Hope At The Cemetery Mark 16 1to8

Easter Day, The Resurrection of Our Lord             5-April-2026
Sermon Text: Mark 16:1-8
Sermon Theme: Hope At The Cemetery!
I. Death is Defeated! (Vs.1-4) II. Salvation Is Secured! (Vs.5-6) III. Forgiveness Freely Flows! (Vs.7-8) by Rev. Nathan J. Rusert

I.N.R.I. “Vexilla Regis Fluitant!”” the cry of victory early in the Church. It’s symbol is carved in the base of our altar. Our physically risen Christ is represented by a Lamb bearing a streaming cross emblazoned banner. It was a striking symbol of victory and conquest.      Jesus lives! The victory is won! Won not by Conquest accomplished by fire from heaven, but through the meek humble Lamb of God - slaughtered for the world’s sin upon the Altar of the Cross. Baptized by John in the Jordan River, Jesus came to fulfill all righteousness, by taking our burden of sin, guilt, shame and death upon His innocent head. John points us to baptized Jesus confessing, John 1:29 , "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!. Sacrificed for our offenses. He is raised this day for our justification. The Father has issued His verdict upon all sinners this day in Christ Jesus and declares us, “Not guilty!” “Forgiven!” Satan’s stronghold has been breeched by our resurrected Brother - He has made a public spectacle of the devil on the cross and on this day descended into hell as true Man and True God to preach Easter victory. Now the devil’s head is crushed and death is forever broken, for our Jesus lives! Now all heaven resounds praising the Lamb who bears our wounds still in His flesh! Revelation 5:13 : "Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!" An ancient hymn of the church sings out, “Vexilla Regis Fluitant!” “The banners of the King are waving.” Jesus the Alpha and the Omega, the Author and Finisher of your faith. The First Fruit of Life from the Grave and The Resurrection and the Life!
       Dear sinner this victory isn’t won for Jesus, but for you. The banner waves victory for you! It isn’t up to you to set things straight and make things right. You can’t! The harder you try the further you are alienated from your Creator. Stop listening to Satan’s lie that you can find your own way to God. Stop listening to the world and your flesh that whispers “God doesn’t care for you.” Look only to the cross and Jesus given for you. He has purchased and won you from all sins from death and from the power of the devil. Instead of trying, learn to listen, to listen only to the glorious gospel word preached to you by the angel appearing as a man in a long white robe. For today in the midst of your death and despair he preaches: Hope At The Cemetery !
I. Death is Defeated! (Vs.1-4)
II. Salvation Is Secured! (Vs.5-6)
III. Forgiveness Freely Flows! (Vs.7-8)
I.      The first lie whispered by Satan is still effective on fallen humanity. It is the lie that shuts our ears to God’s Word, takes our eyes off of God’s loving hands, and curves us in on ourselves - we glorify and make gods out of our own bellies - that is we think that it is up to us to find an inner voice and devise our own self chosen spirituality to find our way to God. It is a lie. Looking into the mirror of the Law, Paul had to confess, ‘I know that in me, that is in my flesh nothing good dwells” Then he cries out in despair, “Oh, wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death!” The answer is not a new set of rules and principles to try to follow.
            All are born from human fathers are born in Adam’s sin and rebellion. The Holy Spirit, The Spirit of Truth, testifies: Rom 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— Death is not natural. It is the last enemy we face. The only wages sin pays.  All your self-chosen good works only earn you death, the grave, and corruption. Listen! Isa 64:6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.
. And all our good deeds are filthy blood stained rags, our in born sin carries us away like wind blow leaves - to be raked up and burned in the eternal fires of hell..
            Repent of the idol of self. Look only to the One drew near to the Apostle John in exile in the midst of His congregations: Rev 1:13-18 and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. (14) His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; (15) His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; (16) He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. (17) And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, "Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. (18) I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am Christ is Risen! The Passover has been sacrificed FOR YOU. Once for all time. There is no work you do, no promise you make. God has done all for you in Christ Jesus.
   Have you not heard? 2Co 5:19-21 ..., that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (20) Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. (21) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. God the Father was in His Son reconciling, brining you back to Himself. How? Your sins are placed on Jesus. Jesus life not clothes you by faith! Do you believe this?
         Sorrow and sadness filled the hearts of the disciples and women. Their hearts were broken and hopes dashed as Jesus died upon the cross It is the despair and hopelessness of death - many of you have felt its crushing blow. (Vs.1) Still the women will finish what Joseph and Nicodemus started before sundown on Friday. They will honor their Master by a proper burial. As soon the sun sets on Saturday a new day has begun. The markets open for a few hours of selling. These faithful women spare no expense. They buy expensive spices, oils, and perfumes to anoint Jesus’ corpse. Just as Mary, the sister of Lazarus, had anointed His feet the previous Saturday evening in Bethany. She had done it, Jesus said for His burial.
        What do you expect to find when you go to the cemetery? A cold stone with the name of your loved one and years they lived? Maybe some flowers by those who take time to remember and grieve. What do these women find? (Vs.2-3) They were in such a hurry to pay their last respects to Jesus. They had forgotten a crucial matter. On Friday afternoon they followed Joseph and Nicodemus as they carried His lifeless corpse to Joseph’s new tomb nearby the place of crucifixion. They saw them wash the Rabbi’s body, wrap it in burial clothes, place it on the tomb’s shelf and pour the mixture of myrrh and aloes of about one hundred pounds that Nicodemus had brought. Then they saw these two men roll the massive carved stone in its slot to settle in the deeper groove and lock the tomb. They had forgotten to bring enough man power to open the grave. Truth is all men and women cannot open the grave of a loved one to bring them back to life.
       Suddenly they are startled. (Vs.4) The grave has been breeched! What does it mean? Mary Magdalene assumes the worst. Jesus’ enemies will not even let Him rest in death. They’ve taken His body to be burned desecrating His grave. She leaves the women running to tell Peter and John - as history records in John’s Gospel.
       Remember Jesus’ empty tomb as you face death, grief, and burying those you love.  What does the empty tomb mean?  Paul Harvey used to repeat the story of Philip. Little Philip, born with Down's syndrome, attended a third-grade Sunday School class with several eight-year-old boys and girls. Typical of that age, the children did not readily accept Philip with his differences, according to an article in Leadership magazine. But because of a creative teacher, they began to care about Philip and accept him as part of the group, though not fully. The Sunday after Easter the teacher brought Leggs pantyhose containers, the kind that look like large eggs. Each receiving one, the children were told to go outside on that lovely spring day, find some symbol for new life, and put it in the egg-like container. Back in the classroom, they would share their new-life symbols, opening the containers one by one in surprise fashion. After running about the church property in wild confusion, the students returned to the classroom and placed the containers on the table. Surrounded by the children, the teacher began to open them one by one. After each one, whether flower, butterfly, or leaf, the class would ooh and ahh. Then one was opened, revealing nothing inside. The children exclaimed, "That's stupid. That's not fair. Somebody didn't do their assignment." Philip spoke up, "That's mine." "Philip, you don't ever do things right!" the student retorted. "There's nothing there!" I did so do it," Philip insisted. "I did do it. It's empty. the tomb was empty!" Silence followed. From then on Philip became a full member of the class.
    He died not long afterward from an infection most normal children would have shrugged off. At the funeral this class of eight-year-olds marched up to the altar not with flowers, but with their Sunday school teacher, each to lay on it an empty pantyhose egg.
        The Tomb is empty - a fact of history! Only ignorant fools who haven’t studied the historical records of the Gospels, Jewish and Roman historians deny the evidence. Jesus said in three days He would rise - He lives! Death no longer can hold those united with Jesus in Holy Baptism! Death must now serve only as a temporary rest, until the last day when Jesus speak His Word , “Arise and all graves will be opened!”
II.      Can you be certain that you are saved? Many Christians say no. They buy into the devil’s lie of doubt turning you back in on yourself to hold your failures before your eyes.  
       Stop looking to yourself! Learn to listen! (Vs.5-6)
   The crucified is Risen! Don’t be afraid! You are redeemed! Salvation isn’t found in your gut. It is found in Jesus. He earned fully for you by His suffering and death. He proclaims it openly by His physical resurrection. Ascended to rule heaven and earth as our King - He applies it to you within His Church. He pours it upon you in holy baptism, marking you with the sign of victory. He speaks it to you in forgiveness. He feeds it to you this day in the Lord’s supper. Listen, hear and believe. Salvation is won for us miserable sinners! His resurrection proof is irrefutable. Burial clothes are empty. Be like Abraham - the Holy Spirit teaches, “Romans 4:20-25 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, (21) and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. (22) And therefore "IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS." (23) Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, (24) but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, (25) who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.  III.  But I am a sinner. I have denied my Lord. I have sold him out for the passing pleasures of this world. The devil accuses me that I am damned and am his for I am an utter failure.
        Listen! (Vs.7-8) Why Peter? He had denied the Lord and was crushed with grief. He had to hear the good news that Jesus was risen for him! John records that our risen Jesus tells Mary Magdalene to tell “His brethren” He calls us His Brothers. Here is the comfort of His cross and empty tomb. Dr. Luther explained: In the Gospel of John, Christ tells Mary Magdalene of the benefit and use of his death and resurrection still more plainly, when he says: “But go unto my brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God.” John 20:17. This is one of the great and comforting passages upon which we can venture, and of which we dare boast. As if Christ had said: Go hence, Mary, and say to my disciples who have deserted me on the field of battle, and who have well merited punishment and eternal condemnation, that my resurrection has taken place for their benefit; that is, by my resurrection I have brought it to pass that my Father is their Father, and my God is their God. These are few words and very short; but they contain a great thought, namely, that we have as great a confidence and refuge in God as Christ his Son himself has. Who can grasp such exceeding joy, unless one speaks of himself when he says a poor, corrupt sinner can and may call God his Father and his God, just like Christ himself does?
     Vexilla Regis Fluitant!” “The banners of the King are waving.” FOR YOU! He is your Alpha and Omega! He has swallowed up death forever! The grave will not hold those baptized into His death and resurrection who die clinging to Him through Holy Spirit given resurrection faith. Confess your hope at the cemetery - Alleluia! Christ is risen! Amen.