Mark chapter 16 and reading from
verse 1. And when the Sabbath was passed,
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome had bought
sweet spices that they might come and anoint him. And very
early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came unto
the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And they said among
themselves, Who shall roll away the stone from the door of the
sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw
that the stone was rolled away, for it was very great. And entering
into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right
side, clothed in a long white garment. And they were affrighted. And he saith unto them, Be not
affrighted. Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which
was crucified. He is risen, he is not here. Behold the place where they laid
him. Go your way, but go your way,
tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into
Galilee. There shall ye see him as he
said unto you. And they went out quickly and
fled from the sepulchre, for they trembled and were amazed.
Neither said they anything to any man, for they were afraid. Amen. May the Lord also bless
this reading to us. The resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ is the most beautiful, the most comforting, and the
most suitable confirmation of God's plan of salvation that
were possible. There is still some time to go
before the ascension of the Lord into heaven, some 40 days the
Lord was with his disciples, not constantly but at various
points throughout those 40 days. But this resurrection of the
Lord, is surely the glorious conclusion to our Saviour's ministry,
His death and His burial. Because by rising from the dead,
the Lord Jesus Christ's work was honoured and He was honoured. Christ's resurrection displays
His victory and His success in his work upon the cross, in his
life and his ministry and in his death. The Lord's labours may well,
by all natural criteria, would have been assessed as being
unsuccessful. Probably, to be kind, you would
have said it was a valiant but an objective failure. And certainly,
I suspect that the Lord's own disciples, right at this very
moment, considered that this was the case as far as the Lord's
life was concerned. I can imagine these disciples
sitting around reflecting and suggesting where things went
wrong. What might have been done differently? What could have been done better? They would have thought back
perhaps to some of the miracles, when the thousands of people
wanted to take the Lord and make Him King. And they would have
wondered, if only we had struck then, if only we'd moved then,
if only we'd marched to Jerusalem then, if only the people could
have been harnessed and gathered then, how much more successful,
how much different would the outcome have been? But the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ puts all such notions to flight and shows us once again
how man's thoughts are always too low and our thoughts are
always too mean and too earthy. While the Lord's purposes and
the Lord's ways are high and holy and glorious. In the Lord's life, in the Lord's
ministry, there was always a bigger plan. This was never about the
Jewish kingdom. It was always about the establishment
of his worldwide church. And this we see evidenced in
the resurrection of the Saviour. The coming to life and the rising
from the dead of our Saviour answers all our doubts and justifies
our hope and confirms our standing with God. It's the Lord's resurrection
that we look to for the affirmation of all that He did on the cross
and all that He told us. That, the Lord's resurrection,
is the evidence to signal that God's wrath has been propitiated
by the Saviour's sacrifice. That, the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ, it shows us that God's holiness has been
vindicated and honoured in all that Jesus Christ accomplished
on the cross. The Lord's resurrection demonstrates
the acceptance of Christ's blood for the remission of our sin
and the complete removal of all the barriers to our reconciliation
with God. It proves our acceptance with
God. And we need to take note of this. We should all take note of this.
Christ's resurrection isn't simply a grand gesture or some sort
of poetic ending to a great story. It is the event in time that
declares and certifies the absolute standing of the redeemed in eternity. It's the generous gift of God
to encourage and comfort our hearts and souls in this life,
in the midst of our trials and our difficulties in our time-bound
existence. Romans chapter 4 and verse 25,
the Apostle Paul says, Christ was delivered for our offences
and raised again for our justification. That is, he was raised to declare
our sure and certain justification and righteousness with God. Christ was always that lamb slain,
even from before the foundation of the world. He was always the
ground upon which the elect were accepted. But by his death and
his resurrection, we find that justification. ascertained, proved
and declared. I said in our little introduction
yesterday that I wanted to mention a few things about the facts
of the Lord's resurrection and simply to do that just to show
us how legitimately believable The resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ is based on the testimony of the Word of God
and the evidence of those who were present and party to what
went on that morning. And I want us to note the evidence
that is supplied by some of the obvious witnesses and some that
are perhaps less obvious. And to that end, I've just collected
five little paragraphs here to speak about these witnesses.
Then I want to, after I've spoken about the witnesses, I want to
just touch upon the disciples' unbelief at this time And then
I want, thirdly, to show us the significance of the Lord's resurrection. So these are the three points.
I'll give them their headings as we go through. But I just
want us to think about some of the witnesses, first of all,
as we contemplate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, as
it is recorded in Mark and as that account is augmented and
supported by the other gospel writers. So the first witness
that I want to call to the bar today, as it were, is the world. The world, the
earth, the globe on which we live. This sphere that hangs
in space. How can that be a witness to
the resurrection of Christ? Well, This world of ours knows
its creator and it acknowledged the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ when he rose from the dead and why should it not?
Why should it not have done so? It knows who Christ is. The world knows who its creator
is. The world knows who upholds it
with the word of his power. The world knows who keeps its
form intact and stops it drifting away into space. The world knows who maintains
its energy and its continuing role until it is no longer required. The earth quaked when the Lord
Jesus Christ rose from the dead. It acknowledged the resurrection
of the Saviour. The psalmist tells us that the
earth and the sea praise the Lord. He tells us that the earth
shouts, that the mountains sing, that the trees rejoice, Should
we then be surprised if the earth shook again when the Saviour's
soul returned to his body just as it had done when he dismissed
his spirit into his father's hands? So the first witness that
we have is the world and the earthquake that attended the
resurrection of the Saviour. And another witness that we have
is the angel who moved the stone. He was a witness to Christ's
resurrection. How eagerly that angel pushed
aside the door of Christ's tomb. How honoured he was to have been
called to such a task. I think that's why he sat on
the rock when he pushed it aside. He sat down on it, which is a
beautiful picture. We think about the fact that
those guards were there watching the tomb, guarding the tomb,
and the angel came down and moved the stone away and sat upon it,
as if to say, well, what are you going to do about it? And
of course, the guards or the watch could do nothing about
it. But the angel's delight to serve God And the angels knew. They were watching in wonder
as the Lord Jesus Christ performed and fulfilled all the steps and
stages of the redemption of his people and the gathering of his
church. The angels knew. And they knew
that the work of the Lord Jesus Christ was now done. so that
the Lord God would not be required to exert himself even to push
aside the door of his own tomb. An angel was sent to fulfil that
task for him and delighted to do so. I don't know who that
angel was. Maybe it was Gabriel. Gabriel
was the one who came and spoke to Mary all those years ago about
the fact that Jesus would be born. So maybe this was Gabriel
again, come to announce the Lord's resurrection as he had announced
the Lord's birth. But whoever! The angels were
witness to the rising of Christ. And I think that as we read through
the gospel accounts of the angels speaking to the women, you can
almost hear the excitement in the voices of the angels as they
describe the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is not here, he
is risen. Come and look at the place where
he was laid. Here's the third witness that
we have. the bodies of the saints that
arose with the Lord Jesus Christ and went into Jerusalem and were
seen of many. You know, I sometimes think that
that fact doesn't get the importance placed on it that
it should do. This is an extraordinary thing
that happened in Jerusalem at the time of the Lord's resurrection.
It was extraordinary when the graves were opened at the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But it wasn't until the resurrection
of Christ that the bodies that were in those graves came forth. Matthew chapter 27 speaks about
these saints. This is what it says, verse 52.
And the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints which
slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection. and went into the holy city and
appeared unto many. Now that is just exactly what
Isaiah had prophesied would happen. In Isaiah chapter 26 and verse
19, we read these words. Thy dead men shall live. Together with my dead body, they
shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell
in dust, for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall
cast out the dead. When the Lord Jesus Christ rose
from the dead, the bodies of the saints came out of their
tombs as well, and went into Jerusalem, went into the holy
city, and were seen and were recognised by men and women there
in the city. And Hosea chapter 6 and verse
2 also has a nice little commentary on this event. It says this, and we shall live in his sight. And that is exactly what happened
when the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead. So that's the
third witness that we have. The world witnessed insofar as
it shook at the Lord's resurrection. The angels were witnesses in
that they came and rolled away the door of the tomb and delighted
to do so. And the bodies of the saints
arose from their graves along with the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the women were witnesses. This is our fourth one. The women
were witnesses to the Lord's resurrection. And these women
at first were afraid to speak to anyone. despite the angels
instructions that this was what they had to do. They took courage
at the appearance of the Lord to them. Their courage came when
they saw the Lord for themselves. Otherwise, they had been too
uncertain, too unsure, too much doubtful about their own eyes
and their own feelings and their own perceptions of what was going
on. But when they saw the Lord, They
took courage at his appearance. First to Mary Magdalene and then
to all five of the women. There may have been more, we
know that there were at least five women. And there's something
very delightful in this witness that these women bore. Because
it wasn't to the disciples that the saviour first appeared. It
wasn't to the apostles that he gave this evidence of his resurrection. It wasn't to the great preachers
or the miracle workers. It was to the humble women. It
was to the least ones of the group that followed Christ. And
it was to Mary Magdalene. And I think this just intensifies the message that
the Holy Spirit is giving us here. It was to Mary Magdalene
that the peculiar privilege of seeing the risen Christ was first
given. Mark tells us in verse nine,
now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he
appeared first to Mary Magdalene. And I want you to notice what
Mark says immediately after that. He says this, So this is what
Mark says. Do you see the two things that
have been put together there? Not only was this Mary Magdalene,
not John or Peter or even Christ's
mother, Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. Robert Hawker has a lovely comment
which I'm about to read to you on this verse which I think should
be a real comfort to those of us who have been most hurt and
perhaps experienced most of the devil's aggressiveness in our
lives. Here's what Mr. Hawker has to
say with respect to this little passage. He says, did the kind,
compassionate Lord mean to say by this condescending act of
grace that there he will be most gracious where Satan has been
most cruel. Did he mean thereby to intimate
to all his disciples that the poor lamb of his fold shall have
the softest lying down in his bosom? whom the prowling wolf
hath most torn and worried with his claws. Oh, that every deeply
exercised follower of the Lord Jesus would frequently think
of this, and as often as this Magdalene rises to their recollection,
would behold the Lord Jesus in this unequalled act of mercy. that where sin abounded, grace
doth much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thank you, Mr Hawker. Here's
the fifth witness that I wanted to draw to your attention. The
high priests. The high priest's lies and deceptions
ironically witness to the Lord's resurrection. When these guards,
when this watch, which seems to have been a watch of Roman
soldiers, maybe even the very soldiers that had been on duty
around the cross for the execution of the Lord, because Pilate is
mentioned with regards to if this news gets to Pilate, the
high priests would defend the guards so that they wouldn't
get into trouble. It may well be that they were
Roman soldiers, but be that as it may, when this watch, when
these guards return to the priests and report the morning's events,
they're bribed. A lot of money is given to them
to claim that they slept through the theft of Jesus' body by his
disciples. Now, not only was sleeping while
on duty a capital offence for a Roman soldier, but the idea
that the whole watch slept through the opening of a sealed tomb
and the removal of the body in the darkness, only pausing to
unwrap the body and carefully re-wrap the grave clothes, fold
them and leave them behind and then carry the naked body out
of the garden. It's simply unbelievable. And anyway, how could they have
known all that if they were asleep? So that the foolishness of the
tale that the priests conjured up shows the necessity of having
a story no matter how far-fetched it was because there wasn't a
body. They didn't have the body. So
that the very fact that they brought this story into existence
showed that the Lord Jesus Christ was no longer in his tomb. And
I just want to mention a little incidental providence, perhaps. I don't know whether that's the
right phrase for it or not, but it occurred to me that the fact
that the Lord providentially allowed the Jews to place a watch
over the tomb of the Lord Jesus Christ following his crucifixion
and prior to the resurrection, was a protection that was given
to Joseph of Arimathea. Because Joseph of Arimathea,
having possession of the garden and ownership of the tomb, would
surely have been blamed for removing the body of Jesus, had not the
watch been present. So the Lord looked after Joseph
of Arimathea by allowing that watch to be established at his
tomb and taking away all sense of guilt and suspicion from Joseph
of Arimathea. I don't have any doubt but that
these Jews, these priests and Sadducees and Pharisees knew
that the Lord Jesus Christ had risen from the dead. So that
was my first point, these witnesses. Here's my second point, and it's
just a short one, but I just want to think about briefly the
continuing unbelief of the disciples. We see repeatedly through these
passages how the disciples' faith failed them. They couldn't remember
the Lord's words, They didn't understand what he was doing. They still held this notion,
if only something else had been done, if only another way had
been found, if only the momentum and the power that we had, had
been properly channeled, it could have been so much different. Now in many ways the disciple's
attitude, the disciple's thinking, the disciple's lack of understanding
and lack of faith is inexcusable and I don't wish to imply otherwise. But I wonder if their weakness
might help us to understand our own weaknesses and our own coldness
towards the Lord and towards his resurrection and towards
his gospel oftentimes. Because is it not the case that
we become so preoccupied in our time-bound state, so so full
of our imaginations about what would be right, and what would
be good, and what would be proper, and what would be God-honouring,
and what would lift up the Lord Jesus Christ. And then when these
things don't seem to come to pass, we think, oh, these are
missed opportunities. And we become discouraged and
we become downcast, like these disciples, mourning. over the
death of the Lord when they might have been rejoicing at the imminency
of his resurrection and his glory, because he had told them so.
But we're just like them. Is it not so? And is it not the
devil's delight to rob believers of their peace and their joy,
even to provoke unbelief? when the gospel is set out before
us, when the gospel is preached to us? Let me just say something on
this point. Let us remember, when we feel
a sense of our own failures and our own doubt and our own unbelief,
that the Lord Jesus Christ is faithful to us even when we are
not faithful to him. Here, the disciples, the Lord's
little flock at that time, was mourning, downcast, dejected. In fact, even when they heard
the good news of Christ's resurrection, they still could not, they still
would not, Believe it until almost as it were one by one the Lord
met these mourners in Zion to open their eyes to see and to
realise and to understand what he had accomplished and what
he had achieved. Do you find yourself doubting? Even when the gospel is preached,
even when you hear the word of God, do you find yourself with
doubts? Do you find yourself with anxieties?
Do you find yourself with uncertainties? The Lord will come to you too. with his words of comfort. That's
what he does in the gospel. That's what he does when you
hear the preaching of his word, when you pray, when you go to
the scriptures, when you seek these reassurances. And let me
tell you, that is what he does in the resurrection, which is
why I want to encourage you today to go back regularly to the resurrection. We're coming to this in a moment.
Paul tells the Thessalonians, The Lord is faithful who shall
establish you and keep you from evil. The writer to the Hebrews
said, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. Oh, we seem to waver so much. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering. Why? For he is faithful that
promised. And John tells us, if we confess
our sins, that is our doubts, if we are honest with the Lord,
even about our doubts and uncertainties, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. May
the Lord give us grace to confess our sins and strength of faith
to believe his gospel promises for the comfort of our souls.
And it's those gospel promises and the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ that I want to finish with today. So my final task
today is to remind us of some of these promises, some of these
gospel truths that the resurrection validates and verifies so that
we'll remember the importance and the significance of the Lord's
resurrection with its comforting doctrines of grace today, and
glory to follow hereafter. So here is the first one of these
assurances that we have in the resurrection of the Lord. The
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ gives us full assurance
of the gospel. The gospel is true. because Jesus
Christ rose from the dead. More, it gives full proof of
all the Lord's teachings, all his doctrines, all that he said,
all that he did, all the truths that he revealed, all the promises
that he made, so that our confidence and our assurance of the whole
gospel is in the risen Christ. I sometimes encounter people,
and it's perhaps more common than it should be, but I sometimes
encounter people who say that they have trouble with their
personal assurance. Part of the problem of that surely
is that we are looking to our own feelings and looking to our
own self when in fact what we should be looking to is the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not in us that we will
find that assurance or the grounds for that confidence. Rather,
it is in the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ was vindicated by
his resurrection that God raised him from the dead. The Apostle
Paul says, if Christ be not risen, then there is no resurrection
of the dead. But if Christ be himself risen,
then is he become the first fruits of them that slept. And we've
looked at these witnesses, these who testified of the fact that
the Lord Jesus Christ is earth. There's going to be many more.
On one occasion, 500 people were present when the Lord appeared
to them. There were many who saw him ascending
up into heaven. And so the validity, the truthfulness
of the resurrection of the Lord is what should drive our confidence
into the gospel and the doctrines and the promises that the Lord
Jesus Christ has made. Christ declared himself to be
the resurrection and the life. He promised that whosoever liveth
and believeth in me, whosoever lived and believed in him, he
would raise up at the last day. And to prove this, he arose himself. Therefore our own resurrection
is secured in his resurrection. He said in John 14 verse 19,
Because I live, ye shall live also. So that's the first point
that I want to make here. All that Christ said, his gospel,
his word and all that he did and all the promises he made
and our assurance of those things find their validation in the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Here's the second point, I think
there are three. Faith in the resurrection of
Christ brings with it an assurance that the debt of sin that Christ
undertook to pay as a surety is fully discharged. If that
debt of sin, if that bitter cup, if that cup of God's wrath had
not been fully taken and drained and the debt of sin fully discharged,
how could Christ have risen again from the dead? The fact that
Christ's grave is open, the fact that Christ is risen, shows us
that the law of God and the justice of God are satisfied. attests the satisfaction of God. When our Saviour rose from the
dead, he confirmed the gospel he had preached and the God of
peace brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ. Now This little phrase, the God
of Peace, that's not a common or a usual phrase to use for
God the Father. And here, the apostle is writing
that it is God the Father who raised the Lord Jesus Christ
from the dead, and it was indeed God the Father who did so, although
Christ raised himself from the dead, and the Holy Spirit was
involved in that resurrection also, so it was a work of the
triune God. But often it is God the Father
who is seen as raising the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. So
that here we are told, the God of peace brought again from the
dead, our Lord Jesus Christ. The significance and the importance
of that phrase, the God of peace, that God the Father is called
the God of peace, is that the blood of payment within the terms of the everlasting
covenant which is called the covenant of peace had been duly
paid, received and satisfied the debt. God the Son on the
cross had fulfilled his covenant obligations and now God the Father
fulfilled his covenant obligation as the God of peace by accepting
the Lord's blood, by being reconciled to the Lord's people, and by
raising the Lord Jesus from his tomb. And lastly, let us not forget
this important point, that as the man, Christ Jesus, rose from
his tomb, so must the bodies of all that he redeemed rise
from their tombs. Our bodily resurrection is assured
because of our union with the Lord Jesus Christ. we are his
spiritual body, he is our glorious head. Paul says in Romans chapter
8, but if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead
This where the Holy Spirit raised the Lord from the dead. If the
spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in
you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. So that
these mortal bodies will be quickened, will be raised again from the
earth, from our graves. Our bodies will be changed. I'm not making a big thing here
about whether it should be cremation or whether it should be burial.
Burial is the pattern of the scriptures. Burial is what the
Lord's people have always done. Burial, I believe, should be
the way that a Christian wants his body to be dealt with. but
as a personal matter it doesn't matter whether it's cremated
ashes or whether it's a burial at sea or whether it's burial
in a tomb or in a grave or whatever the circumstances might be about
the destruction of the body of believers. Our dust will be gathered
again. Our bodies, our mortal bodies
will be gathered again they will be changed. They will be changed
because they were sown into the earth or into the grave in weakness
by our death. It's when we die, it's when our
body becomes at its weakest, at its lowest, that it is put
into the ground when it starts to decay and it starts to dissolve. But it will be raised in power
The bodies that rise will be our physical bodies and we will
be raised to immortality. Our Saviour's resurrection is
the cause of our resurrection and it is He who shall raise
us up. Jesus of Nazareth rose from his
tomb. The man Christ Jesus rose from
his tomb. And by the grace of God, it will
be me, Peter Many, who will rise in that resurrection morning
from my grave. And you can fill in your own
name there. Just as when Jesus died and the graves were open,
and it was known, recognisable bodies of the saints which slept
that arose, just as Mary knew Lazarus, just as Mary Magdalene
knew Jesus, it will be the bodies of the saints that arise on that
morning and it will be us who arise with the Lord. He will
change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His
glorious body, changed from vile weakness to glorious strength,
but our identity, our self-awareness will be continued. It will be
us. We may say with Job, For I know
that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter
day upon the earth. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming
back again. and he will come back for his
church, he will come back for his people, he will come back
for you and for me who believe and whose bodies wait for him. But listen to what Job says after
that because this is really lovely. He says, I know that my Redeemer
liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.
And though after my skin worms destroy this body, this body
is going to decay and decompose and worms will consume it. And though after my skin worms
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. whom I shall see for myself,
and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins
be consumed within me. Brothers and sisters, the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ confirms the whole gospel, every divine
doctrine, every glorious truth, every promise. It assures every
believer of everlasting life, and that we, you and me, shall
be raised just like him. Do you know that we'll even have
an angel come to open our graves? 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 16 says,
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the
dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the
Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us.