Easter '23: Choose Your Own Adventure

Introduction

General: Choose Your Own Adventure books by R. A. Montgomery

Biblical: Mark is a “choose your own adventure” Gospel, complete with alternate endings.

Subject: What adventure will you choose? What are you going to do with Jesus?

Body - Mark 16:1-8 (ESV)

Big Idea: You have to do something with Jesus. You have to choose something with Jesus.

You can walk away and do nothing. You can leave and pretend like this is all just a fairy tale.

Exposition

Mark 16:8 ESV

8 And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Mark 16:8 NIV

8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

Mark 16:8 NET 2nd ed.

8 Then they went out and ran from the tomb, for terror and bewilderment had seized them. And they said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

Mark 16:8 NLT

8 The women fled from the tomb, trembling and bewildered, and they said nothing to anyone because they were too frightened. Then they briefly reported all this to Peter and his companions. Afterward Jesus himself sent them out from east to west with the sacred and unfailing message of salvation that gives eternal life. Amen.

Illustration: Most of the time, when someone chooses to walk away from Jesus, it’s because of fear.

If I become a Christian, what will other people think of me? (Fear of others)

What if God tells me to stop doing something I don’t want to give up? (FOMO, fear of losing control)

What if God tells me to do something I don’t want to do? (Fear of the unknown)

What if I trust God with my life, and things don’t work out for my good? (Fear of disappointment)

Application

The answer to fear is the resurrection.

The opposite of fear is not courage or bravery but faith.

You can choose to follow Jesus. You can become a disciple of the one who defeated death.

Exposition

Christian faith is not a blind faith (Mark 16:7).

“The evidence they needed, of his life and death and resurrection was there as the adequate basis for their faith… But the very entering into it must be an act of faith. They had to go back to Galilee as if Jesus was there in order to discover that Jesus really was there. Faith is a daily exercise of walking to where God directs you, believing he will be there, and finding that he is, in fact, there. It is not a procession of cast-iron certainties, but an experience of trust in him who lived, and died, and rose again to be with you forever.” ~ Donald English

Illustration & Application: Shad

You can share Jesus with others. You can go and tell others about Jesus. (Mark 16:6-7)