Easter Sunday

That video ended quite abruptly, didn't it?

Much like the Gospel of Mark that we just heard read to us, we've been studying it throughout 2024, and it ends very abruptly.

I grew up in a Christian family, so I only knew the story of Easter all my life.

I've always heard it, but it honestly wasn't until I was probably about 19 years old that I remember consciously understanding the story that comes after Easter.

I read the rest of the New Testament, I was like, oh, wow, there's more.

And there is more.

The Gospel story without the rest of the New Testament is what you might call gloriously incomplete.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a card-carrying, orthodox, Bible-believing, Christian, even a Christian pastor.

I know that Jesus doesn't need anything added to his finished work on the cross.

It was finished.

His perfect life, sacrificial death, and powerful resurrection is enough to save all who would believe.

And yet, the story of the Good News has chapters yet to be written.

The complete great story of what God is doing on this earth is yet to be fully told.

You and I could have a part to play in that.

Many of us, by faith in Christ, are part of the church, and God is doing a work through us to complete his story.

And I think there is an invitation for others today to join that great story of his glory.

There is a tension yet in this story.

Today we celebrate he is risen, he is risen indeed.

It is a day of victory.

Yet we all know with that truth resounding in this room, many of us live in the tension, don't we, of the now and not yet, of the success of the resurrection and yet the failure of living in a broken world.

We live in this tension.

There is a tension this side of heaven and the new earth to come.

Everything, everything is different for a Christian.

And yet many things are the same.

And this is sometimes hard to live in the midst of.

Gloriously incomplete is how I would describe the accounts of the four Gospels about the resurrection.

It's how I would describe Mark's Gospel conclusion that we have just heard read for us.

It's how I would describe the Christian faith in general.

And yet that's nonetheless no less glorious to say that there's some level of incompleteness.

Firstly, let's consider a gloriously incomplete resurrection alignment between the Gospel accounts.

If you've ever read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, all four you might have noticed that the resurrection story is quite different across the witness testimonies.

You might remember if you think about it that not many preachers choose the Mark ending.

We'll get to that.

Matthew says that after Jesus was crucified, Chapter 27, they placed a guard at the tomb.

Chapter 27, verse 65, Take a guard pilot answered, go make the tomb as secure as you know how.

So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

On Sunday morning, resurrection day, Matthew says that two Marys went to the tomb and there was an earthquake and an angel rolled away the stone in front of the tomb and sat on the stone and spoke to the women who then, filled with fear and joy, ran to the disciples to tell them what had happened.

Luke says that the women who went to the tomb were the two Marys, Joanna and some other women also.

They found the stone rolled away, went inside and were confronted by two angels who gleamed with the brightness of lightning and they went and told the disciples and Peter ran to the tomb.

John says, and we've picked up on John from the kids today, John said that it was Mary Magdalene alone who went to the tomb very early in the morning on the Sunday.

She found the stone rolled away.

So she ran to tell Peter and John who in turn ran to the tomb.

And as we laughed about the fact that John lets us know that he beat Peter to get there first.

John waits outside the tomb in this account.

Peter is impetuous.

He boldly bolts straight in and finds the burial cloths still in there.

Mary looks inside the tomb in this account and sees two angels who are dressed in white, seated on the bed where Jesus had been laid.

Mary then, as we saw in the skit, Mary bumps into Jesus and she doesn't know who he is.

She thinks he's the gardener and then it's revealed that he's the Lord.

And in Mark's Gospel account, based on Peter's testimony, we have two Marys and a Salome, a third lady that goes to the tomb early Sunday morning.

The tomb is open, the stone is rolled away inside.

There is one angel sitting on the right side of the bed and they are left bewildered and scared.

Mark says they remain quiet and say nothing to anyone.

Have I rocked your faith yet?

Well, the resurrection accounts, that's them.

They are, maybe we could say, gloriously incomplete testimonies, which rather than erode confidence because they are not exactly the same, should point us to the validity of their eyewitness testimony account.

If everything is exactly the same, we would probably expect there might be a group of people in cahoots together.

This is not what we find.

But we do find, I think, mere humans trying their best to explain that which is extraordinary.

Amen?

That which is almost unbelievable.

I once read of a true life story of a Catholic priest.

It was years ago when I was very young in ministry.

I read this account of a Catholic priest who on Resurrection Sunday came from the side of the church and did cartwheels across the stage.

But what was even more strange was that he did it in his underpants.

And he came back to the pulpit and he said, well, I never thought you'd see a Catholic priest doing cartwheels in his undies, did you?

And they sort of went, no.

And he said, and as the security guards came down towards him, he said, well, no one really thought that Jesus would rise from the dead either.

But he has.

He is risen.

He is risen indeed.

It's potentially a hard to believe story.

But those of us who are Christians believe that he did.

He rose again from the grave.

And though the stories of the four Gospels are not exactly the same, they absolutely communicate the main idea that Jesus Christ, as he said he would, rose from the dead, and the angelic messengers all were there pointing people to go to the disciples to go to Galilee, where Jesus would meet them.

So can I ask you, do you believe this wonderful story?

That God has sent his son to pay for the sin of the world, and that death could not hold him down?

That he conquered death and the grave and the devil and he rose again?

Do you believe that Easter is real?

It's more than just a nice tradition.

That there is hope for us who believe beyond the grave.

There is the potential to know the God who made us and to experience what Jesus said we could, which is life abundant.

Life that is a thriving life.

Do you believe that?

Or are you stuck, as many of us do get stuck, in some really significant questions like, why is there suffering in the world?

Why do evil people tend to win?

Why is the world unfair?

Why, and this is a really significant one, I think, why is it that Jesus rose from the grave, and Christians who believe that, and are filled with the Holy Spirit so frequently, filled with this amazing good news, suffer from depression?

And don't feel happy every day.

I actually think they're all fair questions.

But I want to suggest today that I think Easter Sunday points us towards questions, doesn't it?

Easter Resurrection Sunday, as clear as it is in our theological understanding of the Resurrection, the Gospel accounts themselves point us towards a sense of mystery with an invitation to have faith.

Amen?

There is always, from the first century to the 21st, the requirement of every human being to have faith, to believe Jesus is who he says he is.

The Gospel Resurrection accounts are gloriously incomplete.

They urge us to have faith.

And secondly, I would like us to consider from our text today, from Mark's Gospel, that Mark's Gospel also is a gloriously incomplete Gospel account, and yet that's okay.

It points us towards the new beginnings that he has been focusing on throughout his Gospel account.

Mark's Gospel, let's face it, finishes very strangely.

Did anyone feel it today?

It's like, and?

Let me take you back to Chapter 15.

It was Preparation Day, that is the day before the Sabbath.

So as evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the Kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body.

So the Lord Jesus has died on the cross.

And we're given this strange person's new name that we haven't heard before, Joseph of Arimathea.

He's probably a member of the Sanhedrin, who have just met to decide to send Jesus through Pilate to his death.

What a random bloke.

Whenever I find random blokes or women, I'm always encouraged, because there's lots of randoms in this room.

We're just randoms.

We are.

We don't seem like random to us, but we are in the history of the world.

And I think a character like this, who gets to do such a significant job, is another subtle reminder.

There's room.

There's room in this great unfinished story, for all those who want to be part of it.

Verse 44 tells us, 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 this was so, he gave the body to Joseph.

What an odd situation.

This very harsh man, if you look into history, Pilate is a bit of a brute of a human being.

Yet, he allows Jesus' body to be retrieved.

And you know, I have never thought of this before, studying up for this passage, for this message today.

It's really important that he wasn't left there, because as Jews, they're not allowed to deal with the body, from first star in the sky, from Sabbath beginning Friday night, to Saturday night.

So, if Pilate had said no, no one could have taken Jesus' dead body down.

And as the historians say, he would have been left out, as many other bodies have been left out, to be eaten by the crows.

And that would have been a shameful thing.

Of course, to be crucified is shameful enough.

But in God's mercy and will, He turned Pilate's heart that he was merciful, and they were able to take down the body of Jesus very early in the process of crucifixion.

And Joseph steps in, in God's goodwill, and looks after Jesus' body.

In verse 46, Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in the cut tomb.

And then he rolled the stone against the entrance.

Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.

And then when the Sabbath was over, Mary, Mary the mother of James, and Mary Magdalene and Siloam, bought spices so that they may go and anoint Jesus' body.

And as we heard, read for us today, they find the stone rolled away.

And there is, who is obviously an angel, inside.

And he speaks to them.

He says, don't be alarmed.

You're looking for Jesus, the Nazarene, who was crucified.

He has risen.

He's not here.

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.

This is the last mention of Peter.

Talk about unfinished.

And Peter.

Failure, and then there's this lovely touch, where the angel on behalf of the Lord says, make sure you tell Peter.

And then the reputable text of Mark ends with these words.

Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb.

They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.

That's it.

Talk about gloriously incomplete.

Have you noticed that Mark's Gospel is neither nice nor neat?

In the other Gospel accounts, Jesus' last words are, Father forgive them, they know not what they do.

Into your hands I commit my spirit.

It is finished.

The end of Mark's Gospel says Jesus' last words are, Why have you forsaken me?

And then he breathes his last.

In Mark, there is no more mention of Jesus appearing.

The disciples have abandoned the cause, and even the women, who we can really put on a pedestal at the end, they've stuck by Jesus.

They leave trembling and bewildered, and they're afraid, and they say nothing to anyone.

Too overwhelmed to testify.

Gloriously incomplete.

And yet the angel did say, He has risen.

He's not here.

He's gone ahead of you.

So go and meet him.

Glorious words, but a little incomplete.

Mark has left us hanging, I think, for a point.

What is the point?

You need to read the Book of Acts to understand the point.

You need to read what happens next.

Mark's Gospel is the Gospel of New Beginnings.

It forces people to look further into the story.

And if you do, if you read Luke's account of the Acts of the Apostles, you will find that Jesus did return to his disciples.

And some weeks later, he ascended to heaven, and he sent his Holy Spirit as promised, and the church was born.

The people were filled with the Holy Spirit, with God himself, and they were empowered, emboldened, and they preached, and saw many people come to Christ and did all sorts of amazing things in the name of Jesus.

God's story is incomplete because there's more for him to do.

There was more to do in the first century, and there's certainly more to do now.

This Peter, who failed terribly, got to play a significant role as a leader of the church, and we will read about it in Acts, but we also read about it, as we mentioned last week, in 1 Peter, a letter he wrote to persecuted Christians who were living in the west of what we call now Turkey, and he wrote about a gloriously incomplete joy.

In 1 Peter 1, verse 3, we read these words from Peter, who was the failure, but reinstated and restored, and empowered to play a part in God's story.

He writes, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus!

In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade.

This is what we've been looking at today from different angles.

The fact that Jesus did, history tells us, He rose again from the grave.

And because of that, that gives every believer in Him a living hope that they will rise again too, that there is a life now because our sins are forgiven.

But as baptism testifies, there is new life and life beyond the grave also.

This is, I would call, certifiably glorious.

Wouldn't you agree?

The living hope we have in the resurrection.

There are challenging questions.

There's mystery about the Christian faith.

There's mystery about how it all happened in the first century.

But the reality that hundreds of people in this room know is Christian faith changes us radically and wholly on the inside and the outside.

Amen?

It does affect us.

It is glorious.

It's real.

And someone who I'm starting to get to know is Mike Poehler, and he has a great story.

He's been part of our church with his family for a short time.

But it's a great story of being radically and wholly and truly changed.

Would you give him a warm welcome as he comes up?

Mike is going to tell us a bit about how he met Jesus.

G'day, everyone.

I'm actually just one of those randoms that Jono referred to.

I grew up in Hornsby.

My first 20 years, I went past the church here every day, lived down just off Pretoria Parade.

I was religious as a child, and the world that I grew up in was a world that I believe this story.

It was something we enacted every year with the Stations of the Cross and going to church, certainly, at Easter.

It was actually a big part of my world.

I received in year 12 the Award for Christian Service to the school.

So this is not unfamiliar story, but for me it was a historical event that had no relevance for me today.

So what I would like to share is what changed.

I did have a new beginning when I was 21.

So after my first 20 years going past here every day.

I was at uni and a good friend, one of my closest friends.

You know, back in the day, uni used to just have fried rice and talk at lunch all the time.

So we talked a lot and she challenged me every single week, like, do you really understand what you say you believe with your head?

And I said yes, of course I do.

But for her, it seemed real.

And for me, it was factual, this historical event that was actually, as I was getting older and older and making my own decisions, becoming less and less relevant for my life.

But for her, it seemed to be becoming more and more relevant.

So I was stirred by that.

But for three years, I managed to turn down her invitation to church every week with a different excuse every single week.

But I was curious.

And eventually, she wore me down and I went to church with her, which was in a school hall.

And I remember it was very, very strange because these people seem...

There was something relevant here for them, and they seemed to have life that I hadn't experienced anywhere else.

Even as we were singing this morning, I'm reminded, there's life that you can actually see around you, and it's clearly changed people around you.

So I was curious, but still not particularly understanding what the difference was.

What I was living for at that time, even though I shared this understanding with my head, what I was living for was myself, sport, was what I worshipped and the pursuit of pleasure, especially through travel and enjoying the world and experiencing all the amazing things around the world.

That's what I was pursuing.

I was very independent, very self-confident, looking back, very arrogant, 21-year-old, maybe a typical 21-year-old, a Hornsby young man.

What changed, though, when I was traveling and pursuing pleasure in Africa, I was just loving exploring the world.

I actually got very, very sick when I came back to Australia.

I was previously very, very strong and independent and physically able.

Suddenly, for several months, I was unable.

I had glandular fever and billharts here and a bunch of other sicknesses that didn't really disturb me at all because I was invincible and I would press on until the doctor asked me, did anything else happen in Africa?

And I recalled an accident that I had where I was operated on with unclean instruments in the AIDS capital of the world.

And so he said, why don't you have an AIDS test?

That could be a good idea.

And so I said, okay, no problem.

So I had the AIDS test and was fine until the doctor called and said, you need to have another one because this test is unclear.

So the whole pursuit of my life of thinking that everything's fine, I hadn't actually experienced a brokenness of the world at all.

Life was good and suddenly it was not looking good.

I was convinced I had AIDS.

I started for the first time to dust off the Bibles that were in my room.

I hadn't read them.

I had heard the story and I started to read the story of Jesus afresh.

During that next week, as I was waiting for the result, which did come back clear that I do not have AIDS, but sitting with that uncertainty of what will happen when I die, suddenly I was having to run through my head because my whole life, I had been operating on this scales metric, if you like.

If I am good enough, then that will get me into heaven.

So then I started to ask the question, am I good enough?

How can I stand?

If this God is holy and perfect, how can I stand before this holy God?

And it was unsettling.

And I was afraid of dying because I wasn't sure whether or not I would be going to heaven.

I started to do some negotiation with God during that week.

If you get me out of this God, I will.

And so there was a negotiation about the great stuff I was going to do, if he could just suddenly make sure that I didn't have AIDS and I wasn't going to die straight away.

And as I was doing that negotiation, I continued to read beyond the Gospels.

And so I knew that story, but I didn't know there was things that followed afterwards.

So I got to Ephesians Chapter 2, where it said, By grace, you've been saved through faith.

And this is not from yourselves.

It is a gift of God.

And at that moment, and the years afterwards, it wasn't immediate, but the years afterwards, brick by brick, my life has been changed.

If you think about how do you actually change a wall, you don't just smash it down.

You've got to actually think about what changes brick by brick.

So I went from trying to be good enough to actually trusting in what Jesus had done.

I went from trying to earn favor with God to actually understand it's a gift that's been given.

I went from having endless rules and guidelines for life, do this, do that, do this, to actually understanding it is done on the cross.

And importantly, I went from genuinely believing that there are many, many ways to God and there are lots of different options out there.

There is one way.

Jesus says he is the way, the truth, and the life.

I went from being religious, very religious, to understanding this is about a personal response to Jesus, where I can no longer declare myself king of my life.

I actually have to submit, not have to, I want to submit because this king has given me life.

So the historical Gospel, I guess, became personal.

I understood the theme this month has been that I am known and loved, and this God is alive and not dead.

I was afraid of death and I no longer am.

And that's lived out throughout my life ever since, and it's transformed.

A new beginning 26 years ago has completely changed my life.

Stepping in to that story, understanding this is not a historical story that I look back on.

This is actually a story I'm a part of today.

And so are you.

Are you allowed to say, preach it if you're the preacher?

Thank you, mate.

So, I appreciate you sharing.

Peter goes on to write, This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

In all this, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

The incompleteness again.

The resurrection gives believers, as Mike has testified, incredible hope and power, yet the problem of suffering and evil still exists, this side of heaven and the new earth.

And so Peter writes, These have come, the trials, so that the proven genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire, may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and even though you do not see Him now.

Following Jesus, whatever era demands faith, Peter says you haven't seen Him, but you love Him.

There is a requirement of faith to follow Jesus.

Everything is different when you become a Christian.

And yet there are parts of the world that haven't changed.

I've got to live in it.

You believe in Him and you are filled, Peter says, with an inexpressible and glorious joy.

For you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Resurrection Sunday is a day of inexpressible and glorious joy because Jesus has indeed risen from the grave.

He has conquered death once and for all.

And this truth is held in tension with the reality and constraints of an imperfect world.

And it is into this imperfect world that we are called to live and continue the works of Jesus.

The good news is truly gloriously incomplete because there is yet more to be written in the story of God's glory.

Amen?

It's gloriously incomplete.

Today, I wonder if it's your time.

God knows who you are, and He has brought you along, maybe for your first ever, maybe you're watching online, maybe it's in the future from the date that we have actually filmed this.

What is God saying to you today?

Could He be saying today is your day?

Whether you feel random or not, God knows who you are.

And the Gospel is for you.

It's good news.

Jesus has made a way for you to have your sins forgiven and to have a relationship restored with the God who made you.

And that results in eternal life that we hope for beyond the grave.

Today, I wonder if there is an alignment that is required for the call of God on your life.

Mike didn't say, but Mike and Fiona and the kids, they were cross-cultural workers for 15 years.

That radical transformation led to a radical decision to follow God's call beyond the edge of Australia abroad, to work in a foreign land, to love people and get to know them in Jesus' name, and to share the good news in that place.

What about you?

Is today, Resurrection Sunday, a day that God is saying, hey, come on, let's step in, let's go as our theme is for the year.

Stop doing that so you can start doing this.

Let's go into the next chapter.

And as the angel said to the people at the tomb, go to where he said to go to, and you'll find him waiting there, and that's what we always find.

When we step into the call of God, you find Jesus is already there.

Amen?

It's the truth.

What's he saying to you today?

Because he's alive and real and he's with us.

We're in his presence.

And I wonder, we don't have anyone lined up to be baptized, but we've had 14 this year who have said, yes, Lord, my next step, I'm a Christian.

I know Jesus Christ has died for my sins, and I put my faith in his Lordship, and he said, when you put faith in me, get baptized.

You don't get saved being baptized, but it's a symbol, a public declaring symbol, a proclamation of the good news that you have already believed in.

So I want to ask you today, would you consider, if Jesus Christ is your Lord and Saviour, would you consider joining me back here now?

And first of all, you would go to Virginia, and you would find that there are all sorts of clothing sizes that will fit you, because God's in control and he has made that work.

You will find clothing to fit you, and there are towels, and you don't have to give a testimony right now, so don't be put off by that.

We're just going to ask you to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Saviour.

This is for you if you're a Christian today.

Would you join me?

Now, as I pray, I'm going to then go out there and wait, and if you would like to declare your faith in Christ today, please do.

Mattie's over here, and about two months ago, we were led by the Lord to fill the baptismal pool up, and now there have been 14 baptized.

But that day, no one was moving until a young woman named Mattie over here, who doesn't normally come all the time to this church, she got up and she moved, and she had the guts to step out in faith.

And I think God used Mattie to begin a move of the Spirit.

That move of the Spirit has slowed down, and so we're looking for a new Mattie.

I'm deadly serious.

Is it you?

Is this part of the go, the follow ship that Christ has called you to step into?

We are gloriously incomplete, yet His Gospel is gloriously complete.

It lives on in us.

Lord God, may you receive all the glory this day, and your Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we give you all the glory for the wonder of the Gospel.

Lord Jesus, our King, Savior, Lamb of God, slain before the creation of the world, glorious conqueror of the grave, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, would you receive all the glory from your people here today?

It's our great privilege to come under your word, to come under the sound of the Gospel, to express with our lungs, our mouths, that you are King and you are good.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

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