there's

another aspect

of this

nominal

Christianity

that I want

to raise

to your

attention.

Do you

remember

how the

angel in

the tomb

singled out

Peter?

It's in

verse 7.

He said,

but go tell

his disciples

and Peter,

why does

the angel

single Peter

out?

Because Peter,

at the worst

possible time,

denied Jesus

three times.

All leading up

to Jesus'

crucifixion.

Could you

imagine the

shame?

Could you

imagine the

guilt?

The despair?

The despair?

Peter?

Maybe at

one point,

you started

following Jesus

and then

something

happened.

And now

you're thinking,

there's no way

that Jesus

would take

you back.

Well,

if Jesus

was able

to forgive

Peter

for his

thrice

denial,

and not

just forgive

him,

but make

him the

leader of

his

church,

all by

his grace.

If he's

able to do

that with a

hothead like

Peter,

who denied

him three

times,

he is able

and willing

to do the

same for

you.

You are

invited

by the

risen

Jesus

to come

and follow

him.

In fact,

I want to

invite you

to come

follow Jesus

with us.

Christ the

King Church

is not a

building,

we're a

people.

And we've

been rescued

by the

risen Jesus

and now

it's our

joy to

learn from

him in

order to

live for

him.

And come,

come back

next week.

Come join

a life

group.

Come join

the pack

as we

follow Jesus

together.

We love

him.

You're

invited to

join us.

Finally,

let's say

you don't

claim to

be a

Christian.

You never

have.

Maybe you're

learning about

Jesus for the

very first

time.

Maybe this

is the

first time

you ever

heard someone

proclaim from

the Bible

what the

Bible claims

about Jesus.

Now,

believe me,

nobody likes

to be strong

armed into

anything,

myself included,

especially when

it comes to

matters of

faith.

But let me

encourage you

to gather

your information

about Jesus.

Would you

consider seeking

Jesus, the

true Jesus,

by reading the

gospel of Mark

on your own?

Better yet,

would you

consider reading

the gospel of

Mark with

another Christian?

God's

name?

My neighbor

just finished

reading through

the gospel of

Matthew,

and we have

been regularly

trading texts

on his

observations and

questions as

he's been

working through

that gospel.

It's been

great.

If you want

to sit down

with another

Christian to

read through

the gospel of

Mark or

Matthew or

John or

Luke,

on your

connect card,

there is a

little box to

check.

I would like

to learn more

about Jesus.

Just check that

box, put it

into one of the

baskets that a

connect team member

is going to have

on your way out,

and we'll set it

up for you.

Gather your

information.

How are you

going to respond

to this

extraordinary claim

of this angel

that Jesus has

risen?

He's alive.

Let me wrap

this up by saying

the basic

question I put

before you this

morning is what

Mark 16 puts

before us.

Did the

resurrection of

Jesus of

Nazareth actually

happen?

Is it fake news

or good news?

And I've been

making my case

based on Mark

16, 1-8,

that Jesus is

alive and it's

the best news

anyone could

hear.

It's the

linchpin of

this claim that

Jesus is the

Christ, the

King who came

and died and

was raised to

bring people

back into a

life-giving

relationship with

God.

Jesus is

totally God,

totally man,

the risen

King who is

alive and is

on the move

and he's

inviting everyone

in this room,

come, follow

me, and live.

He is risen.

God, thank you

so much for

Mark 16, 1-8.

God, would you

do the work

that you intend

to do.

God, would you

rescue sinners,

deliver them from

darkness, bring

them into the

kingdom of your

beloved risen

son.

And for those

of us, Lord

Jesus, who are

seeking to follow

you, God, would

you put strength

in our heart

again to remain

faithful until we

see you.

Amen.