Gospel: The Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Mark 8:31)

[Stephan Choe]

February 3, 2025

Mark 8:31:      “Jesus began to teach his disciples: ‘The Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day rise again.

Jesus is the Son of God and Christ the Savior.

Jesus had two main purposes for coming to this earth. That is, to reveal God and save people from sin and death.

The Gospel of Mark can be roughly divided into two parts.

The first part is from chapter 1 verse 1 to chapter 8 verse 26, and in the first part, Jesus showed through his teachings and actions that he is the Son of God, that is, God incarnate. The second part, from 8:27 to 16:20, records Jesus going to Jerusalem, dying on the cross, and being resurrected.

Verses 8:27-33 are the turning point from the first part to the second part.

In this short section, Mark relates Jesus' foreshadowing of his death and resurrection before beginning his journey to Jerusalem.

The death and resurrection of Jesus are the core of the Christian faith.

Today, we will learn more about the meaning of Jesus' death and resurrection.

Before Jesus began his journey to Jerusalem, he told his disciples what would happen in Jerusalem, as shown in verse 31:

“And he began to teach his disciples: The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day rise again.”

Therefore, we want to learn about the meaning of Jesus' death and resurrection.

Gospel

The death and resurrection of Jesus are major themes in the Bible. This is called the Gospel or Good News.

The meaning of this message can be seen in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

This Good News is that God loved us humans so much that He sent His Son into this world, and that Jesus was put to death and resurrected to take our sins. Therefore, by believing in Jesus, we can receive forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and be resurrected after our physical death.

The gospel is “the message of the kingdom of God given to us humans through Jesus Christ.” This is good news for everyone.

Before Jesus Christ came, the darkness of sin and death dominated people. Jesus Christ freed people from this darkness and made them live in the bright light of life. Here the power of sin and death retreats. In this kingdom, Jesus Christ reigns over us with eternal life and fills our hearts with love and grace.

Jesus brought us under the rule of God who loves us. This is salvation from death to eternal life. We are liberated! We have received God's forgiveness, eternal life, and the Holy Spirit. We have received the kingdom of God as a gift.

How did Jesus Christ bring us this salvation?

The apostle Paul explained it:

. “For I delivered to you first of all what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). 

Jesus’ death and resurrection occurred “according to the Scriptures.” This means that God had already planned it long time ago and was putting it into action.

God had already said at the time of Adam's fall, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your descendants and her descendant. She will bruise your head, and you will bruise her heel" (Genesis 3:15). This is called the First Gospel. 

The serpent, or Satan, bit Christ's heel and wounded him, but Christ struck Satan on the head and destroyed him forever. Satan killed Jesus and imprisoned him in a tomb for three days, but God destroyed the devil by raising Jesus from the dead.

We cannot look into other people's hearts. That's why we judge other people based on their actions or words. That is why people who keep the law appear righteous in our eyes, even if they do not do so from the heart. In contrast, God knows not only a person's actions and his word, but also his thoughts and feelings, and judges them accurately. We have sinned through our actions. We have sinned even with our mouths. We also sin in our hearts with our thoughts and emotions. God knows all our lies and hypocrisy.

We can see self-centeredness as the core of sin. Before the Fall, Adam and Eve enjoyed eternal happiness under God's rule. They were God-centered. They were very grateful for God's rule. Then Satan tempted the couple to become like God. In order to do that, he said that Adam and Eve must not acknowledge God as their master, but must act as their master. Adam and Eve gave up their God-centered attitude and adopted a self-centered attitude. With this egocentric attitude, they lost all their blessings and brought upon themselves guilt, curse, and death.

Since the fall of Adam, all people have been born with a self-centered attitude toward life. Everyone thinks that he is the master of his own life. People think this attitude is to their advantage. But this is a rejection of God and His rule. This is the fundamental sin of man. That is why all people have become great sinners and have lost the path to eternal life. This is a sobering reality for everyone. Mentioning this reality feels offensive to everyone. But the Bible addresses this basic issue. Sin is a serious problem for all humans. Because of sin, we humans have lost eternal life and paradise.

To experience salvation, we must first take our sin problem seriously. Is there anyone who doesn't find it painful to realize their sinfulness? But this is healing pain.

To solve this sin problem we need a scapegoat. Jesus Christ became the sacrificial lamb for us. He hung on the cross, bearing all the sins of mankind.

So John the Baptist said of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

Jesus completely erased your sins and mine through his death on the cross. Thanks to Jesus' death on the cross, today is a great day of atonement for us. There is no more condemnation for us who believe in Jesus Christ.

Romans 8:1 says, “Therefore there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” We can be assured of forgiveness of our sins.

Jesus' death also heals the wounds within us and gives us a healed heart. We easily get hurt inside. But Jesus' sacrificial death heals us inside again and again and gives us a healthy and joyful heart.

Scapegoat

Jews have a Day of Atonement.

According to the Old Testament, on the Day of Atonement a goat is chosen as the sacrificial lamb (Leviticus 16:10). The high priest places his hands on the goat's head and pronounces on it all the sins of the people. He blames all the people's sins on the goat and sends the animal into the desert. A goat died there in place of sinners.

Jesus Christ is our sacrificial lamb. Jesus was crucified by the devil's trick, but God used his death as a sacrifice for our sins.

Why was Jesus willing to die in Jerusalem?

Because God loved us so much that He wanted to save us. So God came to the world as a person named Jesus, died for our sins, and was resurrected. In this way, everyone who confesses their sins and believes in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Christ can receive forgiveness of sins and become a child of God. Therefore, we are freed from the curse of hell, are resurrected after physical death, and enter heaven. This is amazing.

Resurrection

Jesus Christ died on the cross on Good Friday. After Jesus died, he was buried in a tomb and stayed in the tomb for three days. But on the third day, He was resurrected.

Death was actually a punishment for sin. Adam sinned and had to die. Sin is like a kidnapper. Sin kidnapped people from paradise. Sin was able to make people continue to sin with the weapon of death. However, through his resurrection, Jesus broke the power of death and freed people from the power of sin. He takes people back to paradise.

Psalm 90:12 reads, “Teach us to remember that we must die to become wise.”

This is true. A person who realizes that he must die sooner or later will become wiser and will not cling to worldly things as if he could possess them forever. He will prepare himself well for the resurrection.

How can we prepare for resurrection? - This is possible by accepting forgiveness in Jesus Christ and accepting forgiveness of sins and eternal life through faith in Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection. A person who has already received forgiveness of sins and eternal life through faith can die with joy at any time without being surprised. For him, physical death is a brief sleep for resurrection. For us, physical death is a journey to heaven.

So on his last evening, Jesus prayed to God with his disciples: “Father, for you loved me before the foundation of the world; let those you have given me be with me where I am and see my glory, which you have given me.”

The resurrection of Christ is truly good news. He loved us so much that he sacrificed his life for us. And He rose from the dead and gave resurrection to all of us who believe in Him.

So we too will be resurrected and enter heaven. We will see Him face to face. We will meet all the saints again and praise God together. So the resurrection of Christ is incredibly good news. This news brings us infinite joy. This news frees us from the fear of death and gives us deep peace of mind. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me” (Psalm 23:4).

Even in the midst of pain, this message gives us comfort and confidence. So we can say, “I am convinced that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

The news of Jesus' sacrificial death and resurrection brings us a joy that is incomparable to all the joy in the world. This good news opens our hearts to God and makes us realize God’s love. This beautiful news gives everyone new life as children of God. This news gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit. This message is the power of God.

Each of us must accept the message of Christ's resurrection in our hearts and enjoy the joy of heaven. We must make our communities joyful and vibrant with this good news. We must spread this message to the world so that the people of the world can rejoice.

Some of you may be asking, “How can I experience joy? He may be asking, “Honestly, I don’t have much joy about Christ’s resurrection right now. What should I do?”

He should pray for God to help him experience the great joy of Christ’s resurrection through the Holy Spirit. He must receive the message of Christ's resurrection anew with an open heart.

We must accept resurrection and heaven with faith. Then we can receive God's love and the hope of resurrection and experience great joy. Our God is faithful and willing to hear our petitions.

Grace

Forgiveness of sin and future resurrection are God's gifts to us.

We were actually unworthy to receive His forgiveness, His Holy Spirit, and become children of God. Because we were enemies with God. But God punished Jesus on our behalf so that we could freely receive forgiveness and new life as children of God. That is why each of us can say, “By the grace of God, I have become a child of God.”

Do you have any coins? Every coin has two sides. One side of the coin features images such as the German Federal Eagle or the Brandenburg Gate. The other side has the coin's value written on it.

The gospel is like a coin: on one side is Christ's atoning death and resurrection as good news. And on the other side, God's grace and love for us are declared.

As John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life,” Jesus’ death and resurrection are God’s grace and love for us. I declare.

And through this grace we receive forgiveness, eternal life, resurrection, and heaven as free gifts, because the Lord loves us and gives us all as gifts.

Grace is what distinguishes the Christian faith from all other religions. Almost all religions claim that people must earn enough points through their good deed to be accepted by God and enter heaven. Therefore, this kind of religion is a “doing religion” or a “legal religion.” Unfortunately, there is not a single person in this world who is good enough to enter heaven through their own actions.

God saw that people were not getting into heaven because they did not earn enough points for their actions. However, God loved us humans so much that He wanted to save us somehow. And found a way to help us. He wanted to receive us as true children of God. He gave us his Son Jesus. This Jesus died on the cross for our sins and was resurrected.

Everyone who believes in Jesus as the Son of God and the Christ who died for their sins and was resurrected is recognized by God as a child of God. They have eternal life and will be resurrected and enter heaven. Not by our own merits, but by the grace of God.

Christians are never perfect or sinless. We admit that we are weak. We continually acknowledge our weakness and accept God's grace again and again. We praise God for his grace. Unbelievers boast about themselves and gossip about others.

But honest Christians praise God. They love others out of heart and value them highly. They tell others about God’s grace. God's love encourages them to tell others about God's grace.

Let us pray that God's grace may fully fill our hearts and churches by renewing our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Let us pray to God so that we can receive and give abundantly the power of grace through the gospel.

Let us pray that God will give us a firm faith in the gospel and the fire of the Holy Spirit. Let us pray without ceasing that God will fill us, our church, and other churches with His grace and the Holy Spirit, so that we can love and worship Him with all our hearts. Let us pray that God will fill our church and other churches with the Holy Spirit so that we can spread the gospel with the power of God.