The Day of the Risen Lord

Big Idea:

Unbelief is Unacceptable Behavior

Introduction

Jesus Christ, in all his preaching and teaching, was more a stickler on faith than anything else. And in His day and age, there had been a total drought of faith messages being taught in the synagogue. In fact, one could honestly say that there were no messages of faith being taught. It seemed like all that was known amongst the Pharisees and Sadducees was law and tradition, dress codes, appearances and so forth and so on. Although the law plainly stated that having faith in God would please God and that faith would be accounted as righteousness, the Jews still thought their traditions were more important. And no matter how many times they would claim they were the sons and daughters of the great Abraham, they did nothing like he did. Jesus had to renew the message of faith that had been lost in time. The other things the Jews celebrated were of little importance to Jesus because anything done out of unbelief was unacceptable to Him.

This is what I planned on bringing you this morning—that unbelief is unacceptable behavior. If there had been only one thing that someone could take away from the gospels, well the New Testament as a whole, it would the teachings of faith. And why not? Jesus knew it was going to take faith in Him to bring about salvation for mankind. So anything else done to try and win his favor would ultimately end up as nothing.

Let us turn our Bibles to Mark 16:1-15. Please stand as I read the Word of God to honor His Word and His Being.

Mark 16:1–15 CSB

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they could go and anoint him. Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they went to the tomb at sunrise. They were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone from the entrance to the tomb for us?” Looking up, they noticed that the stone—which was very large—had been rolled away. When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side; they were alarmed. “Don’t be alarmed,” he told them. “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they put him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see him there just as he told you.’ ” They went out and ran from the tomb, because trembling and astonishment overwhelmed them. And they said nothing to anyone, since they were afraid. [Some of the earliest conclude with .] [Early on the first day of the week, after he had risen, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and reported to those who had been with him, as they were mourning and weeping. Yet, when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe it. After this, he appeared in a different form to two of them walking on their way into the country. And they went and reported it to the rest, who did not believe them either. Later he appeared to the Eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table. He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who saw him after he had risen. Then he said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

We find in today’s Scripture passage that almost everyone who was there that first day of the week when Jesus rose was plagued with unbelief. They couldn’t even grasp the gospel news because of their unbelief. It was almost as if the disciples were wanting to wallow in their grief.