Mark 16:9-14 9 Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10  She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11  But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. 12  After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. 13  And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. 14  Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.  

After Jesus rose from the dead on the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week which we call Sunday,  He appeared to the women who went to the tomb.  Mary Magdalene was among those who saw Jesus.  The book of John gives a more detailed account of her encounter with Jesus:
John 20:11-18 11  But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12  And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13  They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14  Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15  Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16  Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17  Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18  Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.  

It is easy to judge all of the followers of Jesus for their unbelief and their hardness of heart.  How could they not believe that Jesus was going to rise from the dead when He had clearly told them?  How could the apostles not believe the report of the women who saw Jesus risen from the dead?  Jesus did rebuke them for not believing but there was not a single person who understood beforehand.  He rebuked everyone equally and no one was better than anyone else.
It is easy for us as Christians to be frustrated when we see the sin in another person and ask the question, “Why will they not repent?”  “Why do they not understand that what they are doing is a sin against God?”  “Why do they not believe the Gospel that we can see so clearly?”  “Why can’t they see their wickedness before God and believe in Jesus Christ who came to save them?”  We can just as easily struggle with other born again Christians who have not yet overcome certain sins in their lives or who are unwilling to believe certain Biblical truths that we now know clearly.  “Why can’t they believe?”  “Why are they still struggling?”  We need to be constantly reminded of the work of God in each of our lives.  Without the Father drawing us to Himself and the Holy Spirit revealing Jesus Christ to us we will never repent, we will never believe, and we will continue in our sin.  
All of us have hearts that are hard, even if we personally know Jesus Christ.  We are all like every single one of the apostles and the women also who would not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead.  But what is fascinating is how Jesus responded to each and every person whom He loved and appeared to.  He restored them in the perfect spirit of gentleness.  He loved them perfectly back to Himself.  For Mary Magdalene, all He had to say was her name and she responded in love.  She clung to Him and would not let go- with all of her heart she loved Him.
Our time in this world is a life of great urgency and at the same time great patience.  No matter how long we may live, it is but a moment in light of eternity.  We are only given so much time to respond to the Gospel message when we have the opportunity to hear.  If we do not, and rather harden our hearts, we will be lost forever.  There is an urgency in our response and yet at the same time Scripture calls us to “count the cost.”  No one is expected to respond immediately as the Gospel message must be clearly examined and understood.  Dogmatism is to believe something blindly without actually knowing what you believe.  There is an urgency and yet there is patience as God waits for us to respond to Him.  Jesus’ public ministry in Israel only lasted three and a half years.  This wasn’t very long to hear Jesus in person and yet you could repent and believe in Him after He ascended into heaven as the Apostles continued to preach the Gospel to the Jews.   But then in A.D. 70 Jerusalem was completely destroyed by the Romans.  There was great urgency and yet great patience in how God responded to the Jews.
The same applies to our spiritual growth.  We are given a limited amount of time to grow in holiness after we surrender our life to Jesus Christ.  There is much change needed for all of us to reflect the glory of God and the Holy Spirit acts with great urgency and at the same time with great patience in the heart of every true believer in Jesus Christ.  We cannot become complacent and neglect our relationship with God.  We cannot think we have arrived when there is so much more to be known and discovered and experienced in the Word of God.  There are so many changes that we need to make in our lives to honor God with all of our being.  There are so many challenges that we face in our day to day lives and it is so difficult to always respond in a manner that is pleasing to God.  We must respond with great urgency when God speaks to us and yet He continually shows us great patience.  We must urge other Christians to respond quickly to the Truth of His Word and at the same time show great love and mercy when they fail to do so.  Why?  Because our hearts are also hard, and at other times very responsive.  We are all slow to learn and yet God can quickly accelerate our obedience and love to Him.
We all need to pray that we will be quickened by the Spirit of God.  In the three days associated with Jesus’ death and resurrection there was an amazing amount of transformation that occurred within each of the followers of Jesus.  The three years of following Jesus was to prepare them for these three days where all that was important was to be ripped out from under them.  It would appear that they would all fall and collapse under the sheer weight of the cross that Jesus had to bear.  And yet their faith remained; their foundation was secure.  Jesus rose from the dead.  He removed the hardness of their hearts which struggled to believe in Him as He had spoken to them.  Do you understand this great urgency and yet this great patience?

Pastor Murray Hack

Mark 16:1-8 1  When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2  And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3  And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” 4  And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. 5  And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. 6  And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7  But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” 8  And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.  

None of us can predict the future.  Mankind is always curious to know what will happen in the next year, decade, century, etc., especially as it relates to ourselves.  Fortune tellers make all kinds of money by picking up on physical gestures and social cues and by asking leading questions in order to deceive the person who wants to hear their future.  They use psychology and tricks to give false assurance that they actually can predict the future.  Others rely on demonic powers who have greater knowledge of the world around us as they can also see into the spiritual realm and these demons use knowledge of ancestors and past events to deceive the present and to lure people into allowing demonic influence into their lives.  Christians as well can become preoccupied with the future and they end up using the Holy Spirit in exactly the same manner as the fortune teller and yet they claim that what they are doing is of God because it is within the Church.
While the Holy Spirit can speak to a born again Christian about future events, we will always remain in the dark about most things as God expects us to walk daily with Him.  If we know exactly the plans that He has for us we would no longer need God and pride could creep into our hearts and we could turn away from Him.  But there was no pride in Jesus Christ and no concern about Him ever turning away from the love of His Father.  Also, 
Colossians 1:19  For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell  

Jesus knew the end from the beginning and the Holy Spirit gave Him insight into all things as revealed from the Father.  Jesus spoke beforehand about His death and resurrection- not once, but multiple times.  Jesus Christ came to this earth to die for our sins and to bear the punishment of what our sins deserve.  He came to bring new life and to regenerate our wicked hearts of stone into hearts of flesh that can love Him without sin and selfish motives.  We, as born again Christians, can love Jesus truly with all of our heart for who He is and not for what we might receive from Him by knowing Him and being united to Him.  We love Him because we know Him intimately and we long to show Him our love in an ever increasing way.  We know that our love to God is nothing compared to the infinite love of God who is love and is perfect love and infinite love beyond measure.  We know that we can never repay Jesus of Nazareth for dying on the cross in our place.  
It is so natural to think these thoughts in light of the events surrounding the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  But there is something else described here in the book of Mark that seems almost out of place.  It makes sense for the angel to tell the women to examine the place where Jesus’s body was laid in the tomb as a proof to know that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead but why did the angel say in verse 7, “But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you”?  This is especially confusing as John 20 describes Peter and John also examining the tomb with their own eyes.  Why were they told to go to Galilee which was far away from Jerusalem especially as Jesus was going to appear to the disciples that very day in Jerusalem as described in John 20:19-23?  Because although they were in Jerusalem, all of the disciples had yet to be prepared to return to Jerusalem.  
At this point every single follower of Jesus was an absolute mess.  They all had been disillusioned by the death of Jesus Christ.  The Son of God whom they worshipped as the Christ had died in apparent weakness and in what they thought was complete failure.  They did not understand what Jesus had done for them until after the resurrection.  No one understood.  But more importantly none of the disciples yet understood what it meant to be baptized with the Holy Spirit.  This was the purpose for their return to Jerusalem from Galilee as was shown later:
Acts 1:4-5 4  And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5  for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

In spite of the fact that the disciples of Jesus had followed Him daily and learnt so much from Him, they did not understand what it meant to live and walk in the Spirit.  In spite of the fact that they saw the Kingdom of God manifest in the very life and actions of Jesus and through their own actions as Jesus worked through them (as He sent the disciples out on a variety of assignments), they did not know the Spirit filled life.  The disciples had, up to this point, followed God in a sense only in their own strength.  They had only drawn near to God as following the physical person of Jesus.  They did not know the intimacy that could be found only through knowing the Spirit of Christ.  
In the death of Jesus Christ, not only did Jesus provide the means of our salvation but also the disciples of Jesus were shown the weakness of only following Him in the flesh.  They all thought that they were more spiritual than they actually were.  No one expected to abandon Him and yet they all did.  They all needed to be restored in their relationship with Jesus Christ and Jesus did exactly this as He appeared to His disciples in His glorified body.  But they also needed to return to Jerusalem seeking something greater- something beyond what they already knew.  Ten days after Jesus ascended into heaven they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4).  
Do you know the deeper life that can be found in Jesus Christ or do you only know Him in the flesh?  Have you ever come to a realization of your weakness in the Christian life or do you have a false confidence in your walk with Him?  He will bring all of us to a state of brokenness to realize our need of the Spirit filled life.  Have you returned to Jerusalem a second time?

Pastor Murray Hack

Mark 16:1-8 1  When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2  And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3  And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” 4  And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. 5  And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. 6  And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7  But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” 8  And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.  

Not only did Jesus have to die upon the cross in order to be the Christ but in order for anyone today to believe that these events are actual history, Jesus had to be buried in a sealed tomb.  On the first day of the week (what we call Sunday), on the day after the Sabbath (which is the seventh day of the week), Jesus rose from the dead.  Many people throughout human history have been thought to be dead but later came back to life.  Sometimes it is simply a misdiagnosis where a person’s pulse and breathing are so weak that people just assume that the person is dead.  Sometimes it is a genuine miracle of God whereby the person has actually died and is brought back to life by the very hand of God as in the case of Lazarus as recorded in John 11.  But in every instance the person eventually died again.  There was always a final end of their life in the body and the temporary physical revival of the body was eventually met with an absolute ending.  Everyone eventually dies.  Some people appear to be near the end of their life and by God’s mercy their lives are extended a little bit longer but in every instance their wages are paid in full: Romans 6:23  For the wages of sin is death.
Every employee is due their wages and in the case of all of mankind, we deserve death for the sins we have committed and for the original sin of Adam in his rebellion against God which brought the curse of death into this world.  Every person will get what they deserve one day: death, no matter how good or evil they may claim to be.  
 But there is one man who has walked upon this earth who did not deserve to die.  There is only one man who has ever lived that was actually perfect in every way.  This of course is Jesus Christ.  The life of Jesus proves this beyond a shadow of a doubt.  If you truly examine the actions of Jesus as recorded in the Bible you can’t but be amazed at how perfect He acted in every instance.  There is no flaw to be found.  There is no way He could be tricked or deceived or overcome.  The only reason why Judas Iscariot was able to betray Jesus and the only reason why the religious leaders in Jerusalem were able to successfully crucify Jesus is that it was the will of God and that Jesus gave Himself over to them.  He died to fulfill all righteousness.  He died in perfect obedience to God the Father in order that His perfect righteousness could be given to all who will repent and believe in Him.  Every born again Christian is clothed in Jesus Christ’s righteousness because He, who did not deserve to die, died in our place.  
Just as Jesus Christ is the only person who has ever lived that did not deserve to die, He is the only person to ever live who was brought back to life never to die again.  Jesus did not recover from death only later to die again, He rose from death victorious!  He defeated death!  He overcame the grave!  How could this be?  Because He was raised back to life in a body that was different from and yet the same as the body that died upon the cross.  He was raised from the dead in a glorified body that was no longer in a state of decay as our bodies are as a consequence of sin.  His glorified body is as perfect as He is perfect and is eternal.
But why did Jesus have to be buried in a sealed tomb?  Because if Jesus never really died, it all could be smoke and mirrors.  If somehow Jesus’ body was smuggled away after He had died, maybe He never rose again.  It all could be a lie.  And so, Jesus, who had no earthly wealth (Matthew 8:20) and means by which to afford a tomb with a large stone covering, was placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea who donated it for this purpose (Mark 15:46).  The tomb of Jesus was sealed and guarded to prevent any sort of tampering (Matthew 27:62-66).  There is no doubt that Jesus died.  But it is equally true that Jesus rose from the dead in a glorified body.  How could this be proven?  The greatest body of proof could only be found in the last place where Jesus had been seen in a state of physical death: in the tomb itself.  And so when the same women who had witnessed the death of Jesus of Nazareth upon the cross came to the tomb where Jesus was buried, Jesus did not appear to them outside of the tomb before they first saw the evidence inside.  But how would they enter in?  The book of Matthew describes how the stone was rolled away:
Matthew 28:2  And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.  

The stone was rolled away not so that Jesus could leave the grave (He was able to pass through walls in His glorified body) but rather so that the witnesses could enter in to see the evidence.  As the women entered the tomb of Jesus, the angel proclaimed the message that Jesus had risen from the dead but also pointed to the place where Jesus was laid in His graveclothes following the crucifixion.  Jesus’ glorified body was raised up through the graveclothes proving He was not unwrapped by someone or that His body was taken.  John 20:6-7 also describes the appearance of the face cloth that had been on Jesus’ head.  William Nicholson writes, “There they were in exactly the position the body had occupied.  And the napkin was "in a place by itself" on the very spot where the head had rested.  It was also "wrapped" or rolled "together," that is, the head being removed, it had collapsed and was shrunken.  It had not been unfolded, and none of the fastenings were loosened, indicating that it had not been taken off the head but that the head had been taken from out of it.  There, then, they lay- linen clothes and napkin too- no bandage undone, none of the folds disturbed, no change in position, but only shrunken.”  The greatest evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ was found in the very tomb where He was buried.  As Jesus next appears to His followers in His glorified body it was no trick or show but rather the truth as shown by the evidence within the tomb.  Isn’t the resurrection of Jesus Christ utterly astounding?  Can you believe it?  How great is the Son of God who came to save us from our sins!  He is worthy of all our praise!

Pastor Murray Hack

Mark 15:37-47 37  And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38  And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39  And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” 40  There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41  When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. 
42  And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, 43  Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 44  Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. 45  And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. 46  And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47  Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.  

The events surrounding the burial of Jesus of Nazareth are extremely important.  In order for anyone today to believe in faith in a God-man dying for their sins over 2,000 years ago it better be true and not some fable or made up story.  And so the Gospels (the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the Bible) not only provide great details describing the crucifixion of Jesus but also His burial and resurrection.  There had to be witnesses to Jesus’ death, there had to be witnesses to Jesus’ burial, there had to be witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, and there had to be witnesses to Jesus’ ascension into heaven where He is right now.  Without witnesses and the supporting miracles and the fulfilled prophecies and the events surrounding Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension why would anyone believe the Gospel?  
This is where a person must see the need to examine these events in detail.  People have been dying throughout all of human history.  Usually the only people who have any real interest in the death of any individual person are the immediate family and friends who know the deceased personally.  The average person is long forgotten after their death and it is only those who have left their greater imprints upon mankind as a whole that anyone in the future cares to look back upon.  Even among the “great” men and women of human history, typically their significance fades in time.  Anyone who desires to live for the glory of man will be sorely disappointed even if they somehow achieve human greatness.  The only wise person lives for eternal life.
So what motivates a person to look in depth at the events surrounding Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and ascension?  For some it might just be idle curiosity.  But ultimately for anyone who becomes a born again Christian, Scripture is clear that it is the Law of God that produces a knowledge of sin (and conviction of sin) that motivates a person to examine the life of the sin bearer Jesus Christ in detail and especially the events surrounding His death and resurrection.
Romans 3:20  through the law comes knowledge of sin. 
Without a real and personal need to be set free from sin, the events surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus are meaningless and unimportant.  But when a person is under conviction of sin these details are seen as significant and there is a longing to understand what truly happened in Jerusalem over 2,000 years ago.  Did Jesus really die for my sins?  Did He really rise from the dead?  All of the small details associated with Jesus’ death are important as they are proof that this is indeed true and not fiction.  The Christian does not believe with blind faith.
The female followers of Jesus are very important in helping us to believe that Jesus of Nazareth did die on the Friday and then rise from the dead on the Sunday (the Lord’s Day).  Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome all were witnesses of Jesus’ death upon the cross as they watched from a distance.  Most of the disciples were not present.  These same women also saw where Jesus was buried and then later would see Jesus in His resurrected body.  Their witness of all these events help us to believe that it is true.  
The fact that Joseph of Arimathea risked everything in going to the Roman Governor Pilate and asking for the body of Jesus is very important.  By Jesus being buried in a rich man’s tomb that was sealed with a stone and that was even guarded (Matthew 27:62-66) meant that there was no way that somehow Jesus’ body could be removed or tampered with.  We can believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ in part because there are no loopholes by which some type of deception and trickery could have been performed.  Jesus died and was buried and then rose again.  This is a historical fact.
There is another aspect to Jesus’ death that is significant as recorded here in the book of Mark.  In verse 44 we read that Pilate was surprised to hear that He should have already died.  Jesus did not die as a superhero.  In fact he died much quicker than what was typical for anyone crucified.  It could take days for someone crucified to die but Jesus died within six hours.  This in and of itself shows that something greater was happening as Jesus died upon the cross.  As He bore the sin of mankind and the wrath of God the Father was poured out upon Him, this punishment that He endured led to a quickened death.  None of us can comprehend the suffering that He endured that is infinitely beyond the physical suffering of crucifixion.  Again, this was all according to God’s perfect plan.  Jesus had to die swiftly in order for Him to be buried before Friday evening when the Sabbath would begin and no work was allowed to be performed.  The very fact that Jesus died on a Friday showed the utter hatred and urgency of the religious leaders among the Jews in having Jesus killed.  Jesus was arrested on Thursday night.  The religious leaders needed to act while the iron was hot.  Instead of waiting until Sunday to take their case to Pilate to persuade him to kill Jesus, they acted immediately thus forcing the other two men who were crucified to have their legs broken to accelerate their death before the beginning of the Sabbath (John 19:31-37).  But Jesus was already dead.  This fulfilled what had been prophesied thousands of years earlier when God gave the institution of the Passover Meal to Moses in Egypt (Exodus 12:46).  He was the perfect sacrifice.  Do you believe this?  Do you know that Jesus died for you and that you can have new life in Him?

Pastor Murray Hack