Mark 15:42-16:8 :: “From Grave to Glory”

[Music] good morning everybody how are we yeah it's good to be here with you guys if you have your bibles or your bible app on your phone can you pull those out and turn with me to mark chapter 15. we're going to be starting at verse 42 working our way into the first couple verses of mark chapter 16. so mark 15 and 16. uh growing up i was raised in the church and my dad was a part of and ended up leading our church council that we might think of today as like an elder board for us um and i remember as my family got deeper and deeper into church leadership hearing conversations that they would have about just feeling like they were in the sort of fishbowl and maybe you guys have experienced that right where you're kind of in the limelight and everything that you do everybody's watching very closely right and any mistake that you have like just feels magnified intensified because of that perception and as a kid though i didn't really see it i didn't really feel it or experience it and the ways that they were talking about it was just oh cool my dad yeah he's on the church council he's part of leadership it was a neat thing um but then as i started to grow up as i started to work and specifically for me in the context of church and as i entered into leadership opportunities i remember understanding what they were talking about right having some sort of weight having some sort of influence felt good for a moment but it also came with that responsibility and in a sense that sense of burden to do everything right in any sort of ways that i messed up i felt disqualified me any sort of ways that i fell short i felt like it was a burden to the people and so there was one particular season where i was just really struggling with sin and temptation just a period of darkness and i ended up meeting with one of our pastors who was a very close mentor for me through this time and i just began to share what i was going through i'm struggling with this i'm tempted with that and i really want to put it to death and it just seems to keep coming back it just won't leave me alone it's captivated my heart in ways that i don't want it to and he listened so patiently he didn't interrupt he just allowed me to get it all out and then when i was finally done he he just asked me well what are you replacing those things with and i was like well what do you mean nothing i don't want those to be there i just want to get rid of them i want nothing there and he goes well that's not really what you should be focusing on and i was like what do you mean and at this point he shared with me a really good piece of advice he said the mark of a disciple of jesus is not only what we are called away from what we are saved from but what we are also saved to and what he meant by that was that in his death as we learned about last week christ dies for our sins he puts them to death he overcomes the enemy but he also in his resurrection calls us to new life new life with him to fulfillment in true satisfaction that we as believers as his disciples have to rejoice in both of these things right to simply look at his burial without the resurrection is to be given a clean slate with no hope to keep it that way right but the resurrection only has power in our lives because jesus died for our sins to give us that new life with him and so it's imperative for us as believers that we identify both with christ in his death as well as in his resurrection into new life and so this morning as we walk through our passages we're going to follow through in the looking at the events that happened right after the crucifixion but more importantly as we walk through the scripture we're going to celebrate together christ's resurrection in our new life with him and so let's read together mark chapter 15 starting at verse 42. it says now when evening had come because it was the preparation day that is the day before the sabbath joseph of arimathea a prominent council member who was himself waiting for the kingdom of god coming and taking courage went into pilate and asked for the body of jesus and pilate marveled that he was already dead and summoning the centurion he asked him if he had been dead for some time and so when he found out from the centurion he granted the body to joseph then he bought fine linen took him down and wrapped him in the linen and he laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock and rolled a stone against the door of the tomb and mary magdalene and mary the mother of joseph observed where he was laid let's pray lord i'm so thankful that we get to study a word together but i'm thankful that we get to celebrate and rejoice life with you together this morning lord this is such a powerful moment and i don't want us to miss out on it not as an event that happened in the past but an event that lives here and now lord an event that we can hold on to that we can find hope in so to open up our hearts and our minds to receive from your word to experience the transformation of your spirit lord we thank you we praise you and it's for your beautiful name we pray amen amen so the subject that we're looking at this morning in our passages is the burial of jesus and the resurrection of jesus so christ's burial and then his resurrection and the object that i believe god intends for us this morning is that we would honor jesus and we would celebrate new life that we would honor jesus with our lives and we would celebrate new life and so we're going to break our passage into two sections this morning just to keep it manageable and the first section we're going to look at is these verses that we just read that talk about specifically jesus's burial so as the passage begins we're cued into the context of where we're at and so it's several hours after the crucifixion it is what is we're told is the preparation day and the preparation day was this day set aside the day before the sabbath because on the sabbath you would refrain from work and so you would take this day to get anything in order that you might need whether it was errands or a job that you needed to do visiting somebody attending some sort of event you would get it done on this day so that on the next day you could keep the day holy you could refrain from work and you could rest and so we learn here that this joseph of arimathea we're introduced to for the first time in this gospel uses his final hours of the preparation day to find pontius pilate to go before him and make this request for the body of jesus but before we go on let's look at who this joseph is so we learn here in this passage that he was part of the council the sanhedrin this legislative body in israel but specifically it says that he was a prominent council member and so this wasn't some guy at the bottom rung who just kind of sat back and had like a booster seat at the table all right like he carried weight he carried authority he was respected he had a high position on the council and that means that if he was part of the sanhedrin that he was there at the trial of jesus he was there when christ was condemned and he was likely at least nearby during the actual crucifixion and so we know for sure as we read through mark 15 at the beginning of that chapter as jesus was there in the trial that he would have heard pontius pilate ask jesus are you the king of the jews very explicit very black and white and jesus's response was just as explicit just as black and white it is as you say right you know this it is as you say he would have been there as the crowds chose to free barabbas and as they condemned jesus with their shouts this almost chant like cheer crucify him crucify him and he would have watched as jesus just endured all of this silently he would have heard of everything that was going on throughout the crucifixion he would have seen the earth covered in darkness he would have felt the earth shake he would have heard word of the temple veil tearing in two it wasn't that he was blind to all of this he was in the midst of all of this part of this body that motioned for jesus's crucifixion and so it begs the question if that's what group he was a part of why do we find him now asking pontius pilate for the body of jesus well let's learn a little bit more about who he is we learn a little bit more through each of the different gospel accounts they give us some more insight into who he is so if we were to look at the gospel of luke specifically chapter 23 we meet joseph and it says that he was a good and a just man and so this is indicative of his character this is who he was he was revered as good he was just which was his job was to be just and the scriptures tell us that's what he sought to do he wanted to understand good from evil right from wrong and he wanted to follow suit in that and it tells us that he had not consented to their decision indeed and so for some reason it doesn't use a strong word like actively opposed he just had not consented to their work indeed that's what we read in the gospel of luke in the gospel of matthew though we're given an even closer insight into who he is matthew tells us in his gospel that at some point in time before this moment joseph had actually become a follower of jesus but then in the gospel of john he gives us a little bit more insight he says that he followed jesus in secret because of his fear for the jews and so he's caught in this tension throughout this whole ordeal he's a follower of jesus but he's terribly afraid of the jews and for good reason like we just watched them murder jesus like we watched them cheer for this and so of course to be identified as one of his followers was not something that would be idolized in this moment that's why the disciples fled that's why they were hiding in fear and joseph here is caught in the midst of all of this and so it's reasonable to believe that even though he didn't consent to their deeds it was very unlikely that at any point during the trial was he like i'm a follower of jesus we can't do this it was likely hidden under the umbrella of the rest of the council which is look we don't have any accurate witnesses or testimonies against him that justify what we want to do to him and so we can't move forward with this but we don't see any sort of bold standing for the lord but then we see that all of that begins to change as he goes to ask pilate for this body it said that joseph verse 43 who was himself waiting for the kingdom of god coming and taking courage went into pilate and asked for the body of jesus and so first and foremost it's just noteworthy that he would even go and make this request right because under roman custom he would typically leave the body of a criminal up on their cross for several days after the crucifixion right and so the body would rot wild animals would come and eat off it right we often have this picture of of like the cross being like really high and it really wasn't much higher than like eye level see what rome wanted to do was to not only rob a criminal of his honor in life they wanted to ensure that any honor that they could have received in death was taken away from them all right like this wasn't just about taking a life this was about disgracing a name but the romans would also typically grant the request of a friend or a family member who desired to take a body down and give it a proper burial but you had to go and ask for this and this was something that you would typically only do if you were personally connected with the person right otherwise this was just a community event crucifixions right it was something that they publicly did so that people could watch but here we know that if there was any logical time to denounce being a follower of jesus like if you were if you were just going to start walking away from the lord now would probably make the most amount of sense under human logic all right like you committed yourself to following jesus but you're still a little bit unsure of how you're going to let people know because like the jews they're crazy right like you don't want to be a part of that and then you just watched as the guy you were following as you were learning from was put under a mock trial was condemned under charges that wouldn't stand not only had leadership opposed to him but the people opposed to him then he was crucified in the most gruesome way imaginable like this wasn't the point where you'd go yeah i'm with that guy this is the point where you'd go um you know maybe this wasn't the best choice but we don't see that human logic here joseph operates under a different context he's sticking his neck out to personally tie himself to jesus to go to pontius pilate and request the body he says hey i don't want to just leave it up there so if if i can personally take it right this wasn't an act for the jews right like well hey you know you really don't want this mess up here during uh the the passover season right it's just going to distract us from what really matters let's just take it down that wasn't his his context so that's why the jews would ultimately agree they didn't want it up there distracting people no he is asking this as a personal request as an individual but not only does he ask for the body i love what it tells us about how he asks for it right after everything that had just happened right like he doesn't come cowardly he doesn't come afraid right like hey um don't tell anybody this but like can i have his body no no i don't i don't know i don't know what i'm gonna do with it uh yeah i'll probably bury it yeah you know oh yeah you know maybe no he comes with courage he comes before pilate with courage asking for the body of his lord because he wants to make this heartfelt action of honoring jesus he wants to put his faith in the christ this is the genuine faith of joseph working itself out though we may not have seen it previously we see that it's beginning to grow and take good root in good soil nobody nobody could have anticipated the events that had just unfolded everybody was hoping everybody who followed jesus was hoping that he would come he would take out the roman oppression he would establish his earthly kingdom and rule his people as this powerful mighty king and that's not what happened it's quiet it's dark it almost feels hopeless jesus didn't bring the kingdom if if anything it looks like he just lost everything but despite not fully understanding god's plan joseph chooses faith he remains faithful to jesus he trusts in his promise that the kingdom of god was at hand and patiently waiting for that kingdom says i don't understand but i'm going to continue to honor the lord and like joseph it's reasonable to believe that there's going to be times where we don't fully understand god's plan we're following him and just it just seems like life takes a nosedive and we don't really understand what god's doing and it's really easy at these moments to consider turning away maybe not completely but at least to other things that might bring us temporary comfort temporary fulfillment temporary joy maybe we've even been so deep as to feel like it is truly an utterly hopeless but there's two things that i want to glean from joseph here two lessons that that really ministered to me in the last week as i studied the word the first is that even if you failed to honor jesus in the past don't let that prevent you from honoring him in the present even if you've fallen short previously as joseph had did not make his stand during the trials does not mean that you cannot honor jesus today because all the enemy wants to do is make you feel awful for what you've done in the past all the enemy wants to do is say see you didn't do it back then what would make you think you can do it now just turn run hide but our god is a god of new mercies every morning our god is a god of grace a god of redemption a god who purposely used this method to buy us back he knew that we were gonna fall short this was his plan from before he even created everything it's not like we surprised him with sin he knew it was gonna work out like this and he wants to take us from those failures from those weaknesses from those shortcomings and draw us out of that to save us from our sin but then to save us to life with him life for him so i don't know where you guys are personally and your endeavors to follow jesus but hear this now whatever your past has looked like today is the day that you can honor the lord and he welcomes you with open and excited arms but beyond that what we also learn from joseph is to choose faith over fear to choose faith over fear previously we noted that he was fearful of the jews and now here he has chosen faith and that faith was leading him to hope and that hope was giving him the confidence the courage to honor and stand for jesus and so faith will cast out fear faith will build us up faith will encourage us faith will keep us going even when things don't make sense one of my favorite examples of this in scripture is the life of joseph the son of jacob that we read in genesis 37 and onward a really quick condensing of that story joseph was one of the sons of jacob and he was the most loved son right and it's very open about that in the bibles and it says that jacob was very open about that right like this was the son that he loved above all the others and so much so that he prized him with possessions so much so that that the other siblings were actively upset about this and so what they do in a moment of weakness or an opportunity in their eyes they sell their brother originally the plan was to kill him so at least they made a quick buck off of him was kind of the thought for them and from that point on joseph just experiences a life of ups and a life of downs right he he goes from being the prized son of his father and then he's sold into slavery and he works his way up in the house that he was serving in and then he's thrown into jail for false accusations and then he finds favor with the jail guards and he works his way up and he works his way up before we see that the lord has used him to the point that the pharaoh over egypt takes note of joseph and puts him over all that he oversees and so joseph in this moment proves to us his faithfulness he does not turn from god he does not cast out his faith he continues to find ways to honor the lord and the lord has blessed him for it and at the end of that that story what happens is that a famine covers the land but the lord had given joseph wisdom and how to prepare for it and so when the famine hits egypt is ready for it surrounding nations are not and so they begin to flock to egypt to find food find provision specifically to joseph and one of these groups was his family his brothers and when they find out that this is the joseph that they had tried to kill and then they had sold into slavery they cower in fear they're not sure what he's going to do to them and then he tells them to bring the whole family to egypt they bring the whole family and then their father dies and they say surely now that our father's dead there's nothing that's protecting us and so so they they are terribly afraid of joseph and and he can sense this and in genesis 50 20 he comforts them he says but as for you you meant evil against me but god meant it for good in order to bring it about as as it is this day to save many people and so in choosing faith over fear joseph recognizes that even when situations did not look like he expected them to even and all hope seemed to be lost god was working good through the evil of mankind and as joseph of arimathea when all else seems like it's falling apart chooses faith over fear he finds hope and that hope gives him courage to trust that god was working this great evil for something good to save the lives of many and so let's choose faith over fear and then we see in verse 44 the beginning of this actual act of honor and it says that pilate marveled that he was already dead and summoning the centurion he asked him if he had been dead for some time and so when he found out from the centurion he granted the body to joseph and so pilate is like whoa you're already here like typically crucifixion would have been a long slow painful death this was several hours after it happened and he's like he's he's already dead and so he sends a centurion out who would have definitely known having observed dozens if not hundreds of crucifixions if he was actually dead he comes back he says yeah he's dead and so he grants the body to joseph and so with his approval joseph goes he takes the body down and with nicodemus as we learn in the gospel of john he takes the body they go and buy fine linen and then they go to this tomb to begin to prepare his body for burial and this was no easy task right like first of all they were working against the clock right this was the preparation day final hours as soon as as soon as it was nightfall like that was the sabbath day that evening and so they're working against the clock they have to go out to buy fine linens we learned in another gospel account that they brought a hundred pounds of incense to to use during the burial process and then they had to find a tomb right and this was either joseph's tomb that he already owned or more than likely it was a tomb that he went and bought but we know that it was an expensive tomb so in any case this was a sacrifice that they were making in order to make this happen this wasn't another checklist item on their preparation day stuff right like buy groceries put away clothes bury the body of jesus right like this wasn't something that they just wanted to treat willy-nilly this was a very intentional and heartfelt and deliberate act of worship and i want us to see through this that worship is going to require a sense of sacrifice the life of a believer who wants to honor god is gonna at times require sacrifice right in all senses of it to follow jesus is not convenient by any sort of standard that we might have and that might be difficult for us because in our culture we're encouraged to cast away inconvenience right like if you can find an easier faster more cost effective way to do it you should do it that's why we love amazon right that's why we love that two-day shipping right and even better if you can get it the next day for free right but like i i don't maybe i'm just talking about myself in this situation but how many of you guys have placed something in the cart and it says oh it'll get there tomorrow and you're like yes san bernardino location you're the greatest only for it to not get there the next day and it actually shows up the day after the heck you lied to me amazon and so then you go on to their customer service right and you're like third in line and you're like how dare you make me wait even longer right because it's inconvenient we don't like inconvenience that's not something we're trained to enjoy but jesus never promises us convenience jesus warns that hey look to follow me is not what you expect though my yoke is easy and my burden is light though i will give you rest i will satisfy you and fulfill you it's not convenient i mean all throughout scripture we see this in luke 9 there's a man who comes he wants to follow jesus and he says well but before i follow you i want to bury my father it's not that his father had died yet he's just saying hey i want to wait till he's old i want to wait till he's dead and then i can take care of his stuff and then i'll i'll follow you and jesus says let the dead bury the dead like now is the time to make the decision to follow me and mark 10 we learned about the rich young ruler who comes and he says hey i want to follow you what must i do to enter into heaven and jesus gives him commands and he says i've done all those since my youth and jesus says well then sell all your possessions but i got like really good stuff jesus i don't know if you know this maybe i should show you right and he goes away sad right in luke 14 jesus says anyone who desires to follow him must be prepared to leave behind their families to leave behind their own lives and in luke 14 he also says that we must be willing to forsake all that we have to be his disciple see the disciple who seeks to honor jesus must embrace this lifestyle that sacrifices in order to honor him but i want us to see especially in this moment that we should be comforted by the thought that our sacrifice is not meant to earn god's attention or earn his approval or earn his love christ has just sacrificed the greatest sacrifice he could have himself so that we could be with him we had been bought back and so this was a response of gratitude this was a response of appreciation admiration for that dedication to take the cross and that's the motivation that we should have in choosing to honor jesus not trying to gain his affection but to recognize his affection is already upon us and in joy we should seek to honor him and make those sacrifices and then we move on after we see the burial after we consider honoring jesus we're looking at our second section today as we begin chapter 16 jesus's resurrection and the empty tomb starting at verse 1 of chapter 16 it says now when the sabbath was passed mary magdalene married the mother of james and solomay bought spices that they might come and anoint him and very early in the morning on the first day of the week they came to the tomb when the sun had risen and they said among themselves who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us but when they looked up they saw that the stone had already been rolled away for it was very large and so now we see as we saw at the end of the last chapter these women had watched as as joseph and nicodemus had buried jesus they took note of where it was but because of the timing the sabbath had hit and they could not go and honor jesus and so they wait and i can't imagine like this must have been like the longest time of waiting or like sun down go to bed sun up it's the sabbath you can't do anything right you can't even go distract yourself you're just waiting and then as soon as the next day hits right when it's light enough to work they go out in the early morning and they buy incense they buy spices and they make their way to the tomb to go and honor jesus in the way that they had felt led to honor jesus but i love that as they're walking up to the tomb they ask this question well how are we going to roll the stone away right like which seems like something you want to figure out before you get to the tomb right how are we going to roll the stone away because the traditional jewish grave the entrance wasn't terribly big and so you would need a stone that was about four feet maybe six feet tall and about a foot thick but depending on the stone that was used this caused the stone to weigh anywhere between like one to two tons that's that's a lot of rock right and so the way that it was put into place was there was like a divot that was carved out in the ground and so you would roll the stone into place down this slope and it would essentially kind of lock itself between the tomb entrance and a secondary wall that they would build and this is how you would close up a tomb so this was relatively easy to close if you had a couple strong guys as as nicodemus and joseph showed us right they'd roll it into place and it would lock in however taking the stone away was a whole other story like moving one to two tons of rock up a slope to open this tomb back up it was not an easy endeavor and so the women already prepared to go to the tomb with their spices that were meant to be used inside the tomb are asking this question and i love this because their heart is so pure right despite knowing the logistics of how the stone was going to get rolled away these women were devoted to going and honoring jesus right this their heart was set on this notion that we are going to go to the tomb with our spices that we've prepared and we're going to worship him in the way that we can because if i were those women this is just me i would have tried to figure out how i was going to move this stone away before i went to the tomb right like i would not have wanted to go to the store buy all the spices and then walk my way to the tomb only to be like well can't do that right i would have prepared myself to figure out how that would work and honestly i probably would not have found a way to roll the stone away and so these women could have spent their time trying to figure out how this was going to work right they could have just called it futile and like said i guess i guess we're not going to do it but you know that's okay and if they had done that they would have completely missed the opportunity of being the first people who realized that christ had risen from the dead they could they would have totally missed out on this moment of god wanting them to witness this miracle firsthand that the tomb was indeed empty and let that be encouragement to us that as we seek to honor jesus there's going to be times where not all of our questions are answered if not like every time there's going to be questions that we don't have answered and let these women show you that that shouldn't be a hindrance to your ability to worship him like it's not our job to overcome our weaknesses it's our job to obey god how he calls us to it's our job to simply step out in faith to trust that he's going to open the doors that he wants open and close the ones that he wants closed and that's what these women are showing they were just obeying the sense that we're going to go and honor the lord see my hope my belief is that god is going to offer each one of us tremendous opportunities of ministry that he's going to give us visions beyond ourselves visions that are the stone that we don't know how to roll but don't let that stop you from stepping out in faith to do it don't let that stop you from stepping out in faith to do it because if we had to answer all the questions ourselves if we had to figure out how to overcome every single one of our weaknesses before we could go and worship and honor the lord i wouldn't be here today but it's not our job to overcome our weaknesses it's our job to bring those before the lord god i'm going to trust you to see this through i want to worship you and i want to honor you you know my heart requires faith and i love this principle throughout scriptures i mean one of the examples that comes to my mind is jesus feeding the multitudes he does it several times during his earthly ministry and he does it through the disciples right he's not handing them individual fish where they're like where's he getting all these fish from he gives them the fish he gives them the loaves and he says all right now go start handing it out so they got their baskets right and they didn't sit there and like all right hey um before we go do this while jesus isn't looking let's just figure out how we're gonna if you wanna cut your bread like that and then i'll cut my fish like this and it's real small guys i don't know how we're gonna do this they would have just been there for hours trying to figure out how this was gonna work but instead they obeyed christ and they went out and they got to witness this miracle that god was doing they didn't have to answer every question they just needed to trust him that he would figure it out for them and so for us don't wait to worship jesus continue to press and ask him as you have questions but believe that he will overcome for his glory and for our good and so as the women come they find that the tomb had already been opened the stolen stone was rolled away and so they enter in and this is what we read in verses four five through six so as in entering the tomb they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side and they were alarmed but he said to them do not be alarmed you seek jesus of nazareth who was crucified he is risen he is not here see the place where they laid him so as they walk into the tomb they realize that jesus isn't there but they see somebody else this man dressed in a white robe who we know to be an angel a messenger of god and he's just waiting there um we know from the other gospels that there was another angel there with him and he tells the women that indeed jesus had been crucified he died he was here but he's not anymore he's risen see that the tomb is empty this is the place where they laid him and i love that he uses this language because he's making sure that they understand that christ had indeed died and he indeed was buried there but he was no longer there because he had risen from the grave this was a miracle of god because it could have been really easy to just write it off if they found an empty tomb there and it's like oh maybe the romans moved the body maybe some of the other disciples got here before us they moved the body i don't know maybe he pulled a prestige and he he replaced himself at the last minute and he's actually alive and he's doing stuff but that wasn't him who died on the cross or like anything would have made more sense at this point then hey the tomb's empty jesus did die but he's not here anymore but he wanted them to see the glory of god being revealed through the resurrection he wanted to assure them that christ had died he had taken the sins of the world but he had risen into new life like nobody had before because throughout scripture we see people raised from the dead this is something that we've seen in the old testament and the new testament elijah and elisha both raise people's sons from the dead jesus raises several people from the dead throughout the new testament throughout his earthly ministry but in each one of those cases the dead were risen back to their former bodies only to face another physical death later jesus's resurrection is unlike anything we've seen because he gets resurrected into a new perfect glorified body that will stand for eternity he gets resurrected into life everlasting this was the final death he faces that no more what a glorious thing to not only say that our god died on a cross for us but he's alive and he's active and he's working and he's moving that's a god that i want to follow and if that wasn't exciting enough what we recognize today is that in jesus's resurrection to new life he invites us to resurrect life with him this is something that the scriptures promise us first peter 1 3 says blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead is that a wonderful thing that god didn't just rise from the dead for his own sake so that he could sit on his throne he rose from the dead for our sake as well so that we could be with him for life everlasting the wages of sin is death and each one of us in this room has faced sin and we are deserving of that death not only a physical death where we part from our body but a spiritual death apart from the lord what christ wants to offer us is new life wants to offer us those glorified bodies to find faith that leads to hope and hope that leads to a courage to honor him in this life as we await the life to come perfect life with him and so this is why we should celebrate the resurrection because christ rose from the dead leaving our sins there and he offers us new glorified life with him this is good news good news that isn't meant for ourselves the last thing that this angel tells them in verse 7 is to go tell the disciples in peter that he is going before you into galilee there you will see him as he said to you so they went out quickly and fled from the tomb for they trembled and were amazed and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid we'll learn next week that they do tell people but the the point is that he tells them to go and they're just so overwhelmed in this moment that they don't know what to do they don't know what to say so they just kind of all like walk out of the tomb like whoa but this was like a marvelous moment this was like deep amazement over what god had just done and so they leave this tomb with this command to go and tell others about the resurrection and that's what we are encouraged to as well we'll see more of this next week this idea that this good news isn't meant for just ourselves god wants that none would perish he died for the world so that we could come to honor him and live glorified new life with him in celebration and so for us this morning we're going to enter into a time of musical worship so i'm going to invite the band up and i'm going to invite the ushers to begin passing out the communion because we get to partake together this morning and communion is a wonderful wonderful opportunity together if you're at home and you have elements at home bread crackers juice please grab that so we can partake together but today we simply remind ourselves of what it means to be a follower of jesus that we identify yes with his death his body that was broken his blood that was shed but we don't weep and mourn as those without hope because our god did not stay in the grave our god has resurrected to new life and he invites us into that with him we get to identify with him in this life and so as we prepare to take communion as you receive those i want to read from romans chapter 6 verses 5 through 11. [Music] it says for if we have been united together in the likeness of his death certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection knowing this that our old man was crucified with him the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves of sin for he who has died has been freed from sin now if we died with christ we believe that we shall also live with him knowing that christ having been raised from the dead dies no more death no longer has dominion over him for the death that he died he died to sin once for all but the life that he lives he lives to god likewise you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin but alive to god in christ jesus our lord take a moment to consider how god is calling you to honor him and let the spirit move in you to celebrate new life this morning for each one of us we have this offer to place our faith in him if we would believe in our hearts and confess with our lives that he is lord we will be saved he paid the ultimate price and we won the ultimate prize [Music] as you have your communion elements let's partake together we take the bread first cracker first in remembrance of his body that was broken we take the jew second in remembrance of this blood that was shed father we thank you for this new life with you help us to live for you as disciples who love you who love our neighbors and seek to make disciples who make disciples or but just simply this morning lead us into celebration as a means to honor you give us faith that overcomes fear help us to find hope in you and the life to come thank you we praise you it's in your name alone that we pray amen amen [Music] you

Channel: Calvary Nexus

Views: 50

Rating: 4 out of 5

Keywords: Jesus, God, Bible, Book of Mark, gospel, invitation, sin, salvation, grave, Jesus burial, cross, Joseph’s courage, honor, resurrection, empty tomb, Calvary Nexus

Id: U5IU_cnJ_B4

Length: 44min 0sec (2640 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 03 2021