24 Hours To Live Extended Content Episode 3

Welcome back to the final episode of our journey toward Easter, and of course, in our last video, we watched everything, Rob, come crashing down on Friday. Jesus' followers witnessed his agonizing death. They saw him die. Judas was already gone. Fear drove the disciples into hiding on Saturday. Saturday had to be long, quiet, painstakingly. Terrible. Yeah. Gosh. And yet, I just think they were hopeless, right? I don't think they were thinking about anything. They should have been thinking. They were told. Many times. To have hope. But of course, Sunday, as we know, changes everything. And today, we step into that amazing narrative, starting in Mark 16, of the garden tomb, and that Sunday morning. And we can follow along together in those first eight verses of Mark 16. For just a little bit more context, the other gospels include a few more details that, again, back to the fact that we're a little bit nerdy, these things really fascinate me. I think it's worth mentioning that that section in Mark 16, 9 through 20, it's not included in the earliest manuscripts. There's a certain amount of credibility around them, so we shouldn't ignore those scriptures. But I think at this point, it's more than okay to go look and see what Matthew says and John says and Mark says. So this is great. Yep. I thought it was really interesting that, and we alluded to this in the last session,

that the Sanhedrin wanted to make sure that Jesus stayed dead. They even said, this guy claimed that after three days he was going to rise from the dead. We want you to help make sure this doesn't happen. So Pilate did this thing where it says he sealed the tomb. And the way people did that back then was there was a cord of linen, and they would lay it on both sides where the stone was and where the rock face was. And they would coat both spots with like this wax mixture and they would put the Roman seal on it. And if you broke that, it was automatically punishable by death. It was a big deal. I did not know. I was today years old when I knew that. Yep. And it says Pilate posted a guard, which could have been anywhere from eight to 16 of his soldiers by the tomb. Basically what I'm trying to say is they were like, this guy is going to stay dead. No matter what anybody tries to do, we're making sure this is done. It's over. Well, and they wanted to guard against any conspiracy theorists that would try to steal the body and say that he had resurrected, that kind of thing. So here we are, armed guards, standing watch this massive stone. I mean, it would be impossible for one person to move that stone. Everything designed to keep people out and who walks up, Mary, the other Mary. There were three women right there, according to Mark's account. And they were coming with spices and burial materials used to honor this person that they love so deeply. And so it's early on Sunday morning and they head to the tomb and they're probably trying to figure out how are we even going to get in there? How are we going to convince these guards to roll the stone away so we can go and try and preserve the body of Jesus?

But what they find, Rob stops them in their tracks. The guards are down, they are down, the stone has been rolled away. And when they step inside on the right side of the tomb, there's a young man in a white robe and they are terrified because they've come in the presence of an angel. So we have this, Rob, we tend to have this view of angels like they're little chubby babies floating on clouds, playing harps, but angels in the Bible are warriors. And they almost always, every time that they're mentioned, they invoke what? Fear. They invoke fear. They almost always start with don't freak out. Yeah. The first two words of an angel, don't freak out is a loose translation of the Aramaic for fear not, right? So they're standing face to face with an angel. Now, this is where it's kind of gets interesting. Matthew mentions one angel, Mark mentions one young angel, Luke mentions two angels, John mentions two angels. angels. And, but scholars note that mentioning one angel does not deny the presence of two. It's just simply, this is the one that actually spoke. So don't, don't worry about that. It's not any kind of contradiction, but there was just one that spoke and Matthew and Mark highlight the speaking angel and Luke and John kind of highlight all angels present. So this messenger from heaven tells them that he is not here. He is risen. And I love what he says next. Justice. He said he would like, he told you this was going to happen. Like we said this from the very beginning, more than once. Hello. He is not here. He is risen, man. That is awesome. It's so great. If, if, if you ever get a chance to go visit the garden tomb in, it is just amazing. So powerful. Take that. Yeah. You, if you go, you get to do this where you yourself, you can walk in and you can be imagining what it felt like to, to, to see that experience. Right. And it's really cool when you, when there's this kind of low door, you go through it and immediately to your right, there's a room and it has two places for people to put bodies. And right there, an angel was with those women. And I tried to imagine what it would be like to,

to be expecting someone dead. And instead here's this angel saying, don't be alarmed because I would have been. But the, when I thought about that, I'm telling you, man, I came out of that experience. I had this unbelievable peace and joy that welled up in my heart. And I know the women were scared because it was obvious, but can you imagine what they were feeling at that moment? It's incredible. It's incredible. But then he gives them a mission, Rob. He tells them, look, go and tell his disciples. I love this. And tell Peter. Right. Right. I love that. Yeah. Because here's Peter who has betrayed Jesus. Not once, not twice, but three times. And the average leader might just be like, you know what? I'm done with Peter. Peter was not there when I needed him. Yep. But Jesus loved Peter so much that he has this angel say, go tell his disciples. Oh, and tell Peter. So good. That he's going ahead of you into Galilee, that you will see him there. I love that so much. It just, it just speaks to the character of our God that everyone gets a second chance. That he not only gets reinstated and gets restored here, and we know what he's going to tell Peter soon. He's going to say, you are Peter. And on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So not only did Peter get forgiven and restored, Jesus asked him to give the very first sermon in the history of the Christian church. You can look that up later in Acts chapter two. So good. So there's some powerful details that the other gospel writers add. Luke records the angel reminding the women that Jesus said this would happen just as he said. John tells us that when the disciples heard the news, they ran to the tomb. And I love this moment because John, who is writing, of course, the book of John, he mentions that John outruns Peter. I love that. That is so great. Which, by the way, I would mention that too. I probably would too. Yes. And then they looked inside and they saw that shroud, that burial linen just folded neatly in place and their savior had risen from the dead and he was gone. It's fascinating to me that after this, the other gospels talk about that it wasn't just this announcement from the angels and from the women and Peter and John running and looking. Jesus himself appears to his disciples multiple times. He does it when the doors are closed and he scares them to death. And he does the whole, hey, don't be alarmed, right? Don't be afraid. He does it. They even get to the point where they have food together. He reassures Thomas he really is alive. That's right. And we know later that... And Jesus cooks some breakfast, which I have mad respect for that. I'm a big breakfast guy. Love that. Incredible, incredible experience after Jesus has risen from the dead and the women get this awesome task to go tell

everybody. And you think about it, they were the very first evangelists in the whole world. They were the first ones to preach the good news faithfully and courageously. And I just love that. And so there's just this mass pandemonium on Sunday morning and at the mission, what they were told to do when Jesus, before he ascends into heaven, they were told, he says to them, all authority in heaven. Heaven on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And surely I will be with you always, even to the end of the age. So Jesus puts them on mission. I think it's so exciting that in Mark's gospel and the other gospels, we see something that happened to a real person at this real moment in history. And later we find out that as the church grows, like you mentioned in Acts 2 when Peter preaches the first sermon, right? We see that it changed the lives of thousands and thousands of people right away. And then it spread all over the known world remarkably fast. And now the veil's torn. The Holy Spirit is with all of us. He literally lives inside of us. And later, and I think this is so cool, when Paul is talking to the church in Corinth, sidebar, if you get a chance to go to Corinth, one of the coolest experiences of my entire life, no joke. Paul is writing to them and he makes this statement.

He says, nothing matters as much as the resurrection. You can find that friends in 1 Corinthians 15. If you start out at the beginning, Paul says in verse three, I passed on to you what was most important that also had been passed on to me that Christ died for our sins just as the scripture said that he was buried, that he was raised from the dead on the third day just as the scripture said that he was seen by Peter, there's Peter again, and then by the 12. And after that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive when this was written, right? And then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. The resurrection, Rob, is the single most important event in human history. Without it, nothing else that you and I believe carries really any hope or meaning or significance. In fact, if you're still there, look at verse 17. He says, if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless. That's right. And you're still guilty of your sins. The old covenant still applies, right? But in this case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost if Christ has not been raised from the dead. And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we're more than to be pitied than anyone in the world.

But he says in verse 20, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, through one man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. So everyone who belongs to Jesus, his faithful followers, his church all across the world will be able to step into new life, right? All of us. Because his resurrection. That's right. And he who has begun a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. That work that God begins in us through the resurrection has so many cool things. Just a couple of them that come to mind is that death has no more power anymore. We don't have to be afraid of death. When people that we love die before us, we don't have to grieve like everybody else. We know they are with Jesus. We don't have to be ourselves personally afraid of death. We can live with courage and joy while we're in a world full of fear and sorrow. It means that we're not far from God with that veil being torn.

That whole distance between God and humanity has now been brought together, which is just amazing. And it means that all of our sins are forgiven forever. You made me just think of Romans 5, 8 just now. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That love of another kind, that agape love. And for sure it means that you and I, our life on this planet has purpose. No matter how difficult, no matter how challenging it is, God has invited us to be a part of his mission to change the world into his image. It means more, but we can say for sure this is literally the most important historical event to have ever happened in our time, in any time. And guys, this is why Easter is so important for all of us who are believers, right? Because we can remember that we get to have new life because of Jesus. And so as we wrap up our series and celebrate this resurrection week, I hope that you'll take time to thank Jesus for his death and his sacrifice, but especially thank him for his resurrection. is that's the moment that changed everything. And as we head into Easter weekend, we would love for you and your family and your coworkers and your neighbors and your friends, we would love to invite all of you to join us at Compass. It's a special, it's an amazing time of year, Rob. I don't think there's a better time

to experience the hope and joy and new life that the resurrection brings. You can find all of our service times at the Compass website at compass.church forward slash Easter and we cannot wait to celebrate with you 26 Easter celebrations across five campuses. And we hope to see you on Easter weekend here at Compass. We love you guys. ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪