Mark 16.1-7
I have been to Mao's tomb in Tiennmen Square in Beijing, to Paul Revere's grave in Boston, to Grant's Tomb in the city. Been to the Tomb of the Unknown Solider in Washington, DC. Men of God like Hudson Taylor, the missionary to China, are buried where they served. Women, like Esther Carson Winas buried in the mountains of Peru where she served as a missionary. I have taken my children and nephew to their great grandparents and great great grandparents graves in New Jersey. We went there to honor their memory, because I loved them... because of the faith we inherited from them. These women were going for similar reasons also to anoint His body because of death. They were in for the surprise and shock of their life.
So often we are doing things for the LORD. We are like these women. Their were downcast- look at verse 4... when they looked up. I have been to that tomb. It sits on the side of a hill called Golgotha, but the ground is level around it. These dear women were looking down.
Far too often this is the way followers of Jesus appear. We're overwhelmed at circumstances in our lives. Hopes seem to have been dashed. We see no way out. We have been let down. Talk about let down... last week, exactly 7 days ago, crowds were swarming around Jesus, waving palm branches, proclaiming Him the messiah, the kingdom (they thought) was being restored to Israel.
Their outlook was down because their faces were down. They were looking down because their hearts were heavy with grief and dashed hopes.
Maybe this morning you can relate to these women. They got up early, while it was still dark. They had their hands full.
Perhaps, like them, life has thrown you some curves. Where you are on the road of life is not where you wanted to be at this point. It is amazing the differences a week could make! Last Sunday Jesus was riding into the city of Jerusalem as the Messiah of Israel. The Palm Sunday Road was one of joy and exuberance, dreams and excitement. Everything was looking up! When Jesus came down the Mount of Olives, through the Kidron Valley and through the Eastern Gate with the crowds shouting Hosannah this was the fulfillment of prophecy, it was beyond words. He rode right into the Temple Courts.
Now they are on the road outside the city through the Damascus Gate. They are not going to a coronation of Israel's next son of David, their next king on the throne but to a Garden Tomb near the place where He was crucified.
They fully expected to find the body of the LORD Jesus in that tomb.
When they arrived they received the shock of their lives!
If it is amazing what a week can bring (from Palm Sunday to Good Friday)
It is even more amazing what three days can make (From Good Friday to Easter)
It is even more amazing still what difference what a moment can be when we look up... they looked up and saw the stone was rolled away and the tomb of Jesus empty!
1. The Empty Tomb Means Jesus Keeps His Word.
Luke 24:5-8 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” Then they remembered His words.
*In the Face of Overwhelming Impossibilities!
Miracle in Haiti this week- SUV held for over a year in custody of government. Adly and I worked on contacting a childhood friend who is one of the ministers in the government. They had contacted the embassy and all. Early Tuesday morning received word from a friend ( our Dads were friends) about an SUV of a friend of his who runs an orphanage there...
All we did was pray! When I read this it came after I had been praying for Haiti, for Pastor Joes and the work needing to be done on his house and the church. The verses came to mind which we were talking about yesterday:
John 6:5-6 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for He already had in mind what he was going to do." btw the rebar is put together and they will be mixing cement to start the wall. God kept His Word Nehemiah 2:20 I answered them by saying, “The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding...
*Get To Know His Word
That word from His Word I receive helped me. It bothers me that so many who believe do not know much of what He said. It bothers me how often we take more stock in circumstances than we do His Word, how we talk to others more than the LORD.
The works we do come from knowing Him and His Word:
These works- greater
John 14:12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
workmanship/ works in advance
Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Where you are, your experiences in life is preparation for God to work through you. It may not be what you think. In my life it has been in the area of Grief and outside of the country with His Word. Where are you hurting today? Where is pain in your life? Jesus showed them His scars- that is where God can use you the most.
Psalm 119:49 Remember Your word to your servant, for You have given me hope.
Mission Trips, paying my own way... Missionary Call... Pastor Joes praying over us... missionaries.
He keeps His Word. Many times differently than we thought He would. Lift up your eyes. Don't be downcast.
2. The Empty Tomb Means There is Life After Death
*Eternal Life
If we have believed
We actually have eternal life now! Our names are written down in heaven, His Spirit lives within us, We have fellowship with Him and others who believe.
*Heaven
Beyond words for the most part.
With Christ forever
For more than 35 years now I have stood by the graves of people with the family gathered around and read God's Word as we laid their bodies to rest.
Paul the apostle writes of that time when those who died believing in Jesus will be resurrected.
1 Corinthians 15:50-55 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory?Where, O death, is your sting?”
He gives even greater detail in his letter to the Thessalonians:
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Brothers we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of men who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
3. The Empty Tomb Means That Today There is Nothing Facing Me That God Cannot Give Victory Over.
*Greatest Good/ Biggest Obstacle-Burden-Concern
I am not sure what weighs upon you this morning, what concerns or cares you are carrying. But I do know this- God wants to lift that weight. Does He want to change your situation? I am not sure. He might have you right where He wants you!
The concern of the women was the stone in front of the tomb. There was a heavier weight- in their minds Jesus was dead. They are going there to anoint His body with the spices they had bought- expensive- and totally unnecessary. Sometime we are carrying things in our hearts and in our hands because of what we believe or because we have not taken the words of Jesus to heart.
What is in your hands this morning? What is in your heart? I am finding in my journey that God works through us when there is nothing in our hands but the tools He will use... like the disciples with the nets.
Take Healing-
We have instances in the Word of God of miracles of healing such as when Jesus healed the 10 lepers. We also have Paul, the apostle talking about his thorn in the flesh. He said he asked the LORD three times to remove it. The LORD answered him, 2 Corinthians 12:9 But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
So God can heal us or give us the grace to live and even to die with sickness... Lazarus: John 11. 4 This sickness will not end in death. It is for God's glory that the Son of God may be glorified through it.
*No matter what may be the test, God will take care of you!
Take the unknown future...
I love these comforting words...
Mark 16:7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as He told you.’
*He is going ahead of you.
This is true in all we do, whether it is in the works in advance He has prepared for us to do or the tests of our lives which are more than we can handle. He goes before us! Leads us. He sees. He is the Good Shepherd.
*You will see Him.
While we will not see Him again physically until He returns, we do see the evidences of His Hands at work in our lives. We feel His Hand upon us. We know He walks with us.
*Just as He told you.
He keeps His Word. For these men the donkey was there for the Palm Sunday road, the man carrying the jar of water on his head and now the Resurrection, just as He told us. Al the words of Jesus are eternal. God's Word stands firm in the heavens. He will do what He has said, just as He said.
So the Resurrection is more than just a historical fact and a doctrine of the Church, although it is that.
Romans 6:4 We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Let's walk with Him all the days of our lives!
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