When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, bought
spices so that they may go and anoint him, thinking the corpse of Jesus.
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, Jesus, 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 astonishing had seized them.
And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
That's a rather odd way to end the gospel.
Kind of leaves you hanging.
We've experienced a lot of that this year.
What a year it has been.
It's been one crisis after another, hasn't it?
And each crisis seems to raise its own set of issues that you need to make decisions on.
In order to make decisions on that, you need to gather information.
In order to gather information, you need to have sources of information that you can trust.
Who do you believe is telling the truth?
Who's telling the truth about the coronavirus?
Remember that a year ago.
Who's telling the truth about masks, about social distancing?
Who's telling the truth about George Floyd, Jacob Blake, and all the social justice issues that have erupted?
Who's telling the truth about the future of our nation?
Presidential debates.
What is fake news?
And what is true news?
What a year.
And even though the coronavirus, matters pertaining to social justice, the future of our nation, these are all very important things.
None of these is what is most important.
What is of first importance.
And what is of first importance is what is true about Jesus of Nazareth.
Because eternity is riding on what you believe about him.
I've been talking to a friend about Jesus.
And she's at this really interesting intersection.
She wants to know more about Jesus.
And she's open to talking about Jesus.
But she has got questions about whether she can trust what the Bible says about Jesus.
It's valid.
Is the Bible a source of fake news about Jesus?
Or is the Bible true news, good news about Jesus?
You see, the Bible and the Gospels in particular claim to present true good news about this person, Jesus of Nazareth.
Now, I'm not going to make a defense of the reliability of the New Testament this morning.
But if you're not a Christian and you've been wondering about how reliable are the Gospels, these biographies of Jesus, I've got two of these books.
You can grab one for me at the Kringle table out on the sidewalk on your way out.
I'd be happy to give this to you.
This helps you understand why you can actually trust that what the Gospels are saying are true.
What the Gospel writers assume is that the reader will take what they're saying at face value.
They present their information about Jesus as eyewitness accounts.
So, this morning, if you're not a Christian, would you approach the Gospel of Mark with me?
At face value.
That these are eyewitness accounts of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
So, let me, as you can see on the back of your bulletin, there's a little outline.
I'm going to give you the Gospel background of the Gospel of Mark.
And then we're going to kind of dive into those eight verses in Mark chapter 16.
And then I'm going to point out the extraordinary claim that's being made here.
And at the end of the sermon, I'm going to kind of bring it to bear on where each of us is living in this room.
The Bible can be divided into two big sections.
The Old Testament and the New Testament.
And the Old Testament is about a promise God made to a people, Israel.
And Israel ended up failing to keep that promise.
But all throughout the Old Testament, there are these prophecies, these anticipations of someone who would be coming.
The Messiah.
The Christ.
A king who is from the line of David.
And he would come and he would establish a new covenant.
A new promise God makes to a new people.
And what you need to understand about the Old Testament, all these sacred writings were written before Jesus came.
The New Testament are God's sacred writings after Jesus came.
And what the New Testament, it claims and explains is that Jesus is that long-awaited Christ.
The Messiah.
The king.
And he came to establish a new relationship between God and sinners through his blood.
At the beginning of the New Testament, you have four biographies.
They are called Gospels.
And each biography is presenting Jesus to the reader, to the hearer, to show Jesus as the Christ.
This king who does miracles, whose teaching is unlike anyone else.
How he engaged people was absolutely phenomenal because it was God engaging with people.
These four Gospels point to Jesus being the Christ.
And each Gospel has its own emphases and its own audience that it's aimed at.
The Gospel of Mark emphasizes, it shows the eyewitness accounts of Jesus.
They're believed to be the actual eyewitness accounts of the Apostle Peter that Mark shares with us, the readers.
Now, I'm going to ask Robin to put up Mark 1.1.
This is the very first verse of this Gospel.
And why I'm asking her to do that is to let you know what Mark is setting out to do in writing this biography for us.
At the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, Mark says,
The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
And here's what you need to see.
You need to see three things.
Jesus is the name of this man who is totally man.
You see at the end that title, the Son of God.
That's a claim that Jesus, the Christ, is totally God.
And Jesus Christ, Christ isn't his last name.
It's a title.
He also goes by that same title, the Christ.
Jesus talks about himself as the Son of Man.
That's another way of describing himself as the Christ.
And so all throughout the Gospel of Mark, Mark weaves these claims together.
God the Father at Jesus' baptism says,
My beloved Son with whom I'm well pleased.
At Jesus' transfiguration he says,
This is my beloved Son.
Listen to him.
God is claiming this man to be his son.
And this all climaxes.
Jackson did such a great job this past Friday night.
Showing us from Mark 15 how all this weaves together.
Because in Mark 15 you have these six claims of Jesus being the King of the Jews.
The King of Israel.
And they were all designed to be mocking Jesus at his crucifixion.
It ended up being true.
That title King of the Jews is a claim of Jesus being the Messiah.
It's just another way of saying Christ.
And it's at the very climax of Mark 15.
That Jesus has this piece of wood above his head saying King of the Jews.
Jesus cries out, Eloi, Eloi, Lema, Sabachthani.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
He breathes his last.
And in the book of Mark,
the only human being that recognizes him as being the Son of God
is one of the Gentile Roman centurions who oversaw his death.
Truly, this was the Son of God.
And then in verses 40 and 41 of chapter 15,
we see three women at the cross watching what just happens.
Mary Magdalene.
Mary, the mother of Joseph.
Moses and James.
That's Jesus' mother, Mary.
And Salome.
And then at the burial in 1542 through 47,
two of those three women watch where Joseph of Arimathea lays the corpse of Jesus.
Joseph laid the corpse of Jesus in his own tomb.
It was the tomb of a rich man.
And Mary and Mary saw exactly where that body was laid.
Jesus had been removed from the cross and entombed in Joseph's tomb all before the Sabbath set.
That's a little background that leads us up to Mark 16, 1 through 8.
And in Mark 16, 1 through 8, there are actually three scenes.
There's a scene of these women going to the tomb.
That's verses 1 through 4.
There's a scene of these women in the tomb.
That's 5 through 7.
And then there's the scene of these women coming from the tomb.
That's verse 8.
When it comes to these women going to the tomb in verses 1 through 4,
I just want you to notice a few things.
Remember, notice who these women are.
Mark names the three.
Mary Magdalene.
Mary the mother of James.
That's Mary the mother of Joseph as well.
The mother of Jesus.
And Salome.
These are the women that had just seen Jesus crucified just a couple days before.
And these are the women who saw Joseph lay the body of Jesus in the tomb.
What I also want you to notice in verses 1 and 2 is when this is taking place.
This is after the Sabbath.
The Sabbath has passed.
Verse 2, it's very early in the first day of the week at sunrise.
They're getting an early start.
They have fragrant spices to anoint the body of Jesus with.
But here's what you need to understand.
In the Jewish mind in the first century,
they thought of a day differently than we think of a day.
We think of a day starting at kind of like 12 a.m. going to 11.59 p.m.
For the Jew, they thought of a day in terms of sunsets.
One sunset to another.
And so for the Jewish mind, the Sabbath was Saturday.
And it actually began on sunset of Friday.
And that Sabbath go from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday.
What we see here is that these women, very early Sunday morning,
the first day of the week,
what we as Christians call the Lord's Day,
because it's the day that Jesus was raised,
they're on their way to the tomb.
In verse 3, notice what they're saying to each other.
They're talking about who's going to roll away the stone.
This is the massive stone that was rolled in place by Joseph of Arimathea.
You can see it at the end of Mark 15, verse 46.
Most likely it was Joseph and a couple other guys that moved the stone in place.
These huge stones were usually on little ramps that use gravity to drop into place
before this tomb cut out of a cliff side.
So they're wondering,
who's going to move this stone for us?
So let's not miss what's going on here.
These three women, early Sunday morning, are calm.
They're in their right mind.
And they are expecting to see the corpse of Jesus in the tomb.
Verse 4, they look up,
and they see the massive stone has already been removed.
There's no sense of panic.
I'm guessing they're kind of relieved.
Oh, great.
Somebody move the stone.
Let's finish our work.
This is the first scene of the resurrection account.
Everything changes in this next scene.
Verse 5 and 7, in the tomb,
this is the hot spot of the resurrection account.
And you know how you can tell?
By what happens before and after.
Before we have these women who are in their right mind,
they're expecting to find the corpse of Jesus,
and then in verse 8, if you look at verse 8,
they've completely freaked out.
They are trembling.
They're astonished.
The whole gospel of Mark ends with the word fear.
Whatever happened in between them going into the tomb
and coming out of the tomb
was some kind of forever life-transforming experience.
So what happened?
Let's look at verse 5.
They walk into the tomb,
expecting to see the corpse of Jesus
laid out on a platform,
cut into the rock,
and look at what they find.
And entering the tomb,
they saw a young man sitting on the right side,
dressed in a white robe.
He was sitting on the platform
where the body of Jesus would be laid,
at the right side of that.
He's wearing white.
This is an angel.
And for those of you who are not familiar,
all throughout the Bible,
angels are those who are messengers of God.
They declare God's news.
He goes unnamed.
But the freak out commences.
Look at the end of verse 5.
Mark writes it,
and they were alarmed.
That is like a massive understatement
because they were completely flipping out.
Could you imagine if you were one of these ladies
going into this tomb,
what would be rolling through your mind
if you didn't see the corpse of Jesus
but saw this cute, young, white guy
in a white robe?
I'm not sure if he was a white guy,
but he was in a white robe.
I think you'd be flipping out too.
And then we're drawn into what this angel says.
So they're freaking out,
and this angel says to them,
ladies, don't freak out.
Don't be alarmed.
Don't panic.
You're in the right place.
He knows who they're seeking.
You seek Jesus of Nazareth.
Do you know how that would have struck Mary,
Jesus' mother?
You seek your son.
And then he said,
who was crucified?
This angel in the tomb
on the third day since Jesus' crucifixion
knew that Jesus had been crucified.
In fact, all of heaven knew
that Jesus, totally God, totally man,
had been crucified on that first Good Friday.
all heaven knew.
And then he says this.
He has risen.
He's not here.
And then what's really interesting
is that he then points to the empty platform
and says, see, here's where they laid him.
Nothing.
He's not here.
This is the extraordinary claim
at the end of the Gospel of Mark.
The claim is that Jesus is alive.
And what you need to recognize
is that it's not a man making this claim.
It's a messenger of God making this claim.
In other words,
this is God's announcement.
This is God's announcement
that the one who was crucified
has been raised from the dead.
He is alive.
This is God's good news.
This angel goes on to say to these women
in verse 7,
Galilee, if you're wondering,
is the place where it all started
for Jesus and His disciples.
That's where His public ministry began.
That's where He called His original disciples,
where they came together
and He started to teach and heal.
And so what's going on here
is after His death and resurrection,
He is seeking to regather His disciples
after He's been raised from the dead.
I hope you noticed
that the very first eyewitnesses
to the empty tomb
and those who are being commissioned
by an angel
to go declare that Jesus is alive
are three women.
That's risky for Mark.
I'll come back to that in a second.
But did you also notice
that He singles out Peter
in verse 7,
but go tell His disciples
and Peter
that He's going before you to Galilee?
I'll come back to that
in another second.
At the end of verse 7,
we read,
there you will see Him in Galilee
just as He told you.
Just as He told you.
When did Jesus say that?
If you've got your Bible,
look at Mark chapter 14,
verse 26.
This is right after
Jesus has totally
kind of Jesus-ified
the Passover meal.
He says,
now the Passover,
do it in remembrance of me,
which is phenomenal in itself.
But after the institution
of the Lord's Supper,
Jesus in verse 26 says,
and when they had sung a hymn,
they went out to the Mount of Olives
and Jesus said to them,
you will all fall away,
for it is written,
I will strike the shepherd.
That's a reference to His death.
And the sheep will be scattered.
28,
but after I'm raised up,
I will go before you to Galilee.
There it is.
That's what this angel is referring to
when He says,
just as He told you.
But it's more than that.
Because if you flip in your Bible
back to Mark chapter 8,
verse 31,
Jesus talking about Himself
as the Son of Man,
the Christ,
He starts saying things like this.
The Son of Man must be handed over.
He must suffer and die
and on the third day
be raised from the dead.
He says that in chapter 8,
verse 31,
and then chapter 9,
verse 31,
He says the same thing.
The Son of Man must suffer,
be handed over,
die,
and be raised on the third day.
And if that's not enough,
in Mark chapter 10,
Jesus says,
See,
we are going up to Jerusalem
and the Son of Man
will be delivered over
to the chief priests
and the scribes
and they will condemn Him to death
and deliver Him over
to the Gentiles
and they will mock Him
and spit on Him
and flog Him
and kill Him
and after three days
He will rise.
Jesus
predicted
not just His own death,
but His own resurrection
three days later,
which was all fulfillment
of Old Testament prophecies
of the Christ
in Psalm 16
and Isaiah 53
that would talk about
this Christ
who gives Himself
and comes back to life
for His people.
That's what happens
in the tomb.
And in verse 8,
we see the scene
of these women
coming out of the tomb
and what do you expect?
You read these accounts
in verses 5, 6, and 7
and you're thinking,
okay, this angel
is commissioning
these women to go.
They're going to go
tell the disciples.
Right?
Well, they definitely
hightail it out of the tomb
but in verse 8
you see that this hightailing
was a fleeing
from the tomb.
They were terrified.
They wanted to get out
of there.
Trembling,
astonishment,
and fear
completely shocked,
disoriented,
and terrified.
And then they don't do
what the angel
tells them to do.
They don't tell anybody.
All throughout
the Gospel of Mark
there's this theme
of the disoriented
and unbelieving disciples
including these three women.
These three women
respond to this news
in fearful silence.
And it's in stark contrast
to the centurion
in Mark 15, 39
who upon seeing
the crucified Jesus
breathe his last,
speak with faith-filled confession.
truly,
this was the Son of God.
Why would Mark
close a Gospel
open-ended like this?
Why would he leave us
hanging like this?
I mean,
don't you want closure?
Well, we know what happens
to these women.
We know the rest of the story.
We know these
from the other Gospels
that these women
come to their senses
and they go tell the disciples
and they go meet Jesus
in Galilee
and they see Jesus.
We learn from the Apostle Paul
that Jesus not only
appeared to them
but to 500 other
of his disciples.
And these women,
these same women
in the book of Acts
are part of the early church
that empowered
by the Holy Spirit,
they go and declare
to all people
that Jesus
is the risen Christ
who died
on the cross
for sinners.
We know the rest
of the story.
But why?
Why would Mark
close like this?
It's open-ended
by design.
It's to bring you
into the tomb.
It's for you
to ask the question,
how would I respond
if I were in that tomb
with that angel
and know Jesus present?
How would you respond
to this extraordinary claim
of this angel
that he has risen?
In verses 1-8,
there's this extraordinary claim.
That's where I'm at
in your outline
in the bulletin.
The extraordinary claim
is this.
Jesus is alive.
That's the claim.
And not just
that he's on,
that he's alive,
he's on the move.
He's on his way
to Galilee.
Are you guys familiar
with C.S. Lewis?
C.S. Lewis wrote
the Narnia series
for children.
The Lion, the Witch,
and the Wardrobe
was one of those books.
And we learn
in this novel
of the great lion Aslan,
the king of Narnia.
And it comes to a head
when this lion Aslan
is slain on an ancient rock altar
by the wicked
and icy queen of the north.
But soon after his death,
this altar breaks in two
and Aslan is raised
from the dead
and he's on the move.
And he's on the move
breathing life
onto all of those
who've been put under the curse
by the queen.
Thawing them.
Thawing them to life.
breathing back to life.
All those under the curse.
And gathering to himself
a kingdom of beloved creatures
brought back to life.
C.S. Lewis was a Christian.
And Aslan was a Christ type.
And that beautiful scene
in the Lion, the Witch,
and the Wardrobe,
he's making a claim
that Jesus has been raised
from the dead.
C.S. Lewis also wrote another book.
It's called Mere Christianity.
I have a number of these copies.
If you're interested,
I would be glad to give you one.
I'm going to read a section of this.
Because Lewis was also
a Christian apologist.
Which means he sought to
make a case for Jesus.
Listen to this.
I'm trying here to prevent
anyone saying
the really foolish thing
that people have often said
about him, Jesus.
Quote,
I'm writing to accept Jesus
as a great moral teacher,
but I don't accept
his claim to be God.
That is the one thing
we must not say,
says Lewis.
A man who was
merely a man
and said the sort of things
Jesus said
would not be a great moral teacher.
He would either be a lunatic
on a level with the man
who says he is a poached egg,
or else he would be
the devil of hell.
You must make your choice.
Either this man was
and is the son of God,
or else a madman
or something worse.
You can shut him up
for a fool.
You can spit at him
and kill him as a demon,
or you can fall at his feet
and call him Lord and God,
but let us not come
with any patronizing nonsense
about his being
a great human teacher.
He's not left that open to us.
He did not intend to.
If this extraordinary claim
is true,
that Jesus is the Christ
raised from the dead,
that he is alive
and on the move today,
it changes everything.
He's breathing life
on the dead under the curse.
He's gathering for himself
a new people
under a new promise.
He's gathering for himself
people from every tongue,
tribe, and nation
into one people.
It's called the church.
You can fall at his feet.
You can fall at his risen
from the dead feet.
This extraordinary claim
is made in an extraordinary way
that he's alive.
We know the rest of the story
of the Marys and Salome.
They went to tell the disciples
and they themselves
saw the risen Jesus.
These three women
were the first eyewitnesses
bearing testimony
to the resurrected Jesus.
But here's what you need
to understand.
In the first century,
women did not have
the same rights as men,
especially when it comes
to credible,
credible testimony,
believable testimony,
whether that's in a court of law
or somewhere else.
The question becomes,
why would Mark
risk the credibility
of the claim of his gospel
that Jesus is alive,
that Jesus is the Christ?
Why would he risk that
by including this account
of these three women?
Because it's true.
It really happened.
So confident
was Mark
of the reality
of this account
that he has nothing to hide.
And in fact,
it strengthens
the witness.
Do you know
what a linchpin is?
I've got a picture
of a linchpin for you.
A linchpin is,
you see that spike
going through the axle
of that wagon wheel?
A linchpin keeps a wheel
on the axle of a wagon.
You pull out that linchpin
and the wheels fall off.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ
is the linchpin
of Christianity.
It keeps the wheels
on Christianity.
It is the definitive
validating claim
that Jesus
is in fact
the Christ
who came
to die
for sinners
to bring them
into a life-giving
relationship
with the one true God.
If Jesus
was not raised
from the dead,
he is not
the Christ
and there is
no salvation
in him,
you are still
in your sins.
But if he was
raised from the dead,
he is
the Christ.
Totally God,
totally man,
sent to die
as a ransom
so that you
could live forever
in a right
relationship
with God.
that's good news.
The resurrection
is why I personally
am a Christian,
humanly speaking.
I reached a point
where I could not
explain
the resurrection
of Jesus
in any other way
than that it
actually happened.
It demonstrates,
it sheds light
on the rest
of the claims
of Jesus
about himself
and what he's done.
The question is,
how will you respond?
The simple question
I'm asking you
to answer
this morning is,
is it true?
Did the resurrection
happen?
Is Jesus
alive?
Totally God,
totally man?
Let's say
you're a genuine
follower of Jesus Christ.
Christ.
You believe Jesus
is totally God,
totally man.
You believe he's
the king,
the Christ,
the son of man
who died
in your place
to give you
a place
among God's people.
When you hear
of the resurrection
of Jesus,
that he's alive,
you should be assured
because your faith
does not rest
on thin ice,
brother,
sister.
Your faith
rests on
the historic
granite
of the real
bodily
resurrection
of Jesus
the Christ.
You've not
made a mistake.
Let that assurance
turn to perseverance.
Press on.
If you're a
21st century
follower of
the risen Jesus,
you love him.
And because you love him,
you're going to
constantly be
learning from him
so that you
constantly be
living for him.
Press on.
He's alive.
But there's
one more piece
of this.
If you're a genuine
follower of Jesus,
it's called hope.
Your risen king
has defeated
death
for you.
You will see him.
Not in Galilee,
in glory.
And you're one
day closer.
Jesus is alive.
Now let's say
you're a nominal
Christian.
A nominal
Christian is a
by name
only
Christian.
There's two
things you should
be aware of.
You remember
Scott's testimony
like Scott
who before he
was converted
to Christ,
he thought he was
a Christian
by virtue of
those who
are around him.
Cultural
Christianity
is a claiming
to be a Christian
by virtue
of your surroundings.
A genuine
Christian is a
follower of Jesus
by virtue of a
changed heart
and a changed
allegiance.
A genuine
Christian dies
to themselves
daily
in order to
learn from
and live for
Jesus daily
because we love
him.
are you a
nominal
Christian?
Jesus is
alive.
And he's
calling you
today,
come,
die,
live for
me.
But there's
another aspect
of this
nominal
Christianity
that I want
to raise
to your
attention.
Do you
remember
how the
angel in
the tomb
singled out
Peter?
It's in
verse 7.
He said,
but go tell
his disciples
and Peter,
why does
the angel
single Peter
out?
Because Peter,
at the worst
possible time,
denied Jesus
three times.
All leading up
to Jesus'
crucifixion.
Could you
imagine the
shame?
Could you
imagine the
guilt?
The despair?
Peter?
Maybe at
one point,
you started
following Jesus
and then
something
happened.
And now
you're thinking,
there's no way
that Jesus
would take
you back.
Well,
if Jesus
was able
to forgive
Peter
for his
thrice
denial,
and not
just forgive
him,
but make
him the
leader of
his
church,
all by
his grace.
If he's
able to do
that with a
hothead like
Peter,
who denied
him three
times,
he is able
and willing
to do the
same for
you.
You are
invited
by the
risen
Jesus
to come
and follow
him.
In fact,
I want to
invite you
to come
follow Jesus
with us.
Christ the
King Church
is not a
building,
we're a
people.
And we've
been rescued
by the
risen Jesus
and now
it's our
joy to
learn from
him in
order to
live for
him.
And come,
come back
next week.
Come join
a life
group.
Come join
the pack
as we
follow Jesus
together.
We love
him.
You're
invited to
join us.
Finally,
let's say
you don't
claim to
be a
Christian.
You never
have.
Maybe you're
learning about
Jesus for the
very first
time.
Maybe this
is the
first time
you ever
heard someone
proclaim from
the Bible
what the
Bible claims
about Jesus.
Now,
believe me,
nobody likes
to be strong
armed into
anything,
myself included,
especially when
it comes to
matters of
faith.
But let me
encourage you
to gather
your information
about Jesus.
Would you
consider seeking
Jesus, the
true Jesus,
by reading the
gospel of Mark
on your own?
Better yet,
would you
consider reading
the gospel of
Mark with
another Christian?
God's
name?
My neighbor
just finished
reading through
the gospel of
Matthew,
and we have
been regularly
trading texts
on his
observations and
questions as
he's been
working through
that gospel.
It's been
great.
If you want
to sit down
with another
Christian to
read through
the gospel of
Mark or
Matthew or
John or
Luke,
on your
connect card,
there is a
little box to
check.
I would like
to learn more
about Jesus.
Just check that
box, put it
into one of the
baskets that a
connect team member
is going to have
on your way out,
and we'll set it
up for you.
Gather your
information.
How are you
going to respond
to this
extraordinary claim
of this angel
that Jesus has
risen?
He's alive.
Let me wrap
this up by saying
the basic
question I put
before you this
morning is what
Mark 16 puts
before us.
Did the
resurrection of
Jesus of
Nazareth actually
happen?
Is it fake news
or good news?
And I've been
making my case
based on Mark
16, 1-8,
that Jesus is
alive and it's
the best news
anyone could
hear.
It's the
linchpin of
this claim that
Jesus is the
Christ, the
King who came
and died and
was raised to
bring people
back into a
life-giving
relationship with
God.
Jesus is
totally God,
totally man,
the risen
King who is
alive and is
on the move
and he's
inviting everyone
in this room,
come, follow
me, and live.
He is risen.
God, thank you
so much for
Mark 16, 1-8.
God, would you
do the work
that you intend
to do.
God, would you
rescue sinners,
deliver them from
darkness, bring
them into the
kingdom of your
beloved risen
son.
And for those
of us, Lord
Jesus, who are
seeking to follow
you, God, would
you put strength
in our heart
again to remain
faithful until we
see you.
Amen.