Are You A Witness?
JCC Easter Morning 04.04.10
Mark 16
1Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him. 2Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. 3And they said among themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” 4But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away—for it was very large. 5And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.
6But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. 7But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.”
8So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
9Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. 10She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. 11And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.
12After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. 13And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either.
14Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.
The stone was rolled away from the door, not to permit Christ to come out, but to enable the disciples to go in
The new body Jesus had was a transformed body
He could walk through walls and doors, so he didn’t need the stone removing
Why is this event the most important doctrine we have?
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the corner-stone of Christian doctrine
It is mentioned over one hundred and four times in the New Testament
The resurrection of Jesus Christ was a key point Peter emphasized in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost
His whole sermon centred on the fact that, "This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses" Acts 2:32
When the Apostles were filled again with the Holy Spirit later on, the one central thing was that "with great power gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus."
The central doctrine that the Apostle Paul preached to the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers on Mars Hill was Jesus and the resurrection Acts 17:18, Acts 23:6; 1 Cor 15:15
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the two fundamental truths of the Gospel
One His atoning death
Two the resurrection
Paul says in 1 Cor 15:1,3,4 "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures."
The crucifixion would lose its meaning without the resurrection
Without the resurrection, the death of Christ was only a heroic death like any other martyr
Illustration: A Muslim and a Christian were discussing their religions and had agreed that both Mohammed and Christ were prophets. Where, then, lay the difference? The Christian illustrated it this way: “I came to a crossroads and I saw a dead man and a living man. Which one did I ask for directions?” The response came quickly, “The living one, of course.” “Why, then,” asked his friend, “do you send me to Mohammed who is dead, instead of Christ who is alive?” This is the basic difference between Christ and every other religious leader. All the others came into the world, lived, and died—but none of them lived again. The resurrection of Christ was the one event that persuaded His disciples once for all that He was the Christ, God’s Son.
"If Christ be not risen," said Paul, "then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain" 1 Cor 15:14
He then adds, "If Christ be not risen, your faith is vain. You are yet in your sins."
This is the most powerful doctrinal truth we have
No other religion can boast that their leader came back from the dead
This is the one time of year that we can focus on this powerful truth
It is this one truth that will open the heart towards God
Paul said in Rom 10:9 "If you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved."
It is our ‘Christian evidence’
Christianity cannot stand if this is not true
It would prove false and be null and void
This is why it was important for Jesus to make sure the disciples understood and witnessed the event
Thomas needed that extra proof and Jesus obliged
Put your hand in my side, put your finger in the nail prints
Illustration: A leading and brilliant agnostic in England was said to say, that there is no use wasting time discussing the other miracles. The essential question is did Jesus Christ rise from the dead? Adding, that if He did, it was easy enough to believe the other miracles but, if not, the other miracles must go
Fact or fiction; fables or myth?
Contained in the four Gospels regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ, there are four exact statements of historic fact
But let us presume nothing
Let us start with nothing but the four gospels and the understanding that the four named people wrote them
Let us place these four Gospels side by side, and see if we can distinguish from them the marks of truth or the marks of fiction
There are four separate and independent accounts given to us
It would be impossible for these four accounts to have been made up in collusion with one another
Or for them to have been copied from One another
There are marked discrepancies found in them
Yet, there is harmony between them
It’s an harmony that would exist between stories written or related by several different people, each looking at the events from their own viewpoint
When the police take a witness statement, they have to build a whole picture from a number of eye witness accounts
We see and observe differently depending on the focus of our vision
The programmes, ‘the hidden world’ that has been on TV proves that not everyone sees the same things around them or are even aware of the things around them
We know there is a world of dust mite under our feet in this carpet or on the chairs, but we don’t record it
It is not important to us, yet to another, this may be the predominant focus
Whether true or false, these four accounts are separate and independent from one another
If they are fictitious, then why didn’t they get their stories the same?
Would we then believe them, if they were exactly the same in every detail?
Probably not
Either way, it is not whether we believe in the disciples, but whether we believe in Christ
Illustration: someone said, ‘It is absolutely incredible that four persons sitting down to write an account of what never occurred independently of one another should have made their stories agree to the extent that these do. On the other hand, they cannot have been made up, as we have already seen, in collusion with one another; the apparent discrepancies are too numerous and too noticeable. It is proven they were not made up independently of one another; it is proven they were not made up in collusion with one another, so we are driven to the conclusion that they were not made up at all, that they are a true relation of facts as they actually occurred.’
Each of these accounts have some indications that the same eye witnesses were present
Someone who is an eye-witness is very different from one who is retelling what someone else has said
No hearsay evidence would stand in a court of law, but an eye-witness is more credible
That women are chosen as the first witnesses is highly significant because the surrounding culture considered their witness worthless, but it fits Jesus’ countercultural and counter status ministry and runs contradictory to what outsiders would have valued or anything the later church would have chosen to invent
I’m sure that if there were any signs of falsehood, then the church would have dissolved long ago
We as the people of God, above all others are to have integrity of heart
We have to remember that the Lord Himself is the bearer of truth and He alone can open the eyes of the unbeliever to see the mystery of the gospel of Christ
The Gospels are natural, straightforward and simple witness accounts
Although a supernatural event, the account is natural
They simply tell the story about what they saw in all simplicity and straightforwardness, leaving others to philosophizing the meaning
If we read accounts from WWll, will we get identical word for word statements?
What we will have is a simple, straightforward report of what was seen, heard or done
If it was the blitz in Coventry, we would get the main emphasis on the buildings that were destroyed; the cathedral and the city shops, but maybe some would give more detail to another part of the bombing
Anyone reading the newspaper can make an assumption from the witness statements, but the fact remains, Coventry was bombed by the Germans
The gospels may disagree in minor details, but in relation to the resurrection, they all agree
This is how the cannon of the church decided that these four gospels should be included as evidence into the Holy Bible
In all the Gospel records of the appearances of Jesus after His resurrection, there is not a single recorded appearance to an enemy or an opponent of Christ
All His appearances were to those who were already believers
Would this have made the story more accurate if Jesus had appeared to Pilate or the chief priests?
But I believe Jesus came to those who he had promised to reveal himself to
To the those He loved and spent time with
The unbeliever and scoffer would have mocked the truth like they do now
People won’t believe unless they see something
But blessed are they who believe that haven’t seen
The apostles built the church and its foundation on this doctrine
They laid down their lives for this doctrinal truth
Men never lay down their lives for a doctrine which they do not firmly believe in
They stated that they had seen Jesus after His resurrection, and rather than give up their statement, they laid down their lives for it
They proclaimed right to the faces of His slayers that He had been raised and no one could produce evidence to the contrary
The best they could do was to say the guards went to sleep and the disciples stole the body while they slept
Men who bear evidence of what happens while they are asleep are not usually regarded as credible witnesses
And if the Apostles had stolen the body, they would have known it themselves and would not have been ready to die for what they knew to be a fraud
The Apostles didn’t expect to see the Lord, they scarcely believed their own eyes when they did see Him
And whoever heard of eleven men, plus women, having the same vision at the same time, to say nothing of five hundred men 1 Cor 15:6 having the same vision at the same time
We also have a change in the Sabbath from the resurrection its self
They were of Jewish origin, their Sabbath was Friday at 6pm to Saturday 6pm, but now the Sabbath was a Sunday
The day they called the Lord’s Day, the day they worshiped Jesus and remembered the communion, and the new covenant
But the most significant fact of all is the change in the disciples
There was a moral transformation
At the time of the crucifixion, we see the disciples filled with utter despair and grief
We see Peter, the leader, denying his Lord three times with oaths and cursing, but a few days later we see this same man, filled with a courage that nothing could shake
We see him standing before the council that had condemned Jesus to death
It is when we meet with the power of the resurrection of Jesus that our lives are transformed
We speak out and bear witness to Jesus even though people may laugh at us and despise us
Why would we put ourselves in that position if Jesus was an imposter?
Like Peter and the others, we can say, I’ve seen Him; perhaps not physically, but there is a knowing that you know which you cannot explain to anyone
‘It is better felt than telt’ as the old saying goes
When as a Christian you can feel the presence of God, hear Him speak through His word or through the gifts, hear Him through the preacher or a direct word that no one could have known except you and God, then how can anyone persuade you otherwise
Finally we have the eye witness of the apostle Paul himself
One born out of due time
He wasn’t there at the time of the resurrection
He never saw Jesus in bodily form, yet his testimony to Jesus being alive lives in his experience on the Damascus Road
What is your testimony?
Can you testify to meeting with the risen saviour?
And at the very heart of all this?
The reason Christ died and rose again?
Jesus came to take away the death sentence pronounced upon us
Illustartion: A little boy and his father were driving down a country road on a beautiful spring afternoon. Suddenly out of nowhere a bumblebee flew in the car window. Since the little boy was deathly allergic to bee stings, he became petrified. But the father quickly reached out, grabbed the bee, squeezed it in his hand, and then released it. But as soon as he let it go, the young son became frantic once again as it buzzed by the little boy. His father saw his panic-stricken face. Once again the father reached out his hand, but this time he pointed to his hand. There still stuck in his skin was the stinger of the bee. “Do you see this?” he said. “You don’t need to be afraid anymore. I’ve taken the sting for you.” And this is the message of Easter. We do not need to be afraid of death anymore. Christ faced death for us. And by His victory, we are saved from sin. Christ has taken the sting! 1 Cor 15:22 asks: “Where, oh death, is your sting?”
Christ has taken the sting for us
He has risen!
Fear is gone
New life is ours
Now go and testify about Jesus to the world out there
*Respond to those who may not know Jesus
