Sermon - Easter Day - Mark 16:1-8

The Resurrection, Francesco Buoneri, 1619

Jesus Rose, Hence God is Real

1. Why were the first witnesses of the resurrection afraid and astonished?

1. Because God is real, and Jesus is God.

2. Jesus rose, and therefore sin, death, and hell are real, but so is our rescue from those things.

3. Let us then celebrate the resurrection without the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

How do you feel right now? Are you afraid? Has trembling and astonishment seized you? I’m guessing probably not. Today Easter has an ambiance of spring time happiness, with bright pastel colors and smiles galore! So the response of the women on the first Easter maybe strikes you as a bit bizarre: “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.” Why in the world would they be trembling and filled with fear? Shouldn’t they be jumping for joy, pumping their fists, and breaking out into four part harmony? Why in the world would they be afraid and astonished? 

The same type of thing happens to the others when they hear the news of the resurrection. After the women came out of their stupor, they did tell the disciples, but they wouldn’t believe them, considering it just an idle tale. After Peter and John ran to the tomb to see it for themselves, they just went back home. Then when Jesus appeared to them He had to keep reminding them not to be afraid. Jesus even had to rebuke them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they just didn’t believe it. 

The women went to the tomb looking for their Friend who was dead. They had bought burial spices to anoint His dead body. Even though Jesus had explicitly told His disciples that all of these things would happen and after three days He would be raised, they were filled with doubts and unbelief. To some extent it’s easier for them to handle that Jesus is dead than living. Death makes them sad, of course, but they know how to handle that. But if Jesus is risen, then there are a bunch of implications that they weren’t yet ready to handle. Because if Jesus is alive, then that means He is God, and that everything He taught them is divine revelation, and not just some guy’s opinion.

While Easter is most certainly something to be happy about and the greatest reason to sing all of these glad songs, it’s also an incredibly weighty matter, with huge implications for us! At least to some extent, we should also respond with trembling and astonishment, and a bit of fear. Afterall, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the first commandment (you shall have no other gods) teaches us that we should fear, love, and trust in God above all things. Because Jesus has risen, that means He is God, and that God is real, and that all of Jesus’ teachings are true.

This is a shocking reality if you didn’t realize it before! But the resurrection of Jesus proves His divinity and His authority over all things. So when Jesus teaches us: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” we must come to terms with the fact that we are not perfect according to Jesus’ teaching. Additionally, since Jesus rose from the dead, He is also the Son of Man who will come on the final day and judge all the earth. “He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left… [He] will say to those on His right, Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world… Then He will say to those on His left, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” All of that ought to make you tremble a bit. That Jesus rose from the dead proves He’s God, and thus proves God is real, and that sin, death, and hell are likewise real. It also implies that if those things are real, potentially I could go there, and in fact because of my sinfulness I deserve to go there!

As frightening as that reality is, which is proved true from the resurrection of Jesus, then so too is Jesus’ rescue also true. Jesus promises us: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved!” Again Jesus promises: “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations.” All these scriptures, all the word of God, “are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” Because Jesus is risen He lives now, and therefore He comforts us, saying : “Lo, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This glorious truth of the resurrection is such a comfort that Job, during his horrible suffering, still clings to the hope of the resurrected Savior (which for Job, was still long in coming): “For I know that my redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.” You see, the resurrection of Jesus also brings with it the promise that we too shall conquer sin, death, and hell. Even after we die and our bodies decay in the grave, the Lord Jesus Christ will raise our bodies with Him! Deathly decay shall be defeated because the Lord will raise us from the grave on the final day!

Because this is hard to believe, since it’s such a huge thing, the Lord in His wisdom provided us with a multitude of witnesses to His resurrection. Today you heard of the women, Mary Magdalene, Mary the Mother of James, Joanna, and Salome. But there’s also the eleven apostles; the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, a crowd of over 500, James, and finally Paul. This is an incredible number of reliable witnesses and is far more trustworthy than tons of other news or world events or historical events that we believe every day. If you will, read the last chapter of each of the four Gospels this afternoon, and be strengthened in your faith to know that our Lord appeared to many, and so we need not doubt. The Lord provides these testimonies for us so that we would not doubt, but believe, and be saved.

All of this means that your sins, as wicked and shameful and embarrassing as they are, truly are forgiven wholly and completely through the death of Jesus! His death really forgives all of your sins! Just as Jesus has risen to new life, so too do you rise to newness of life even now as God’s Child. “Just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” It doesn’t matter how much shame you have over your sins. It doesn’t matter if you’ve fallen away, or walked away, or ran away from Christ, because His death covers your sins and forgives you completely. His resurrection gives you a new life right now!

If you’ve grown sluggish in your faith, if your life does not reflect the truth of God’s word, if you’ve grown bored and dull with the things of God, then may this joyous celebration of Christ’s resurrection awaken you to newness of life in Him! “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” Cast away your works of darkness! Leave those deathly garments behind you, and put on Christ and the robe of His righteousness!

The Lord Jesus Christ is our King and ruler of all creation! Jesus is God and God is real! By His death He has redeemed you from your sin. He has called you out of your shame and misery and into His marvelous light. By His resurrection He proves His triumph over sin, death, and hell, and He foreshadows your glorious resurrection on the final day. He has won salvation for all who believe and trust in Him, so that by the power of His resurrection all who die in faith shall live eternally. On the final day King Jesus shall descend from the heavens, raise the bodies of all, and all who belong to Him shall dwell with Him forever in His kingdom. Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!