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we're in Mark chapter 16 again this morning we'll be looking at uh some of what our uh debated verses some feel appended to mark that
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uh it ended at verse 8 but we're going to look at um some of these verses this morning beginning at verse 9 down through verse
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14 now after he had risen early on the first day of the week he first appeared to Mary Magdalene from whom he had cast out seven demons she went and reported to those who had been with him while
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they were mourning and weeping and when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her they refused to believe it and after
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that he appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking along on their way to the country and they went away and reported it to the others but they did not believe them
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either and afterward he appeared to the 11 themselves as they were reclining at the table and he reproached them for their unbelief and Hardness of Heart
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because they had not believed those who had seen him after after he had risen let us pray Our Father we do ask that you would
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by your Holy Spirit instruct us and teach us not only the way that we should go but also the way that we should worship and that you would allow us to
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see Christ to see him more clearly to understand who he is and what this the meaning of his resurrection is we ask
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that you would do these things for us and for the building up of your church in Christ's name
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amen as I say these verses have been debated whether they are part of the original manuscripts or not though we learned last week that 99% of the manuscripts that we have do
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include these verses it's just that the two most ancient manuscripts do manuscripts do not and yet what I see here is not that
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they are spous and that we ought to toss them out but at least in these verses that I've read this morning the scriptures interpret the
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scriptures they there's nothing that I see here that is contrary and would make us upset us upset in what we read in the other gospels of
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Matthew Luke and John and yet what I think I see here is that whoever the writer
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was perhaps Mark himself even though he's been criticized over the centuries for here is a more of
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a a resume more of a Chronicle rather than a narrative of what happened after the resurrection I believe that the emphasis
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that he has here is in conjunction with or is consistent with the rest of his
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gospel that his focus is on the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has done I've titled this message Love's triumphant message
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triumphant message and we don't read here what that message actually is in fact what we read is when the the Mary Magdalene and presumably the
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other women who were with her at the tomb on that great getting up morning and the men to whom Jesus spoke on the way to as Luke tells us to emus
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went and reported it to the disciples three times times we understand they did not believe they did not believe them either and they get
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reproached by Jesus for not believing and yet I believe that what we see in here is truly Love's triumphant
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message triumphant message first to Mary Magdalene and Magdalene and then to the men on the road and then to the
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disciples but also to us that what we see here it truly is Jesus after his
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resurrection we read that after he had risen early on that first day of the week after the Sabbath he first appeared to Mary Magdalene the kindness shown to Mary
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Magdalene was was special for several reasons one she was chosen to be the first to see Jesus after the resurrection I I if you were to write
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the Gospel who would you pick to be first per perhaps you would pick Peter because he was the first among equals in the
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disciples and he's named specifically by the angel up back up in verse 7even but go tell his disciples
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Peter that he is risen perhaps you would think that it would be John the disciple as the scriptures say the disciple whom Jesus
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loved the one who sat closest to him on that night of the last supper and was his special friend among his inner
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circle or perhaps it would have been his mother Mary who is now under the care of John took him under took her under his
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wing to provide for her at the Lord's instruction to him as he hung on
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that privilege but it's also special because of what the scripture tells us he first appeared to Mary Magdalene from whom he had cast out seven demons
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he had healed her he had drawn her to himself in faith by casting out the seven demons now the idea of demon
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possession remains at least to me a mystery a mystery a strangeness and quite frankly it's scary to even think about being possessed
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being dominated by an alien power with inside your mind and your body unlike healing diseases sicknesses or injuries when we
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read of Jesus encountering demon possession Jesus speaks to the demons he holds conversations with them
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and he rebukes them and demon possession in scripture I I think is is not defined it is not explained to
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explained to us but it is known by its signs we read of Madness we read of of dumbness the the inability to speak and
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communicate we read of people given to fits and
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convulsions and many have written and I didn't bother to read them because it's conjecture about what Mary actually did what was her sin and I understand that there are
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schools there are hospitals there are groups of people around the world over the centuries who've created a a Mary Magdalene society that of her generation
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she was the chief of Sinners but the scriptures don't give us any of those things that they write about but we do
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see like others of demon possession she was beset by real and Powerful
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Devils but the message here I think in Mark is not about Mary but about Jesus now Luke tells us that Mary it was Mary Magdalene he says quote
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from whom whom seven spirits had gone out he's looking at the benefits to Mary they had gone out of her that she no longer had them they no longer possessed
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her but Mark focuses on the one who cast them out the one who had the power to cast these demons
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out and I think the lesson here is pretty simple there is no condition of the human hearts of the human mind of
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the human Spirit of the human body that Christ cannot Christ cannot cure that Christ cannot change we we don't know as I said we
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don't know the extent of her sin we don't know why she had seven demons some point out that seven I it's that
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old number of completion there couldn't couldn't possibly have been anything greater than this we don't know why she had seven
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demons but we do know that no one is Out Of Reach of Christ's power to heal and Christ's power to deal with any
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afflictions as a cause or the cause of sin but this is no reason for boasting on our part or no reason for forgetting
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Paul reminds Us in 1 Corinthians chap 6 do not be deceived neither the sexually immoral nor idolators nor adulterers nor
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homosexuals nor thieves nor the greedy nor those habitually drunk nor verbal abusers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God and then he points to the
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Corinthians and you know from Reading Corinthians what they are like but this is the good news such were some of you
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but you were washed but you were Sanctified but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God isn't that a comforting phrase I
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highlighted it in my notes such were some of some of you there is nothing nothing that Christ cannot Cure
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Nothing that he cannot deal with and what do we see from Mary that her her heart was fully set to always minister to Jesus she had made this special trip
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to Jerusalem From Galilee to continue ministering to him while he was preaching and preaching and teaching and he valued her for it her
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love her faithfulness her thoughtfulness she was there to minister to him and yet she was the one who received Love's TR triumphant
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message first he is not here he is risen go and tell the others as one writer put it of Mary last at the cross and first at the grave last
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who confessed her master while living and the first to honor him when dead she is an honored woman but she honored
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Jesus Christ and like Mary as the scripture calls us we who were once enemies of God we were made Children of the
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king and Jesus reminds us all who honor the son honor the father but the one who does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent
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him but I do believe that like Mary those who honor the son will be honored
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think of Peter in his bitterness and his remorse we know that the disciples yes they had been scattered but somehow they kind of gathered back together during this weekend after Jesus had been
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crucified and it says in verse 10 while they were mourning and weeping and perhaps as Mary came to tell them what she had seen her Witness of
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Jesus Christ alive perhaps she told him exactly the way the angel told her go
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tell his disciples and Peter especially Peter it was a loving message it says I still care about you
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there's something I want to say to you perhaps to Peter an totally unexpected message perhaps not fully
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appreciated until much later and we think of his mourning and weeping think weeping think about what he must have been feeling his
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regret of his pensent denials on the night Jesus was betrayed or think about his cowardly shrinking from yes the the
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maid in the courtyard was I think rude and arrogant and yet he was a
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coward think about him wishing if I had to do it all over again I would do it totally
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differently and now into this sorrow comes the tidings he is risen Jesus Christ the Lord is risen and what would his reaction be
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a struck a struck perhaps but is it with joy Luke in chapter 24 when he tells about Jesus appearing to the disciples
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in the upper room he writes this still they could not believe it for joy and were marveling the there was fear and joy
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mixed there was fear and confusion and joy and awe at the same time alive Jesus alive do you not think
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mind what would Jesus say to me if I saw him what action would he take for what I did for the way that I acted and the way that I denied him those three times and and what would he look like what would
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be his face looked like what would his countenance reveal to me of what he was thinking would Jesus be totally
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removed from his usual compassionate self the the one who looked at us like sheep without a Shepherd would his familiar love have
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disappeared but again I do not think the message is about Peter but about Jesus
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changed Jesus world history had changed that day forever changed a revolution of human life had begun that day death and
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the grave had been defeated that day no longer holding Believers in its grip sin no longer having that power over us a
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path symbolized by the veil being torn a path had opened that day a new approach to a holy God but death did not affect the love of
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Christ for his people and the reality of his companionship with them death had not changed not changed Jesus his love was stronger than death
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his love was stronger than all the changes in the circumstances of of his people we we sang this morning about
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life's upheavals life's upheavals life's trials the course of human events the things that people do the things that
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come and weigh on us on a daily basis but the cross does not separate Christ and his love from us
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the God who declared through the Prophet Jeremiah I think also declares by raising Jesus from the dead we read in Jeremiah 31 I have loved you with an everlasting love therefore I have drawn
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you out with kindness and I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt doesn't that describe Peter that he would draw him out with
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kindness that he would turn him in to that man who became a pillar and he became one who encouraged his fellow Elders he became one who said to us humble
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yourselves in the sight of the Lord cast all your cares upon him because he cares about you that's what he found that the message was that death
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had not changed Jesus that he was still in the savior's love and that Everlasting Love did not change because of Jesus death and it has not
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changed because of the intervening years this love is not broken by our stopping for a time to love his
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appearing when we have that kind of unbelieving feeling when we have our doubts because remember remember his enduring love for us was
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not brought about by our faithfulness but by his grace it was not brought about because I was loving to
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him we loveed because he first loved us or as was read in our hearing this morning Jonah said it much better than I
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can salvation is from the Lord period it's not we're not on a performance basis with God and if that be genuine our
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unfaithfulness does not affect his love for us yes as one writer says all sin lays waste and it impoverishes the
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soul but our sin does not separate us from God
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even the disciples were upbraided by Jesus they were reproached by him he was very severe with them reproached them for their unbelief and Hardness of Heart because they had not believed the
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witness the genuine witness that was brought to
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them but his love deals with us where we are his love deals with us in our lives in various ways we may be be needing discipline we may need to be compelled
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to do something we may need to be drawn to him but our sin is not capable of tearing us away from his
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love someone might say like the son his love is always there but sometimes we can't see
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it but sin cannot keep Christ from manifesting his love to Sinners Born Again In him so we learn to cease from sin we learn to walk in righteousness though it all comes not from our hearts
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but from his nature and it is true that in these verses again we have three times a mention of unbelief a weakness of Faith
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it's called a Hardness of Heart or as one translated it a heart stiffness it's an unwillingness of belief it's a
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forgetfulness and it's not merely intellectual there are many commentators who want to say well it's just this intellectual belief that Jesus was raised from the
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dead but this heart stiffness is an unyielding a not wanting to bend to the evidence
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that is there and refusing to believe that evidence and the flip side of that coin is not any better because what it means
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is they clung to what they ought not to trust and insisted on trusting what they
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not but the good news again the message is that it's not about us it's about Jesus the overruling hand of God brought good
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from Evil so we should not be surprised I think it's one of our faults that we that we have we should not be surprised when
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doubts arise I agree with the commentators who who think that this is genuine this passage because it shows us what humans are like it shows us their doubt it
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shows us their fear it shows us is their confusion that Jesus actually rose from the dead whoever heard of that and it makes their faith their
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subsequent walk with Christ the writings of these men more genuine to me because they were truly changed they did not change
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themselves and so we should not be surprised when doubts arise but we also I think have another fault that we fall into quite often and
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that is that we expect Perfection and Faith by others around us we have a tendency to look at their faults more severely than we look at our own and yet
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we are men of like mind God knows our frame he knows we are dust he knows we are foolish he knows as
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the scriptures say we are like sheep and we need a she
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Shepherd Jesus words in the Garden of Gethsemane should be our watch word watch and pray that you may not enter into
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unbelieving feeling we should ask ourselves do I have the Risen Christ am I in him do I know him has he bought me
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have I been made a partaker of the spiritual life of his resurrection have I been buried with Christ by baptism into his
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death well Paul says how we ought to answer that in Romans chapter 6 therefore sin is not to reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lust
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and do not go on pre presenting the parts of your body to sin as instruments of righteousness but present yourself to God as those who are alive from the dead
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and your body's Parts as instruments of righteousness for God for sin shall not master over you for you are not under the law but under grace let us
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pray our heavenly father we ask again that you would teach us to see to see Jesus to see the mighty work that he has done conquering death and hell and
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sin for sin for us and yet father sometimes we we just need to hear Love's triumphant message I love you with an everlasting
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love and therefore I will draw you and I will rebuild you and you will will be rebuilt I thank you for this encouragement I thank you for these
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words I thank you for these people that you have given us in Scripture that we might see that they are real and yet you are powerful in Christ's name we pray
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amen you please rise for the benediction from familiar benediction from Jude
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now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory blameless with great joy to the only God our savior through Jesus Christ Our Lord be glory
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Majesty dominion and Authority before all time and now and forever amen
