PRESENTATION OUTLINE
He is Risen!
He Is Risen Indeed!
Leader: Jesus died in mid-afternoon and the Sabbath began at sunset. The Jewish law permitted no work on the Sabbath, which meant they could not bury the body of Jesus that night or the next day. So Joseph goes to Pilate, hoping to be able to bury the body in time. Joseph, though a Pharisee, shows enormous courage and independence of thought by asking for Jesus’s body. Mark reports:
All: Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph.
Men: So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.
Women: Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.
(Mark 15:44-47, NIV)
Leader: The way Mark reports the burial is significant: He is “certifying” that Jesus was really dead. Joseph of Arimathea is named here as an identified witness who actually had Jesus’s body wrapped up and sealed it in a tomb. A Roman centurion bore witness of Jesus’s death to Pilate. Finally, two women are cited as eyewitnesses to prove he was really dead. But Mark has more to say:
All: When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body.
(Mark 16:1, NIV)
Leader: There is a strange redundancy in Mark’s account: Three times within a span of just eight lines, Mark records the names of some women who witnessed these events. By including these names, Mark was saying to anyone reading this document: “If you want to check out the truth of my story, go talk to these three women.” So what is it that these women witness? They have brought spices and are on their way to the tomb to finish the burial rites on Jesus’s dead body. Mark writes:
Women: Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
Leader: But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
Men: “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.
All: But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’” (Mark 16:3-7, NIV)
Leader: “He is risen! He is not here.” Can you imagine how these women felt, what they were thinking, as they heard these words? They had come to the tomb expecting to find a dead body. Instead they hear the words “He has risen! He is not here.”
Message - "The Beginning"