Class Notes: 7/22/2015

Mark 16:1-6; The eyewitnesses testimony of Jesus' resurrection part 1

In our study of Mark we are in Mark 16:1; where the women who were Jesus' most devoted followers traveled to the tomb in the early morning darkness in order to be there at first light on what would become known as Resurrection Sunday.

When we stopped last time we were noting a few of the reasons why Jesus had to be resurrected because of what is recorded in the Divine decree and disclosed in God's immutable Word.

If Jesus Christ is going to be a priest forever, and He is because God cannot lie, then He must have a human body forever. That forever-human body must be a resurrection body. Heb 7:4-5,14,28; Heb 10:5,10-14;

Without resurrection there is no mediator. We learn this principle from Job 9:32-33; where Job says that for him to have fellowship with God there must be a mediator. Net note 100

A mediator is someone who pulls two parties together because he is equal with both parties. In this case the mediation is between God and man. Whoever is the mediator between God and man must be equal with God and equal with man.

Jesus Christ is God, therefore equal with God; Jesus Christ is man, therefore equal with man, and Jesus Christ is the mediator because He is the God-Man. But Jesus Christ couldn't be the God-Man apart from resurrection.

A mediator has to be alive to mediate the covenant, and we are under the new covenant. Jesus Christ mediates it and He is the only one qualified to do it because He is man and He is God in one person forever. That requires His resurrection because He can't be man forever apart from resurrection.

Without resurrection there is no fulfillment of the Davidic covenant. The Davidic covenant is mentioned in 2Sam 7:8-16; and Psa 89:20-37; The Davidic covenant says David will have a son who will reign over Israel forever.

The only way that David could have a son who could reign forever is to have a son, a true human being, who will live forever so that he can reign forever.

Jesus Christ is the son of David. But Jesus Christ cannot fulfill the Davidic covenant in death. He has to be alive and in resurrection Jesus Christ in His resurrection body will fulfill the Davidic covenant because He will reign forever as David's son.


Mark 16:1; After the Sabbath was over. As we have noted, this is the weekly Sabbath that occurred after the Sabbath of the First Day of Unleavened Bread. There were 2 Sabbaths between Jesus' crucifixion and His resurrection and after the second Sabbath the women brought spices to the tomb to anoint His body.

This indicates that they did not expect Him to be resurrected even though He had told them that He would be. Even these women who were His most devoted disciples had a hard time believing that He would actually be resurrected.

Spices were poured over a dead body as an expression of love by the family and friends and to counteract the odor of decay since embalming was not a Jewish custom.

Of course in Jesus' case this was unnecessary because according to the prophecy His body would never undergo decay. Psa 16:10; Psa 49:9; He would be resurrected before any decay started.

Because Jewish days are calculated from sundown to sundown Christ could have arisen any time after sundown on Saturday because "when the Sabbath was over" is any time after sundown.

1Cor 15:4; states that, "Christ rose on the third day." From the standpoint of Roman time that is calculated from midnight to midnight it would mean that the third day according to Roman time would from midnight Friday to midnight Saturday.

This means that Jesus could have arisen any time after sundown, Jewish time, on Saturday because Sunday starts at sundown but in addition for Him to rise on the third day according to Roman time Jesus Christ had to arise before midnight Saturday night.

This means He was resurrected sometime between sundown and midnight on that Saturday night.

Mark 16:2; The women came at sunrise on the first day of the week. This was the day after the 7th day Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread so this was the day the first fruits were offered. Lev 23: 10-14;

We see from this that they arrived about 5 hours after the resurrection that had to occur before midnight. The women had decided the night before they would be there at the grave as soon as there was enough light to see.

They traveled just before dawn during darkest part of the morning that reveals their total devotion to Jesus.

Mark 16:3; They had seen the large rock that Joseph and Nicodemous had rolled down in front of the entrance to the tomb after Jesus' body was placed there so Mark records their concern about how they would get it rolled back so they could access His body so they could anoint it.

They were not in a position to know that after they had left the tomb had been sealed and that there was a Roman guard posted at the site to prevent access but God had that all under control.

Mark 16:4; When they got there they saw that the stone had already been rolled away. Mark doesn't tell us how that had happened but Matthew does.

Matt 28:2;"And, behold, there was a severe earthquake." It is very interesting how many times in the scripture that when the angels are involved there are natural disasters.

"for an angel of the Lord had descended from heaven, and come and rolled away the stone and sat on it" The imperfect tense says he "kept on sitting there." So he was sitting there waiting when the women showed up.

He rolls back the stone in order to let people in. Jesus has been absent for several hours, Jesus didn't need an opening because a resurrection body can go directly through the stone and that is exactly what He did.

The angel was waiting for the two women to come. He wasn't waiting for any of the disciples. There were only two disciples who came to the empty tomb and they only came after Mary told that them Jesus' body wasn't there.

Our Lord's first appearance was to Mary Magdalene because during His three years of teaching God's Word she was His best student. She understood more doctrine than any of the others because she had more positive volition than the others.

Matt 28:3; The angel's appearance "kept on being exactly like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow (white almost to the point of transparency)."

From this description we can determine some things about the angelic body. The structure was composed of light. This is understandable because the angels travel in space.

Light travels in space and the angels travel in space and when they are visible in their normal state, angels appear as light.

Matt 28:4; God took care of the Roman guards so they wouldn't harass the women. God disposed them by causing them to faint from fright so they wouldn't be a problem for them. Unconscious people don't cause anybody any problems.

All of this had occurred before the women arrived so they were oblivious to it and they just walked into the tomb as if nothing had happened. This is a perfect example of the principle that we are to live by. " Do not be afraid because the Lord will go ahead of you and be with you." Deut 31:8;

Mark 16:5; The women walked into the tomb unimpeded and as soon as they did they saw a "young man" (the angel) sitting on the right wearing a white robe and they became "amazed."

The word translated "amazed" is the passive aorist of the Greek word "ekthambeo" that would be better translated they became terrified or were "almost scared to death." This was no ordinary "young man."

Mark 16:6; The angel sees their fear and commands them to "stop being afraid." The word "ekthambeo" in the passive imperative so it is a mandate to "stop responding with fear."

He goes on to tell them that "Jesus who they are looking for who was crucified was raised and He is not here and he shows them where His body had been laid.

The word "raised" is in the passive voice indicating that God had raised Him. John 10:17-18;

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