"Just As I Told You" Mark 16:1-8

Introduction: The hope of Christianity rises or falls based on the reality of the events that we are going to enter into today.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the entirety of Christianity rests on this single event.

If the events which we are going hear of today are true, it changes everything.

Our time together ended on Friday, with what appeared to be, at least initially to the early followers and friends of Jesus, a crushing blow.

Let’s put ourselves in there shoes for just a minute.

Nearly 3 years ago, they would have left everything, their fishing business, tax collecting business among other things to follow Jesus. Little did they know what they were getting into when they dropped their nets.

Once settled and confident, even comfortable in their lives, they took a step that began to change everything. That step was the first step they took in following Jesus and their lives would never be the same.

For almost 3 years, they lived in very close proximity with Jesus, sharing meals, traveling together and through many conversations they had grown close to Him. As Jesus himself said, no longer do I call you servants, but I now call you friends.

They witnessed miracles, many more than what is written down in the Bible, as John’s gospel claims. They witnessed many healings and deliverances, seeing firsthand Jesus’ astonishing power over nature and disease, the demonic and even death itself.

They had come to believe, as Peter confesses in Mark 8, that Jesus was the Christ. He was the anointed one that the Jewish people had been waiting for, for so many years.

 While they rightly confessed who He was, they didn’t have a very clear understanding of what he came to do and how He was going to accomplish the mission.

It was in Mark 8 that Jesus began telling them that he MUST suffer and be killed. This was perplexing to the disciples. But even more than perplexing, Jesus’s impending suffering challenged and confronted the picture of the Messiah that they had in mind.

Jesus makes a final prediction of His coming suffering and death while they were traveling on the road to Jerusalem, the very place that he would experience what he was predicting.

They are coming for passover week which began on the Saturday before Palm Sunday.

As a church family, we took communion on Friday, commemorating Jesus’s death on the cross. We take the bread to remember His body broken for us, and we drink juice, symbolizing His blood shed for us.

Isn’t it awesome to think that believers, and churches all across the world have taken part in some way in this remembering of Jesus death.

It’s rich heritage we have as followers of Jesus down through the centuries.

This, of course, brings us to where we are today.

Follow along as I read: Mark 16:1–8 “When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” 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.”

Surprised and Startled (v1-4)

Mark 16:1–4 “When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large.”

If you were to read through a book on apologetics, a defense of the Christian faith, the fact that women were the ones who first encountered the empty tomb is given as evidence that what we have in the resurrection accounts is true, historical account.

The testimony of women was not always given much weight in the first century context of Jesus’s resurrection. The fact that all of the gospels tell of these women as the first ones on the scene indicates that we what here is a true, historical account of the events of that Sunday morning.

So we have Mary Magdalene, Mary the Mother of James, and Salome, who is the mother of James and John as the first witnesses to the empty tomb. They apparently were not expecting to find what they did because they had gone out sometime after Jesus’ crucifixion and before the start of Sabbath and had purchased spices to anoint His body.

They were coming to the tomb expecting to find Jesus still dead, and still in the tomb.

They are talking amongst themselves on the way there, asking “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?’.

Which is a really good question because the stone that would have closed off the tomb is said to have weighed between 2,000-4,000 lbs.

This also gives additional credibility to the idea that they were totally not expecting to find what they did.

What did they find upon their arrival?

Verse 4 tells us that when they arrived they found the stone had already been rolled away.

The women were doing what they thought was good and right, following in obedience to what they knew and understood.

But why were they going to anoint Jesus’ body, when we read in John 19:40, that Nicodemus came with a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy five pounds worth. The mixed and pulverized myrrh and aloes is shaken into the folds of the linen cloth that they then wrapped Jesus in.

This anointing was not for the purpose of embalming, as we had just read in John 19 had already been done.

This anointing was an act of worship, out of love for and devotion to Jesus.

He is not here, He is Risen! (V5-6)

Mark 16:5-6 “And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him”.

When they arrive at the tomb, they find that the stone is rolled back. Verse 5 says that at the tomb they meet a young man, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed.

Of course, the angel, seeing their fear and terror, says “Do not be alarmed”. Which is easier said than done when you have what Matthew 28 calls an “Angel of the Lord” in your midst.

But the angel tells them to not be afraid.

He goes on to say “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here”.

Go and check out the place where he was. Look right there was where he was laid, and he is no longer here.

The angel invites them into the tomb!!

Interestingly, just recently I came across an article that was talking about a discovery that had been made at the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem where Jesus is believe to have been buried.

The findings are still preliminary but what they discovered was proof of olive trees and grapevines which is consistent with the description of the area of the tomb given by the apostle John:

John 19:41 “Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.”

The angel invites the women to check out the tomb. In John’s gospel account, Peter and John, also both come to the empty tomb and discover it is empty.

Just as He told you! (V7-8)

Mark 16:7–8 “But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” 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.”

The angel then makes an interesting statement: “But go and tell the disciples, and Peter, that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him just as He told you”.

During our Lenten reflection, we looked at three passion predictions in the gospel Mark, one in chp 8, 9 and 10.

Jesus predicted prophetically three times that he would suffer and die, and be raised again.

The disciples missed it then and they still didn’t understand even at this point.

John 20:8–9 “Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.”

The disciples were defeated, afraid and confused.

If Jesus hadn’t really been raised to new life, and had not appeared to the disciples, it is unlikely, if not all but impossible that there would be a Christian faith today.

Think about it: How would that tattered group, those who ran when Jesus was crucified, how would they have gone on to turn the world upside down

How Will You Respond?(V8)

Verses 9 -20 of the Gospel of Mark do not appear in the oldest manuscripts that are available. It is believed by most scholars to have been added at a later date because of the apparent abrupt ending of verse 8.

If Mark 16:8 is the last verse, it sorts of leaves us on a cliffhanger. The women leave in fear, and we are told that they say nothing to anyone. We don’t know how long it took them to tell the disciples as they were commanded by the angel, but we do know from the other gospels that at some point in the following hours or days that they begin to share the good news.

What if Mark intentionally leaves us with a cliffhanger, as if to pose they question - “How will you respond to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead?”

Because our faith hinges on this story, on this account!!

Paul in 1 Corinthians 15

English Standard Version Chapter 15

12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

and He says:

English Standard Version Chapter 15

19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

But Paul and the other apostles’ testimony is this:

English Standard Version Chapter 15

1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep

Since Christ has been raised from the dead, we are messengers of the greatest news in all the world. That through Jesus Christ, God has cleared a way for you and me, and anyone who believes in Jesus, to be in relationship with Him.

This is the greatest news the world has ever heard. And like the women, we are called, commanded, to “Go and tell”.