"The Riddle of the Empty Tomb"

So the reading is mark 16 1 2 8 and on page 1 0 2 3, in the Bibles on your seats. When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalen, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they may go to anoint Jesus his body, 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. But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been roiled 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. Don't be alarmed, he said.

You are looking for Jesus, the Nazary, who was crucified. Has risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid him, but go, tell his disciples and Peter. He is going ahead of you into gallery.

There you will see him just as he told you. Trendbling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid. Morning. Happy Easter.

What were you expecting? Okay. We'll come back to that. We're we're gonna think this morning the riddle of the empty tomb. We've been thinking about Easter Riddles at Hope Church, and we're gonna think this morning about the riddle of the empty tomb.

Boys and girls and grown ups, I'm gonna need your help with this. The place that we're gonna find the answers to this is in the passage that we just had read. So you're gonna need the Bible open in front of you. So grown ups, if you need to help, little ones with this, that's fine. And if you need to talk to them, that's why if there's noise during this, that's alright, where I'm happy with that.

You know, we've got all ages in. There's gonna be a bit of noise. That's fine. Don't worry about that. But if you could find a Bible and open it up to mark chapter 16, that's really gonna help us.

I'm pausing so you can actually do So March 16 versus 1 to 8 page 1023, and we're thinking about the riddle of the empty too. And, Colin, I'm gonna need you to do that. Thank you. The riddle of the empty 2. Now first thing we're gonna need to ask is it's gonna come up on the screen.

What the women expected. So Easter Sunday morning. First Easter Sunday morning. The women are going to the tomb, and sometimes you can tell what people are expecting to happen by what they've got with them. So So if you've got this with you, if you've got number 8, what are you expecting?

Boys and girls are I'm gonna need responses here. Okay? What are you expecting? Yes. Rain, you're expecting rain.

What if you've got some of these? Goggles, what do you expect? If you go somewhere with these, what are you expecting? Yes, Ziki. Swimming, you're expecting to swim, aren't you?

What about if you've got 1 of these with you? These guys are winning at the moment. Anyone over here? No. No idea.

Not sporty types. Clearly not. Yes. Tell me at the back. Football.

Yes. You're expecting to play football. Okay. What if they out. What about if you've got this insect repellent?

What are you expecting? I mean, the clue's in the name, but, yes. Do you know? Yeah. Go for it.

Bubbles. Oh. 0. That makes, I should have had bubbles. I'm so sorry.

No. It's not bubbles. Mosquitoes. Very good. Very good.

Be very good. Yeah. You're expecting mosquitoes if you go insect repellent. Okay. So sometimes you can tell what people are expecting by what they've got with them.

Have a look in the verse. Verse 1, what have the women got Have a look. What have they got? I'm looking for a 1 word answer. Oh, that we we've had shouting hours.

Let's go for it. So spices. Well done. They had spices with them. I've got some spices with me, cumin, and, chili.

So, I wonder what they were expecting. Maybe they did we go to spices? Maybe they were, maybe they were expecting to do a bit of bit of cooking. Get their let me make a curry, maybe. Lovely spices.

Maybe that's not what they were expecting. What were they what were they gonna do with the spices? What does it say, in verse 1. Have a look. Why have they got the spices with them?

They were gonna unearth Jesus' body. That's right. So it wasn't it wouldn't have been these kind of spices. It wouldn't have been chilly in a few minutes. It wouldn't have been that kind of spice.

It was different kind of spices. It was the kind of spices that you put on a dead body. So that shows that the women going to the 2 were expecting to find a dead body. That's what they were expecting to find. A dead body.

They were expecting to find Jesus's dead body, and it's understandable that they thought that because these women had been watching what had happened to Jesus. We know that because Mark tells us. So if you look back in chapter 15, maybe this is more grown up looking back, but no if you can look back as well. So chapter 15, verse 37, this is when Jesus died. Alright?

And it says, with a loud cry Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in 2 from top to bottom. Now if you were here on Friday, you know what that was all about because we did the riddle of the curtain, and, we found out that Steve has a great delight of curtains. Anyway, the curtain was torn into from top to bottom. And when they're centurion who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died.

He said, surely this man was the son of god. Some women were watching from a distance, among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, the younger and of Joseph, and salome. So those women were there, and they watched what? What did they see happen? They saw that Jesus had died.

And then verse 46 of chapter 15 says, so Jesus bought so Joseph, sorry, bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, placed it in a tomb cut out of the rock, then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb, Mary Magdalene, married the mother of Joseph, so saw where he was laid. So it's the same women apart from saloni. We don't know where she went at this point. Maybe she had something else to do. We don't know.

But 2 of the women saw Jesus die and then saw his body put in the tomb. And it's the same women, chapter 16 verse 1, 2 of the same women. When the saboteur was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, she's back again, bought spices so they could go and annoy Jesus's body. So it's the same women. They saw Jesus die.

They saw Jesus buried, and now they're coming back to the tomb. So it's understandable that they were expecting to find Jesus' dead body because when they left, they that's what there was. And they're also expecting, verse 3. They asked each other, who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the 2. So they're expecting, there'll be a big boulder in front of the tomb, a stone sealed tomb and a dead body.

That's what they're expecting. But what did they find? Let's Next night. Thank you. But they found okay.

Cause things aren't always as you expect. Sometimes you expect it's gonna rain, but as it is really sunny, or you expect to you know, then you're gonna need your swimming goggles, but actually you need skis. That that hasn't happened to me, but it could happen. Things aren't always as you expect. What did they find?

Cause it wasn't the way how they expected? What did they find? Verse 4, can you have a look? What did they actually find? It wasn't what they were expecting.

What did they find? Has someone spotted it. Yeah. Got that. The stone was rolled away.

They were expecting the stone in front of the tomb, but the stone was rolled away. So that's the first thing. The stone had moved. But they saw there was something else they weren't expecting. Next verse, verse 5.

What else was there? Anyone spotted? 1 of you found verse 5. What did they see there that they weren't expecting? Who we got?

Yeah. Yeah. Zachary. Jeffrey. A man in a white row sitting in the tomb, and it wasn't Jesus.

They weren't expecting that. And young man dressed in white. And just to keep it away from a little bit later on, there was no body there as well. They were expecting to find Jesus' dead body stone in front of the tomb, but actually they got there, and it wasn't what they were expecting. They found that the stone was rolled away, and this guy was sitting in the tomb, and there was no body.

And this is the riddle of the empty tomb. What's the solution? What's going on? Because some puzzles, you you've gotta work out what's going on. Today, for instance, maybe you got some of these.

Maybe you got Anyone get some chocolate eggs? Anyone got not many? Oh, get a few. Okay. And maybe there's gonna be a mystery today.

Maybe that you've got some. Well done. Maybe oh, brilliant. Maybe this morning you got it, the chop at eggs, but this evening all you'll have is wrapper, and it'll be a mystery. What happened?

There's gotta be an explanation. Now some puzzles, they take a long time to work out. Some puzzles take years to work out. Some can be really difficult to work, and you really gotta apply your mind. You gotta work it out.

Thankfully, this puzzle is really easy to work out because the man in the tomb tells them the art it to the riddle? What's happened to the body? What does he tell them? First thing he tells them is something they already know. What's the first thing that the demand in the tomb tells them?

Something they already know verse 6. Guys, I'm a bit worried about you Zachary is is beating you on all the his hand is up every time you're doing brilliantly, but we've gotta give other people a try as well. We gotta make sure everyone else understands it too. Zachary, you've doing brilliantly. Jeremiah.

Go for it. Say again. Yes. So he he says to them, you're looking from, g, for Jesus of nazareth, that they would've been going, yes. That's right.

That's who we're looking for. And now the next words changed their lives. The next words have changed the lives of millions of people throughout history and throughout the world, and lots of people in this room. These next words are the answer to the riddle, and they are absolutely life changing. They said you're looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.

He has risen. He has risen. The reason there's no body here is that Jesus is no longer dead. He's alive. The body isn't here because Jesus isn't dead anymore.

And the man goes on to help them believe it. He says, first of all, he tells them to look. Do you see? He says, see, the place where they laid him. Do you remember these are the women who were there?

They saw where Jesus's body was laid. And he's saying, look, you saw. Here it is. Here's the place. There's no body.

Is there? Now I don't know about you, but if that's all that you had, if you were 1 of these women, and you were there at the tomb, and you'd got in, and you heard this person say, oh, yeah, Jesus, yeah, he's risen to life again. Oh, look, his body isn't there. That wouldn't be enough for me to actually go yeah. Oh, yeah.

He must be he must be alive again. I'd want a bit more than that, and he gives them more He says more. He says verse 7, sorry, yeah, verse 7. But go tell his disciples and Peter, he's going ahead of you into Alaly, there you will see him just as he told you. He says you're gonna meet Jesus.

Not only has he risen from the dead. You're gonna meet him. He's gonna go ahead you into galilee, and you're gonna see him. And do you notice he said just as he told you? In other words, you should have expected this.

And we know that Jesus had told them, because chapter 14, before Jesus was arrested, he told them, he says chapter 14 verse 28. So this is before he was arrested. Jesus said to them, but after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into galilee. He told them, and now this man is saying to them, he's gonna go there, and you'll meet him. And what did they do next?

Have a look. Chapter 6, Steam verse 8, What did the women do next? What did the women do next? And great stuff. Yeah.

Go for it. Say that again? They were to they were to go to tell everyone. That's what they were told to do. Well done.

But what did they actually do? Yeah. Hello? Yeah. They they thank you.

They fled from the tomb because they were scared. They went away. They fled. Maybe maybe they left the spices behind. Maybe they took them with them to get a refund because they didn't need them.

14 days cooling off period. But they fled and didn't tell anyone because they were scared, which is quite understandable, isn't it? Speed news. Now they did get over their fear, and they did tell other people, and they did meet a risen Jesus. And you know what?

The Bible tells us that it wasn't just a few people who met the risen Jesus. At 1 time, over 500 people met Jesus risen from the dead at the same time, and there were many times that people saw the risen Jesus. It wasn't just 1 or 2 people going, no, no, maybe I might have seen it. It was certainly someone who a bit like him. No.

This is hundreds of people meeting the risen Jesus. And this is great news. It's great news for us. At the heart of Christianity is Jesus risen from the dead. As we've been singing in, the song that we've been singing a few times over the recent weeks, sort of Easter theme song from 1 Corinthians if Christ isn't risen, our faith is in vain, but he is alive.

He is risen. And that changes everything. What difference does it make? Okay. We've got 1 thing to think about if we go up onto the next slide.

Thank you. Since Jesus has risen, what should we expect? What should we expect? See, the riddle of the empty tomb was There was nobody because Jesus is alive. He's risen.

And Jesus said he was gonna rise to life again and meet them. And because Jesus kept that promise, that biggest of promises, the most amazing of promises. We can trust Jesus to keep all his promises. Boys and girls. I want you to imagine that your parents or the grown ups at home say to you, you're gonna go on a holiday, and it's gonna be amazing.

And you're gonna fly thousands of miles. Let's get the the picture of the day. You're gonna fly thousands of miles, and it's gonna be amazing. There's gonna be a stunning beach on this holiday. It's gonna be amazing, and there's gonna be fantastic food.

And there's gonna be warm seas that you'll be able to swim in with tropical fish, and it's gonna be amazing. And you think now it's never gonna happen. It's just not gonna happen. And then 1 day, you find yourself on the plane, and you're paying parents are saying to you, this is it. This is the holiday that we told you about.

If I was to come to you on that plane and to say to you, are you gonna see that beautiful beach. I said, yeah. We're going on the holiday. We're on the plane. Mom and dad said we would, and we're gonna see it.

Are you gonna have that wonderful food? He said, of course, we are. Mom and dad promised it, and we're on the plane. Are you gonna swim with those wonderful fishes? Yeah.

Of course. This is the holiday I've been promised. It's the same with Easter that because Jesus kept his promise and rose to life again. We can trust all his promises, and let me just give you a few of them. Alright?

And we're just gonna run through them really quickly. Here are some of his promises. Next 1. Thank you. It since Jesus has risen, he'll keep his other promises, which includes forgiveness.

All of the bad things that we've done can be taken by Jesus if we put our trust in him. Next 1, he said he'll be with us. He promised he'd be with us. Every day through the difficult times, through the good times. We can trust Jesus will keep his promise.

Next 1, he'll never let us go. Always be with us. Always in control. Next 1. That he'll raise us to life.

Again, in the future, just as he rose to life from the dead. So those who've trusted in Jesus will also be raised, and that is wonderful news. It is great hope. And have I got 1 more? Yeah.

Heaven forever. Haven, heaven forever with him. Wonderful promises. And because Jesus kept the promise that he would rise from the dead, the that shows he's defeated death. He's dealt with sin, and he's with us.

We can trust all his promises. Now, grown ups and children. Do you think Jesus actually rose from the dead? You don't have to shout out the odds, but do you actually think Jesus really did rise from the dead? If not, find out more, talk to me afterwards if you want, and say, well, you know, what's the reason?

What's the thing that holds you back from believing it? But if you think, yeah, I think Jesus did rise from the dead. If you think that you can't just leave it at that. That would be like finding a million pounds under a floorboard and just putting the floorboard back and leaving it. It would be madness.

Now if you say saying, I think Jesus really did rise from the dead. You've gotta do something about it. Can I encourage you to keep coming back to Hope Church, finding more about more about jesus, and what this means? But you can also pick up 1 of these little booklets if you want 1. They're gonna be handed out at the door to anyone who wants 1.

So if you want 1, just ask for 1, this helps you to think more about Easter about Jesus and the difference that his resurrection can make to you and me. So pick up a book, do come back to Hope Church, if you can. Boys and girls, you have listened really well, and thank you for helping me to get to the bottom of the riddle of the empty tomb. Easter is a great time because Jesus rose from the dead. He kept that promise.

He will keep all his promises. Let me just pray for us. Heavenly father, we praise you that Jesus rose from the dead, and thank you for that, for what that means for us that we can be forgiven that we have you with us, that you'll never let us go. Thank you father that we will be raised, and thank you that we can have heaven forever with you if we put our trust in Jesus. Father, please have everyone to respond in their hearts and with their lives to this great news that Jesus is alive, amen.