Sight and Sound. Mark 16:19. “So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, He was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.”
The sound of a moving stone: large, embedded deeply in place, marks of authority broken, hands of celestial pressure easily moving it to show the emptiness inside the ground it guarded. Even this stone cries out – “He’s Risen!”
The sound of voices: women wondering, How…who? Of indrawn breaths, gasps of surprise, joy restrained, hope rising, wonder, fear, lips open but wordless, faith not fully expressed. Their hearts are filled—“He’s Risen!”
The sound of a man’s voice: understood clearly but not the words, comforting but alarming, enlightening but causing fear, giving assurance but not expected, making plain but causing confusion. No question about it – “He’s Risen!”
The sound of running feet: their garments flowing behind, their knees shaking until the strength of hope comes, their eyes wide in amazement, hands empty now of spices dropped, mouths open but silent; except Mary’s – “He’s Risen!”
The sight of a new day: sunrise and an empty tomb, sunrise and hope-filled saints, sunrise and a voice from heaven, sunrise and a new eternal day begin, sunrise and the dead One lives, sunrise, and the news begin to spread; “He’s Risen!”
The sight of a celestial messenger: “Go, tell them what’s happened,” and he comes from God; “Go, tell the disciples and Peter,” says the messenger, and the women run; “The tomb is empty,” says the women, and two men run and see for themselves; “He’s Risen!”
The sight of the risen Lord: Mary’s tear-filled eyes are lifted and see Him; Peter’s grief-filled eyes are lifted, and He sees Him in private; two on the road lift doubtful eyes and see Him; eleven in a room lift fear-filled eyes and see Him: It is true, “He’s Risen!”
The sight of weeping saints: mourning in the dark room, recalling, fearful, night-time in the souls of all, uncertain, hope is gone, the sight of violent death remains in the eye of the mind, a sealed stone, guards: and then, right in their midst – “He’s Risen!”
The sight of an angel – the sound of his voice: “Be not afraid!” The sight of a Stranger – the sound of His voice: “Mary!” The sight of eleven in fear – the sound of His voice: “Peace be unto you!” The sight of a dark, lost world – the sound of His voice: “Go ye!” The sight of the ascending Lord – the sound of His voice: “I will come again!”
Jesus kept His promise to rise from among the dead, and His eternal kingdom is a fact, not a dream or faded hope. Because He lives, we too will be resurrected, and He can make us spiritually alive now, from being dead in trespasses and sins. Even our bodies will be raised and changed, and those who have received Him by faith will be with Him forever. What He promises, He fulfills. The resurrection of Christ testifies to the fact that the death of Jesus on the cross was not the death of a martyr but was the only acceptable sacrifice for our sins. Instead of the cross-death of Jesus being shameful, it is a glorious act of redemption full of splendor and blessing! He has triumphed over all foes who were against Him! Sin has been paid for in full! Reconciliation to God is now possible! New life begins! The Living Vine sends forth His branches with life-giving messages that bring forth “much fruit!”
The sacrifice and resurrection of Christ “justifies” us before God! We are cleared of guilt and declared righteous so that no stain remains on us before the court of divine justice. We are now “in Christ.” The Living Christ gives us the power to live in the way He wants now, even though we were helpless to do that when we were hopelessly lost in our sins. Now that He lives, the eternal life that He gives us is real and functional today. Death has been defeated, and righteousness rules. Victory over wickedness, falsehood, and the power of sin are results of the sacrifice of the innocent “Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.”
Angel messages come from God and so are not to be taken lightly or considered of less importance than divine instruction. Those women were to go and tell the disciples and Peter that their Master was alive and to go to Galilee to see Him there. They were afraid at first and wouldn’t tell anyone. Perhaps it was then Mary Magdalene turned back to the tomb, wept, and saw Jesus, the risen Christ! To take in the fact of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ would have been a frightening thing to tell to others. They were supposed to share the joy and tell what they knew personally, but fear seemed to grip them until Mary actually saw and talked with Jesus herself. Even then, they didn’t believe the women's words, so John and Peter went to see for themselves.
There are many things we may seek in our service to the Lord. We may seek souls to be saved, for ways to serve the Lord, for the welfare of other believers, or to do good for other people. The most important thing to seek is Jesus. He is where we get the light from heaven that shines into our souls. When we seek Jesus, we get all the things worth seeking. The message that made special mention of Peter would have assured him that it was truly the Lord Jesus who would know how his heart was breaking for his denial of the Lord. His heart would have been lifted when he heard that special message and began running to the garden where the Lord had appeared to Mary. She had seen the risen Lord first, but sadly, she wasn’t believed, nor did the disciples pay attention to her words and get up and head for Galilee to meet with Jesus there. Their doubts remained. As Peter thought about what he had done when he denied the Lord and didn’t find Jesus in the garden, he departed, wondering in himself at all that had happened.
For some reason, whether it was fear, doubting the message of the women, or lack of faith, the disciples seemed stuck to Jerusalem. That was where the Lord had been openly rejected, where they had forsaken Him and fled, and where He had died. In Galilee was where they would have had all the good memories of what Jesus had done and where they had learned so much from Him as He taught them as well as the people there. Perhaps that was why the Lord Jesus wanted them to go back to where it had all started with them in hope and the happiness of first love. “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today and forever.” Even though they did not do what the angel said, the Lord was willing to meet with them where they were, even though He had to rebuke them for their unbelief.
The Lord Jesus' appearances to His own people began with Mary Magdalene, a humble woman who had been delivered from satanic bondage by His grace. She appreciated Him in a way the more righteous disciples would likely know nothing about: “To whom much has been forgiven, the same loves much.” She would have been a person of a “humble and contrite spirit.” The Lord recognizes devoted, whole-hearted appreciation and love for what it really is.
When the Lord appeared to those gathered in the upper room behind a locked door, even though they believed not for fear and joy at the same time, they soon understood that He was the same Jesus they had known and followed before His crucifixion. It was such a new, unheard-of, and unthought-of experience that they had a serious problem accepting the resurrection of the body as a fact. They recognized Him as the same Person, but He was different. There were some differences because Mary didn’t recognize Him until He spoke. The two on the road to Emmaus didn’t recognize Him until He was at the table with them and had given thanks for the food. They didn’t recognize Him when he spoke. In the upper room, the disciples could hardly believe it was Jesus until He asked for something to eat, which He ate before them so they could watch Him eat as a real living person. There must be some differences in a resurrected body, but when the disciples saw beyond the external physical sight of the Lord, “then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.” The different “form” of the Lord did not keep them from hearing what He said or being able to touch Him. He was really alive alright!
The miracle He performed at the sea of Galilee when Peter and others went fishing assured them that the Lord had the bread and fish heating up for their breakfast after a cold and wasted night. They knew it was a miracle that brought one hundred and fifty-three fish into their net. The Lord was different in some ways and the same in others. He still cared about their well-being. He was still “touched with the feeling of their infirmities.” He recognized the physical and emotional needs of others in the same way He did on previous occasions. His voice was the same as He met with and taught them and five hundred believers at once. Faith needs an ear to hear before the eye can see. “The pure in heart” are those who are blessed and “see God.”
The resurrected body of the Lord Jesus Christ was not limited by time or space, even though it was touchable and tangible. Even though He is in another form, He promises to be with His own people when we gather in His name. We don’t actually see Him physically during those times, but He sees us and hears us and expects us to hear Him without seeing Him. Faith is stronger than sight, and it is His purpose for us to live by faith. It seems that as we grow older, or maybe it is simply growing more spiritually mature, the Lord Jesus is more personally real to us than in the early years of our life of faith when we still wanted to walk by sight.
His body had been there. He had been entombed for three days and three nights, as He said. Early on the Lord’s Day, they sought His body because they still thought that Jesus was dead. True to His word, by the power of God, He was raised up from the sealed grave, and then the stone was rolled away so witnesses could go in and see – “He is not here!” The truth scriptures plainly state that we are saved by believing in the risen Lord Jesus.
The great stone was rolled away so those who came could see He was not there. It wasn’t that He vanished mysteriously, nor as a spirit, gone into the air. It was the same Person who came and was seen by those women who traveled with Him before. When the “young man” told them Jesus had risen, they could see plainly that He was not there. To Mary Magdalene first and then to the others, the Lord Jesus came to make Himself known. It was hard at first to believe it was He, but all believed when the wounds were shown. He is alive! The proofs are there! Hundreds saw Him alive after death. I believe! There is no question it’s true! I have come to know Him believing by faith.
When the Lord Jesus appeared to the eleven as they ate, He rebuked them for their lack of faith and stubbornness in not believing those women who had seen Him. “Unbelief and hardness of heart” toward those who tell the truth of God is taken personally by the Lord. They had not believed Mary when she told them she had seen the Lord and He had spoken to her. In fact, they took it to be merely a foolish tale and rejected what she said. It was not merely doubt; it was denial. Thomas would not believe the whole group of eyewitnesses. In one way, their denial and stubbornness add to the whole narrative being true because when they did actually see the risen Lord themselves, there was a complete change in them.
The false rumors of unbelievers were of no value when so many people had seen the risen Lord. They had changed from incredulous unbelief to positive believers who not only testified to the fact that they had seen Jesus alive after His resurrection but were willing to die in defense of that reality. The scriptures of the Old Testament have a number of references to the resurrection of Christ and the fact that this life is not the end of our existence. The works that the Lord Jesus Christ did for forty days before ascending to heaven testify to the reality of His resurrection.
The predictions of His resurrection had been made several times before His death to those same people. They couldn’t grasp the enormity of the fact that resurrection is not just some spiritual dimension in which people will exist in the future, but the whole person is raised from death and is changed to suit their future existence. People are often prejudiced against whatever is different from their own opinions or beliefs and do not want to be disturbed by the real facts of the matter. Hardness of heart and doubt can happen to any of us, so we must guard against it by constantly committing ourselves to reading and believing the word of God.
When the doubts of the disciples were gone, and they had experienced the presence of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ with them for forty days, they were ready to receive the great commission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. They had to be prepared to be positive and persuasive witnesses to what they had seen and heard from the Lord. The proofs they apparently needed were given to them, and the teaching relating to the kingdom of God they were to pass on to the world was gone over when the Lord was with them for those six weeks. The kingdom of God had really come alive to them now that they had heard and seen the risen Savior among them.
Misunderstandings about the kingdom of God, how to enter it, how to conduct daily life in it, and what it really means to be part of it would have all become a more real and vital part of each of them. They could see beyond a Jewish kingdom and see a spiritual kingdom. They learned, in reality, that both Jews and Gentiles are in this kingdom. People in the world are all equal before God, who is no respecter of persons. Distant lands and languages were all to hear the Gospel.
There would be various ways the message of the Gospel would be witnessed. Appropriate evidence would be given in places where it was needed for people to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. His faith was put in His disciples, and theirs was in Him to give power to the message they were commissioned to deliver. Their duty was to go and preach the Gospel to the whole world, and God would save the souls who were willing to come to Jesus and believe in Him. Their duty also included baptizing those who believed as a testimony that they were now alive in Christ and were committed to obeying His word. Saving belief is in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, was buried, and rose from among the dead. Those are the people God saves.
Believing is not a mere intellectual response to facts that have been presented but the belief that comes from knowing the Lord personally as a Person living in our life and with whom we communicate and share life. We know God when we know Jesus personally. It is then that God’s grace saves a person through faith. How He served and obeyed God is how we live and serve Him. That will result in a changed life known as conversion and testified to in believers’ baptism.
Those who do not believe are already condemned, and if they refuse to turn in repentance and faith in Christ, they will be forever condemned and eternally lost. The great commission our Lord Jesus gave us was not a great suggestion. Rather, it is our privilege and obligation to do what He commissioned us. He promises to be with us until the end of the age so we are not left powerless to accomplish His purposes for us.
After Jesus's last words to those disciples, He was taken into heaven. They saw Him ascend, so even that was an important part of their message. The purpose of His first coming was accomplished, and now it was up to them to do what He said. We respond in faith to our living, glorified Lord to whom we are committed and to His command. The ascension of our Lord into heaven is the finale of the whole series of events that happened. His life was perfect, and he lived in holy obedience to God as is befitting His Perfect Servant. His rejection, which led to His crucifixion, was a God-appointed work that could only be done by His own Perfect Servant. Before He dismissed His spirit, He had accomplished all that God wanted a Perfect Servant to do. In His resurrection, He took His time to ensure those He left with the great commission could serve God acceptably in kingdom work. The Perfect Servant, handed off to all who have served Him since then, a work we are to continue, which He started and will give us the gifts and abilities we need to carry on.
As those early believers in Rome who heard the words of the Gospel of Mark, which had been written under the guidance of Peter, who himself was under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they would have been able to see more clearly God’s plan of things. They would have a better knowledge of what Jesus said and did when He was here. There would be a more solid basis for the work they were to carry on as they could review the written words of this Gospel. They would know better what was expected of them in the places where they lived. They would be more equipped to tell other people how to be saved. The Gospel message was made clear to them, and they would tell others what Jesus said and did. They were expected to introduce people to the Lord Jesus Christ as a Living Person who is the Living God, and human beings can know Him by faith in Him. He has appointed us to pass on the Gospel to as many as we can. God will save those who believe the message we give them. That is His marvelous saving work!