The Resurrection in Mark and Luke

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. Why is this chair, this kind of funny thing, scooching down, scrunching down? That is not good. Something happened to my phone a while ago.

I did something on Maps. I usually use Google Maps, and I did the iPhone Maps, and now whenever I look at it, it says you�re eight minutes from home, 42 minutes from the church. What if I want to be farther away?

I have been talking a lot about the book of Hebrews because it talks about Jesus, and I�m just working my way through Hebrews. Probably the last time I�ll ever teach through Hebrews, well, at least on Sunday mornings here at the home church.

I might teach it someplace else. I could do a jet tour or something like that. I�ve been talking a lot about the priesthood, the sanctuary, and the sacrifice. But since it was Resurrection Sunday, now that you�re hearing this, several weeks ago or months ago, I wanted to focus on the Gospels, and why are there four different accounts of the resurrection?

Well, because there�s no good news without the resurrection, and if you�ve got the good news of Jesus Christ according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it�s going to be bad news if one of those forgets the resurrection, or if one of those said, �You know what?

It didn�t really happen. We paid people off, and the other accounts were wrong. That would be, of course, bad news. But the Gospel of Mark, Luke, John, and Matthew, they end with the resurrection, but there�s a response, or something said after, or there�s something, at least in Mark�s case, something that you�re supposed to respond with.

How do you respond in light of the resurrection? So I want to look at all four of those accounts and talk about it a little bit on No Compromise Radio, because the Gospels, our good news, culminated with the resurrection of Jesus and his ascension, at least some of them.

We know theologically that happened. And what�s the response? The first one with Matthew was, in chapter 28, you had the resurrection, and then afterwards is the Great Commission. And as S. Lewis Johnson calls it, it�s not the greatest commission, which would entail the Father sending the Son to go rescue the elect.

But this is our Great Commission. And Matthew doesn�t end his work, his writing, his 28 chapters, with just the resurrection. It ends with the commission. And so the first word we were using to think about the resurrection, according to Matthew, was �commissioning.

Jesus had the authority, that we looked at last time, to command all of us to go make disciples, learners. And that�s by going, by teaching, by baptizing, that�s how you make disciples. He wants you to obey that.

And not just the disciples who were there at the time, but you, and you were to go make disciples of all nations, right? Not just part-time, but full-time. Now you say, �How can I do that full-time if I already have a full-time job

Well, it�s more of a mindset, I think, right? You�re a missionary where you are, and I�m not trying to tell you to get paid to evangelize or something like that, but you see the world as a mission field.

I think if you boiled everything down to that, that whether it�s the post-person, post-male lady, mailman, milkman, milk lady, we�re going to lose that, aren�t we? We used to say milkman, and then we have to say milk person, and then we have to say milk person, milk person, and then now they�re not, are they persons, they�re man, they�re, what are they, they�re binary?

This is a crazy world, isn�t it? I�m 59 by the time this plays, or somewhere close, and I�m going to probably make it out before it�s just utter capitulation in every area. But I�ve got kids, too, and one day maybe grandkids.

I don�t know if I�ll live to be a grandpa, but I would imagine out of my four children short of a nuclear holocaust, that they�ll probably have some kids, so I don�t know if I�ll be around to see them or not, but if I was, it�d be a lot of grandpa love, right?

Commissioning, when it comes to the Gospel of Matthew, for the resurrection of Jesus. This historical event that Jesus died had theological significance for sinners, and the only hope of people�s forgiveness is by believing in this Jesus, and that�s really a tough task for us to do, but he ends with, �And lo, I�m with you always, even to the end of the age.

Present tense, all the days, forever and ever. Jesus is called Emmanuel in Matthew 1 .23, and he says here, �I�m forever with you, to help you with this great commission. That was Matthew�s account.

You�ve got the resurrection, and then there�s the commissioning of the disciples and all who would then follow. Every Gospel account and resurrection is going to engender a response to believe, yes, that�s the main response, to keep believing, yes, and then, in light of that, for the Christian, to tell other people.

Mark’s Confounding Fear Before the Empty Tomb

Now, the second one we have is �mark. And this is the one where I had to kind of make it up a little bit. I�ve got my word, because I want a C-word that ends in �ing. I�ve got �to. Both are bad.

Let me put it this way. There�s a supernatural ending to �mark and he just leaves you hanging there so that you�re afraid. Fear is what I�m looking for. But there�s not a word I could find that, you know, like �a-calm or something, you know.

�Calm-a or something. �Calm-on. So, I�ve got �concerning. Now that I say it, it sounds bad. And �confounding. There�s �commissioning and then there�s �confounding. Oh, help me. Chapter 16, verse 1, �When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome, or Salome, bought spices, that they might come and anoint him.

I think they probably should have been expecting the resurrection, although I don�t think they did. �Very early, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb, where the sun had risen. As one man says, �Sorrow wakes early.

It�s early, early, very early. �And they were saying to one another, �Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb Oh, we�re on our way there, and we�re going to anoint the body, but how are we going to get in?

Who�s going to roll away the tomb stone? This is going to be a big stone. Three women couldn�t move it. That tells you how big it is, these circular stones that just kind of rolled down a little slope track, and then they stayed there, because now to get it away, you�ve got to roll it up the little track, the little incline.

�And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large. Maybe somebody broke into the tomb. Why did they leave it like that? Remember that the Roman guards put extra measures so that this wouldn�t happen, because they knew people would say, �He�s risen from the dead, therefore make it as secure as you know how is what Pilate said.

Make it as secure as you know. One man said, �It�s fascinating. I think this is fascinating. The disciples couldn�t remember Jesus� claim to be raised from the dead, but the Pharisees could, and these false teachers could, and Pilate could.

Here�s this earthquake. It says, let�s see, does it say earthquake? Let�s see. First day of the week, who will roll away the stone? Does it say verse 1, earthquake? No. That night they go. Two, it�s the first day of the week.

The sun had risen, so it�s just daybreak. Who will roll away the stone? It had been rolled away, although large. The earthquake had occurred. Oh, I know why I thought of that, because that�s in Matthew.

There�s an earthquake, but there�s no earthquake described here, although it�s true. You�ve got an angel of the Lord sitting on that stone. That�s also from Matthew. It says, here in Mark 16, 5, in entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting at the right wearing a white robe, and they were amazed.

And you�ve got chambers of the tomb and antechambers, and this is a young man. Matthew talks about his apparel, and he�s wearing this robe, a white robe. You don�t wear a robe like this if you�re just a regular man.

They�re dumbfounded. Are they dumbfounded at the stone moved, the empty tomb, the angels, everything? And he said to them, here�s a sermonic angel, an angelic sermon rather, �Do not be amazed. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene who has been crucified.

He has risen. He is not here. Behold, here is the place where they laid him. Authentication. Jesus has been in the tomb, and he�s been raised from the dead. Why do you seek the living one among the dead, Luke 24?

He is risen. Could this be the greatest miracle? At least it�s the greatest capstone miracle in all of the Bible. And we just have data. We don�t have a bunch of argumentation and debate and presuppositional kind of thoughts or evidences that amend a verdict.

It�s just data. He tells it just exactly the way it happened. And now he says, �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.

I want you to go do something. And here is the response of the confounding or the fear, �They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Now, your Bibles show that there are some other manuscripts, later manuscripts, manuscripts that aren�t as good, that have the verses 9 and following through 20, is probably what your Bibles say, but it might be like 21 and 22 in there as well.

And one of the reasons why those verses are found in later accounts is because this seems like it�s a bad way to end the gospel. They�re afraid. I mean, how do you end a good news book this way? Well, if you carefully read Mark, it�s not going to surprise you, because Mark, every time something�s going on that happened in a supernatural fashion, that was in fact supernatural, the people were afraid.

They were fearful. They were shocked. And therefore, here we have the final time of this afraid type of word, and feeling, and action. And therefore, that is showing you, the writer wants you to realize, something supernatural just happened.

Yeah, somebody, Jesus, real human, died and raised Himself from the dead, and the Spirit raised Him, and the Father raised Him. That�s amazing. You remember back in Mark chapter 4, you�ve got the tempest, and the squall, and the storm, and waves breaking in the boat, and Jesus is sleeping, and He asks them why they�re so afraid, right?

And He calms the wind down, and then they were filled with great fear and said to one another, �Who then is this, that even the wind and sea obey Him They�re very much afraid. Literally, they feared with a great fear.

Why? Because something supernatural just happened. Only God could control the sea. Remember in Mark, also with chapter 5, and you�ve got Jesus is supernaturally casting out demons out of people, and that one particular man, night and day, he�s cutting himself, he�s crying out, and he runs up to Jesus, this man does, the demon-possessed man, and he says, �What do you have to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?

I adjure you by God, do not torment me. And Jesus casts out those demons, right? His name is Legion, for we are many, into the pigs, and now they see the man, he�s in his right mind, he�s sitting there, clothed, and the text says they were afraid.

It�s amazing. It�s supernatural, that�s the point. Jesus does something, and it�s supernatural, and the response is, I mean, what would you do in the presence of something that was done supernaturally?

Yawn? No, you�re afraid, because this is supernatural, it�s above nature. Jesus has supernatural powers over disease and sickness, right? The woman who had the issue of blood, she fell down and told him the whole truth, and she came in fear.

Supernatural responds with fear. Remember in Mark chapter 6, God is sovereign over the elements, walking on the water, intending to pass them by, like Exodus 34, and they thought it was a ghost, and they�re crying out, and they don�t understand what is happening, and Jesus says, �Do not be, what, afraid

They�re afraid. I mean, you see that, and you�re like, wow, supernatural. Same thing in Mark chapter 9. The supernatural God unveils his Shekinah glory, just for a moment, on the Mount of Transfiguration, and they respond with fear, right?

They�re frightened. What does the text say? Jesus was transfigured before them, and it says they did not know what to say in verse 6, because they were terrified. God interrupts and says, �This is my beloved son, listen to him.

And you see something like that, you respond with fear. And then Jesus is raised from the dead. It says in chapter 16, verse 8, �They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. The point is, supernatural response with fear.

Supernatural response with fear. Supernatural response with fear. Any other guesses where I�m going with this? Supernatural responding with fear. Jesus is raised from the dead, they�re afraid, what�s the point?

Something supernatural just happened, confounding. And this should be your response as well. This is really true, and if this is really true, I have no other hope, no refuge from him, except refuge in him.

That�s kind of like, oh, what�s the response? You either believe it or you don�t. If you don�t have any kind of awe or fear or terror, fear of the Lord is the first thing of wisdom, then you don�t understand it, right?

So today on No Compromise Radio, we�re talking about different responses and things that happened regarding the resurrection accounts and around the resurrection. If you want to write me, you can. You can write me at Bethlehem Bible Church, 307 Lancaster Street, West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Some people can�t say Massachusetts like they can�t say Sushi. Sushi, Massachusetts. They don�t really know how to say it, let alone spell it. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 01583 Bethlehem Bible Church.

Should we change the name? Should we change the name? Are we really a Bible church? Yeah, we teach the Bible. How about Bethlehem Biblicism Church? Omaha Biblicism Church. Hey, let�s get Pat Abendroth back on this show.

That�s what we need. Where�s Pat when I need him? Probably out on a bicycle, out on a canyon bicycle. What�s the difference between a Cannondale and a Canyondale? Is there a Canyondale? I don�t think so.

There�s a Canyon and a Cannondale. And then there�s a Canon, and then there�s the Canon, right? Cartagena, Cartagena, Cartagena, Colombia, Cartagena, how about that? K or A�s. I think I�m running out of gas.

That�s what I think I�m doing. I�m running out of steam. I�ve got my Bible in front of me. I�ve got my notes. And when I do radio shows, I don�t think you�re going to understand this, but when you talk a lot like this and you�re trying to think about the exact words you want to use because you don�t want to say anything that would be wrong or sinful or dishonoring to the Lord and His Word, it makes you tired.

This is my third show. That means I�ve been talking like this for an hour and a half when you try to talk this way. It makes me want to yawn. I�m not going to yawn today on the air like I did in the past, but I blamed that on chemo.

But it�s hard. It�s hard to do because you�re thinking, right? You get tired when you teach. And now that I�m 50� let�s see, by the time this airs, mid-May is my birthday, 59 years old. I was born in May, mid-May, 1960.

Yikes! In one sense, I don�t want to be this old. In one sense, I don�t really feel that old until I have to try to get out of bed or if I work out. A couple days ago, I rode the bike pretty far. And yesterday was hard.

It was hard going. My knee hurts, not from the bicycling, but from ballroom dancing, of all things. We�re learning the waltz, not advanced, but just past-beginner waltz, right? You�ve got the kind of box, quick, quick, slow, and the underarm turn, and kind of the open deal.

And you can kind of progressively line of dance. I get that. But this is kind of a backwards turn, kind of a flowing type of, I don�t know, it�s just more elegant, kind of the next step above basics. It�s kind of fun, but I almost yawned.

I almost did. I had to stop myself. That is going to be bad. I almost lied and then did that anyway. All right. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, four different gospels, having different emphatic emphases. Where's my midnight velvet coffee?

All right. There are no hints of chocolate in that. By the way, I don�t like any type of flavored coffee. If I have it and it�s my only option, that�s better than no coffee. I remember when coffee actually worked.

But I don�t know, this velvety kind of chocolate little hues and everything, I think they just make that up. Don�t they? I think they do. All right. What about Luke? We�ve got commissioning in Matthew.

We�ve got confounding in Mark, and now we�ve got confirming in Luke. That's a better C word, confirming. And here's what happens. The resurrection account happens in Luke, and then Jesus essentially says, �All this about me was prophesied in the Old Testament.

And this is just a confirmation of what was in there, what was already in the Bible that Moses and the law and the prophets would say and the writings. It's confirming. So you think, okay, the resurrection is true, I believe that.

I should tell others about Jesus, and they could have their sins forgiven, and God would get glory for that. That's Matthew. Mark is, I should understand that this is really resurrection, and this is not a resuscitation.

This is not, he�s passed out, he�s fainted, and he�s come back to life because it was kind of drafty inside that special tomb. And lastly, you should be reading the Old Testament thinking about the Messiah and what was said in the Old Testament that would make you say to yourself, �Oh, I�m not surprised.

While the disciples might have been surprised because they forgot the Pharisees, Sadducees, Pilate, they knew the resurrection had been prophesied. Let's make sure that stone was extra, extra, extraly, was secured with extra attention.

That's what we're looking for. But on the first day of the week, Luke 24, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared, and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

But when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, �Why do you seek the living among the dead?

He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, when he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise

And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all these things to the eleven, and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles.

But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in. He saw the linen cloths by themselves, and he went home marveling at what had happened.

That's verse 1 through 12. And what's going to happen is there's going to be the road to Emmaus, is there not? And Jesus is going to say, �O foolish ones, and slow�, verse 25, �of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

Was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

And that's what we see. We see here their hearts burning on that road. And we see even later in the account that Jesus shows his hands, shows him his feet, and confirms that he is the one who was crucified.

And then he says in verse 44, �Everything about me written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalm must be fulfilled. Matthew commissioning marks supernatural fear. And Luke, of course, the Old Testament had said this.

This is No Compromise Radio.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.