1989 was the release of the last chapter of the original Indiana Jones trilogy.
! Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Crest for the Holy Grail.
! Legend has said that drinking from the Holy Grail, which is a cup that Jesus used in the Last Supper, will provide instant healing, and sustaining use will grant immortality.
Anyway, legends and movie plots aside, Google was reported to be investing a huge sum of money since 2013 to support scientists to discover anti-aging drugs by genetic engineering, which could extend human's life far beyond its natural causes.
Researchers think that it could be possible for humans to live until they are 1,000 years old.
The project has many philosophers and ethicists deeply concerned.
There's the prosper of boredom.
There's prosper of having too many memories to remember any of them.
And adding to that, if you have not worked out your purpose of your life at 70, most likely you still cannot figure it out at 700 years old.
There's also an appealing prosper of someone like Trump or Kim Jong-un.
But what if we could have life?
Real, enduring life.
Life without pain, fear, bondage, failure, and disappointment.
That would be different.
Since the beginning of 2026, over the last four weeks, we are wrestling with three of the outrageous claims of Jesus.
In John 14, 6, which we read just then, Jesus came to be the way, the truth, and the life.
Jesus came to be the life.
And in John 10, 10, he says that he came that we might have life and have it to the fullest.
Four things I want to say about Jesus came to be the life.
Firstly, why Jesus came to be the life.
And secondly, his life challenges our minds.
And then, his life gives us hope.
And finally, his life gives us purpose.
The Bible declares that God is eternal.
God's life has no beginning and has no end.
So, Psalms 90, verse 2, written by Moses, help us to see God is always living.
Before the mountains were born, or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
God never needs to be made because he always is.
In a brief hundred years, this planet will have population of more than 10 billion brand new people.
And all 8.2 billion of us living today will have vanished off the earth.
But not God.
He will never have a beginning and therefore depends on nothing for his existence.
God does not need air to breathe or food to eat or water to drink.
He does not need help with the work he decides to do.
God always has, within his own life, everything he needs for being who he is as God.
And for doing all that he chooses to do.
Everything in the world needs God, but he does not need anything in the world.
God does not have it in him to go out of existence, just as we do not have in us to live forever.
We all age and die because it is our present nature.
God, however, continues forever unchanged because it is his eternal nature.
So God is self-existent.
He has life in himself.
And God is also self-sufficient.
He has everything he needs for his life in himself.
This is why Jesus claims to be the life in John 14.
It is the natural extension of his claim to be this God.
God, Jesus claims to be the life because he is the God who is self-existent and self-sufficient.
Last week, we took a glimpse at John 1.
There, John asserted that Jesus is the Son of God, is equal with God,
and God's agent in creating all there is.
It also says this about Jesus in verse 4 of chapter 1 of John.
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
And a few chapters later, in chapter 5, verse 26, that claim is expanded and clarified.
As the Father has life in himself, so he has granted his Son also to have life in himself.
Jesus is the life because he shares in the self-existing life of God.
That is the first reason he came to be the life.
And secondly, John's main concern is that this self-existing life of Jesus is light for humanity.
John is interested in Jesus being life and light for the salvation of humanity.
Jesus is the source of eternal life.
In John chapter 3, Jesus explains his death on the cross in the term of it being salvation and eternal life to all who believe in him.
Jesus is the life because he is, firstly, the God who always existed and from whom all life flows.
And secondly, because he is the source of eternal life for those who believe in him.
John 11, verse 25, he says,
I am the resurrection and the life.
The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.
And whoever lives by believing in me will never die.
All these claims hang on the resurrection of Jesus.
If Jesus did not raise, then he cannot claim to be life.
The Apostle Paul said the same thing.
If the resurrection did not happen, then Christianity is useless.
So let's jump back to Mark 16 and follow and allow these resurrected life challenges give us hope and change the course of our lives.
The word of challenge for our mind is there in Mark 16, verse 6.
Don't be alarmed, he said.
You are looking for Jesus the last year who was crucified.
He has risen.
He is not here.
See the place where they laid him.
That is the challenge to our minds.
Jesus came back to life after his execution.
The Bible says that after Jesus was killed, he came back to life and appeared to his followers.
The Bible says that it's why Jesus' followers did not go home.
That's why Christianity exploded to become dominant in the Roman Empire within 200 years
and the largest, most widespread of all religious faith on the planet today.
But this is Cheswood in 2026.
And most people around us just do not believe it.
I got it.
So, in challenging our minds, it is important not to be intellectually lazy.
Before we reject the resurrection, some thoughts need to be given to alternative, historically possible explanations.
A general trend is that rather than looking into that evidence,
what follows is a accusation that the tests like Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John are not reliable.
To justify ignorance, there is a temptation to call the historical document legends.
And Mark challenges that too here.
Three times in eight verses in Mark 1540 and 1547 and 161,
Mark recorded the name of the eyewitnesses who saw it all.
Mary Madeline, Mary the mother of James, and Sonomi.
Why three times?
Because these are the marks of ancient historians to emphasize their findings about the fact,
not legends.
These women are clearly described as eyewitnesses.
Notice in chapter 1540, some women were watching.
And again, in 1547, Mary Madeline and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.
Then in 164, when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.
Then in verse 5, as they entered the tomb, they saw, then at the end of verse 6,
see the place where they laid him.
This is pretty obvious that Mark sees this woman as clear eyewitnesses to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
This is a slam-dump proof that the resurrection is history and not legend.
One of the strongest early arguments against the truth of Christianity is that the account of the resurrection
is based on the eyewitnesses' testimony of women.
A second-century Greek philosopher named Caesar was one of the early opponents of Christianity.
He wrote that the resurrection was a lie because women were the eyewitnesses,
and women were regarded as hysterical and unreliable.
And people went, good point, sisters.
That is a real problem.
It was an incredibly convincing argument,
because in ancient cultures, women were marginalized,
and it was hard to believe in their testimony.
But this is the very culture that Mark was writing in.
And if Mark was to make this all up,
then he would never have put women in as the only eyewitness to Jesus' empty tomb.
The only way to account for the women being recorded as the first eyewitnesses of Jesus' resurrection
is that they were.
This cannot be legend.
Mark challenging our minds and worldview here.
He has written this as a historical documentation of actual events,
events that challenge the way we see the world.
At this point, it will be easy to say,
okay, this stuff is written as history,
but we got the facts a little muddled up.
Ancient people were a little gullible
about miracles that do not have our modern, developed mind.
We have learned a thing or two in the past 2,000 years.
It is easy to assume that they were open to the idea of resurrection where we are not.
So let us not be too quick to assume they were ignorant and gullible.
One thing you will notice as you read Mark is that Jesus tells his disciples quite clearly
that he will die and rise again on the third day.
It's there in chapter 8, twice in chapter 9, and again in chapter 10.
The weird thing is the third day after his death arrives,
no one was expecting a resurrection.
The blokes are not around, and the woman have brought spies to an unthorn a dead body.
As they wheeled around the trolley past the spies at Woolies,
they did not go, oh, spies are on sale.
Unfortunately, we will not be needing those this time around.
Jesus just borrowed the term for a few days.
The disciples were not sitting around breakfast pointing,
ah, it's the third day, maybe we ought to go and take a look.
What could it hurt?
What's more, those who did go to the tomb,
these three women were wondering who was going to open the tomb for them when they got there.
The resurrection took everyone by surprise.
The resurrection was as impossible for them to believe as it is for us today.
Their thirst for us, as seeing the empty tomb,
was not that Jesus had come back to life,
but that someone had stolen the body.
A fair assumption back then,
because grave robbing was a widespread practice.
If you have doubt about the resurrection,
so did they.
But they let the evidence charge their worldview.
It's normal to question the validity of the resurrection,
but if you do, for integrity's sake,
then we have to come up with alternative,
historically possible reason.
Why this little ragtag group explored to all corners of the globe
and penetrated vastly different cultures
and changed the world over 20 centuries.
If we reject the resurrection,
we have to produce an alternative,
historically possible explanation,
what happened with the body of Christ.
The Christians,
the Romans,
and the Jews
all agreed the tomb
they laid Jesus' dead
was empty after three days.
So what happened with the body?
If we reject the resurrection,
then we have to produce an alternative,
historically possible reason.
Why hundreds of people
claim to have seen him resurrected?
And why the opponents
of Christianity
could not produce a body?
Why these early Christians,
most of whom were cowered
at his crucifixion,
joyfully gave their life
to see this message
of the resurrection of Jesus
spread through the world?
His life challenges our minds,
but if we allow his life
to challenge our minds,
then his life gives us hope.
His life is mercy and grace
to our hearts.
Look at this wonderful word
in Mark 16,
verse 7.
Go,
tell his disciples,
and Peter,
he is going ahead of you
into Galilee.
There you will see him
just as he told you.
To understand what
incredible word of grace
and hope this is,
let's consider what
was not said.
He did not say to the woman,
to the woman,
you tell those
faithless,
backstepping coward
that deserted me
and denied me
that I might see them
if they grovel
and they have better grovel.
That, of course,
would have been warranted
given what they did to him.
Instead,
Jesus is forgiving them
and calling back
to himself
even before they have repented.
This is a word
of mercy and grace,
forgiveness and hope.
The greatest,
the biggest word
of grace and hope
is simply
in the name Peter.
Why is it so special?
It's because
at the end of chapter 14,
Peter does what
he promised
he would not.
He disowned Jesus.
He abandoned Jesus.
It's a terrible
betrayal by Peter.
He turned his back
on God
and ran
to save his own skin.
So,
if the word
to the woman
is simply
go and tell the disciples,
Peter may have
concluded that
it did not apply to him,
not after what he has done.
Jesus specifically
said to the women
through the angel,
I have planned
for my disciples,
even Peter.
Peter was the biggest
screw-up
and he became
the biggest
of the leaders
in the early days
of the church.
He screwed up
the biggest
in repentance
the deepest
and his grabs
of grace
the greatest.
The good news
of Christianity
is that salvation
is by grace,
not by our work,
effort,
or strength.
Salvation
comes to us
by the weakness
of Jesus Christ
dying for us
on the cross.
Salvation,
eternal life,
comes to us
by Jesus
when we admit
our inability
and weakness
and failure
when we admit
we need
a savior.
Jesus is the savior
we need.
Forgiveness
and life
are offered
to Peter
and to us
with the resurrection
of Jesus.
When a criminal
completes
his jail sentence,
they fully,
completely,
totally
satisfy
the sentence.
When they walk
out of prison,
the law
has no more
claim on them.
They are free.
Jesus Christ
came to pay
the penalty
of our crime
against God.
It was a huge
penalty.
It was a huge
sentence
as the sentence
was death.
He who is
the source
of life,
the self-sufficiency
in his life,
surrendered
that life
so that we,
deserving of death,
may have life
forever.
He must have
satisfied it
fully
because he
walked out
alive and free.
Death could not
hold him down
in Jesus.
God stamped
the pay in full
right across history
so that no one
can miss it.
It's because
Jesus
has raised
from death
God come
can come to us
with a word of grace
and offer us
life forever,
like his
forever life.
If we allow
this life
to change our minds,
then this life
will give us hope.
And then,
lastly,
this life
will give us
purpose
to our life
and we shape
the way we live now.
The purpose
I'm speaking
of is captured
in the little word
go.
Go and tell
people about
the resurrected
Jesus.
Go and communicate
in every way
about the resurrected
Jesus.
This is why
verse 8
is such a shocking
way of Mark
to end his
gospel account.
Trembling
and bewildered,
the women went out
and fled
from the tomb.
They say nothing
to anyone
because they were
afraid.
The resurrection
is such a great news.
how could you
not shout it out?
The resurrection
is the answer
to our deepest longing
to live life
well forever.
That's why
the beauty industry
is booming.
That's why
baby boomers
wear jeans
and we want
to be young,
fragrant,
healthy
because those
were the days
before emotional
pain,
responsibility,
and clarity.
We want to live
and live well
and one of the
reasons it's
so hard to suffer
is that we think
that this physical
world is it
and when you
lose it,
you lose the best
and most precious
things.
Resurrection
means that
this is not it.
There's more
to come.
The resurrection
means that God
is going to
perfectly
remake this world
and the resurrection
changed everything.
This is hope
for the wheelchair
barns and the
people with
crippled emotional
pain.
No religion
in the world
except biblical
faith promises
new and perfect
mind, heart,
and body
forever.
Only in the
gospel of Jesus
Christ do people
find so much
hope for life.
The resurrection
of Jesus
changes everything.
If you know
that this is not
the only tangible
concrete life,
who cares what
people do
to you,
the resurrection
makes you free
from this life
enough to be
brave,
courageous,
sacrificial,
generous,
patient,
and joyful.
The resurrection
means you can
face the worst
things in life
with joy and
hope.
According to
1 Corinthians 15,
the resurrection
means you can
give yourself
to serving God
in this world
with purpose
and meaning.
Not in
vanity,
that's what we
all want to
say about
our life,
to finish it
and say that
has all
had purpose
and meaning.
The resurrection
also means
life forever
with joy.
Not just a
thousand years,
Jesus
promises
eternal joy.
The end of the
Bible has a goal
of all things,
God
dwelling with
people.
No more
tears,
no more
death,
or mourning,
or crying,
or pain.
To the thirsty
he promised water
with her cause
from the spring
of the water
of life.
Jesus came
that we might
have life
and have it
to the fullest.
Jesus purchased
it and offered
never adding life
to us.
Jesus is
the only way,
the only truth,
and the only
life.
Have you
received what
Jesus offers
you?
What is the
hope and purpose
for your life?
I invite you
to take a
moment to
consider Jesus'
challenge to
your life
and to accept
his offer for
you to have
eternal life.
I will lead us
in a prayer
after a brief
moment.
Please repeat
the prayer in
your heart and
speak with me
afterward.
If you have
prayed with
me.
Lord Jesus
Christ,
I come to
you now.
I confess
to you my
sin in
thoughts,
words,
and actions.
I am truly
sorry and
turned from
living without
you to ask
for your
forgiveness.
Thank you
that you
came from
heaven to
save me
by dying
on the
cross for
me and
raising again
for eternity.
I know that
I cannot do
anything to
earn your
forgiveness.
You have
done it all
at the
cross.
As best as
I understand,
I gratefully
give my
life back to
you, asking
for your
forgiveness and
acceptance.
Please come
fully into
my life as
I trust you
alone to
save me.
come in as
my Savior to
wash away
my sin.
Come in as
my Lord and
be in charge
of my life.
Come in as
my friend to
be with me
always.
Please send
your Holy Spirit
to live within
me and make
me a child in
your family.
Thank you for
hearing and
answering my
prayer.
In faith, I
place my
hope and
trust in you,
my Savior and
Lord.
Amen.