Mark 16:9-20

Some of you remember when we had our sermon series where we went through Genesis 1-12.

As we walked through Genesis 1-11 we encountered bad news after bad news.

Sin, murder, flood, tower of babel,

the story highlights the desperate condition of mankind.

And when we got to Genesis 12, we found a promise.

Genesis 12:1–3 (HCSB)

1 The Lord said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who treat you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

After all that darkness,

an announcement was made.

In the face of all the families of the earth hating and rebelling against God,

God was going to take one family,

make them his own,

place his favor on them,

and through them,

bless all the families of the earth.

The resurrection is the seal and the fulfilment of all that God has planned to do.

It’s the seal because it guarantees that God’s promises are true.

SEAL ANALOGY - A King’s seal certifies and proves that the King has done this thing.

It is the fulfillment because in the resurrection we see God begin to work back the works of the devil, and sin, and death, while causing the earth to flourish like a garden along the way.

Jesus is the TRUE ISRAEL.

Where old Israel had failed to be a blessing to the nations,

Jesus succeeds.

And those who are baptized into Him now share in that blessing he accomplished.

3 quick reflections on the resurrection for us today:

The resurrection is the beginning

the middle,

the end.

The Resurrection is the beginning.

The beginning of what?

The Kingdom of God.

Let’s remind ourselves of what this gospel of mark has been proclaiming all along.

The very first words of Jesus in this gospel:

Mark 1:14–15 (NASB95)

14 Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Mark 4:26–32 (HCSB)

26 “The kingdom of God is like this,” He said. “A man scatters seed on the ground; 27 he sleeps and rises —night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows—he doesn’t know how. 28 The soil produces a crop by itself—first the blade, then the head, and then the ripe grain on the head. 29 But as soon as the crop is ready, he sends for the sickle, because the harvest has come.” 30 And He said: “How can we illustrate the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use to describe it? 31 It’s like a mustard seed that, when sown in the soil, is smaller than all the seeds on the ground. 32 And when sown, it comes up and grows taller than all the vegetables, and produces large branches, so that the birds of the sky can nest in its shade.”

Jesus resurrection is the beginning of this restoration project that God has in mind that will never stop.

It won’t stop until “it produces large branches, so that the birds of the sky can nest in its shade.”

Colossians 1:18–20 (HCSB)

18 He is also the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything. 19 For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross — whether things on earth or things in heaven.

Jesus resurrection is the kingly seal that the blessing that God has always promised really will spread over the whole world.

Sowers Song from Is 55 and following.

As the rain and the snow fall Down from the sky And they don't return but they water the earth and bring they forth life Giving seed to the sower, bread for the hunger So shall the word of the Lord be with a sound like thunder And it will not return, it will not return void We shall be led in peace And go out with joy And the hills before us Will raise their voices And the trees of the field will clap their hands as the land rejoices And instead of the thorn now The cypress towers And instead of the briar the myrtle blooms with a thousand flowers And it will make a name Make a name for our God A sign everlasting that will never be cut off As the earth brings forth sprouts from the seed What is sown in the garden grows into a mighty tree So the Lord plants justice, justice and praise To rise before the nations till the end of days

The Resurrection is the middle

We are now co-operators. co-partakers with Jesus in the resurrection project.

This is what the great commission is all about.

When we are baptized into Christ, we are not united to Him for sitting on the couch.

We are united to Him for participating with His mission.

Remember all the way back in the garden what Adam and Eve were supposed to do?

Take dominion.

That was their mission.

That mission never went away,

but humans ability to accomplish it has always been severely hindered by sin.

NOW after the resurrection Jesus equips His disciples with a new mission: Discipleship

I like to call these the twin missions of dominion and discipleship.

And they are summed up in the message of reconciliation.

All of creation needs to be healed,

and because creations fate is tightly linked with humanities fate,

humanity must be reconciled to God.

2 Corinthians 5:17–21 (HCSB)

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come. 18 Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Mark 16:20 (HCSB)

20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the accompanying signs.

This knowledge equips us to bear up under suffering.

Right after Paul reassures the Roman church that Jesus is their brother, that they are being formed into the image of Christ, he tells them this:

Romans 8:35–39 (HCSB)

35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: Because of You we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. 37 No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, 39 height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

D-Day/V-Day analogy

Constant reflection on the resurrection will equip you to endure the hardest battles in your life.

A soldier with a letter announcing the end of the war. You get it out and read it often.

The Resurrection is the end.

Not the end of all things, but the end of this age.

The things that were sowed in Israel 2000 years ago will come to a glorious fulfillment.

The resurrection that Jesus experienced will be the experience of all those who have faith in him.

Death is not the end.

1 Corinthians 15:24–26 (HCSB)

24 Then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when He abolishes all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign until He puts all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy to be abolished is death.

KATIE HILL STORY

(loved socks)

I also recently discovered that Chris had great taste in authors. The last full day of his life, I read aloud to him The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis. Time stopped as I read each page of one of my most favorite pieces of fiction...re-experiencing all of those wonderful insights in a particularly poignant way. Sometimes I'd have to stop because I couldn't make it through a sentence without falling apart. While he didn't wake, I know he was listening. He would fidget when I would stop. So I kept reading. We got through that book in mere hours. I wanted to make sure he heard it all the way up to the final lines: "And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."

I've had this wonderful daydream that's been forming in my mind. That the fullness of time has come and I'm in the new heavens and new earth sitting on a rock, surrounded by the beauty of the new creation and a young man quietly approaches and drops a fluffy, blindingly white sock on my lap. I look up and I see an ebullient smile in an expressive, directly engaging face and I know it's him. It's Chris. And then it's my turn to embrace him.

1 Corinthians 15:57–58 (HCSB)

57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! 58 Therefore, my dear brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

The truth of the resurrection should make us love Christ.

While we were sinners he died for us.

He doesn’t abandon us to the grave,

he conquers it on our behalf and then promises us the same victory.

Do you love the God that did this for you?

We plead on Christ’s behalf.

Be reconciled to God.