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Guest (Male): With a sneak peek at our resurrected bodies and our hope as believers, here's pastor Tom Keller.

Thom Keller: You have a body just like Adam had, but our heavenly bodies will be just like Christ. Our heavenly bodies will be just like Christ, just as we are now like Adam, the man of the earth, so we will someday be like Christ, the man from heaven. What this means is that probably the best picture we ever are going to get of what our eternal body is going to look like. When you die, when you close your eyes for the last time and you open them the the next, you will be standing in the presence of Jesus, right?

Because the Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

Guest (Male): The resurrection of the believers is an essential part of the gospel message, guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus. As believers, our future is secure. Even though we don't fully know what the future holds, we know who holds the future. The scriptures give us a glimpse into that future, as we'll learn on today's study the word with Tom Keller. We're glad you've joined us as we near the end of our study in the gospel of Mark. In chapter 16, we have the account of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, assuring our future as believers.

What would the world be like without this hope? Life would lose all meaning, that's for sure. Illustrating that truth, here's pastor Tom.

Thom Keller: Barbara Walters interviewed Mikhail Gorbachev back when he was still president of the former Soviet Union. And Barbara Walters asked him, she said, what is your philosophy of of life? He thought a while, and then he said this. He said, a man is born, a man suffers, and then he dies. That was Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader of the largest federation of states ever. Was that what life is about? Is it that empty? It's been said that man is the cosmic orphan. He's the only creature in the universe who asks why. Other animals have instincts to guide them, but this man has learned to ask questions.

Who am I? He asks. Why am I here? Where am I going? Ever since the enlightenment, ever since man became enlightened, when modern man or so supposedly enlightened, when modern man threw off these shackles of religion, we've tried to answer this question. Who am I? Where am I going? Why am I here? We've tried to answer these questions without a reference to God. But the answers that came back were not exhilarating or mind expanding. They were dark and terrible. You are an accidental byproduct of nature. The result of matter plus time plus chance. There's no reason for your existence.

All you face is death. Your life is but a spark in the infinite darkness, a spark that appears, flickers, and then is gone forever. It's against this backdrop that the traditional Christian hope of the resurrection takes on an even greater significance. It tells us that man is no freak random chance. But he is instead created in the personal image of God, the creator of the universe, nor is his life doomed for death. For through the power of the resurrection, you, I may live in the presence of God forever. That is a significance of the resurrection, ladies and gentlemen.

It dooms forever that thought that we are nobody with no purpose, no reason. We're ran pieces of random chance. It changes forever that line, that thought, that dark, terrible thought, that at the end there is nothing, that I live, I'm born, I suffer, and I die. What a dark dark thought. As we get into the story this morning, it says in Luke that Friday afternoon, the women went home and prepared spices. Remember Jesus was put on the cross at 9:00 in the morning, Friday put on the cross at 9:00 in the morning. It became dark from 12 until 3:00.

And at 3:00, he dismissed his spirit and died. It's also interesting but that at that exact moment is the 3:00 in the afternoon is the time of the daily prescribed sacrifice in the temple. It's the time 3:00 every day is when the lamb was taken by the high priest and it's throat slit and the blood poured out and that lamb offered as a sacrifice. That at the very moment, the very second probably, if we'd have a split screen and can see those two events, at the very moment Jesus dismissed his spirit and died, the high priest was slitting the throat of that lamb in the temple.

And at the very same time, that veil was rent in two, ripped in two. And they believe that was between 4 in. thick and 18 in. thick. The thunderous sound of that veil ripping. So picture Jesus dismiss if you could see all that at once, Jesus bowing his head, dismissing his spirit, the lamb's throat being slit, and at the same moment that veil being rent in two. The veil that separated the holy place from a common man. That there now was no wall, there was no division, there was no curtain between the common man and God, which is what that veil represented.

But at 3:00, the women went home. Jesus died, they went home and they went to prepare spices for his burial. By the time they were finished, it was a Sabbath. Remember the uh the Jewish calendar, Jewish days begin at 6 p.m. So they went home at 3 o'clock. From 3 to 6 they were working on preparing these these spices to anoint his body. But before they were done, it became 6 o'clock. And it's now the Sabbath. It's now Saturday, the Jewish holy day. And so they couldn't they had to rest. They couldn't do anything. So they kept the spices in their home and they waited.

It's interesting on on the way bodies are buried in Israel then and even today, most burials are still done in crypts above the ground. The reason is Jerusalem is just one big rock. I mean all you do and all you do by putting them underground is you you'd be digging rock up and putting them under rock and putting rocks on top of them. So for the most part, their crypts common people were buried this way. But when someone was very wealthy, and they had to be very wealthy, they would buy a piece of land, they would cut out a hole and then a and then a chamber inside.

And if they were very wealthy, it could hold a number of people. If you walk inside of one of these, it's like a 4 ft. by 6 ft. walking area and then shelves built up on the front and both sides, maybe 3 ft. high. And when somebody would die, Jews don't embalm. Uh they let the body decay. So they would take the body in there and just put it, lay it on the slab. And if it was somebody wealthy, they would have probably one one place where the body would lay. If they were very wealthy, there might be three, one in front and one on either side.

If they were very wealthy, it would be even more than that. They would have taken the body and then laid it there and they would wait until the body decomposes. Once the body decomposes, they would go in and gather the bones, put them in what's called an ossuary box. They're made out of stone. And once the the bodies decayed and the bones are collected, they're put in a bone box like that and then put in that crypt so that the next time someone in that family dies, they can take the next person in, put them in there and let them decay.

The reason there would be three slabs in in some of them, three kind of uh tables would be that if there'd be multiple deaths in a in a certain period of time while the one body was still decaying, sorry about this, uh they could put other bodies in the tomb as well. Well it says that Mary Magdalene went out and Jesus had cast seven demons out of her. And that they now come to the tomb. And it says that they're bringing spices not to mummify the body because Jews don't do that, but to offset the odor of decomposition.

That's why they were bringing the spices. He was wrapped in a linen cloth and they were bringing the spices just to put it on the linen cloth as an act of kindness, as a way of honoring Jesus. And it's really pretty neat that women were the first ones to see him, isn't it? You know if you read the Gospels, you kind of get the point. It almost had to be women. Then that they were the only ones that really got it. In in in in the three years of Jesus' ministry, really it's true. And although they found it hard to believe they believed it, they went back and told the disciples they didn't believe it.

It says a very large stone had been rolled away. Matthew tells us that it was the angel who rolled the stone away. Can you picture that? What did that look like? You know just or did they, you know just move? And it moved? I don't know. We'll get to see that angel someday and ask him. If you know Christ, you'll get to ask that question. Well why did the angel roll the stone away? To let Jesus out? Think he needed that? No. The reason the stone was rolled away, the reason was so that they the women, the disciples could see that Jesus wasn't in there.

Had the stone not been rolled away, how would they have been able to know that? To validate that? To speak to that? It will set the others could go in. The angel says that he is risen. He's risen from the dead. You know at first glance, when you think about this, you think of Jesus coming back from the dead and you think, well that's really pretty cool, but but he did the same thing for others, right? He healed people, he raised people from the dead. He raised Lazarus out of the tomb had been dead for three days.

What was so what was so unique about that? The widow of Nain, remember uh there's a funeral procession and Jesus comes along and her only son, her only child is is is in a coffin and he speaks to the boy and he he comes back from the dead. Even the disciples did this. If you remember Peter raised Dorcas from the dead. So you think, well okay, he did to himself what he did to others. At first glance, that's a logical thought, but that's not at all what happened. It's very different. It's worlds apart. It's not even in the same universe what happened.

And the reason is that those people were all resuscitated, right? They were brought back. That same body came back to life again. That same body then went on to die again. Right? They didn't live forever just because Jesus brought him back from the dead. Anybody know where Lazarus is today? Living in China somewhere? No, he's dead. He's he's you know he's in heaven because his body was resuscitated. But with Jesus' body, his body wasn't resuscitated. His body became the new resurrected body, the new body, a different body. It's not the same. It is a separation from the old body and the taking on of a new, completely new physical body.

This new body being the body that is suitable to enter into heaven. Because the Bible tells us that this body is not suitable. This body this this body cannot enter heaven. Not this body. It takes a resurrected body. This has incredible significance for us who are believers. In 1 কোরিনথিয়ানস 15 it says this, every human being has an earthly body just like Adam's. You have a body just like Adam had, but our heavenly bodies will be just like Christ. Our heavenly bodies will be just like Christ, just as we are now like Adam, the man of the earth, so we will someday be like Christ, the man from heaven.

What this means is that probably the best picture we ever are going to get of what our eternal body is going to look like. When you die, when you close your eyes for the last time and you open them the the next, you will be standing in the presence of Jesus, right? Because the Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. If you aren't here, you're going to be with Jesus. If you know Christ as your savior, if you're not here, you're going to be with him and you will never leave him again.

Not ever again. He will always be with you until the end of all time. But when you close your eyes and open them, you will have a resurrected body. And the best picture we get of what your body is going to look like is what Jesus' body looked like. Because the Bible says we will have one day have a body just like Christ's resurrected body. That wasn't a temporary body that he had. That was his resurrected body. You will have a body just like that someday. What about this resurrection? When when will this happen? When will this take place?

All people will be resurrected but not at the same time. The first resurrection when a person dies now in Christ and goes to heaven, you're given a temporary body. It's not really your final resurrected body, not yet. I've heard a lot written in that and there's no one knows anything about it, so it doesn't really matter what that body's going to be like. Paul said, I wouldn't like the thought of going to heaven and have no having no body at all. So it's going to be a body of some form but it is not going to be that final resurrected body.

So when will this take place? The first resurrection is that of believers and it takes place at the rapture. The Bible says that Jesus is going to come in the clouds and there's going to be a trumpet sound. And all those that are dead in Christ, all those people who have ever accepted Christ as their Lord and savior will come alive out of their graves. And all those people that are then still on the earth living and are in Christ, they then too will be gathered up with those coming out of the graves and they will go up to be with the Lord forever and ever in their then resurrected body.

That is the first resurrection. That is when the resurrected body is brought back for believers. For unbelievers, their bodies are not resurrected yet. Their bodies stay in the grave. And the way this works is at the at the rapture, those bodies come out of the grave and the ones that are alive that are believers, these are only believers, those that have accepted Christ will arise and go to be with Jesus in heaven. All those that have never accepted Christ will stay in the grave. And after the rapture, there's a seven-year period of tribulation, a seven-year period where 21 incredible, impossible to describe calamities are going to take place in the face of this earth.

Seven years of literal hell on earth. It's going to be incredible, horrible. But at the end of that seven years, Jesus will then come back with his army and he will set up his rule in Jerusalem for a thousand years. He will reign and rule in Jerusalem for a thousand years. At the end of the thousand years, a literal thousand years. At the end of the thousand years, there will then be what's called the great white throne judgment. And the great white throne judgment is when then the earth, the seas, they give up the dead that are buried in them.

And they stand before God. These are all unbelievers. Only unbelievers. They stand before God. And it says that the books are opened. And the first set of books that's opened is called what's called the Lamb's Book of Life. And that's everyone who's ever accepted Christ as their Lord and savior is their name is recorded in that book. If you've accepted Christ as your Lord and savior, your name is in that book, the Lamb's Book of Life. But only the unsaved are at this resurrection. At this one, only unbelievers, only those that have rejected Christ are at this resurrection.

It's the great white throne judgment. The books are opened and the first pass is to just validate that your book is never your name has never been been put in in that Book of Life. And they'll go down through and they'll see that person's name's not there. And once that's determined, and that's known already, it's just for the benefit of the one being judged really. When that's known, that book is put aside and then the book of remembrances or the book of deeds are pulled out. And the Book of Deeds has a list of every sin you've ever committed, everything you've ever done, every sin you've ever committed.

And not only that you committed but that you've thought because Jesus said to think it is the same as doing it. The consequences here on earth are very different. But from God's perspective, if you've thought it, you've done it. So I picture this being like there's an there's an an 80 ft. Sony Trinitron screen behind me. And Jesus says, let's watch this. I mean that I'm not this isn't going to happen to believer. This is unbeliever. And so that person's life, all their sins are displayed in that screen. And this is for people that say, you know what?

I've never really done anything that bad. I really don't think I have that much of a problem with God. I mean I'm not that bad. I've never murdered anybody. I've never done this. I've never done that. Every sin you ever committed, every thought you ever thought before the all holy one. Having rejected Christ, knowing now as you stand there, it was the only provision that could be made for you. And now on top of that, all this sin is unloaded. Well they'll that is then when those bodies will be given a resurrected body. Those people unbelievers will also be given a body.

And they will be cast into the lake of fire. And uh the Bible indicates that those bodies will burn. They will be in fire, literal fire, but they will never be consumed. So if you can imagine what it would feel like for your body to be in fire but never consumed forever and ever. And on top of that, knowing there's no reprieve, there's no second chance, there's no court of appeals, there's no vacation, there's no end. And on top of that, knowing you had an opportunity to accept Christ and rejected it. And knowing that and living with that forever and ever and ever.

And more than that, thinking about the people, the children, the family that you kept away from Christ, that you wouldn't let come to Christ, that you mocked and when they turned to Christ forever and ever and ever. That's the resurrection of the dead, the saved and the unsaved. Well in verse seven, he goes on and says, now go and give this message to his disciples including Peter. It's really neat that Jesus makes a special accommodation here for Peter. Remember Peter who said, I'll never deny you though all these other ones will, I never will. And Jesus said, Peter, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.

Never. Never. And he did. And in Luke it says that as he denied in the third time, Jesus looked out of the window the high priest's house and he locked eyes with Peter, denying him the third time as he says, I don't even know the man. As he says that, Peter looks and Jesus is looking at him through the window and it crushes his spirit, his soul and he runs out of the place. That's the last we hear of Peter until the women are told, go give this message including Peter cuz I think Peter thought he was off the list.

He's out. My guess is that if Jesus wouldn't have said that and the women would have gone back and said to the 11, we've seen Jesus, he said he's going to go ahead of you to Galilee, go meet him there, Peter would have said, not me. No way. Not me. I did just what he said I would do. I denied him. He doesn't ever want to see me again. And so the angel said including Peter. Well in verse nine, some of your Bibles have a footnote at verse nine that this may be the the right ending or maybe it really ends at verse eight.

There's a footnote in many of them saying they're not sure whether the rest of this chapter was in the original writings. I just want to address that briefly cuz it matters. You're going to you're going to run across this and say, well that doesn't make sense. What's that all about? The two oldest existing Greek manuscripts are dated 325 and 340 A.D. Okay? The two oldest intact manuscripts we have of Mark are dated 325 A.D. and 340 A.D. They do not include just those two scripts. Do not include verses nine plus. So on the basis of that is the footnote.

But here's the reason why we should believe that they do exist because very many early Christian writers refer to these verses in writing and in years much earlier than 325 A.D. Papias, a writer from around 100 A.D., refers in his writings to Mark 16 verse 18. Get it? Someone who someone who wrote 100 years after death of Christ versus 325 years after death of Christ, he already is referring to Mark 18. Verse 18, Mark 16 verse 18. Just in Martyr in 151 A.D. quotes Mark 16:20 161 A.D. Irenaeus in 180 A.D. quotes Mark 16:13 Hippolytus who lived in around 198 A.D.

quotes Mark 16:19. And the overwhelming majority of ancient manuscripts do include these verses. So although the two complete intact manuscripts we do have from past 300 A.D. do not have it, earlier writings support that it was there. So in in all probability is almost certainly was a part of the original writing. Let's go on. We're going to start verse nine. It says it was early on Sunday morning when Jesus rose from the dead. And the first person who saw him was Mary Magdalene, the woman from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went and found the disciples who were grieving and weeping.

Can you imagine why they're grieving and weeping? Remember what happened in the garden? They all deserted him. Remember? They all fled. They all ran away. Well when she told them that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they didn't believe her. Now this again is significant. The women show up with the disciples and they say he's alive. We've seen him alive. They didn't believe the women. Now the reason that significant is Jesus had been prepping them for about the last year that he's going to die and arise from the dead. He said it over and over over and over.

Now the women come and say, well okay, don't you think they would have got it at some point? They would have thought, now wait a minute. He's he's He said he's going to die and arise from the dead. Okay, he's dead. Okay. The women come back and say, he's risen from the dead. I don't believe it. Why didn't they put that together? Does that make sense? I don't get that at all. It just too much like me, I think.

Guest (Male): In honest confession, pastor Tom Keller concludes with and no doubt if you're like me, the feelings are mutual. I suspect we all at some point will face the struggle to believe. You're listening to Study the Word and a part of our final message in Mark. You can hear this study again by going to ccleb.com. Visit ccleb.com and have a look under resources and there you'll find our teaching archives or call and request a CD copy at 717 507 7862. That's 717 507 7862. And right now, we're pleased to offer you pastor Tom's entire study of Daniel on a flash drive for your gift of any amount.

Enjoy an in-depth study of one of the most fascinating books of the Old Testament, Daniel. Again, you'll receive this 22-message set on a flash drive. Your contribution, whatever the size, will serve to help people listening to this station and across the nation Study the Word. Call 717 507 7862 or write to Study the Word 740 Willow Street, Lebanon, Pennsylvania 17046. And you're always invited to join us for a worship service here at Calvary Chapel, Lebanon. Turn to ccleb.com for our service times, church news, directions, and more information. And please introduce yourself to pastor Tom after the service.

He'd love to meet you. And download our free Android app when you get a chance. Search Calvary Chapel, Lebanon in the Google Play Store. We'll pick up where we left off in Mark next time on Study the Word with pastor Tom Keller. And until then, keep studying the Word.