Christ Rules the Last
Chapter of Every Story
Christ
Rules! Gospel of Mark Series (Conclusion)
A Sermon
By Jim Hammond from Mark 15:38-16:7
Roger Simms was just returning home from military
duty and was hitchhiking. To
his surprise a shiny new black car stopped to pick him up.
He carefully loaded his heavy duffle bag and got in the passenger
seat where he was greeted by the friendly smile of the driver, a sharp
looking older gentleman.
“Hello, son.
Are you on leave or are you going home for good?”
“I just got out of the army, and I’m going home
for the first time in a long, long time,” answered Roger.
“Well, if you are going to Chicago, you are in
luck,” smiled the man.
“I’m not going as far as Chicago, but my home
is right on the way to Chicago, so I guess this is my lucky day. Thank you. My
name is Roger Simms.”
“Mr. Simms, I’m Mr. Hanover.”
“Nice to meet you sir.
Do you live in Chicago?”
“Yes. I
live there and have a business there.”
They continued to exchange stories.
As they got closer to Roger’s home, Roger, who was a Christian
felt impressed that he should broach the subject of faith.
“Mr. Hanover, have you ever heard of the difference between
religion and Christianity?”
“I was always under the impression Christianity
was a religion,” replied Hanover.
“Not really, said Roger.
You see Religion is always spelled D O.
Everyone into religion is always trying to do something to please
God and be acceptable. The
only problem is nobody can know for sure if they’ve done enough. In fact the bible tells us, we can’t do enough to be
acceptable. Where religion
is spelled D O, Christianity is spelled D O N E.
On the cross, Christ finished everything for us.
He did everything for us to be acceptable to God.
He even shouted from the cross, “It is finished!”
Which could be translated “paid in full.”
He paid the penalty for our sin.
All we need to do is receive the gift he has given us.
Mr. Hanover, it isn’t enough to know this, the Bible says we
have to receive it. “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he
gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).
Mr. Hanover, would you like to receive Christ as your savior?”
Even as Roger framed the question he realized, Mr.
Hanover was pulling his big car off the shoulder of the road and coming
to a stop. Here it is,
Roger thought, he’s going to ask me to get out.
But he didn’t. Mr.
Hanover didn’t even look at Roger.
He bowed his head and quietly began to weep.
After a moment, Roger asked again, “Mr. Hanover,
would you like to ask Christ into your life?”
Mr. Hanover nodded an affirmation, then said,
“What do I say?”
Roger led Mr. Hanover in a simple prayer asking for
forgiveness for sins, and asking Christ to be Savior, and thanking Him
for what he did for him on the cross.
“Thank you for talking to me about this Roger.
What you said is exactly what I needed to hear.
I thought I would never be able to be a Christian.
I thought somehow I needed to change everything.
Now I understand it isn’t up to me, but Christ.
This is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
After some more talking, Mr. Hanover drove to
Roger’s house, gave him his business card thanked him again and
dropped him off.
But that’s not the end of the story.
Five years went by. Roger
got married and had a child. One
day, while he was packing for a business trip to Chicago, he found the
business card that Mr. Hanover had given him five years before.
He decided that while he was in Chicago he would try to look him
up.
In Chicago, Roger looked up Hanover
Enterprises. The building
was impressive. When he
asked the receptionist if he could see Mr. Hanover, she replied that
would be impossible. He
tried to let her know that they were old friends.
“If you are old friends, then you can see Mrs.
Hanover,” she replied.
A little disappointed, Roger was led to an office
down the hall. A woman in
her fifties was sitting behind a huge oak desk.
She extended her hand, “You knew my husband?”
Roger explained how he had met Mr. Hanover about
five years ago, when he was so kind as to give him a ride home after the
service.
A strange look came over Mrs. Hanover’s face, and
she asked, “Would you be able to tell me what date it was, by any
chance, when Mr. Hanover gave you a ride?”
Thinking it a strange question, Roger answered
nonetheless, because he knew precisely the day of his discharge, and
said so. “It was May 7th
the day of my discharge, mam.”
Mrs. Hanover seemed even more peculiar. “Did
anything special happen on your ride.
I mean did anything unusual take place?” She asked.
Roger hesitated, unsure whether this woman would
now be angry at him over what had taken place.
Was she an atheist who was angry at her husbands change?
Had this been a source of contention between them?
For a moment, he was tempted withhold what he knew.
But again, he felt impressed to tell what happened.
“Yes Mrs. Hanover, something very special happened that day.
Your husband accepted the Lord Jesus as his savior.
I explained to him the gospel, and he pulled over and wept and
asked Jesus to come into his life.
He was very happy about it.”
Suddenly, Mrs. Hanover began to weep
uncontrollably. What was
going on here? Roger
could hardly guess. He
simply put his hand on her shoulder and let her regain her composure.
She was finally able to explain her behavior.
“I grew up in a Christian home. My husband did not. I
was warned not to marry a non believer, but I loved him. I prayed for him all these years. I was sure God would bring him around. On May 7th I thought God had failed me.
He didn’t answer my prayers.
Mr. Hanover was killed on May 7th in a horrible head
on collision. He never
arrived home. I haven’t
been the same since. I
stopped trusting God. How
could God allow this to happen? How
could God take him away and not answer all those prayers?
I’ve been blaming God for these last 5 years.[i]
Can you identify with Mrs. Hanover.
Those 5 years must have been miserable.
I know some of you have gone through this kind of faith crisis.
Some questions are not resolved even after 5 years.
Even though some questions may not be resolved till we see the
Lord face to face, I’m here to tell you that Christ Rules the Last
Chapter of Every Story, whether we can see how right now or not.
Focus:
Have you ever received a very good thing wrapped in a very bad
thing? Sometimes the best
gifts come that way, and it isn’t until the last chapter of the story
that we understand God’s plan.
I.
What’s the Story!?--How can something so negative be positive?
For the last couple of weeks we focused on the very
heavy subject of the crucifixion of Christ.
Easter is what makes that terrible event so wonderful.
We can even call the Friday that he was Crucified GOOD Friday.
Without the Resurrection, we’d call it Black Friday, or Bad
Friday, the day something very evil and wicked was done.
But that’s not how Christians throughout history have looked at
it, because the Bible tells us the positive effect of that horrible
negative. Here’s another
way to put it.
A. God Became Most Present
precisely when He seemed most Absent!
“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
The darkness of the crucifixion leads one to believe God had
forsaken Christ. God seemed
most absent. But the next
thing we read is that that absence allowed a greater presence than ever
before. Because God did
forsake his Son while our sins were heaped upon him, he does not have to
forsake us. In fact he
promises that he will never forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).
Mark reveals this truth through visual theology.
The Temple Curtain Was Torn
The cross revealed that things were not what they
seem. When it seemed God
was most absent, actually he was most present!
Christ’s death opened the way to God for mankind.
God’s Visual
Theology answers the question, “What’s the story?—How can
something so negative be positive?”
When the veil to the Holy of Holies was torn there is a negative
and a positive effect. Negatively,
something is destroyed. The
old glory of the Temple system is destroyed even as the curtain is
ripped. Positively,
something hidden is revealed. The veil of secrecy is lifted.
The torn curtain lets something out.
The glory of God is no longer confined to a nationalistic temple.
The barrier between God and man is torn away.
The veil of secrecy has been removed.
We can now get to know God for ourselves.
No longer do priests place rope barriers to keep people back from
God. We now can enter into
the presence of a personal relationship with God through the one high
priest, Jesus.
Do you recall the
scene in the Wizard of Oz when the curtain was pulled back.
The almighty fearful Oz was revealed to be only smoke and
mirrors. Oz was a fraud. The opposite is revealed when the temple curtain is torn.
What is revealed is a God so amazing he was willing to do what he
did. The secret is out.
God is who we know through Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, “if you know me you know my Father as well”.
God was not an impotent weak fraud, he was powerful enough to do
what it takes to remove our sin, and thereby conquer death itself for
those who trust in the atoning work of Christ on the Cross!
Now that is a powerful God.
The darkness was not fake, neither were the earthquakes (Matthew
27:54 The rocks split!). This was not bells and whistles, smoke and mirrors.
This was God almighty completing the act he knew had to be done
in order to save us. This
is God writing history, the all important chapter of history, his story!
What do you see when the veil is torn open?
The reality of an all powerful, all wise, all loving God!
The last chapter of the story long in coming was finished, when
Jesus cried those words “It is finished!” (John 19:30)
Now even Gentiles can
enter, as we hear the first confession after the crucifixion from the
lips of a Gentile centurion. Ripping
the curtain from top to bottom indicates that the temple is not merely
opened. The old temple
system is destroyed, and destroyed by God himself.
Ultimately, God forsakes the Old Temple, but not Jesus, the New
Temple. He will be raised
in 3 days. He will ascend
and the new temple will then be the body of Christ.
I find it fascinating that God’s will was most
profoundly revealed in the very moment when he seemed most absent!
What does this teach us? Christ
Rules! And From a Cross. God
remains in control even when it seems everything is most out of control!
B.
Only the Whole Story Makes Sense
Without Easter, Christmas is meaningless.
Christmas is wonderful because Easter is True.
Before we came to the last chapter, we already saw the previews.
And now the last chapter allows us to make sense of those
previews.
Let me show you what I mean. The closing scene of Jesus’ life parallels the opening
scene of his baptism (Mark 1:9-11).
Mark opens with the concept that this is the beginning of the
Gospel. He immediately
jumps to John the Baptist and Jesus’ baptism as the beginning of the
story. I want you to notice
how in the beginning of the story we already had sneak previews.
1.
At the baptism John is in the garb of Elijah and is later
identified with Elijah (1:6; 9:13)
At the crucifixion witnesses wondered if Elijah would rescue him.
We know that the coming of Elijah signaled the coming of the
deliverer.
2.
The baptism and the crucifixion record the “tearing” (this
word schizo occurs only in these two scenes in Mark) of the veil
that separates. At the
baptism the heavens were “torn” open.
At the crucifixion the access to the Holy of Holies is “torn”
open. The Holy of Holies represents heaven. Only Jesus saw the tearing of heaven at his baptism.
When he came up out of the water, that is what “he saw”
(1:10) .
But at the crucifixion, what was only known to Jesus becomes a
public revelation. The
separating barrier between God and Man was ripped from top to bottom by
the power of God. God had
visually revealed what he intended.
This visual theology begins to explain what God was doing!
3.
Also at the Baptism, the beginning of the story, there was the
verbal affirmation from God expressed,
“You are my Son.” There
is also a confession at the cross, “Surely this man was the Son of
God” (15:39) expressed by the centurion as he stood as a witness of
all he had seen that day. Whereas
the scoffers think his death proves he cannot be the son of God, to the
battle hardened soldier the death proved the opposite.
Surely he was the Son of God!
What was spoken for the comfort and empowerment of Jesus at the
outset of his ministry, is now recognized by others.
It is first recognized by a Gentile, symbolizing how the torn
curtain is truly torn. The
good news is now for everyone.
II.
Before the Last Chapter do what you can (14:47)
Joseph steps in where friends and family could not
To ask for the body of one convicted of high treason could
lead to the same fate for oneself. Joseph was a member of the council
that condemned Jesus as worthy of death.
So he was above suspicion. He
steps out of the enemy camp in favor of Jesus.
So did the centurion with his confession.
Both of them feel that they were responsible for something that
was terribly wrong. It is
Joseph, with the help of Nicodemus (John 19), who extracts Jesus’ body
from the nails, wraps him up and places him in his newly purchased tomb.
Joseph did what he could. He
didn’t know he was fulfilling prophecy.
Isaiah
53:9 through Isaiah 53:11 9
He
was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth. 10
Yet it was the LORD’S will to crush him and cause him to
suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he
will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD
will prosper in his hand. 11 After
the suffering of his soul, he will see the
light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant
will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
The Women
How powerless these women must have felt?
There was nothing they could do before the Jewish high council
that would do any good. There
was nothing they could do before Pilate in Jesus’ defense.
Once things were set into motion they couldn’t stop it.
The crowds were too large, the guards too strong.
They wished somebody would do SOMETHING.
Nothing could be done. Have
you ever felt helpless? You
look for something you CAN do because things are out of control and
there is so much you cannot do. These
women felt powerless. But
they did what they could.
These women did what they could. They stayed at the cross when the disciples had fled; they
followed Jesus’ body to its tomb; and they prepared spices for his
body. They are so grief stricken they are preoccupied and not thinking
clearly. They set out for
the tomb long before they even think of how they will be able to open
it. Look at their sudden awareness in their conversation on the
way to the tomb. There is
no way they are going to be able to remove the large stone, even if
those wicked enemies allowed them to!
As they round the last bend in view of the tomb they stop and
their mouths stood silently open, as their minds shift tracks.
They stop wondering how the stone will be moved.
Now suddenly they wonder who could have moved it!
There it stood, open.
The wonderful surprise to this story is that
because they used what little opportunities they had, they were the
first to witness the resurrection.
In an ancient Jewish culture, this is ironic.
The little people—Women—were the first and honored witnesses. God blessed their devotion and diligence.
This teaches us to take advantage of the
opportunities we do have, and focus on what we can do
instead of worrying about what we cannot do.
God rewards such little things in his last chapter.
Arland D. Williams, Jr. Did What He Could
If you travel up I-395 through Washington, D.C.,
and cross over the Potomac, you will likely cross the Arland D.
Williams, Jr., Memorial Bridge. Who was Arland D. Williams, Jr.?
On January 13, 1982, he gave hope to five people at
the cost of his own life. On that cold January day, Air Florida Flight
90 crashed into the icy Potomac. Ice on the wings prevented the plane
from a successful take-off. Almost all of the passengers died.
Five different times, a helicopter dropped a rope
to save Williams. Five
times, Williams passed the rope to other passengers in worse shape than
he was. When the rope was extended to Williams the sixth time, he could
not take hold, and succumbed to the frigid waters.
Like Jesus, his heroism was not rash. Aware that
his own strength was fading, he deliberately handed hope to someone else
over the space of several minutes. [ii]
However, Williams and Jesus were different.
Williams didn’t choose to crash.
He simply did what he could do before the last chapter.
Jesus chose the cross. Jesus
knew from the outset he was to become the atoning sacrifice for us. We
need only take the lifeline handed to us by his sacrificial death on the
cross.
III. It isn’t a fairy tale
Easter isn’t a fairy tale—its better!
It is truth that is better than fiction.
Science says if there is any such thing as
infallible proof, it is the repetition of the same experiment.
The rest of the story, and particularly in the other Gospels we
find the proofs. Here are
some proofs in quick summary.
“Jesus rose from the dead, and Mary
Magdalene encountered him—experiment one. The women encountered
him—experiment two. The disciples encountered him—experiment three.
The apostles encountered him—experiment four. Five hundred people saw
him after the Resurrection, at the same time—experiment five.
Each one of these is the
repetition of the same experiment. They all encountered the same
phenomenon. What was it? He was alive! That's what changed the history
of the world.”[iii]
Let’s talk about experiment six. We can experience Jesus after his resurrection.
The proof for you was when you encountered Christ.
No, not with your eyes in a visual encounter with the bodily
resurrected Christ. But we experience the reality of the living Christ entering
our lives, and making changes we could not make ourselves.
John 20:28-29 Thomas
said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
29Then
Jesus told him, “Because
you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen
and yet have believed.”
Mark said this is the beginning of the Gospel
(1:1). Even the
Resurrection wasn’t the end of the story.
Each life here is one of God’s stories.
Each life here needs the last chapter to be written by God, with
an encounter with the living resurrected Jesus.
Christ Rules the last chapter of Every Story.
“Every story, Jim?”
Yes, every story.
Even if you reject Jesus, he will show himself to be who he is in
the end. The Bible tells us
that every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord.” This is
both wonderful and frightening depending on which side you are on.
Though Jesus ruled the last chapter of the story by vindication,
not everyone moved out of the enemy camp into Jesus’ kingdom.
There were many who mocked Jesus, rejoiced when he died, feared
it wasn’t over, and watched as the whole thing backfired in their
faces. They didn’t know
what happened to Jesus’ body. They
didn’t know what to make of the transformed disciples. They couldn’t contend with this new found faith, but they
nevertheless hardened their hearts and rejected it. Many died as confirmed skeptics.
They saw they were wrong, but too late.
Pilate tried not to take sides, but failed to realize in the case
of Christ, you have to choose sides.
There are no innocent bystanders.
Either you are forgiven, or you are not.
Either your sins were nailed to the cross with Jesus because we
believed what he did, or they were not, because we don’t believe and
receive what he did. Everyone
must choose sides. Not to
choose means choosing. Jesus
forced that on us, like he forced Pilate to choose.
We have to decide what we will do with this man, Jesus.
The resurrection proved his claims were trustworthy.
The resurrection proves he isn’t going away to be forgotten.
He’s coming back!
Invitation:
If you are ready to choose sides today, let me invite you to pray
a simple prayer in your heart after me.
“Dear
Jesus, thank you for making me and loving me, even when I’ve ignored
you and gone my own way. I
realize I need you in my life and I’m sorry for my sins.
I ask you to forgive me. Thank
you for dying on the cross for me.
Thank you for conquering death by your resurrection!
Please help me to understand all this more. As much as I know how, I want to follow you from now on.
Please come into my life and make me a new person inside.
I accept your gift of salvation.
Please help me to grow now as a Christian.”
I’d love to have a chance to talk to anyone who
wishes to talk further about what it means to be committed to Christ.
I’d like everyone to do me a favor, by way of response.
On the back of your card I want you to write down A, B, C, or D.
Write down A if you have already chosen Christ, and you have
committed your life to him. Write
down “B” if you would like to choose Christ, and this is the first
time you have ever done that. Write
down “C” if you are considering a commitment to Christ.
If you feel you don’t ever intend to commit your life to
Christ, I’d appreciate you honestly writing that by writing “D” on
your card.
[i] Adapted from Ron Mehl’s
“Right On Time” from Stories for the Heart p. 265.
compiled by Alice Gray. Vision House Pub. 1996.
[ii] David A. Slagle,
Lawrenceville, Georgia; source: "A Hero-Passenger Aids Others,
Then Dies," Washington Post (1-14-82)
[iii] Walter Martin and Jill
Martin Rische, Through the Windows of Heaven (Broadman
& Holman, 1999)
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