All right, so we'll be in Mark
16, verses 1 through 8. Now, the resurrection of our
Lord may be likened to the first day of creation, when the earth
was created. And it may be likened to that
day, and if you think about it, when our Lord lay in the grave,
when He was in that grave, There was darkness. There was darkness
upon the earth. There was darkness in the minds
of the disciples. And there was darkness and a
lack of understanding. We didn't know the things that
we know today. There was darkness and there
was doubts and fears and the brethren didn't understand what
was going on. They believed, they hoped in
Christ. And so these women When they
had in their heart to go to the grave site, to go to where the
Lord was laid, that they might anoint Him, John tells us in
John 20 verse 1 that they went when it was yet dark. When it was yet dark. And you think about that description
of darkness, and you can see how we may think of creation
in the beginning. God created the heavens and the
earth. We are told in Genesis 1 verse
2 that the earth was without form, it was void, and darkness
was upon the face of the deep. Now, we understand that likely
Christ rose from the grave. He rose while these women were
in transit, when they were coming to the gravesite. And so it says
there in Mark 16, verse 2, that very early in the morning, the
first day of the week, they came unto the supplicant at the rising
of the sun. At the rising of the sun, which
means that light began to shine upon the darkness that was upon
the earth. And it began to be light, right? And this is a fitting description
of the resurrection of our Lord. In the Scriptures, our Lord is
called the Bright and Morning Star. The Bright and Morning
Star. So, I believe that while they
were coming, they set out in darkness, and while they were
coming in that darkness, just as they got there and the light
arose, our Savior had risen from the dead. He was now risen from
the dead. He was awakened. And again, we
see this in creation, right? When our God brought to light
and life upon this earth. In its creation day, He said
in Genesis 1-3, Let there be light. And there was light. And so, our Savior, in His resurrection,
He has brought salvation for us. In His death and in His resurrection,
He now brings to light the knowledge of our salvation. He now shines
light into the darkness of our hearts, giving us light and life
whereby we now know what He has done and accomplished for us,
how that He has delivered us from the condemnation and the
judgment and wrath that is due to us for our sins. And He did this when He rose
from the grave. And Paul, when he was speaking
to Timothy, wrote in 2 Timothy 1.10, that this new creation
salvation, as we are new creatures, and this new creation salvation
is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who
had abolished death, he delivered us from death, that second death,
and had also taken away the power of the first death, and had brought
to life and immortality and brought life and immortality to life
through the gospel. So light now shines upon our
dark hearts, the gospel light, the gospel truth of our salvation,
that God in his sovereignty, of his sovereign choosing, chooses
whom he shall bless and be gracious to. God chooses this. And so God brings it to light
in the hearts of those whom he will, of those whom Christ died
and shed his blood for. So, in Christ, the reason why
his resurrection day is our creation day, it's the beginning of the
new creation. It's the day of grace when Christ
arose from the dead, and so that in Him, we are created anew. We are new creatures in Christ. We are, as our Savior said in
John chapter 3, He was speaking to Nicodemus and said, He must
be born again. And so we are. By the power and
the glory of God, we are born again. Not as man of the flesh
teaches, by our own choosing. We don't make ourselves born
again. Our Savior makes us born again, according to His choosing,
according to His resurrection power, and according to His grace,
He makes us alive, giving us life by His spiritual seed. And so Paul says in 2 Corinthians
5, 17, that if any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. Now this morning, I want to look
at these blessings, several blessings that are witnessed here in our
Lord's Resurrection. Our title is Witness at the Resurrection. Witness at the Resurrection.
These things are a witness to us and we witness them and we
see them and understand these things at His Resurrection. And
so the first thing I want to bring out at our Lord's Resurrection
is our understanding of the Sabbath. The Sabbath. And the reason why
is if you look there at Mark 16, it declares these words. It says, and when the Sabbath
was passed. And when the Sabbath was passed. And these words mean more than
simply yesterday was Saturday, yesterday was the Sabbath day,
and now it's the day after that. There's more that the Spirit
is communicating to us through these words. These words weren't
put here for nothing. And so, if you look at a literal
translation, if you take a literal translation, and there's several
out there, there's many out there. Mine is from J.P. Green, and
it reads like this in Mark 16, verses 1 and 2. I'll read this.
And the Sabbath having passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother
of James and Salome bought spices. so that coming they might anoint
him. And very early on the first of the sabbaths, that's how it
is in the literal in the original Greek, and very early on the
first of the sabbaths, the sun having risen, they came upon
the tomb. So the first day of the resurrection
of Jesus Christ began the sabbaths. That's the first of many sabbaths
began on that first day when Christ rose from the dead. And
what the Lord's teaching us here, what He's revealing to us, is
that every day in Christ is a sabbath day of rest. Every day in Christ
is a sabbath day of rest. And this is because the Spirit's
showing us, turning us from letter religion, just looking to the
shadow of things to see the substance, which is Jesus Christ. And Christ
himself is the Sabbath rest of the believer. He's the one in
whom we now rest. Christ, in scripture, is also
called the Day Star. The Day Star. He's the Day Star. In 2 Peter 119, He writes, we
have also a more sure word of prophecy. We're unto ye who will
that ye take heed. We're to take heed and consider
the gospel, to consider the Lord of our salvation and what he's
bringing to light. And he says, take heed as unto
a light that shineth in a dark place. That's our wicked hearts. We're guilty sinners, unable
to save ourselves. And he says this, until the day
dawn, the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts. Christ is the day star, brethren,
and Christ himself is the day in which we now live in him.
It's an eternal day. There's no sun, there's no moon,
there's no light and the darkness and light and the darkness. He
is the day of our salvation. He is our Sabbath rest. Christ is the day of rest for
you brethren. And Matthew was also careful
to say to us, to declare this, again, in the literal translation
of Matthew 28 verse 1. He says, but the Sabbath having
ended, right, that legal Sabbath day having ended, it's put away
now, Christ is risen, at the dawning of the first of the Sabbaths. the first of the Sabbaths. And
I know, I'm well aware that there are those that say, well, this
was on Sunday, so this is now the new Sabbath day. No, no it
is not. Christ is our Sabbath day. Stop looking to the flesh, to
the works of the flesh, to what we understand of this earth in
the flesh. Look to Christ. Look to the Lord
Jesus Christ, He is the day of Sabbath rest. He is our rest. And so, in our Lord, Jesus Christ,
our salvation, that Old Testament law of Sabbath keeping, is past. Having ended. It's been done
away now because the substance who cast the shadow is now here. The substance, which is Christ,
is now here. We do keep the Sabbath. We do keep the Sabbath. Very
much so. But it's kept in looking by faith
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Basically what he's saying is that our labors have
ceased. Our labors to make ourselves
righteous under the Law of Moses or under any act that we might
be tempted to do in a religion, those labors to clean ourselves
up, to make ourselves righteous, to make ourselves more acceptable
to God, all those are put away in Christ so that we rest from
our labors in Christ. We rest from our labors in trying
to justify ourselves, in trying to sanctify ourselves. They're all put away in the Lord
Jesus Christ. So that as God the Father is
satisfied, so are we. As God the Father is satisfied
with His Son Jesus Christ, so are we. By grace we know that
and we understand that He is our satisfaction. And so the
scriptures teach us throughout that Christ has fulfilled the
law for us brethren. Paul when speaking in Romans 10 verse 4, Paul speaking
of this, it says that Christ is the end of the law. He's the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. Christ is our righteousness,
so that in Christ we stand faultless before the throne of God. In
Romans 7 verse 4, Paul says, My brethren, ye also are become
dead to the law by the body of Christ. Alright, so that we see
in that that He, right with His body, He as our sacrifice and
substitute, He laid down His body and He died our death and
His body was laid in the grave and His body rose again and that's
our salvation. And so that now we are delivered
from the body of sin under its reign and influence We are now
under the dominion and reign and rule of Jesus Christ. We're
in His body now. Alright? And so, in Christ, Paul
goes on saying in Romans 6 14, you're not under the law, but
under grace. And so brethren, rest in Christ
for holiness and sanctification. Rest in Christ for holiness and
sanctification. And I can say that Knowing that
Paul assures Paul writing by the Spirit to the Thessalonians
in 1 Thessalonians 5, 23 and 24, he says, The very God of
peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. He tells us, faithful is he,
not you and me, but faithful is he that calleth you who also
will do it. Alright, so we live in Christ
and He's not now turning salvation's work over to us to sanctify ourselves
and cleaning ourselves up. In other words, He's going to
work in our hearts so that we live in Him. His grace will be
evident in us. and He'll call us to serve Him.
Alright? So rest in Christ. Don't doubt
Jesus Christ. Don't think, well, He did His
part, now I've got to do my part. That's what dead religion teaches. Our sanctification is our very
life in Christ. He's going to bear in us by His
spiritual seed the fruits that please Him. In Romans 6, verse
8, Paul tells us, If we be dead with Christ, and we are, we are
dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with
Him. We believe that as He rose from
the dead, so shall we. But we also see and understand
that that life begins right now. Right now, here, while we wait
and look for His return. He tells us in Romans 6-11, Likewise
reckon ye also yourselves right now to be dead indeed unto sin,
but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So that resurrection
power that raised our Savior up from the grave, up from the
dead, is the same resurrection power that moves and works and
exercises the grace of God in us, so that by that spiritual
seed of Christ our God, and we live now by Jesus
Christ. He is our sanctification. Okay, now, we can rest in the Lord Jesus
Christ. These are Sabbath rites. So,
listen, the Holy Spirit declares to you and me that the Sabbath
is past. We're not observing a legal day,
and we ought not to bind another person telling them that they
are to obey a legal Sabbath day. And we're not to bind ourselves
or to adhere to that. We're not to be bound by a legal
Sabbath day. In Colossians 2, 16 and 17, Paul
says, Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or
in respect of an holy day, or of the noon, or of the Sabbath
days, which are a shadow of things to come, but the bodies is of
Christ. So understand that the substance
has come. He did the work of delivering
us from Adam's body of sin. He took us out from under the
law and so that now in Him that we are righteous. And so you
can be certain that as He took us out of that body of sin that
He will complete the work of His salvation and bear it to
the righteousness in His people by His grace and power. So I
say this, just in closing this point on the Sabbath, that we
are to rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to rest in Him. He said in Matthew 11, 28, Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. he shall find rest
unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden
is light." Okay now, the next thing that we witness at the
resurrection of our Savior is the power of His grace. The power
of His grace. Now we've seen how Christ is
risen from the dead, how that He is alive now, and how that
He is our sanctification. When we look at ourselves, when
we look at our walk, when we look at our faith, when we look
at our faithfulness and the things that we say or do, we're rather
unimpressed with ourselves. We're not typically very high
on ourselves. When we look at our gifts that
we seem to have or our abilities and how we exercise them and
what we do, with the knowledge of our Savior that we have when
we look at our service, and we're not very impressed. And when you think about the
women that are here in this text, you can imagine that they felt
powerless. They felt helpless. When they saw their Savior on
the cross, they must have felt powerless and helpless to do
anything for their Lord. and they weren't able to, they
would have taken him off the cross if they could, but they
were powerless to do it. They couldn't help him in his
dying hour, and so they looked on and were afraid and discouraged
at what they were seeing. And now he's dead, and they're
trying to reconcile that he's dead. In their minds, this is
what they believe. Yet, even while they're in this
darkness to what our Lord was accomplishing there in his death
and that he was to rise again, we see the grace of our God drawing
these women to come. And there's something in their
part where they want to honor Him and to serve Him. And so the Lord draws them in
this dark hour to go and to do what they can, right? And so
they went forth in darkness John telling us, 20 verse 1, when
it was yet dark, these women went forth in darkness. They
didn't have light. They didn't know what was going
on and yet they still went forth serving the Lord because they
had no hope of His resurrection. They weren't thinking about that
or what He had told them at all. And we read, let's read again
in Mark 16 verses 1 and 2. When the Sabbath was passed,
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James in Salome had bought
sweet spices. They had gone to a market where
they sold spices and they would have purchased the spices either
before the Sabbath or early in the morning here, while it was
yet dark, they went and purchased these spices that they might
come and anoint him. And very early in the morning,
the first day of the week, they came unto the supplicant at the
rising of the Son. And so they couldn't do much,
but they did what they could. They did what the Lord laid on
their heart. I'm sure they didn't think much
of it at all. They just wanted to honor Him.
They loved Him. They felt the debt of gratitude
toward Him for what He had done, how He had served them when He
was here on the earth, and what He did for them. And so they
wanted to do what they could for Him. And so in this, we see
a principle of love at work here, right? A principle of love. In Luke 7, 47, where there was
a sinful woman who came and wept at the feet of Christ and covered
his feet with her tears, and she wiped his feet with the hairs
of her head, it says, and Christ commented on this. He said, her
sins which are many are forgiven." And then he tells us, we know
this, it's made apparent to us in her actions. For she loved
much. That's not why her sins were
forgiven. Her sins were forgiven in Christ.
But we see that because her actions show that she loved much. They
show this because she was weeping at his feet. And he says, but
to whom little is forgiven, the same love it little. And so we see and we understand
that, that where the heart is righteous, when we see ourselves
as righteous and just and at least better than the other person
next to us, there's little love there. When we think that there's
very little that Christ needs to do for us, There's not a lot
of love there, that's just so. But where we see what great sinners
we are, there's tremendous amounts of love there. And the more of
a sinner that we see and know ourselves to be, and that Christ
has saved us, the greater the love that's in our hearts. And
so we see that there, and that while it was yet dark, they wanted
to honor their Lord. And they went forth not even
knowing how they would get into the tomb. Or at least while they
went on their way, they began to think, huh, we know there's
a great stone in the way. How are we even going to get
in there? So you can see, they went forth in darkness. And it
certainly should help us in our service to see how they started
even in darkness, not knowing necessarily how it would be used
or how or whether it would be useful in some way or heedful,
but they still went forth even in darkness. And so be encouraged,
brethren, when the Lord lays it on your heart to serve Him
and to serve a brother or sister who may be in need, even though
you're in darkness, as to whether or not they really are. Now in
verse 3, Mark 16, 3, we read, They said among themselves, Who
shall roll us away in the stone from the door of the sufferer? All right, now it's worthy of
note that like these women, we ourselves get to worrying about
things, right? We get to worrying about things.
And the thing to think about here is that we worry about these
things and they may never even become a real problem for us,
right? We worry, we get afraid, we start
thinking through this is going to happen, this is going to be
a problem, how are we going to get past this, and this is an
obstacle for us. And yet it may never be a problem
for us. And we see that in the next verse, verse four. When
they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away, for it
was very great. And so, it's good for us to remember,
especially in times like this, where our minds get to racing,
right? When there's, where we become
afraid and fearful of what may be, and oh, if this doesn't change,
these things are going to happen, and this is how it's going to
play out, and all this is going to come crashing down, and we
get to worrying like that. And yet, like these women, we
see that just because we worry about it, just because we think
this is what's going to happen, we find that we're actually very
often wrong. And something may happen that
we don't like, but it's rarely ever the thing that we think
it's going to be. It's usually something very different from
what we ourselves are worried about. So don't forget this. Just remember how trust the Lord. Go forward trusting the Lord
even though we're dark in darkness to what the outcome may be. But
we see also why worry because we can't change it and it's probably
not even going to be an issue though we ourselves worry about
it. And our Lord tells us this in
Matthew 6. He said in Matthew 6, verse 27, that which of you
by taking thought can add one cubit of Saturn? How can we change
our lives just because we've taken thought of it and are worrying
about it? And he goes on saying in verse
31, Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or
what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? And he goes
on, For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your
Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore
no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought
in the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof." So those are good words for us to remember. And
now the next thing that we see here that's connected to this
is that the gospel is ministered to these ladies that are in darkness. These ladies that were worrying
about things and had problems or obstacles in their mind that
didn't even come to pass. We see that the Lord ministers
the gospel to them. And that shows us what we need.
We always need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so the Lord
ministers the gospel to these women by sending an angel to
comfort them. He sent an angel to be their
minister. And that's why even preachers
are likened to angels in the scriptures. There's a revelation
there in chapters two and three. They speak of the angel, the
angel of the church, which is the preacher, the pastor there
of that church. And so here's a real angel, though,
and this angel is sent to comfort them. Now, they're afraid. They're
afraid. They don't know what's going
on. their whole world is turned upside down. Everything they thought they
knew, the hopes that they had, have completely been dashed before
them. They're afraid, they're worried,
and they don't know what's going on. You can see the similarities
to what we might have, right? What we probably have when we
think about what's going on. And so the Lord sends them a
minister, an angel to declare the resurrection of Christ. Look at verses 5 and 6 in our
text, Mark 16. And entering into the sepulcher,
they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in
a long white garment, and they were afraid. And he said unto
them, Be not afraid, ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was
crucified. He is risen, he is not here,
behold, place where they lay Him. And so, what the Lord is
showing us here, and what I want you to see here is that take
comfort. Take comfort in the Lord. Look
to the Lord Jesus Christ and hear His word to you and me. The angel says, be not frightened. Don't be afraid. You don't need
to worry. I'm not here to harm you, but
to declare good tidings to you. You seek Jesus of Nazareth. You're looking for the Christ.
You want to see Him and know Him. This Christ, remember, was
crucified. He was crucified. When He died,
He died on that cursed tree in our place, bearing the sins of
His people, bearing them in His body so that when He died, we
died with Him. We die under the law. We die
under the curse of the law. We die under the wrath of God
in Christ. He bore our strife. He bore our
sorrow. He bore the wrath of God in his
own body, against himself, in our place as our substitute,
as the sacrificial lamb of God sent to take away the sin of
his people scattered throughout the world. He was crucified to put away
your sins so that now we are accepted of God in Him. We may stand before the throne
of God perfectly acceptable without fault before Him in love. Remember, He says He's risen. He was crucified. He is risen.
He's not here. He's not here and subject to
the weakness of the flesh. He's risen. sitting upon the
throne, and with all authority and power, implementing the will
of God in the earth. And He's working all things together
for your good. He's bringing all these things
together to pass for the good of His people and the salvation
of His people. Right? So remember, our Lord
is risen. In Romans 5-10, we're told that
if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, by the death
of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."
So remember that. When He was crucified, He was
crucified to put away our sins, and He's alive now, and we're
alive in Him. Romans 6-5, for if we have been
planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also
in the likeness of His resurrection. Whatever fearful sights we might
see in this time or in some time in the future, whatever fearful
sights we might see, whatever adversities are fed to us, whatever
afflictions are given to us to drink, remember that our Savior
is risen and that we are accepted of Him. We're accepted of God
in the Lord Jesus Christ, so that by Christ's substitution,
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. Alright, now let's look at our
final point here, which is the grace of our God does not change. It does not change. That's what
we'll see here. So we have full assurance and confidence now
in Christ. That's what we're learning. That's
the knowledge that he's revealing to us through this gospel. We
are alive in Him. He's done all the work of salvation.
Everything necessary that we needed, Christ has accomplished
it in Himself. And so we see here in this passage
that we're coming up to in verse 7, the love that our Savior has
for His people. It never changes. Look at verse
7. He says to these women, now having
heard the gospel, having been ministered to with the gospel,
He says, go your way and tell his disciples and Peter that
he goeth before you into Galilee. There shall he see him as he
said unto you. And so the Lord here now directs
the angel, his minister that he sent, to tell them, to tell
these ladies. And then these ladies go forth
and they go and tell his other disciples. And so He sends them
to declare these things, to declare the Gospel to those disciples
which forsook Him. Go tell the disciples who forsook
their Lord that He is risen. And go tell Peter who denied
his Lord that He is risen, and tell them that He's gone before
them into Galilee. Tell them that their sins are
pardoned, that they have forgiveness of the Savior, of the Lord. And
hey, go and tell them this glorious good news. And this is encouraging
to us. This is needful for us to hear
and to be reminded that the love of our God for us is conditioned
not on you and me or what we do or don't do. It's conditioned
entirely upon Jesus Christ. And that's a good hope because
Christ is faithful. and all that He does. He didn't
fail. He doesn't change. He's perfect. And God is satisfied with His
Son. And so all the hope of our salvation
is entirely resting on the Lord Jesus Christ. Not you and me. So when we look at our weaknesses
and our failings and how we come up short of the glory of God
because we're sinners. that doesn't change the love
of God toward us because it's all founded in Jesus Christ alone. So, you know, why we struggle
or where we struggle in this is because we think of how we
would be toward those who forsook us and denied us and abandoned
us when we needed them most and how angry we would be, right? Especially those that we love,
those that are closest to us, We get even more angry and more
hurt when they forsake us or fail us or abandon us in some
way. And so we would be angry, but
the Lord here shows us that His love for us doesn't change, even
though we're weak, squirrely little scoundrels in our flesh. And it's only by His grace and
mercy that we bring forth fruits unto God. So our Lord is very
gracious. He tells us in Micah 7 verse
18, Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and
passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?
He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in
mercy. And thanks be to God who delights
in mercy, and he may be merciful to us because of the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ our Lord and our Savior. All right, so now
with this news we're told in verse 8, and they went out quickly
and fled from the suffocator, for they trembled and were amazed,
neither said they anything to any man, for they were afraid. And so joy and amazement filled
their hearts, and they were overwhelmed, no doubt about it, they were
overwhelmed, they were fearful and just wondering what is going
on, but the Lord was laying it to their hearts and they eventually
were able to be settled in Christ and believe and rest in Him. So they had just learned of His
resurrection and just as He said, just as He said. And so brethren,
I pray that the Lord would communicate that word, that Christ is risen,
that He is raised from the dead, that you would be encouraged
and thankful and that you would be strengthened in your hearts
and in your minds of your Savior and what He's accomplished for
you and for me and you'll be accomplished with this good news
of His resurrection and be made to rest in Christ who is our
Sabbath day rest. I pray the Lord will bless that
word to your hearts. Our gracious Lord, we thank you for your mercy, your tenderness,
your kindness in revealing and declaring this gospel to us. Lord, you see how weak we are,
how afraid we are and can be, how often we move and do things
in darkness, not knowing or understanding things of our God. But Lord,
we ask that you would have mercy, that you would forgive us of
our sins, that you would fix our hearts upon the Lord Jesus
Christ, that we would be encouraged in Him, to rest in Him. It's in the name of our Savior
that we pray these things. And Lord, we pray for our brethren
that if any is afraid If any is sick, if any have a
need, Lord, help us to minister to one another and to serve them
in love. Lord, remember us, help us, for
we depend upon you, upon your grace and mercy and your power
to work salvation in our hearts. In Christ's name we pray and
give thanks. Amen.