Class Notes: 4/4/2021

Resurrection Sunday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVNINA67CSE&feature=youtu.be

This year the events that led to Jesus' resurrection correspond to their original timeline so we went back to our study of Mark to see them as Mark recorded them.

Last class we saw in Mark 14:1; that in the year Jesus was crucified, the Passover was on a Wednesday so according to way the Jews count days from sundown to sundown, the Passover started at sundown on Tuesday and went to sundown on Wednesday.

Today we pick up where we left off last time at the second trial that Mark describes. It is an official court session where the high priest must be present and the Sanhedrin would act as the supreme court. They are fully assembled for this purpose in Mark 14:53;

Mark 14:55; This was a kangaroo court because they had already decided He was guilty. They know they have nothing against Jesus but under their law they must find two witnesses who will agree and take their testimony separately but that was impossible.

According to Jewish law this kangaroo court trial was conducted in an illegal manner.

It was held at night which was contrary to Jewish law, all trials must be held in the daytime.

There was no council for the defense.

There was illegal procedure in the courtroom. In attempting to procure an indictment they deliberately seek false witnesses and they deliberately encourage perjury.

The judge attempted to get the accused to incriminate Himself.

The judge and the jury were prejudiced.

There was violence in the courtroom.

They pass sentence without a proper indictment or a legal trial.

Mark 14:66-72; It was during this court session that Peter denied Jesus three times just as Jesus had prophesied that he would do during the Lord's Supper the previous evening. Mark 14:30;

Some points regarding Peter's denial of Jesus.
Peter was saved when he denied Jesus.
Peter did not lose his salvation when he denied Jesus.
Peter was disciplined as a child of God.

Peter did rebound. John 21:15-17;
If Peter had died right after his denial he still would have gone to heaven based on the work of Jesus Christ, not on the faithfulness of Peter. 2Tim 2:13;

Rebound (1 John 1:9) gives the believer the opportunity to continue serving God in their physical body on this earth in the devil's world.

Peter had failed but he was still alive. If you are still alive after all the smoke clears then God still has a plan for your life. God's plan for your life continues as long as you are still alive in the devil's world.

Mark 15:1; This is Wednesday morning the day of the Passover that is the preparation day for the Passover seder that will be held in that evening and the First Day of Unleavened Bread. Lev 23:5-6;

The Sanhedrin's verdict was guilty of death (Mark 14:64). The Sanhedrin could pronounce a death sentence but it could not exercise capital punishment. So a prisoner who was sentenced to death had to be turned over to the Roman authorities for the execution to occur.

The Roman governor could either ratify or rescind the Sanhedrin's death sentence. If rescinded, a new trial had to be conducted before a Roman court and the Sanhedrin had to prove that the defendant had committed a capital crime under Roman law.

Since the charge of blasphemy (Mark 14:64) was not punishable by Roman law so it was not mentioned in the Roman trial. Instead the Sanhedrin substituted a charge of treason, turning Jesus' acknowledgment that He was the Messiah into a political claim that He was the King of the Jews.

If this was the case the Romans would consider it as treason (Mark 15:2) so the Roman court could not ignore the charge.

Mark 15:2; Jesus' trial before Pilate is the first court and judge that Jesus comes to where there is no prejudice from arrogant subjectivity.

Pilate questions Him asking, "Are you the King of the Jews?" And Jesus said unto him, "It is as you say," an idiom for and affirmative answer.

Jesus had to answer this question. There was no way he could get around it because He is the King of the Jews. He is the King of the Jews because He is God, and as God He is the root of Israel.

As God, Jesus Christ, is the founder of the Jewish race; and through His physical birth Jesus Christ was born directly in the line of David so He is the son of David.

In both cases Jesus Christ is the King of the Jews and no one has a greater right to the throne than He has so He could not answer otherwise.

Mark 15:3-4; This passage indicates the fact that in the first three trials Jesus Christ would not speak up or say anything to the Jewish mob bosses because for three years He had presented the evidence of His Messiahship that these religious leaders had completely and totally rejected.

So when the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees quiz Him along this line He does not answer them. He does not dignify their questions with an answer. They already have more information than they need because for three years they have seen Him fulfill the accreditation of the Messiah as recorded in the prophets.

From the time He turned away and walked out on religion at the end of the temple discourse that was it. Jesus Christ will have nothing to do with religion. He would not speak to them. They are in His presence but you can be in the presence of someone and be separated from them. He will not answer them because the only purpose of their questioning is to advance their evil agenda.

But Pilate has an open mind. He is Roman and under Roman law he has been thoroughly trained in observation and in interrogation. Therefore his interrogation is legitimate and Jesus recognizes that and answers him in the affirmative.

Religion does not deserve an answer because religion has constantly had answers and Jesus has now separated Himself from religion. But Pilate is an unprejudiced judge so he receives an answer.

The Roman procedure was for the accusers to speak first. The chief priests were standing up and declaring that He was guilty, that He claimed to be King of the Jews, and so on.

They were carried away with this thing and they constantly stood up and said derogatory things about Him but Jesus would not answer them.

His lack of response caused Pilate to be amazed. He was constantly amazed at the tremendous poise of the Lord Jesus Christ. The religious leaders have already condemned Him, they wanted Him dead and even though Jesus was forced to be in their presence He was mentally separated from them.

The point is that separation is not only physical it is also mental. In this particular case we have a clear demonstration of mental separation. Jesus Christ would not speak to the religious mob bosses at all period!!!!

He knew that they had already rejected Him. At this point It was not His job to change their mind. The only thing left for them was God's judgment to be executed on them for their negative volition.

Mark 15:14-15; Even though Pilate believed Jesus was innocent, like most politicians he was weak because he was trying to be popular by pleasing the people aka the mob.

Proper Roman procedure would have been to say, "I find this man innocent and he now has Caesar's protection and any man who tries to touch Him will suffer the consequences." In other words, He is under the protection of the Roman army.

Rather than standing for truth and justice and calling for the Roman soldiers to drive the mob out Pilate chose to placate mob with political expedience so he had Jesus beaten and sentenced Him to death by crucifixion.

Mark 15:20-21; After beating Him they led Him out to crucify Him. Even though in His humanity He is the strongest person who ever lived, by now because of the beatings He has experienced in the last 12 hours He was so weak that He could not carry the 100 pound crossbeam on which He would be crucified to the site of the crucifixion.

As they moved along the Roman soldiers and the crowd formed a procession through the streets of Jerusalem. When the centurion noticed that Jesus was staggering and could not carry the cross a Jew from Cyrene is compelled to carry the cross.

Simon was a North African Jew who had come to Jerusalem to observe the holy days, beginning with the Passover, The days of Unleavened Bread and terminating with the Feast of Pentecost.

He was standing in the crowd minding his own business watching and suddenly he is part of it because the Roman centurion commandeers him to assist Jesus with carrying the crossbeam to the place of His crucifixion.

Mark 15:22,25 Jesus was crucified at Golgotha that is an Aramaic word that means "skull" at the third hour. (9AM)

Golgotha was a barren hill that had been razed of all vegetation so that it looked something like a skull so it was called the skull.

The word "Calvary" comes from the Latin translation Calvaria, a variation of calva that also means "skull." An excellent name for it because it is what the place of death looked like.

During these first 3 hours He was constantly mocked and ridiculed by the bystanders.

Mark 15:33; At the 6th hour darkness covered the whole land until the 9th hour. This was from 12 noon to 3PM.

God is going to make sure no one is going to see His Son being judged for the sins of the world. They can see His humiliation from men but no man is going to see His humiliation from God while He was bearing our sins.

During the period of darkness from twelve noon until three o'clock in the afternoon Jesus was judged for every sin that would ever be committed by the human race.

Mark 15:37; When he made His last exhale with at loud cry the Temple veil was torn in two from top to bottom.

"Loud cry" means to scream, and this bears out the prophecy in Psalm 22:1, "saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" "Eloi" is Aramaic. The translation is" My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"

The first vocative, "My God," is addressed to God the Father; the second one is addressed to God the Holy Spirit. This is because when Christ died on the cross and bore the judgment for the sins of the world He suffered forensic spiritual death for three hours as God was judging Him for the sins of the world.

Spiritual death is separation from God. Gen 2:17;"Dying you will surely die." is translated from "muwth muwth" in the Hebrew The word death occurs twice. "muwth muwth" The first refers to spiritual death, second refers to physical death.

Spiritual death inevitably results in physical death. The wages of sin is (spiritual) death. When Adam sinned he immediately died spiritually but it was another 930 years before he died physically. Gen 5:5;

The Hebrew of Isa 53:9; tells us that Christ died twice on the cross. His spiritual death provided our eternal salvation. The Father forsook Jesus Christ on the cross because he was experiencing spiritual death and God cannot look upon sin.

Once His spiritual work was complete He had no reason to remain on this planet so He exhaled and did not inhale. This was His physical death and he would be resurrected body, soul and spirit 3 days and 3 nights or at least 72 hours but not more than 78 hours later.

Mark 15:38; The veil of the temple had 72 twisted braids with 24 threads in each braid. It was 60 feet high and 30 feet wide. A human could not tear it. It was torn in half from the "top to the bottom" while it was hanging there so God tore the curtain.

This veil separated the holy place from the holy of holies and God's tearing it indicates that the Jewish Age is coming to an end and that the way into the holy of holies is now open to anyone. This is the "whoever" of the Church Age. John 3:16;

Mark 15:42-46; By this time it was evening on the preparation day (Wednesday) for the First Day of Unleavened Bread (Thursday) so Joseph of Arimathea requested Jesus body from Pilate.

Once the Centurion confirmed to Pilate that Jesus was dead he gave the body to Joseph and he placed it into his newly hewn tomb and had a large round stone rolled down hill to block access to the entrance to the tomb.

The Greek word translated "stone" is "lithos" that refers to a large stone or a millstone. It was a large round cut stone that was like a millstone that was rolled down hill into position in front of the entrance to the tomb.

Mark 16:1; The Greek says, "After the Sabbath." because according to Jewish time a day was from sundown to sundown. Jesus could have arisen any time after sundown on Saturday "because the Sabbath" ended at sundown Saturday evening.

However another specification arises from the way the Romans counted time and 1Cor 15:4; states that "Christ rose on the third day." According to Roman time the third day was from midnight Friday to midnight Saturday.

This means that Jesus could have risen any time after sundown on Saturday according to Jewish time but for Him to rise on the third day according to Roman time Jesus had to rise before midnight Saturday night.

Jesus was therefore resurrected sometime between sundown and midnight on Saturday night so Sunday morning He was already resurrected. This resurrection is celebrated in Jewish ritual as the wave sheaf offering described in Lev 23:9-15;

Mark 16:2; The women arrived at the tomb "very early on the first day of the week." They came as soon as there was sufficient pre-dawn sunlight for them to walk there.

This was their first opportunity to go to the tomb because of the series of Jewish Sabbaths and preparation days that had occurred that week. They didn't know it but they arrived several hours after the resurrection but they had decided the night before they would be at the tomb as early as possible.

Mark 16:3; Their main concern was how they were going to roll back the millstone that blocked the entrance to the tomb. The word translated "were saying" is the imperfect active indicative of the Greek word lego that means "kept on saying." to each other "Who will roll away the stone from the entrance to the tomb for us?"

This was their major concern because the stone was so large and heavy that they knew that they would not be able to move it by themselves.

Mark 16:4; But when they arrived they saw that it had already been rolled away even though it was very large.

Matthew tells us how the stone was rolled back Matt 28:2; An angel rolled back the stone in order to let people in. Jesus had been out of the tomb for some time but He didn't have to go through an opening.

His resurrection body was able to pass directly through the stone and that is exactly what He had done. He left the tomb by walking through the stone sometime between sundown and midnight.

After rolling back the stone the angel was sitting on it waiting for the women to get there. The word translated "sat upon it" is the third person imperfect middle indicative of "kathemai" that means he "kept on sitting" on it while he waited for them to arrive.

Mark 16:5; Matt 28:3; His appearance kept on being like lightning and His clothes were white as snow and they were amazed.

The Greek word translated "amazed" in the NASB is "ekthambeo" that means to be greatly afraid or terrified.

Matt 28:4; The guards were so terrified that they shook and fainted from fear.

Mark 16:6; And the angel said to them stop being terrified; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene who has been crucified. He has risen, He is not here, look there is the place where they laid Him.

Mark 16:7-8; Net note 9

Mark 16:9; Early on the first day of the week, after he arose, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had driven out seven demons.

Mark 16:12; After that He appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking along on their way to the country (to Emmaus). Luke 24:13;

Mark 16:14; Then he appeared to the eleven themselves, while they were eating, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen him resurrected.

The following events validate the resurrection:

1. The empty tomb.

2. The conviction and tenacity of the witnesses. Those who witnessed to His resurrection were those who knew Him best so they could not be deceived. In addition they chose to die rather than recant.

3. The change in the disciples after the resurrection. After the cross the disciples were despondent and frightened; after the resurrection they were fearless and happy.

4. On the day of Pentecost. Peter's sermon that was the first sermon preached in the Church Age was taken from Psalm 16. Subject: resurrection.

5. The historical existence of the Church depends upon resurrection. Christ is the Head of the Church. To Head of the Church He must be alive.

What does God's Word tell us about the nature of the resurrection body?

1. The resurrection body retained the nail prints in the hands and in the feet. We know this prophetically from Psalm 22:16; Zechariah 12:10; historically from John 20:25-29.

Thomas recognized Jesus because of the scars in His hands and the scar from the wound in His side.

2. Jesus' disciples recognized Him in His resurrection body. There were seventeen appearances of Christ after His resurrection. This means that taking on a resurrection body does not destroy one's ability to visually identity the person.

3. Jesus could eat in His resurrection body, Luke 24:42,43, but He didn't need to.

4. Christ's resurrection body had substance. It could be seen, touched and felt. Matt 28:9; Luke 24:39; John 20:17;

5. Christ's resurrection body could breathe, but He didn't necessarily need to. John 20:22;

6. His resurrection body possessed flesh and bones. Luke 24:39, 40;

7. His resurrection body could walk through closed doors. Luke 24:36; John 20:19;

8. The resurrection body was able to be cloaked. Luke 24:16;

9. The resurrection body of Christ could move vertically or horizontally. Matt 28:10; Acts 1:9,10;

And when we see Him we will be Like He is. 1John 3:2-3; that is our
confident expectation. 1Cor 15:51-58;

v51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,
v52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

v53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
v54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory.

v55 "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"
v56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;

v57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
v58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

Happy Resurrection Day



© Copyright 2024, Michael Lemmon Bible Ministries. World Rights Reserved.