The Resurrection - Mark 16

Now, between the conferences, we've been with some of the smaller assemblies and meditating a little upon the post-resurrection ministry and appearances of the Lord Jesus. Tonight our reading is in Mark's Gospel, Chapter 16. Mark's Gospel, Chapter 16.

Mark 16, we shall read the chapter, and when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James in Salome had brought sweet spices that might calm and anoint him. Very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. They said among themselves, O, shall roll away the stone from the door of the sepulchre.

And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away, for it was very great. And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed with a long garment. They were afraid.

And he saith unto them, Be not afraid, that ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified. He is risen. He is not here, behold, the place where they led him.

But go your way, and tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee. There shall he see him, as he said unto you. They went out quickly and fled from the sepulchre, and they trembled and were amazed.

Another said the only thing to any man, for they were afraid. Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. And she went and told them that had been with him as they mourned and wept.

And they, when they had heard that he was alive, that had been seen of her, believed not. After that he appeared in another form to two of them, as they walked and went into the countryside. And they went and told it unto the resident, neither believed them.

Afterward he appeared unto the leaven, as they sat at meat, and abraded them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. And he said unto them, Go ye unto all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned.

And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils, and they shall speak with new tongues, and they shall take up serpents, that if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

So then, after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.

The order of the appearances of the Lord Jesus Christ when he rose from the dead, we would gather here from Mark's account in the first four verses that he appeared to Mary Magdalene and the other woman. The Mary Magdalene and the other woman came to the tomb, and the stone was rolled away. We learn from John chapter 20 that Mary Magdalene, she left having witnessed the open tomb and went to tell Peter and John who run to the tomb.

In John 20, Mary returns weeping, distracted. It was Mary. It was Mary who first saw the Lord.

And you know, it is significant that the first one that was to speak of the risen Christ was a woman, Mary Magdalene. She went to the disciples. It seems to be that as she was leaving with the other women, they met the Lord as well.

Verse 12 of the chapter here speaks of the two on the road. I take it the same as Luke 24. The two that journeyed with him to Emmaus.

When it was revealed to them, it seems to be the sequence of verse 13, is that they returned to the ten where the Lord appeared in the midst. And then there was an appearance unto Peter, and then an appearance indicated in Galilee that is not stated. And so, what we deduce is that there were ten appearances.

One we're not sure of. I think there was eleven. Eleven appearances.

Ten at least over forty days. Five on the first day. One a week later.

And then three other times. And then on the day of his ascension. And so, one of the greatest unattested facts is that Christ rose from the dead.

He was seen in the garden. He was seen in the room. He was seen on the road.

He was seen in Galilee. He was seen by Tiberias. He was seen by the sea.

He was seen on the mountain. He was seen as He rose in the sky. He was witnessed by one.

Witnessed by two. Witnessed by ten. Seen by the eleven.

Seen, we learn, by five hundred brethren at once. Paul says he was seen of him as one born out of due time. First Corinthians 15, verse 7 says he was seen of James.

Mary recognized his voice, convulsed in tears at all her extremity, remembering that it was still dark. She thought him to be a gardener. Just that one word that she had heard before from his lips, Mary recognized his voice.

Thomas recognized his hands on his side. She says, Thomas, my Lord, my God. John recognized the provision in John 21.

He saw the provision of the stranger up on the shore. He said, it is the Lord. It is the Lord.

After he ascended to Joran, the disciples saw him rising. Stephen saw him standing. Paul saw him sitting.

John in the book of Revelation sees him walking. That is fourteen revelations. Seven is the number of perfection times two, which is the number of witness.

I like to think, my dear brother, dear sister, that if you and I go by the way of death, we're next in the line. The fifteenth witness. I mean bodily.

They will witness, for says the Bible, the dead and Christ shall rise first. And so it is, the great truth attested in Scripture. Christ rose from the dead.

Over in B-town, we were thinking of Matthew's account. Matthew stresses the majesty. Mark here stresses the reality.

Luke stresses the necessity. And John stresses the dignity. The emphasis on Matthew's gospel is the majesty.

That's in keeping with Matthew's theme. A great gospel of the King. Emmanuel, God with us.

I learned that you've been studying Matthew in your Bible reading. His presence, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. As he leaves the scene of the risen from the dead to ascend to glory, the promise is still his presence.

Emmanuel, God with us. Two or three gathered together, his presence. He says, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.

Unto the end of the ages. Here we are, you and I, almost at the end of this age. And how good is promise.

You see, the majesty that's stressed in Matthew's account is that the angels came. They rolled away the stone. And with heaven's contempt for earth's authority, they sat on it.

You see, they put him in a tomb. It's likely as to the custom that there was a groove in the ground. And they rolled the stone over, a great stone.

And they put the seal of the Roman Empire upon it. And they had a guard set, maybe 70 or 100 men to keep a dead man dead. There was the military there, the soldiers.

There was the government there, for they put a seal upon it. There was religion there, for the priests testified as to it. And you know, God just overruled the whole thing.

And all their precautions was just used by God to prove the very fact that they were trying to deny when Christ rose from the dead. Strange, you know, the enemy said to Pilate, now this deceiver, he said three days you would raise again. You know, the enemy could remember what the disciples forgot.

Disciples didn't seem to be so clear about that fact. That's a strange thing, isn't it? But God just overused those things to verify factually the very authority and the majesty of the risen Christ. But in this passage here, it's the reality of it.

For you notice, I tried to stress it in the reading, in Mark's account, he rebukes their own belief three times. Verse 11, when Mary came, it says they believed not. Verse 13, when the two believed, it went back.

It says neither believed they them. And then in verse 14, he appeared with the 11 and he abridged them with their own belief. Mind you, my dear brother, dear sister, if we examine our own hearts, says Hebrews, let us lay aside every weight of the sin, the specific sin that does so easily beset us.

I take it that is the contrast to the faith of those in Hebrews 11. We have a sin, specific sin. I take it of unbelief.

How often, how often we're worthy of the rebuke of the sin of unbelief. Matthew, I say, stresses the power of his resurrection. Here in this account here, there's a stress in Mark's gospel upon the place.

Verse six, the place where they led him. And that expression that they were affrighted only occurs in Mark's gospel. If you get the picture, the disciples that were defrayed, they were actually dismayed.

The men were stunned at the very thought of his resurrection. And that is used of God to attest the reality for he rebuked their unbelief. The necessity is stressed in Luke's gospel.

He says he must, needs dying. Often he said he must raise again. Remember the two on the road, ought not Christ to have suffered these things unto enter into his glory.

I want to notice that there is a sevenfold reason why Christ must raise from the dead, a sevenfold reason. The first is a moral reason. Thou wilt not make thine holy one to see corruption.

The Bible says he tasted death for every man. That is the reality of death. You know, of the five senses, it's taste that lingers.

What we see is but fleeting. What we hear is on our ear and gone. What we touch is transient and passing.

The senses are passing quickly. But you know, that which we taste is lingering. It can linger if it's a strong taste.

Oh yes, my Bible says of the Savior that he tasted death for every man. But the death that the Lord died in all its uniqueness was voluntarily, vicariously, victoriously, a death that was vindicated. We never read of him in a state of dying.

My Savior died. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. And so, as I say, voluntarily, vicariously, victoriously, he must rise for in resurrection he was vindicated.

There's a personal reason. As I've said, power to lay it down, power to take it again. Hmm? God the Father raised him.

He rose in the power of the Spirit of God. He rose of his own sovereign right, of his own sovereign right, voluntarily to lay down his life, vicariously, victoriously, to take it again. There's a gospel reason, of course, for you and I as we're here, gospel reason.

Remember, Romans, delivered for our offenses, raised again for our justification. The great message of the gospel, you know. The gospel message is a message.

There's no other message like the gospel. Great men have lived and died. If you're in London, it's interesting, maybe to go to Westminster Abbey, but all you'll see is a slab of something that they've placed over the remains.

A couple of occasions I've been in Red Square, Moscow. Great big mausoleum to a murderous thug. Ah yes, but my Savior.

Ah yes, and the glad tidings of the gospel is one that died but rose again. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he rose again, the third day according to the Scriptures. Let us go around the foundation that came.

Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. With the Corinthians, he's looking back. He's looking back over the experience when as a little tent maker, he entered into that sordid, sinful, wretched city of Corinth.

And he went in trembling and in fear under dependence upon God. And he says to the Corinthians, let us remember, let us remember the fundamentals of the message. Let us examine it again.

The ground where we stand, wherein we stand, Christ died, was buried, rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. You know, you and I have a message. The message of the politicians and all the world that is about us.

There's not another being on earth that has a message like the message of the Gospel. A moral reason, a personal reason, a Gospel reason, a Scriptural reason. Think of all the Scriptures that necessitate Christ risen from the dead.

Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell. First prophesied in Genesis 3.15, the seed, the seed of the woman. Looking forward to that which would spring up.

Remember the tapes? The ark referred to in 1 Peter 3. That rested, having passed through the waters. The ark, Noah's ark that rested. And didn't you remember Isaac? Hebrews 11, a figure raised from the dead.

And didn't you remember the Red Sea crossed, passed through the waters and up and out the other side? Ah yes, it was a three-day experience from the land where they were staying till they reached the other side out of the waters. Remember the Jordan? Stones from the bottom of the river. Same stones upon the bank.

Ah yes, brought up out of the river. Stones upon the bank. You remember Jonah? The Savior preached about Himself as Jonah.

Three days and three nights. I can understand the sequence for in a Jewish sense, they don't count the whole 24 hours. Three days, three nights in the bow of the earth.

And so, as I said already, there's a Jewish reason. A Jewish reason. That thing, that truth is taken up in Romans 11, isn't it? Romans 11.

He's going to speak about Israel raised again. And so, he speaks about life from the dead. Israel, like Jonah, has been cast into the sea of nations.

Ah yes, but He hasn't cast them away. God didn't give up on Jonah, you know. They're always rejoicing that.

Sometimes conscious of failure. God didn't give up on Jonah. He could have turned and taken somebody else and used them.

He didn't give up on Jonah. God hasn't given up on the nation. Romans 11.

Life from the dead. The nation again revived. There's a moral reason, a personal reason, a Gospel reason.

The fundamentals of the Gospel. The very structure of the Scriptures. A Jewish reason for the nation.

A judgment reason. Revelation 1. Not so much a description of heaven, but a description of heaven getting ready for judgment. And who is the one that's presented in the opening verses of the book of Revelation? I am He that liveth and was dead.

I am He that liveth and became dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. Let us rejoice in that life.

That life that is inherent in this deity. That conquered death. That is sovereign.

The sovereign control of the Eternal One over death and hell. This whole world. Whenever you see such a mess, men are learning that they can't control.

They can't govern. The whole thing out of control, is it? Not at all. There is One.

And you know, He is conquered. And conquered in the very sphere of death. Taking the weapon from the enemy, He defeated him that had the power of death.

That is the devil. Delivered to him who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject of bondage. And so we have won today.

Yes, He died and conquered the enemy and risen from the dead. Yes, and so all inherent in His deity. The One that has conquered death is the One in the book of Revelation.

Has that sovereign control. For the hand that was pierced upon Golgotha's three is the same hand that will open the scroll of the book on the day of judgment. The same hand that will put in the sickle on the day of harvest.

The same hand that will handle the sword in the day of battle. The hand that will stretch out to take the scepter of universal dominion was the blessed man that went into death. Passed through death's dark, angry billows up to the throne of God.

And that brings us to the last thought. The kingdom reason. The Bible says He must rise.

The Bible says He must reign. He must reign. God has looked upon Him risen from the dead and ascended to glory.

And God has said, Sit there. And some of these days, God will say, Rule there in the kingdoms of men. For the sake of completeness, Matthew stresses the majesty.

Here in the passage that we've read in Mark, it's the reality. In Luke, it's the necessity. He must reign.

He ought not Christ to suffer these things and enter into His glory. But John stresses the dignity of it. The dignity of resurrection.

Remember, John's a seer. And on that occasion, he looked in. He looked into the tomb.

And when he looked into the tomb, he saw that it didn't close high. He saw the napkin in a place by itself. He says, John, this has been no hurried exit.

This is not somebody coming in and removing a body. You know, if you study it out as we did over at B-Town in Matthew's account, those men, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, they brought spices. A hundred pounds weight.

That was an enormous quantity. An enormous quantity. Mary used one pound weight.

And that was the value of the wages of a man for a year. Imagine a hundred pounds weight. And so we must understand that they're linen clothes.

It seems to be that the spices were placed into the folds of the linen clothes. Mind you, it was careful work. Rough hands put him up on the cross.

Tender hands brought him down. And men with reverence and caution laid him in the tomb. Brethren, we need to be careful how we handle the body of the Lord Jesus.

With reverence and with respect. You know, I hear some brethren on a Lord's Day morning, and you know, they talk about the wounds of the Lord Jesus and it's really gruesome. It's offensive to somebody of a sensitive nature.

And they go far beyond what the Bible says. The Bible uses very reserved language about the wounds of the Lord Jesus. And I take it it was very tender hands.

And it was diligent work. Enrolling that body, that precious body in those linen clothes and putting in an enormous quantity of spices into those folds. John says, I looked.

It wasn't just a hurried exit. It wasn't just somebody else. I asked.

It wasn't just somebody else from here. John could see the very evidence before him that the body had passed through those clothes. And I'm not so sure whether the Savior went through the stone or not.

For the stone was rolled away not to let the Savior out, but to let them see in. Oh yes, in all his holy dignity, he must rise. Let us be sure.

He must reign. He must reign. No hurried exit.

Not stolen by friend or foe. John says it was with dignity. The Savior rose from the tomb.

There are lessons in that for we want the meeting to be practical. The grave, the tomb. One truth about it is this.

It didn't keep the Lord very long. The grave didn't hold him very long. You know, the grave's not going to keep us very long compared with the eternity that stretches out before us.

If we go that way, remember how he spoke in John chapter 11, our friend Lazarus, sleepeth. We go to awake him out of it. Sleep.

I judge that the most of us are still around an open grave at some stage. I'm thankful indeed that on each occasion for us to those that were closely related to us. Oh yes, in Christ.

The dead in Christ. Lay it into the grave. I know there's something about death.

It's cold. It's an enemy. There is grief and sorrow and it's right to grieve.

In fact, we were just talking about it the other day with my wife. You know, how anyone, I'm not critical of what you do across here, but I notice it's creeping over our way. Somebody that's intimately linked with the person that has died ended up taking their funeral.

I have a difficulty. How are you going to genuinely grieve in those early hours after the person that has died and get your thoughts straight and be able to present a dignified message without breaking down? Oh yes, the Savior. He wasn't long in the grave.

And you know, compared with the endless rolling ages of the great eternity that lays out before us, that little period in the grave, it's just like, well, don't put the body... It's not the idea. Don't be thinking about a corpse in the earth. It's a seed in the ground.

A seed in the ground. And you're just sowing the seed. And there might be a few, a little period of coldness and death.

But you know, it's going to rise. Oh yes, that precious dust. It's going to be risen from the dead.

And so if we ponder the Savior risen from the dead, it changes our philosophy. Not so much as death and the grave being a loathsome prison, but as a perfumed bed. Oh yes, it's the laying down of precious dust.

The laying down in a perfumed bed of that precious dust of the one that has gone before. And so as we stand around the grave of a departed in Christ, well, might we say, O death, where is thy sting? O grief, where is thy victory? There's a victory in all. Oh yes, and we can look into the grave and challenge the agencies of the infernal to hinder the resurrection of that precious dust.

For the body of the believer is precious as well as spirit and soul. And you know, going to speak of our own experience, we can only live in our own body at any time. But you know, earlier in life, I used to think of no one else, only the Lord's coming.

And so, we'll be doing that tonight to put the Lord's coming. The sky not the grave is our goal, but as life goes on in our life, we begin to think, well, maybe it will go be that way through death. But you know, if we're called to put our feet into those chilly waters, the heads will run in heaven.

We may not have to put our feet into the chilly waters, but our heads will run in heaven. Christ died and rose again. We belong up there.

We belong up there. In fact, I don't know how you understand that passage, Brother. 1 Thessalonians 4.14. I have a note of it here in case I quote it wrongly.

It says, Them that are put to sleep through Jesus, It's a passive participle. Them that are put to sleep through Jesus, that is in the good of His death and resurrection, the only sleep. Have you got that? Then it says, God, for God's the subject.

God will bring. And the expression God will bring is parallel to the expression that Christ rose. So God will bring with Him.

That is, God will bring with Christ. What's he talking about in that verse? The association of His people with Him. The association of His people with Him in resurrection.

And so, maybe that's not what's commonly taught from that verse. But if you look into the verse, Ah yes, He's bringing them from the grief. It's not Him coming and bringing back His saints from heaven.

He's bringing them parallel to resurrection. For that is the truth of the verse. And God is the subject.

And it is through Jesus. Through Jesus. You know, I've talked about that precious dust.

The matter of the death of the believer. Very precious before God. You remember when Moses died.

It wasn't a big funeral now. God brought him. Nobody else knows about it.

But God brought him and buried him on the mountain. Further down the pages of our Bible, it tells us that Michael the archangel contended with the devil about the body of Moses. I take it that the body of the saint, that precious dust that is sown, is in the custody of angelic ministry.

Is in the custody, as far as Moses was concerned, sure, of Michael the archangel. That precious dust of the believer that you and I mourn. There was tears in her eyes and sorrow in her heart at their parting.

Let us be confident that that precious dust is in the custody of Michael the archangel. How do we know that? When he comes, I ask when the trumpet is sound and voice of archangel and throne of God. It'll be the voice of the archangel and the throne of God.

Where the archangel? Oh, that precious dust. That precious dust in that angelic ministry. In that trumpet that will be sounded.

Will raise from the dead. Will bring within. Bring from the graves.

I firmly believe that when the Lord comes, this man will have the hair standing in your head if you've got any. What's going to happen when the Lord comes? Airplanes crashing and planes crashing and buses crashing and all sorts of tragedies on earth. And then what about those in the grave? I believe, you know, there'll not be a blade of grass disturbed.

God can do it. As far as this world is concerned, they'll not worry what's happened. They'll not be hearing about the voice of the archangel.

If they haven't got to hear for the voice of the trumpet of the gospel, they'll not be hearing that trumpet. Hope everyone's here in the meeting is saved by the grace of God. For if you're not, you'll be left behind.

Oh, yes, there is that dignity, that necessity, that reality, the majesties associated with Christ risen from the dead in the holy ministry of the Lord Jesus after his resurrection on the night of his coming again. What was the teaching? Well, from the passage here, this action to do with Mary Magdalene. She's the comforter in the garden.

And then at verse 14, he's the center in the gathering. And then we can consider him again in verse 14 as the challenger in the room. And then it refers to the two on the road.

He's the companion on the road. And we could go on, couldn't we? What about his care on the shoulder? His compassion about the flock? The commander in the conflict. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.

The commissioner on the mountain. The conqueror in the sky. That's Christ risen from the dead.

In fact, I believe in the post-resurrection ministry of the Lord Jesus. We have the seeds of the epistles that are later developed. Even the church epistles.

What about the comforter in the garden? Verses 6 through to 10 here. The word for her is she was convulsed in tears. These women that come to the grave, even they had got the body, what would they do with the body? Mary wants to have the body, but what would a little woman, a fully matured body of a man, how would she carry him? And what would she do with him? And then she goes and tells Peter and John.

And Peter and John came and they looked into the tomb and they seemed to just pass her by. It says Peter went away again. Poor Mary.

If you follow the accounts, Mary, you must understand now, Mary and the other women, they're walking through the streets of Jerusalem. It's still dark. There's murder in those streets.

There's danger in those streets. All that are associated with this imposter that was put on the cross. All the plotting is against them.

And here they are, a few women in a dangerous sphere. But there she is, first of their tomb. Mary Magdalene.

She appreciated the man that cast out the devils. She stands at the tomb. I take it that she's looking into the tomb.

And she's conscious that someone draws to her side. And she turns, but in the dark, doesn't write her name. She thinks it's the gardener.

And she has been conversing, as we see in the passage here with the angels. And so the Lord comes. She thinks it's the gardener.

And the old man has been sitting in the tomb. Or if you take into Matthew's account, the angel sitting on the stone. And when the Lord comes, I can't understand that the angel would still be sitting.

I don't think the angels would be sitting when the Lord would come. I think those angels rose from their feet. It says twice that Mary turned.

She turned and looked at the gardener and then must have turned back. I take it it's when the angels raise in the presence of the Lord. Mary realizes there's something here.

And she senses it again. And she looks. And she looks upon the blessed Savior.

And in the dark, he says, Mary, says, Mary, rabboni. You know, now I'm speaking to some of you today. There's been tears in your eyes.

A trial in your life. You know, maybe there's a widow by times you weep alone. Maybe there's a widower.

I don't know what it is. The loneliness of a home. The trials of a family.

The distress of the testimony. The burden of the assembly. Don't weep alone.

Let Him enter into your case. Be sensitive to His voice. He'll never be silent to you.

Maybe it's just a verse of Scripture. Just something that He says. Let Him speak to you.

Enjoy communion with Him. He'll wipe up the tears. He'll be a solution to all the loneliness and trials and difficulties.

He was the comforter in the garden. And you tell us you found comfort. What about the center in the gathering? Do we still believe that, brother? Without Him, the doors are closed.

Without Him, it says, they were afraid. When He was revealed in their midst, these men were fearless. These are the men of the acts of the apostles.

With great power give the apostles witness what told Jesus in the resurrection. It means they were different men. They were different men when they witnessed Christ rose from the dead.

You've been learning. For two or three are gathered together unto my name. For it's really a traction to His name.

There am I in the midst. Do we still believe that? Center in the gathering. The center in the gathering.

Little assembly. He's there in the midst. That would solve this business.

There'll be difficulties in the assembly. What if I do cut and roll and go somewhere else? If there's that vision of Him being in the center. His name.

His name. You see, a son in the family takes the father's name. The bride, she marries the bridegroom, takes his name.

A merchant, he sets up a business and he establishes the business and trades in his name. If he goes away off somewhere and leaves somebody else to take care of the business and it's every issue and comes back again, what would he think of the torn down his name and stuck up another name and we're trading under another name? Hmm? The Lord has gone, gone to heaven. What's the standard? Fraction unto my name.

Just because He's there. Numbers might be small. Difficulties might be real.

The devil's making an all-out attack upon the assembly testimony. Oh yes, and all around us, there's denominationalism. The denominator is to take a name.

Denominator is to take a name. His name. In fact, it comes to mind, I'm preaching instead of the text.

Scoot over up where two or three are gathered together in my name. There am I, the center of the gathering. The challenger in the room.

It says in this passage that he upbraided them for their own belief. There was a challenge about it. He appeared to the ten.

Thomas missed the meeting. Thomas must have had a terrible week. He refused to believe the testimony of ten men.

Thomas missed the meeting. You start missing meetings, you get cold. You get cold.

Martha was late for the meeting. Martha was all occupied with the serving. And then she goes in and she found the meeting had started already.

And Mary was at the meeting. And Mary was at his feet. Martha was preparing something for her.

Mary was feasting at his feet. Mary was at the feast already. Bad thing to be late for the meeting.

Oh, yes, in the midst of them. The challenger in the room says, it says the synoptics, my hounds on my feet. Says John, my hounds on my side.

We're thinking about it in the Lord's Day morning down there at Blue River. The institution of the feast. What does the Lord say? He said, my body, my blood.

Beautiful thoughts. My hounds, my side. Are we deficient of anything? No, no, no.

In the remembrance meeting, my body, my blood. What does Thomas say? Thomas said, my Lord and my God, I think Thomas rules higher than the ball. The challenger in the room, the companion on the road.

Verse 12 here. It talks about the two. He appeared in another form unto two of them as they walked and went into the country.

I think that's the same as Luke 24. He threw at their side. He's a stranger to them.

Why did he walk on their side? Well, of course, they were sad. They were turning away from the cross. They're going away from Jerusalem.

Turning away from the cross. They're back. Well, we thought it had been he and all that.

They believed all that, but they were going away from the cross. Mind you, I like that little hymn. Jesus, keep me near the cross.

There a precious fountain flows to all a healing stream flows from Calvary's mountain. I know the road might be rough and weary by times. Maybe you're here to your saint and you're finding that the hills are steep.

The bands are sharp. The wind's in your face. Deep waters might be crossing.

Life's pathway on the hedge of thorns was sharp. Remember when he threw to their side? It's as here as he walked. Remember what he said? Things concerning himself.

From the same Scriptures. Not something new. We don't need anything new, brethren.

We've got quite enough in the Bible. And just things concerning himself. You know, I'd love to have been around when the Lord was upon earth.

What it would be like to be at a meeting like this. All the Scriptures. Things concerning himself.

And he's explaining it. I've been so meeting. Companion on the road.

I refer to John's account. Do you remember John 1? Master, where dwellest thou? Come and see. John 21, come and dine.

Care for them. Compassion for them. You know, when the Lord left this scene down here, died on the cross, rose from the dead, went back to heaven, there was two things he was anxious about.

On the cross, he says to John, he says, John, behold thy mother. John, take care of the mother. He took her to his own home.

Then as he rose from the dead, before he went back to glory, he says to Peter, feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. Mind you, I don't know too much about conditions over here, but I've discovered this.

You could nearly have a word for shepherds in every meeting. Wherever we go, there's two things lacking amongst us as a people of God. We're talking about the assemblies of 2014.

One is a commitment amongst the saints and the other is a care by the shepherds. Commitment among the saints. You know, there's a generation of believers that had a commitment that came out at a cost that left the churches and left the prayer books and left all that thing and came out at a cost.

You can say what you think about them. Maybe they're not well up in computers and all that, but they've got the Bible. And they have a commitment to the assembly.

There's a lot of them gathered already in heaven. And what are we left with? Those that have a commitment. An older generation.

Yes, what about the care for the flock? For the shepherds. Shepherds care for the flock. Oh yes, there's the servant.

In the work. There's the soldier in the battle. But what about the shepherds who care for the little flock? The commander in the conflict.

Peter is steward. Go tell Peter. And then the commission on the mountain.

Verse 15, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. Did you notice? To everybody, no. To men, women, boys and girls, it doesn't say that.

It says preach the gospel to every creature. Every creature. You know, there's creatures out there in this world.

I call them humans. But really, they've sunk to the level of the animal. Sunk to the level of the beast.

We're living in days when the moral standards of the society about us, the people just behave like barnyard animals. Oh yes, every creature. Every creature.

I was thinking, there's a brother here talked about going and preaching in the prison. I've thought a little about that myself. And you know, at home I have a frame for a text.

Never hang it up because I'd be ashamed of it. People wouldn't understand. It's all over the square.

Very badly made. But you know, it was given to me by a man, a lifelong prisoner away in northern Siberia. We went and got a Bible to preach the gospel.

The man could see it in prison. They were allowed to. Maybe you're Russian prisoners or have experience.

He was allowed to work in a little shop down in the basement. And he made some wooden things. He made a little text.

He wanted to give us something. So he gave me this little wooden text. Oh yes, every creature.

The pattern is, you know, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, unto the uttermost parts of the earth. And the promise is, I am with you even unto the end of the ages. Here we are at the end of the ages.

Here we're surrounded. There was never as so many billions on earth as there are today. Maybe we get discouraged sometimes.

But God is still working. It says in this passage here, this is the gospel of the perfect servant. And the last verse says, they went forth, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them.

His service on earth is finished. He's risen from the dead. He's ascended up to glory.

But where's His interest? The Lord working with them. The perfect servant. He's still working.

The perfect servant. He's still working. We might think, you know, that God is working in the same way as once He did.

Maybe that's so. The country I come from, it's just the same as here. Largely so in the Western world.

People have turned away from God. But you know, God is still working. About a year ago, I gathered with a little company.

A little company in the foothills of the Himalayas in Nepal. A few other number of years ago got saved in an agricultural area. When they got saved there, the rest attacked them and they persecuted them and they burned their crops and all the rest.

And they went away into a forest area. It was just a forest from the start. They had to cut down the trees and try to make it a kind of fertile.

And you know, in the midst of all that there, we gathered with an assembly. It's about a hundred first generation believers in the foothills of the Himalayas. God's still working.

The perfect servant working still. Oh yes, He's the Comforter in the garden. Do you need comfort tonight? He's the center.

I trust we still believe it. Small the assembly might be, but He's still the center of the gathering. There He was and He appeared in them.

He rebuked them now. But times were worthy of the rebuke, the challenger in the room of their unbelief. On the road, He's the companion on the road.

In John's account, His care on the shore and the provision. His compassion in the field. Feed my sheep, the commander in the conflict.

Peter is still going to tell Peter. Did he give up on Peter? Dreadful what Peter did, you know. I don't like to think about it.

How he did it. One minute he says, I'll die for the Lord, and the next minute, he's letting all he's not saved at all disown the Lord. I wonder how he'd do it now.

If he didn't know our own heart, we'd be severing Peter. Ah, yes, but there was a private interview with Peter. There they are on the axe of the apostles.

All eleven of them. Shoulder to shoulder with one breath. And Peter's the spokesman.

With great power give the apostles witness to Jesus on the resurrection. The commissioner on the mountain going into all the world and preach the gospel. Keep up the gospel, brethren.

And preach it to every creature. Every creature. Some of them sunk very low.

I was talking the other night about a man we saw saved in Russia. And when he got saved, there was a Babel. They would give out Babels with blue backs on them.

I don't think I could see the Babel yet. The Babel's sitting there in a loaded revolver beside it. And they're not going to the details of what he was at.

Ah, yes, every creature saving souls. It's the same message. Not to be changed.

The last vision, we don't get that far in Mark's gospel, but I like the thought of the conqueror in the sky. The conqueror in the sky. That's not the emphasis here.

But it says, So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, set on the right hand of God. That little band of eleven, gathered yonder in the slopes of Olivet, the audience chamber of the parting. It's like the robing room of the celestial.

Ah, yes, the very gateway of heaven. They watched him. The conqueror in the sky.

Conqueror in the sky. You know, meditating a little upon that this morning, I was thinking about them as the student watched that last spot. That last spot in the clouds where he disappeared through the clouds, little band on earth.

I was wondering, I hope we don't think I'm too fancy. Well, I was wondering, did he look back? Did he look back as he ascended up? I think as he went up. If he looked back, what did he see? A little pond of men.

And they were looking up. I wonder tonight as he looks down, does he see a little common? My dear sister, look up. Plenty of trials and difficulties.

I wonder, are we looking up, dear brother? Bible says, Acts 1, this same Jesus shall show common light on earth as you've seen him go. May God, may God bless our meditations upon resurrection. Shall we pray? Our Father, we bless Thee for Thy Son.

Thank Thee that ever we heard the message Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. We want to say again, as we ponder the triumph that was His, hallelujah, Christ arose. We thank Thee for our risen glorified Christ at Thy known right hand.

Bless Thee to know as we pondered it just now that the One that's coming back is the same Jesus that paid the price, that suffered on the cross, that went into death for us. He's coming back to receive us, to be with Himself. Help us, Lord.

The burden's great. The difficulties abound. It's all about some need comfort.

We remember He was a comforter merely in the garden. Some need companionship along the road. We remember He drew near and went with them.

Our Father, we pray, that we might know an increased measure of His presence in the room, the center. We're coming together. Help us above all, our Father, to fix our attention in that pleasant mind, set our affections upon things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.

Bless the little company here. Remember them in every exercise. And grant indeed that the little lampstand might be preserved until the Lord comes.

And we thank Thee that He has left us without promise. Lo, I am with Thee all day, even unto the end of the age. Bless Thy Word in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.