Sunday Worship Service (Easter) April 20, 2025

Prelude
Call to Worship Psalm Psalm 18:6 (NIV)
Hymn JBC# 232
　Christ the Lord Is Risen Today
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 230 (hymn of the month)
On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross
Offering
Special Hymn
Scripture Mark 16:1～38
Prayer
Sermon “The Fear of the Women”
Hymn JBC # 241
　　　 The day of resurrection!
Doxology JBC # 674
Benediction
Postlude
Welcome and Announcements


Today is the Easter Worship Service.
At Easter, we remember that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, the resurrection of Christ, and we commemorate and celebrate the resurrection of Christ.
Today’s Bible passage for the Easter worship is from the New Testament, ‘the Gospel according to Mark”, chapter 16, verses 1 to 8—the final chapter of the Gospel of Mark. Let us listen together to the Word of God concerning the resurrection of Christ.
That day was after the Sabbath had ended. The Sabbath was Saturday.

The Sabbath was established by God's command to the Israelites: “You shall work for six days, and on the seventh day of the week (Saturday), you shall rest from all your work. The seventh day is to be kept holy.”
　　At the end of that Sabbath, today's passage describes that three women, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went to the tomb where Jesus was buried.
　These women have been waiting for the Sabbath to end for a long time. Why? They were going to anoint the body of Jesus (put oil on him), who was dead and buried in the tomb.
　They sincerely wanted to clean Jesus' body by anointing it with oil (it is like perfume oil, very expensive perfume).
at day was early in the morning on the day after Saturday, the Sabbath, i.e. it was early Sunday morning.
Jesus died on the cross on Friday, so that day in today's passage was already the third day since Jesus died and was buried.
　Why would these women want to go anoint Jesus' body with oil on the third day of his death?

This is because when Jesus died on Friday, the Sabbath was approaching and Jesus' body was buried very quickly, making it impossible to give him a proper and careful burial.
On the Sabbath, no work of any kind was allowed, not even the burial of a dead body.
　Therefore, when the Sabbath was over and the women in today's passage were allowed to work, they immediately went to the tomb where Jesus was buried.

They wanted to wipe Jesus' body with expensive oil, something they could not do two days earlier.
There, it took great courage for the women to go and anoint the body of Jesus.
Jesus was executed on the cross as one who had blasphemed by calling himself God and as one who had rebelled against the authority of the Roman Empire by calling himself king.
The Bible tells us that when Jesus Christ was caught, all of his disciples (males) abandoned Him and ran away. They were afraid and ran away.
Peter, who was Jesus’ first disciple, denied Him clearly and firmly—even three times—when someone said, “You were with that man (Jesus), weren’t you?” He replied, “I do not know such a man.”
　Even after Jesus was buried, Peter and the other disciples were afraid and kept to themselves in house.
As written in John 20:19 : “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews...”

But while the male disciples were in such a state of fear, the women in today's passage went to Jesus' tomb.
　The male disciples, those who had served most closely with Jesus, had all fled.
However, it is very significant that women, who were considered inferior to men and even discriminated against in the Jewish society of the time, took such a courageous step, rushing to Jesus' tomb.
　It means that women, who were considered lowly in human society, were valued by the Lord God and chosen to be the first to hear the news of the Lord's resurrection.
　The Lord God takes notice of those who are made weak and small, and it is precisely such people that God makes great use of.
However, the women who wished to lovingly anoint the Lord’s body with perfume and give Him a proper burial had one big problem.
　It was a large, heavy stone was blocking the entrance to the tomb.

At that time, Jewish tombs were generally shaped like caves hollowed out of rock. The entrance to the tomb was then blocked with a heavy stone once the body was placed.
On the way to the tomb, the three women, including Mary, were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone from the entrance of the tomb for us?”
They could never move the heavy stone on their own. And they didn’t even know, “Who will help us?”

But when they lifted their eyes, they saw that the stone had already been rolled to the side. (Verse 4)
The first thing today’s passage tells us is this: the event of Jesus’ resurrection first declares to us that “nothing is impossible with God."
　There is nothing that God cannot do. It means that when we are motivated by faith and take a step forward, there is nothing that can hinder us.
　I am sure that there are some people among us now who are holding anxious feeling due to various situations and concerns.
Are there any among you who carry anxieties like the saying, “Who will roll away that heavy stone?”
Are there some who feel worried, anxious, and helpless, thinking, “I can’t do it on my own anymore. Who will help me?”

To those of us carrying such anxieties, the Bible tells us: “Do not worry.”
Nothing is impossible for the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing is impossible for God the Heavenly Father who resurrected Christ.
The event of the Easter tells us again and again that we are all right because we have the power of Christ, who overcame even death. Let us believe in that powerful news.
　When the women entered the tomb, they found a young man sitting there, dressed in a white robe. The young man is believed to have been an angel, a messenger of God.

The young man said like this. Let me read you verses 6 to 7.

6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

The Lord Jesus Christ has risen.
The Lord rose from the dead, overturning the common belief that “the dead remain in the tomb,” and even overturning the expectations of the women who had come thinking, “Let us anoint the one who has died.”
All the male disciples who had been Jesus' direct disciples had abandoned him and fled.
The courage of the women who went to Jesus' tomb amidst the fear that they might be caught if it became known that they were related to Jesus, such courage was remarkable.
Yet these women were still acting within the bounds of human common sense. To them, Jesus was already dead.
So, the women wished to give Jesus a final burial.

I believe they were prepared to make the decision: “Let us accept that Jesus is gone, and from now on, we will live on without Him.”
But Jesus was resurrected. Jesus did not remain in the grave. His resurrection is a divinely ordained (God decided) event and the greatest event of hope we can have.
　Jesus died on the cross for the sins of men and for our sins. Since Jesus died for us, it is also each of us today who put Him to death.
　It is a very tough and painful thing to accept, but very important for the Christian faith.
　Later, Peter, empowered by the Holy Spirit after Jesus' death and after His resurrection and ascension, told the people the following

God delivered this Jesus to you according to His predestined plan, knowing it beforehand, but you, with the help of those who did not know the law, crucified Him and killed Him.
But God delivered this Jesus from the agony of death and resurrected him. For it was impossible for Jesus to remain in the grip of death.
(Acts 2:23-24)

　The forces of evil wanted to keep Jesus Christ dead. And our human’s feeling of resignation, or our common sense, will try to keep Him dead.
　Our common sense may first respond, “How can a dead person come back to life?” or “Where is the hope in such an insane story?
Even without such a negative thought, people may wish “Jesus certainly did many wonderful works while he was alive, but he died. So, we should accept the fact that Christ died and live the rest of our lives on our own,”.
But God's plan was not so. Jesus rose from the dead and went ahead of his disciples to Galilee, where he would await them.
The Lord has risen. He still goes before us, and He still walks and lives with us.
Therefore, let us not leave Jesus just like an ordinary human being, already dead, but let us follow Christ, believing in that truth that the Bible tells us that Jesus was resurrected and that the Lord is risen.

Just as the Lord said to the women, “Now go,” so now we, too, are being sent to the path He says, “Go,” by encountering the resurrected Lord, Let us go to that path.
　But when we look at today's last verse, verse 8, the women have left the tomb and fled.
What these women witnessed was so shocking, far beyond anything they had ever experienced before, that they were filled with great fear.
　It is written that these women were too frightened to say anything to anyone.
　I believe, however, that these women eventually overcame their fears through the power of the love of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, and they told the disciples and others about His resurrection.
　And I believe that their fear was later transformed into great joy and hope for faith.
　When we encounter the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, we are urged to begin a new way of life, a new path, different from the one we had before.

The road ahead is not clear nor can we look it through, and at first we may feel uneasy. We may still anxious about many things like “what will happen now? Who will help us?
　But we don't have to worry. Because the Lord has risen. Nothing in this world can keep us completely frustrated, anxious, and in despair.
For the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and the resurrected Christ is with us today. And Christ is going ahead of us.
　Let us walk the path which the resurrected Lord goes, the path of faith, along with the resurrected Lord.