FBC Morning Light – March 2, 2023

Well, a good Thursday morning to you. Today we're reading in Numbers chapters 3 and 4, the last chapter of the Gospel of Mark, and then Psalm 44. Here we are at the beginning of another month, right? Yesterday, March 1st, the second day of the month already, and we thank the Lord for the soon arrival of spring, at least on the calendar.

We'll see if it shows up that way in the weather as well. What's also coming soon, in about a month, is Easter Sunday. We celebrate the resurrection of our Lord from the tomb, and this last chapter of Mark's Gospel records that event for us.

The Resurrection Was Not Expected

One thing I want us to catch, and I'm sure you've noticed this before, is that the fact of the resurrection was not expected by anybody. Nobody. There was a fear that the body would be stolen, hence the guards in the ceiling of the tomb.

They didn't put the guards there, and they didn't seal the tomb to try to keep a resurrected Jesus from getting out. No, they put it there to keep the disciples from getting in. They were afraid they would come and snatch his body away and perpetuate a ruse of a resurrection.

They made sure that that wasn't going to happen. But the disciples themselves, and these women who come very early on that first day of the week, they weren't expecting a resurrection. Women came, and they brought spices.

They were expecting to anoint the body for burial in a very traditional way, and figured that was it. It was going to be it. They wanted to know who's going to roll the door away from the tomb so we can get in and do this embalming thing.

Who's going to help us with this? They weren't expecting it. What a glorious surprise when they got there. The stone was already rolled away, the tomb was empty, and they were confronted. Who are you looking for?

Are you looking for Jesus of Nazareth? He was crucified. He is risen, the angel tells them. He's not here. Look at the place where they laid him. They look at the place where they laid him, and it was empty.

Peter Is Singled Out for Encouragement

The angel goes on to say, go tell his disciples and Peter, notice that, I'll say something about that in a second, go tell his disciples and Peter that he's going before you to Galilee. There you will see him as he said to you.

Didn't you believe him when he said it? Frankly, no, they didn't. I'm not going to go into the controversy of the concluding verses of Mark chapter 16. The oldest manuscripts that we have show Mark's gospel ending with verse 8, and then there are a bunch of manuscripts that have verses 9 through 20, some with alterations, and some so on and so forth.

I'm not going to get into that. The point is that there's a question as to whether or not Mark actually wrote verses 9 through 20. I personally don't think he did, but what's included in the closing verses is consistent with what you read in the other gospel accounts, especially what I wanted to emphasize today, and that is, nobody expected this resurrection.

Verse 9 says that when they, the rest of the disciples, heard that he was alive and he'd been seen by her, they did not believe. Then they summarize the account of Jesus on the road to Emmaus to those two disciples, who came back to the rest of the disciples after Jesus met with them and told them, he's alive, we had a meal with him.

But it says in verse 13, they didn't believe them either. Then later in verse 14, he appeared to the 11 as they sat at the table, he rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen him after.

Why did Jesus rebuke them? Because Jesus told them, we're going to go to Jerusalem, I'm going to be crucified, and on the third day I'm going to rise again. They were totally unexpecting of it. I want to go back to that verse, verse 7, where the angel tells the women, go to his disciples, tell his disciples, and Peter singles out Peter.

Why did he single out Peter to tell this news of the resurrection? You've probably heard many times before, you can imagine Peter's sense of defeat, failure, that his role as a leader and spokesman for the disciples was long over.

He had denied Jesus, and he went out and wept bitterly for that denial. So Peter is singled out, I think, because he needed to be greatly encouraged that though he had temporarily denied Jesus, Jesus wasn't done with him, Jesus wasn't giving up on him.

He is going to play a significant role in the church to come. So yes, go tell his disciples and Peter. By the way, aren't you grateful that our Lord is gracious, and he doesn't give up on us in our failures?

Grace, Mercy, and God Not Giving Up on Us

What a gracious God. Our thanks to you, O Lord, for that grace, for your mercy to us, how undeserving we are of your forgiveness, your pardon, repeatedly. We thank you for it. Thank you for this encouragement of Peter, because that gives us encouragement today as well.

So we thank you for it, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, have a good rest of your Thursday. I trust the Lord will give you a good day. God.

Bless.