Providence Church (CREC)
Resurrection Sunday
April 12th, 2009.
Sermon: A New World
Text: Mark 16:1-8
Twelfth Sermon
Pastor Uriesou T. Brito
Sermon Text: Mark 16:1-8, NO AUDIO AVAILABLE.
16:1 When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” 4 And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back-it was very large. 5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. 6 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. 7 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.” 8 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.
Prayer: Our God in heaven, through Your Son death is swallowed up in victory and our labors are not in vain. For this we praise you. Amen.
Sermon: People of God, this is the great story without which no other story would make sense. Without this story every other story would end in death. Without this story we would mourn endlessly for the death of our Christian loved one; without this story there would be no joy, no hope, and we are of all people the most pitied. But Christ is raised from the dead and this is his story according to St. Mark.
We find in the very first verse one of the main reasons Christians have worshipped on Sundays. When the Sabbath was past, that is, when the Jewish Sabbath, which is Saturday, was past, on the first day of the week according to verse 2, they went to the tomb. The resurrection of our Lord is the beginning of the end of the Jewish era. Saturday is no longer to be respected as the day when the people of God gather to worship, but the first day, which is Sunday, is the day of our corporate gathering to worship our risen Lord who was victorious over death. In fact, even the Jewish rabbis recognized this. They referred to Sunday as the “day of the Christians.”[1]
Mark tells us also that the three women who came to anoint the body of our Lord on that first day were present at the crucifixion (vs. 40), at the Lord’s burial (vs. 47), and at the tomb on Sunday morning. This, of course, is a great witness to the resurrection of our Lord. They saw with their own eyes the gospel: the death, burial and the empty tomb. This was a strong affirmation in the first century of the resurrection event. Why? Because “Judaism did not accept the testimony of women in court and so the early church would scarcely have placed them at the tomb unless their presence was a fact of history!”[2] God could have called any of the disciples to be the first witnesses of the empty tomb, but he called three women. We as men take our roles as fathers and husbands very seriously. We are the heralds of the gospel in our families and in the world. But let us not minimize the importance of this event. The women were the first gospelizers. They were the ones that passed on the good news of the resurrection to the apostles and ultimately as the apostles passed on that message to the world. For the women at our congregation, the gospel also demands of you. You too are heir of the grace of God and you too are called to serve the church of God. Your labors, my dear sisters, are not in vain as you raise your children, as you study the Scriptures to show yourself approved, as you teach other women to mature in holiness and knowledge, and as you press on the claims of Christ in all areas of life. The uniqueness of this event is that God gave the least likely in that society a glimpse into the new world.
These women were zealous for their Lord. They were very devoted to their leader, but though they were devoted, “it was a devoted unbelief.”[3] They were going to the tomb to anoint our Lord, which means that they believed Jesus was going to remain dead. This is a reflection not only of the women, but all of the disciples. They all lacked belief in the promised resurrection; the resurrection Jesus had spoken of many times before. My suspicion is that if we were there twenty centuries ago, we too would desire to anoint Jesus’ dead body, rather than see His resurrected body. The good news for us is that we live in a new world; a world of resurrection. As New Covenant believers we are recipients of God’s full revelation and are daily beneficiaries of the resurrection of our Messiah. Continue reading “Easter Sermon; A New World: Mark 16:1-8”
