Who Is Afraid Of The Ressurection? - [Mark 16:1-8]

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Well, usually holidays are associated with different things. And if I ask you which holiday is associated with fireworks, you would say, it's easy.
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Which holiday is associated with love letters and hearts? Which holiday is associated with turkey eating?
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Well, mostly all are eating, but turkey. Which holiday is associated with remembering military service men and women?
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And so far, you're doing very well. We know the answers. But which holiday is associated with getting scared or frightened?
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Kids might say Halloween. That's the wrong answer. Do you know that the
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Gospel of Mark presents Easter, Resurrection Sunday, as something so supernatural that the response should be fear, to be afraid.
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How many associate being afraid with Easter or Resurrection Sunday? There's some debate between, shall we call it
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Easter or Resurrection Sunday, but there's no debate in the Gospel of Mark that the response to the resurrection should be fear.
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Let's turn our Bibles to the Book of Mark. And this morning, I'd like to remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to the
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Gospel, as Paul would say in 2 Timothy 2 .8. We are looking today, if you look to Mark 1 .1,
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how that God does something supernatural in the Bible, and the response is then fear, which ultimately should lead us to faith.
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That's the new Easter paradigm, our Resurrection Sunday paradigm for this morning. Supernatural occurrence.
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The response is first fear, and then faith. Mark is writing this
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Gospel, I call it the Caffeine Gospel. So in honor of Mark today and his
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Caffeine Gospel, I had a big cup of coffee at home, I got two shots of espresso at Starbucks, and then we got the
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Starbucks here, and so I am in the mode. You're supposed to preach according to genre,
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I'm feeling in the genre of Mark. This Gospel goes, goes, and goes. Two out of every three sentences start with the word, and.
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And often you'll see in English the word immediately, and immediately, and immediately. This Gospel is fast -paced, and it's summarized by chapter 1, verse 1, the beginning of the
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Gospel or good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Everything about this book hones in on the greatness of Christ, who
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Jesus is, and what Jesus has accomplished. The person and work of Christ, Mark takes out a magnifying glass and puts it up really closely to the subject of Christ, and he moves it quickly from one account to another account.
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Not a lot of teaching in Mark, but what Jesus does. And you're going to see today several examples of how
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Christ does something in a supernatural way. The response, the proper response is fear, which ultimately
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Mark would want and God would want to lead you to faith. And if I have a purpose this morning for you, if you're a Christian, that you just see
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Christ again and you say, what a great Savior I have. Christ is great, Christ is wonderful,
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Christ, may you be magnified by the Spirit's power in my life. If you're not a Christian, if you're an unbeliever, and you're here visiting today, thank you for coming.
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We'd love to have visitors here. And my prayer for you is that you'll see Christ Jesus and say, if what the
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Bible says is true, He's my only hope for my sins to be forgiven. He's my only hope of having to face
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God one day when I die and be forgiven and have the entrance to heaven.
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And so let's look at the Gospel of Mark, and I want to show you several demonstrations of this resurrection paradigm, supernatural occurrence, fear, and then faith.
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And let's go to Mark chapter 4 to start. Mark chapter 4, Mark has a purpose of writing and it's not so that you might get the warm fuzzies necessarily, but he wants a response.
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And so sometimes we'll see with this paradigm, supernatural and fear and faith doesn't show up, but it's implicit in the book of Mark.
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He wants us to believe. And so the first demonstration of Jesus's supernatural power that should drive us to fear is found in Mark 4, verse 35.
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If you'd like an outline, the first question in the outline is, do you believe that Jesus is the supernatural
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God over creation? Do you believe that Jesus is the supernatural God over the sea?
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One of my favorite passages in all the Bible, Mark chapter 4, verse 35. See if you can see that paradigm, supernatural and then fear.
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On that day, when evening had come, He said to them, let us go over to the other side.
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Jesus has had a busy day. The Pharisees have called Him a blasphemer. His mother and His brothers essentially tried to come and kidnap
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Him. He gives parables, probably out in the hot sun. And with a sense of urgency,
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Jesus says, let's go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, this lake that's shaped like a pear, probably to rest, yes.
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Probably for ministry because there's going to be ministry on the other side. But really with the purpose that He's going to drive a lesson home, spiritual boot camp for the disciples.
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Do they really believe in a God that they can trust? Verse 36, leaving the multitude, they took
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Him along with them just as He was in the boat. Maybe Jesus didn't even get out of the boat after He got done teaching on the other side and other boats were with Him.
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Were there any fishermen in this boat, by the way, the disciples? Were any of the disciples fishermen? Well, of course, and they had fished there often,
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Peter, Andrew, James, and John. This was an everyday journey. I've driven down the street sometimes before and I'm going to the
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Greendale Mall and by the time I get there, I think, do I remember how I got here? I don't remember getting on the freeway.
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I don't remember changing lanes. I don't remember driving 95 miles an hour in the slow lane. I don't remember any of it, but I'm there.
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And so this is the same thing according to these fishermen. This is just a regular, everyday, day in and day out occurrence, fishermen being on the
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Sea of Galilee, or so we think. Verse 37, and here's this kind of style that Mark has, and there arose a fierce gale of wind and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up.
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I mean, how bad could it be? It's just a little kind of lake, right? Violent storms could come down on the
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Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is surrounded by mountains and you've got Mount Hermon 9 ,200 feet, you've got the
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Mediterranean over here, and then you've got the Sea of Galilee 600 feet below the Mediterranean, and down comes these gales, these squalls, and immediately there's all kinds of waves and it can become very treacherous, very chaotic.
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Luke says the storm came down, the wind came down, called it a furious squall.
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It's like in Jonah where the Lord hurled this great wind. And Matthew says it was basically like an earthquake.
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It says there was a shaking, an upheaval. Waves are breaking over the boat.
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To what degree? The boat's filling up. And how do these disciples respond? Verse 38, and Jesus himself emphatically was in the stern, asleep on the cushion.
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I mean, can't you see the humanity of Jesus? People say, oh, he's just some spirit being. Well, there is the spirit being laying down sleeping on the cushion.
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He's fully God and fully man. He's tired. He's been preaching all day. There's another man who was sleeping during the storm, but he wasn't quite as sinless as Jesus now, was he?
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Water everywhere, and he's sleeping on a pillow. This high priest that can sympathize with our weaknesses.
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And they woke him and said, teacher, don't you care that we're perishing? I mean, they didn't say, Jesus, don't you care that you're perishing?
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We're concerned about you perishing. These are expert sailors. These are old salts, if you will.
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They've been in plenty of storms, but they are frightened. I think they're yelling. And what does
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Jesus do? You know the story. And being aroused, rudely,
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I might add, one man said, the Son of God is subjected to the rudeness of men. He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, hush, be still.
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And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. Now, these men were very afraid ahead of time, before this rather, because the storm, they could die.
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They're out in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. It's a long, big lake, six miles by 13 miles,
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I believe. And they're afraid. And now Jesus calms the wind and the sea. And what does he say?
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Hush, be still. He doesn't seem afraid. He says, peace, be silent, like he tells a demon, be gagged, be muzzled.
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The man said, like dogs, hounds held by the leash, the waves cowered back and the sea was calm.
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This isn't gradual. This isn't kind of the wind stops and then the sea kind of finally slows down.
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This is like when you take a sheet on your bed and snap it, and instantly it's flat. I think it was kind of eerie, eye of the hurricane, kind of Twilight Zone deal.
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Here's all the storm and all of a sudden, shh, Lake Placid.
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He didn't just turn off the wind because the sea would have still been churning. He turns off the wind and then makes the sea obey him.
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It's a great God who Paul says about Christ, for by him all things were created.
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This is actually the sea that was still, some liberals say, Jesus never did anything to the sea. He just calmed the storm in their hearts and made them feel calm.
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And he said to them, verse 40, why are you so timid? How is it that you have no faith?
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It's one thing when I'm talking to the Pharisees and others about real faith and for you to examine how they don't have faith.
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Now the test is for you, disciples. To what extent do you believe? How do they respond?
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I'll tell you how I would respond. Yay, no ocean, no sea.
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I'm not going to get thrown over and drown. There's lots of times where I think about death and one of the ways that I don't want to die is by drowning.
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Be happy, high -fiving Jesus. And they became, verse 41, very much afraid.
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They were afraid before because of the sea. Now it's intensified, it's turned up. They were very much afraid and said to one another, who then is this that even the wind and sea obey him?
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The text says that literally they feared with a great fear. It was a phobia mega, like a megaphone is great megaphobia.
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They were very, very afraid. Here's the storm.
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They were frightened. The storm's done with, but they're even more frightened. Why? Because they realized there's the
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God of the universe inside their boat who was just sleeping on a cushion. They were afraid.
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They knew Psalm 89, thou dost rule the swelling of the sea. I could ask you the question then, who then is this that even the wind and sea obey him?
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Jesus Christ is God. He does something supernatural. He stops the wind and the sea and the response of the disciples is what?
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They're afraid. As much as I'm not trying to encourage horror movies for you and your family to go watch, there is the right paradigm when you watch something supernatural with some kind of ghost or some kind of demon or something like that.
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What do people respond with when they see some horror movie? They're afraid because it's not natural.
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It's supernatural. It's not normal. It's above normal. And all of a sudden the response is, so too if it was really the
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God of the universe who's not some kind of demon that's created, not some kind of illusion of some Hollywood writer, but the real
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God of the universe who is triune, who is holy, who is set apart, who is all powerful.
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He's sleeping in your boat and he says, all right, I'll just show you how powerful I am. And what do they do?
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They're afraid. The response in Mark is there's something supernatural and you shouldn't say, wow,
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I feel so much better now that God's close to me. I feel afraid. Number two, let's go to chapter five.
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These are clumped together. Jesus is our supernatural God. And when he does something, the response found often in Mark is fear.
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And that should lead us to faith. There's only one to believe in Christ Jesus. I love this account just as much as I love the last account.
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The first demonstration showed that Jesus is supernatural God over the sea. This shows that Jesus is the supernatural
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God over demons, over spirit beings. Do you believe it? Matthew five, excuse me,
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Mark five one. They came to the other side of the sea in the country of the Gerizim. The only time you hear about somebody like the disciples is right here, the word they.
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They're not even in the picture. Mark is putting the spotlight on Jesus. It's all about Jesus, who he is, his person, his life.
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Jesus is the focus. He alone speaks. He alone acts. And look at this writing style.
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And when he had come out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. How would you respond?
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Here comes this naked, disheveled, raised by wolves kind of look guy. He comes running right up to you and what do you do?
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I don't know, but I'm pretty much back in that boat hoping for another storm is what I'm hoping for. I remember when
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I was in Omaha growing up, I used to work at the haunted house every year. It was a donation of a few bucks to get in, take this old dilapidated house and you create these rooms and there's little hiding places and everything.
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What a great, fun thing for an unregenerate kid to do. Scare people.
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It was just all made up. You turn the lights on. It was some kind of ketchup, you know, goo on the face. It's not real. It's dark.
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Matthew 5, Mark 4 .35 says, the evening had come. And here comes this guy running up, this demon possessed man.
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There were two, another account said, but this is the prominent one. This is the one that Mark wants us to focus on.
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And this guy is living in the tombs, dead bodies, all the whole
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Jewish touching, ceremonially unclean kind of things come into play. And he's demented, he's disturbed.
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But worse, he's demon possessed. And look at how it describes him here. It's describing him this way, by the way, so only
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God could help him. And he had his dwelling among the tombs and no one was able to bind him anymore.
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They used to be able to bind him, but not anymore, even with a chain. Because he'd often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him.
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I mean, they tried, but here's this naked crazy man running around, smelled bad, I'm sure. Luke 8 says he had not put on any clothing for a long time and was not living in a house, but in the tombs.
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Crazy. Super strong. This is not some kind of Houdini breaking the chains deal.
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This is real. From the human perspective, incurable. From the natural perspective, can't help the guy.
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If I was to describe this man to the kids, I'd say, this is the real boogeyman. What's worse, what does he do?
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He cries out and he cuts himself. That's pretty gross. Crying out and cutting himself, frenzied.
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And verse 5 says, and constantly, night and day, among the tombs and in the mountains, he's running all around crazy, streaking all around.
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And he's crying out and gnashing himself with stones. Just imagine the shriek of all this.
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I want to say all the noise, noise, noise, noise, noise, yelling, screaming.
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Some of this shows that it's this inarticulate cry of shriek. It's not like, ah, help me.
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It's just crazy scream. By the way, how many times did I have to scream like that from the pulpit? Self -mutilation is often seen in the
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Bible as some kind of demonic, horrible thing. One man said, this guy has manic depression.
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I thought, this guy's not manic. He's a maniac. That's who he is, naked, disheveled. How would you react?
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I'll tell you, I would be afraid. I would be very afraid. Verse 6, and seeing
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Jesus from a distance, he ran up, and like with compulsion, not out of worship, but just knowing there's a superior before him, he bows down before him.
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I thought, if I would read this verse without ever knowing it, and seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and attacked him.
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He assaulted him. He took the chains that used to be wrapped around his body and began to whip Jesus. He spit all over his face like a magnet and little shards of metal.
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There's this undeniable, irresistible force that comes together where the demons, not in worship that glorifies him, but understanding that they're before their judge, before their creator, bows down in homage and submission.
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Crying out with a loud voice, he said, what do I have to do with you, Jesus, son of the most high?
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I implore you by God, do not torment me. Some say it's kind of a curse.
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Some say it's a vow. Some say it's a threat. Mind your own business. Literally, it is what to me and to you.
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By the way, demons aren't liberal either. I think they acknowledge Jesus as fully God. And he uses a title that's very common for the
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Jews back in those days to speak of God. Son of the most high God.
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He's not an idol. He's not made up. He's not crafted by hands. Jesus is God, the demons say.
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They know they're going to get sent to the pit. They know hell was created for ultimately the demons, and they just don't want to go there yet.
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Verse 8, look at the text. For he had been saying to them, come out of the man, you unclean spirit. I see no incense.
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I see no formulas. I see no holy water. I see no props for exorcism. Come out of the man, he says.
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And he was asking him, what is your name? And he said to him, my name is Legion, for we are many. As the
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Romans would have 6 ,000 men in a legion that signified strength and order and destructiveness, so too had this legion of demons come into this man relentlessly.
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Verse 10, and he began to entreat Jesus earnestly not to send them out of the country. Kept on begging.
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What's worse than a nagging demon? Drip, drip. Now there was a big herd.
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It's just interesting how he says it. Verse 11, now there was a big herd of swine feeding there on the mountain. The demons entreated
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Jesus saying, send us into the swine so that we may enter them. We'll go anywhere except the abyss.
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We don't want to get tortured now and punished now. Let us find some kind of bodies to inhabit. Destroy us.
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This isn't a good motive. They still have a demon nature, and demon's nature makes them demon -like.
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And Jesus, this is strange, gave them permission. Coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine.
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I want you to think about what this would sound like. And the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about 2 ,000 of them, and they were drowned in the sea.
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Sheep follow. Pigs are solo. Pigs don't run around in herds following the leader.
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But here they did. You say, oh, those poor pigs. Jesus is, you know, like Bertrand Russell said, this is why
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I'm not a Christian is because Jesus is so mean to pigs. I mean, what's the value here?
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One man's soul are 2 ,000 pigs. And by the way, if you eat bacon, you can't make a peep.
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Rushing headlong. If the Jews were the owners of the pigs, they ought not to have been taking care of the pigs because of Mosaic law.
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And they were choking as they would go down into the ocean, into the sea rather. Imagine that sound.
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The text is just choking, just kind of this gagging sound, all this squealing as they would go one after another after another.
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One man said, Jesus sent them to hog heaven, but I don't think that's true. Another man said, this is what deviled ham actually looks like.
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I don't think that's true either. That was just thrown in before I assault you again with the text.
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One man said, there is a cheap sentimentalism which will languish in grief over the pain of an animal and will never turn a hair at the wretched state of millions of God's men and women.
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These demons will be dealt with forever, I think, is the statement Jesus was making. I believe Jesus additionally was saying,
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I have the power to do whatever I'd like to these demons. And if demons were supernatural and no men could subdue these supernatural demons in this man, what does it lead you to think if Jesus can subdue them?
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He's not just a man, he is God. By the way, these pigs are going to die sooner or later.
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Every pig is going to be either killed or die of old age or have an animal attack. So he's just speeding up the inevitable.
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In verse 14, it says, and their herdsmen ran away and reported in the city and in the country and the people came to see what it was that had happened.
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Remember our paradigm? Supernatural, afraid. Here it is right here in verse 15. And they came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon possessed sitting down.
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He was running around crazy, now he's seated. Clothed, he was naked, now he's got clothes. And in his right mind, he didn't have his right mind before, he had demon mind.
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The very man who had the legion, had the legion. Now if I see a demon possessed guy,
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I'm going to be afraid and after Jesus cast out the demon, what am I going to feel? Glad, a relief.
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Here I don't have this demon man running around. But the response
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Mark wants is completely different. And it says at the end of verse 15, you might want to highlight this, and they became frightened.
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As Jesus calms the sea, so too does he calm this man who's demon possessed.
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And all those who are there realize the God of the universe is there before us, cloaked in human flesh.
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And he just showed his power. And if God is there, he is holy, I am sinful.
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And when holy meets unholy, there is a nuclear reaction called fear.
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Mark wants you to realize supernatural fear. This isn't kind of like supernatural buddy, supernatural, oh
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God, George Burns. Supernatural, I'm going to run up to his lap like kind of grandpa. It's supernatural and the first response is fear.
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And you say, how could it be fear, true or false? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
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Demonstration number three. Third demonstration that shows this paradigm of supernatural and then fear with my desire and Mark's that you would believe.
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Jesus is the supernatural God over the sea. He's the supernatural God over demons. And now number three,
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Jesus is the supernatural God over disease and sickness. You say, what does this have to do with the resurrection?
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We're getting there. It has everything to do with it,
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Matthew 5 .25, Matthew 5 .25. Now, the other examples were this brute strength power kind of displays.
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And now we see the compassionate side of Christ and His very kind side. Verse 25, we're just jumping into the text, and a woman who had a hemorrhage for 12 years and had endured much of the hands of many physicians, that's an understatement, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all.
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Why is Mark saying this? Because there's no human help that could ever help. We need someone else to help. But rather, had grown worse.
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After hearing about Jesus, came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak.
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Here is this lady who has a chronic probably uterine kind of hemorrhaging. She goes to doctors and they botch it every single time, a bunch of quacks.
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She's weak. She's anemic. She suffered.
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She's subject to all kinds of weird treatment. Did you know some of the treatment for hemorrhaging in a woman found in the
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Talmud was this? Take the gum of Alexandria, the weight of a zuzi, a silver coin, of a loom the same, the crocus of the same.
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Let them be bruised together and given in wine to the woman that has an issue of blood. If this does not benefit, take the
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Persian onions, three pints, boil them in wine. Give her to drink and say, arise from thy flux.
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This does not cure her. Set her in the place where two ways meet and let her hold a cup of wine in her right hand and let some of the others come up behind her and frighten her and say, arise from thy flux.
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You know, you scare somebody when they got the hiccups. That does no good. Take a handful of cumin, a handful of crocus, a handful of fenugreek.
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Let these be boiled together and give her to drink. And then it just gets weirder. Let them, if this does no good, other doses, over 10 in number prescribed.
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Let them dig seven ditches in which let them burn several cuttings of vines, not yet four years old.
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Let her take her in her hand a cup of wine. Let them lead her away from the ditch and make her sit down over that and let them remove her from that and make her sit down over another saying to each, at her remove, arise from thy flux.
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I mean, it just goes on and on. Carry the ashes of an ostrich, egg, and special clothes.
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Kind of sounds like some HMOs I know. She's incurable from a human perspective.
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That's the point. No hope. Luke 8 says she could not be healed by anyone.
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So she goes up and stealthily, she touches Jesus' cloak. She must have heard about him and his power from somewhere else.
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Why would she sneak? By the way, the crowds are pressing in on Jesus. It's just chaotic. I went to a rock concert one time and I thought for an experiment,
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I'm jammed in so tightly to get into the front that I'm just going to lift both of my feet up and I'm not even going to move.
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I was just jammed in. Same kind of thing, but somehow, even though she's weak, she's anemic, she's been bleeding, she goes up to the front and she gets in there to touch him.
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Well, she doesn't want him to know that she's touching him because the Mosaic law, if you're bleeding that way and you touch something or sleep on something or have some garment that you sit on, anybody else touches it, they're unclean.
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So she's not going to want to go up and make Jesus unclean. That's what she's thinking. So she's going to sneak up.
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Why would she want to touch the garment? The text tells us, verse 28, for she thought, if I just touch his garments,
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I shall get well. Faith in who Christ was and what he said and his ability.
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If I only touch his garment, I shall get well. She said over and over to herself, Matthew chapter nine.
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She had faith in Christ's healing power, the right object of the faith, and it was rewarded.
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Verse 29, and immediately the flow of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
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It's like there's a well or a spring flowing over and all of a sudden it stops. That's the idea, instantly.
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And she was healed of her, literally the text says, scourge. She was healed of her organic affliction or whip, actually the text says.
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Verse 30, immediately Jesus perceiving in himself that the power proceeding from him had gone forth, turned around the crowd and said, who touched my garments?
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Jesus knows who touched the garments. He's not saying, I need a little more information, but he's wanting her to say,
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I did. And his disciples said to him, you see the multitude pressing in on you. This is a stupid question.
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Jairus' daughter's waiting and you say, who touched me? Looked around to see the woman who had done this.
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What do you think is going to happen? What do you think is going to happen to this woman? If I was healed, if I had a wife who was healed,
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I would be happy, I would be joyful, I would be thrilled, I would be delirious with joy over 12 years and she could die.
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And what does the text, what do you think is going to happen with the paradigm of supernatural and then what? That's exactly what's going to happen.
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But the woman, fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.
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There's a supernatural God who had just healed me. And if he has healed me, he knows me and he's holy.
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Just with the best language of our dear Savior. I think of the him fairest
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Lord Jesus when I think of this verse, verse 34. She's going to get more than she bargained for.
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She's going to get forgiveness of sins. Daughter, your faith has made you well.
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Go in peace and be healed of your affliction.
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This is the only time in the Gospels where Jesus calls a woman, daughter. He calls this one lady, daughter, right here.
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And I believe he's just saved her from all her sins. He says, your faith has made you well. It's made you whole, shalom, you're complete,
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I gave you God's peace. It wasn't your touching my garment that made you whole, it was your faith in who
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I am, what I do, amazing.
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Number four. Quickly, we're going to do number four. Turn to Mark chapter 9, please. This last one, we're just going to zoom through and then we'll get to the resurrection in Mark chapter 16.
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We've been looking at this paradigm. Should we be afraid or frightened when it comes to Easter?
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We see that something supernaturally has happened, the response is fear. Like with the lady we just looked at, responds with faith.
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Here we see the fourth demonstration of God's supernatural work in Christ Jesus.
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Mark chapter 9, the transfiguration. I will only read it and make a brief comment, but I want you to look for something supernatural has happened, the response is fear.
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I'm not saying fear is the only response, but I think it's the right initial response. Mark 9 too.
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Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and brought them to on a high mountain by themselves.
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Jesus was transfigured before them. Basically, what happens is Jesus shows who he was on the inside, he shows that externally or on the outside.
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It's as if he just shreds his humanity off, he rips it off so the
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Shekinah glory of God is seen, as it were. And his garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no longer, verse 3, on earth can whiten them.
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Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, prophets in the law, and they were talking with Jesus.
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And Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah.
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And I can guarantee you with my life that Peter didn't know what to say, because he was afraid.
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He was just mumbling, just stuff was coming out of him. You know, when you get nervous, you don't know what to do, you just say things. You go and visit somebody in the hospital and their parents or their child or somebody's dying, you just say things.
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You mean to say, I love you, but you just say stupid things oftentimes. How do
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I know for sure Peter was afraid and didn't know how to answer? Verse 6, for he did not know what to answer, for they, not just Peter, but Peter included, became what?
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Terrified. When you see the God of the universe displayed before you with a bright, effulgent glory like a spotlight times 1 ,000, and you realize it's just not light on the outside, but that light can penetrate your heart and mind and thoughts, what's their first response?
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I'm afraid. King James says they were sore.
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And lastly, number 5, the fifth and final demonstration in Mark's gospel, for this morning, that shows the paradigm of supernatural leads to fear and then ultimately and prayerfully, faith.
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Let's go to Mark chapter 15, please. And now we get in and we'll be able to see Mark 16 and the account of the resurrection much better.
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It's hard to just dive into 16 and preach it. When Mark has been establishing through the entire gospel, fear comes after seeing something supernatural.
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You may ask the question in Mark chapter 15, verse 42, why all this talk about the death?
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Why all this talk about the burial? What's the deal with all these verses 42 and following to the end of the chapter?
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Why is it so significant, burial? Well, it's significant because Mark is confirming the death of Christ.
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That's why. And when evening had come, Mark 15, 42, it had already come because it was a preparation day, that is the day before the
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Sabbath. Time's winding down and so, verse 43 says, Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the council.
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Himself was waiting for the kingdom of God and gathered up courage and went in before Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. As far as the
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Romans were concerned, let the birds pluck out the eyes of the crucified. As far as the
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Jews were concerned with their law, there should be proper burial even for executed criminals.
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Take the body down before sunset, Deuteronomy 21. And Pilate wondered if he was dead by this time.
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And summoning the centurion, he questioned him as whether he was already dead. He wanted confirmation.
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There's no swoon theory because the Romans knew how to identify dead, crucified bodies. And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph.
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He's not going to give Jesus' corpse over if he's still alive. Joseph kindly bought a linen cloth, took him down, wrapped him in the linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out in a rock.
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He rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Had like a little gutter, a little groove that you could roll this huge, heavy stone against the tomb.
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He's all wrapped up in burial clothes. And verse 16, chapter 16, verse 1, when the Sabbath was over, the men weren't to be found.
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Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices that they might come and annoy him.
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By the way, if I were to write this and try to prove that there was a Jesus Christ who was really dead and he was a false messiah, but I wanted to prove it,
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I would never in my life use ladies as eyewitnesses. Because I don't trust ladies, because the ladies aren't equal, no.
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But in this day, women couldn't vote. They had no rights whatsoever. If you're going to try to write an account and embellish it and create it under some kind of false...create
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it falsely, you don't use ladies. But of course, it wasn't created falsely, and the word of God is the word of God, and this is the truth.
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These ladies came. They weren't expecting the resurrection, although they should have.
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What were they going to do? Why would they anoint the body? Why would they put spices on the body? Still going to decay,
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Jews didn't embalm, but one man said, it is not incredible since love often prompts people to do what, from a practical point of view, is useless.
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They just wanted to say they love Jesus, take care of his body. And very early on the first day of the week, verse 2, they came to the tomb where the sun had risen.
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One man said, sorrow wakes early. And they were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?
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They can't do it. They're on their way. They're not there yet. How are we going to get in there? It's almost like we were planning everything.
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We've got all the spices, but as they are on their way there, how are we going to get in? Didn't think of that. The stone must have been large.
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And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large. Garland said they came to the tomb wondering how the stone can be moved.
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They leave wondering how the stone could have been moved. By the way, the
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Roman guard had extra measures to make sure there could be no theft of the body. Listen to Matthew 27.
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Now, on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together with Pilate and said, sir, we remember that when he was still alive, that deceiver said, after three days,
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I'm going to rise again. Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day.
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Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal him away and say to the people, he's risen from the dead. And the last deception will be worse than the first.
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And Pilate, the Roman, granted these Jews that by saying, you have a guard, go make it as secure as you know how.
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It's interesting that the Pharisees remember that Jesus says, I'm going to rise from the dead, but the disciples have forgotten.
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There's a huge earthquake, Matthew 28 says, a seismos. Angel of the
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Lord does it, and it says in the text what? When I hear earthquake,
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I think of something supernatural happening. The stone has been rolled away.
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God is speaking. Why was the stone rolled away? So Christ could get out?
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Has it been in there, kind of scratching, waiting to get out? No, it wasn't so Jesus could get out because he could just walk through walls.
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Remember the glorified body? He just walked through things. It wasn't so Jesus could get out, but it's so the people could what?
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Get in? Wow. Hello. That's the first time
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I've ever done that. So the people could get in. Everything happens on Easter.
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When we had the Easter lilies here that one year, I could just see that bug go so slowly around and around and around.
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And I took that breath in and down that celery -tasting bug went. Oh, I thought
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I was back riding motorcycles again. What did you have for lunch today?
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Celery. Whoever's job this is to move that better start getting on the ball.
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Verse five, entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right wearing a white robe and they were dumbfounded.
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They're amazed at little chambers in the tomb and over this one little section, there's this young man, he's not just a man, he's a messenger, he's an angel.
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He usually wears something like this. The priest would wear. The stones moved.
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There's an empty tomb. There are angels there. And the response was alarm, strong emotion.
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Listen to this sermon by the angels. And he said to them, do not be amazed. You are looking for Jesus the
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Nazarene who has been crucified. He has risen. He is not here.
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Behold, here is the place where they laid him. They didn't go to the wrong tomb and it was this, the empty tomb.
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Here's the exact spot. Luke 24, the angel says, why do you seek the living one among the dead?
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And with one Greek word, we see the greatest miracle of all time, risen.
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He's risen. One Greek word. He was raised.
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Jesus raised himself, the Spirit of God raised him, and the Father raised him. No apologetic argument.
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Just like with the beginning of the Bible, in the beginning God, here he's risen. Verse 17, but there's a response to this.
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But go tell his disciples and Peter, he is going before you into Galilee. There you will see him just as he said to you.
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When you learn about the truth, there's some kind of reaction. When you hear revelation, there's a response. And so too, as we've been learning in the book of Mark, there are more occasions, but we've looked at four so far, and here comes number five.
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Something supernatural happens. It cannot be explained in any way, shape, or form from a human perspective, with physics or science or anything else.
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Something supernatural happens, and the response is fear, right there in verse eight. This is where the gospel ends, 9 to 20 is just added.
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You can see the little brackets in your Bible. Here's how this text is meant to end. They went out, fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had put them in a vice grip, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were what?
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You want to know what the repeated response to supernatural things would be? Frightened.
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They were shocked. They were afraid of what they saw, and they were afraid of what they didn't see.
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When God encounters a person, there is a frightening awe and reverence. There is more, there is belief, and there is wonder, but there is fear and awe.
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I found something interesting that was written before Jesus' death, an ordinance of Caesar. Quote, it is my pleasure that graves and tombs, whoever has made them as pious service for our ancestors, our children, our members of their house, that these remain unmolested in perpetuity.
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But if any person lay information that another either has destroyed them, or has in any other way cast out the bodies which have been buried there, or with malicious deception has transferred them to other places, to dishonor, to the dishonor of those buried there, or has removed the headstones or other stones, now listen to what
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Caesar says. This is the law of these days. In such a case,
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I command that a trial be instituted, just as if they were concerned with the gods for the pious services of mortals.
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For beyond all else, it should be obligatory to honor those who have been buried.
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Let no one remove them for any reason. If not, however, if anyone does so, capital punishment on the charge of the tomb robbery,
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I will to take place. These ladies come rushing over, the tombstone is rolled over, there's no body of Jesus, the angels say he's risen, and they say it could only be
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God. They're beside themselves, and they respond properly. They were afraid.
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I just wrote a few verses down about the fear of the Lord, Proverbs 14, 26, the fear of the
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Lord, in the fear of the Lord, there is strong confidence. Proverbs 14, 27, the fear of the
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Lord is a fountain of life. Proverbs 19, 23, the fear of the
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Lord leads to life. Friend, if you're not a Christian today,
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I want you to be frightened. Ultimately, I want you to believe in Christ Jesus, but I want you to be afraid.
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Why? Number one, because God is real. Number two, because judgment is coming.
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How do you know judgment is coming? Paul said it this way, because God has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man,
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Jesus Christ, whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead.
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The day that you celebrate today with your family and the girls in their dresses is the day that confirms in God's mind,
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I will judge every person who's ever been born. You should be afraid of that. If you're a
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Christian, you should be afraid God is real, judgment is coming. And number three, because no other sign is going to be given to you.
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If you're saying, you know, I'll just believe in God if he does such and such and if he gives me a raise and if he strikes my enemy down dead and if he cures global warming or any of these other kind of things that may come into your mind, there's no other sign.
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This is the sign. Paul says in Romans chapter one, Jesus was declared the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.
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There's no other sign coming. This is it. And I hope you are so afraid that you run to God and say,
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God, I am frightened for my soul. I'm frightened for eternity. I'm frightened because I know what you created for demons.
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I will be in one day if I do not kiss the sun because I'll perish. I want you to be afraid. But too often people say things like this at a seminary in New York.
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We don't need folks hanging on crosses and dripping blood and weird stuff or a
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Columbia seminary professor who says, I think on a good day God has power to do his stuff, but God has a lot of off days.
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Religion ends where Christianity begins and that's called the resurrection. Dr. Seamans tells of a
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Muslim who was in Africa. He said, why did you become a Christian? He answered, well, it's like this.
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Suppose you were going down the road and suddenly the fork in the road went two directions and you didn't know which way to go and there was a fork in the road where two men, one dead and one alive, was standing, one laying.
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Which one would you go? Which way would you go? And I believe what
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Count Bismarck said in Germany, without the hope of eternal life, this life is not worth the effort of getting dressed in the morning.
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And friends, it starts with being afraid. There are no other ways to God.
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That's what the resurrection proved. There are no other ways. God says, I'm pleased with you. Come and have fellowship with me.
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Acts 4 .12, you know the verse in there, salvation in what? No one else.
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Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. For the Christians, we know there's a real
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God yet we're called children now. We don't have to fear like a cringing dog anymore. We have a holy reverence and an awe of God and His majesty but we don't become frightened and we, according to Jude 1 .24
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-25, we get to stand in His presence, blameless with what? Great joy. God replaces our fear with joy and that love that God has for us casts out even fear in our own hearts that we're not standing before the judge anymore but we're standing before our
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Father. The resurrection proves that we're standing before our Father because of what
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Christ has done. The risen God -man is the only hope for us.
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Look at how Mark ends. Mark ends almost begging for a response.
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Who would ever write a book and says at the very end, and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid?
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It's like Mark wants you to fill in the action step. Here's what I've learned. Now, what do
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I do? I believe there's a Holy Spirit and I believe
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God commands everyone here today to fear God and trust in His finished work at Calvary and then believe in His resurrection, let's pray.
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Lord, we bless your holy name today. I just think of the Gospels and watch with the eyes of faith in the text
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Christ Jesus. What a great God He was to think that He could still the sea, to think that He could cast demons out without any diminishment of power, to think how
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He is compassionate and kind, healing ladies of diseases and sicknesses.
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Father, that He would show Himself to disciples, the Mount of Transfiguration, and then show with definitive clarity that He was
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God in fact by raising Himself from the dead. Father, help us today to have joy knowing that we serve a risen
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Savior, that we no longer have to stand before God cringing because judgment has been paid.
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We are sons and daughters in the kingdom, heirs of Christ Jesus, and we could be called like Abraham, friends.
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We thank you for that. And Lord, for those visitors today or those who are our own members who are not born again,
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I pray today that you would work such a work in their hearts that they would begin to be wise before you by fearing the