Easter Sunrise Sermon: Face Your Sunrise with Hope (Mark 16:1-20)

Read this Easter Sunrise Sermon based on Mark 16:1-20 and learn how to face your sunrise with hope. Discover how God brings new life, trust, courage, love, and joy when we are in despair. Live your faith by sharing the compassion and love of God, do amazing things when motivated, and know that Jesus never gives up on us even when we fail.

Running head: EASTER SUNRISE SERMON
Easter Sunrise Sermon
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Easter Sunrise Sermon: Face Your Sunrise with Hope (Mark 16:1-20)
Introduction:
“When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and
Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him… Then the disciples went out
and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the
signs that accompanied it” (Mark 16:1-20)
The message of the God to us for Easter remains same year after year. With the Easter
morning around the corner let us not forget that God always brings new life when we are
surrounded with death, gives us trust and courage when we are afraid, showers his love when
there is indifference, brings joy when we are in grief and gives us hope when we are in
despair. The women in Mark 16, who came to the tomb of Jesus Christ after he was crucified
were not only grieving, but also were in a state of shock for seeing a young and lovable
person who they all adored being so violently executed. Even today there are so much of
grief around us and find ourselves or others close to us grieving and mourning for the demise
of our loved ones who lost their loves in acts of violence. We can therefore relate to how
those women felt while grieving for Jesus Christ. However on the morning of Easter, God
brought them hope as he would also do for us. We should therefore face the Easter Sunrise
with hope.
Discussion:
Mark 16 chronicles the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the day of Easter; it starts with
three grieving women, Mary Magdalene, Mary and Salome going to the tomb of Jesus Christ.
Upon reaching the tomb they realize the large stone guarding the entrance of the tomb was
removed and they saw a young man declaring the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that he

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shall appear before his disciples. Jesus them appears to Mary Magdalene, driving away seven
demons from her. He then appeared to all the people morning his death and finally appearing
to the Eleven, instructing to spread the word of God after criticizing them for not being able
to belief in him and questioning his teachings. He promised miracles such as driving away
demons, surviving deadly poisons, heal the sick people can happen in his name and made the
Eleven his disciples. After this he went to heaven and his disciples preached his love and
compassion across the world and spreading his word.
This story teaches us three important things: firstly we live our faith by sharing the
compassion and love of god, secondly, when given the right motivation we can do amazing
things beyond our own imagination and thirdly even when we have failed, Jesus still sees
well in us and gives us the opportunity of redemption and he still loves us.
We live our faith by sharing the compassion and love of God:
“He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15)
God’s message to his disciples was very clear and simple one “spreading the gospel of
God” everywhere. But the gospel of the God is message of his love and compassion towards
all beings. The gospel tells us how much the God loves us despite our failures, inadequacies
and our mistakes and is compassionate enough to forgive us of our sins and mistakes and in
the end he comes to take us and relieve us from the bondage of life and death, ushering us to
the eternal bliss.
“Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb
and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled
away” (Mark 16:2-4)

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When the women reach the tomb of Jesus Christ, they were not only mourning the
death of Christ, but they were also worried about how they can manage to remove the huge
rock that guarded the entrance to the tomb. However, when they reached the tomb, they
realized that the rock was rolled away and the entrance to the tomb was cleared. Thus God
already took care of that problem which the women were worried about. Often in our lives
we spend a lot of time worrying about different things in our day to day lives. Often we also
worry about things that never actually happen or things we never have to face. This is the
work of the God, who went ahead of us and cleared our path, found us a path or moved that
‘bog stone’ that we often worry blocking our way as it did for those women. This is an
important Easter message of the God we must always remember but often overlook due to the
news of resurrection of Christ. Instead of being worried, stressed and anxious about how we
can roll away that stone which are too big and immovable by our abilities, we should instead
trust on Gods compassion and that he is there to move that rock from our path. The women
were also driven by love and compassion when they were on their way to the tomb, to anoint
the body of Christ, hoping to give him a fair farewell. This love and devotion to the son of
God was not unnoticed by God who helped the women by removing the rock they were
worried about. Thus when we are on the right path, God always comes to us to help us out,
beings us hope when we are in despair.
We can do amazing things when we are motivated:
“Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be
condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive
out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and

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when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick
people, and they will get well.” (mark 16:16-18)
God motivates us with the promise of salvation through Baptism. In the name of
Jesus, the disciples could do miracles as Jesus did himself; this was what we gained from his
death, immense abilities when we remember the grace of God and his son, Jesus Christ. This
is an important message to us that we have the ability to do miracles if our hearts are in the
right place and our intentions are pure. When we keep the words of Christ in our heart and in
our thoughts, we have the blessing of the God and that blessing can enable us to do amazing
things which we might not be able to imagine.
I remember once watching news about a Colorado mom saving her 5 year old son
from the mouth of a mountain lion. The lion attacked the child and his brother in the yard and
after hearing her children cry for help, the woman’s instincts clicks in and she grabbed the
paw of the mountain lion and put her right hand in its mouth in order to pry it open and help
the boy to escape. She was able to save her child, against all odds, fighting with an apex
predator, which is beyond the physical ability of any human being. Thus with the motivation
to save her children, she achieved the impossible. We too can do amazing things when we
have the right motivation to do so.
Jesus does not give up on us even when we fail:
“Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of
faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen” (Mark
16:14)
Even when the Eleven failed to trust Jesus Christ and his message, acting as his
critics, Jesus did not lose hope on them. He appeared to the Eleven, first rebuking them for

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their lack of faith and refusal of his teaching and then showing them that he still trusted them
to carry his teachings across the world to ‘all his creation’. Thus Jesus entrusted the eleven
with the biggest responsibility, spreading his Gospel and showing people the true light to
salvation as Jesus did, thereby carrying and continuing his legacy. By forgiving us of our
sins, God gives us the second chance to redeem ourselves, so that even after we have sinned
and realized our mistake, we can get back to God and get his blessings.
“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” (Mark 16:7)
Even after Peter did wrong to Christ and sinned, his name was specifically mentioned
to show that he has been forgiven by Christ and by God and he has been given the second
chance to be his disciple and spread his word, his Gospel. This shows clearly that we all can
be forgiven for our mistakes and be given a second opportunity to life, so that when we look
towards a new morning at the Easter’s Day, we do so with hope and knowing that the God
loves us and is compassionate for us. We need to keep trusting on God and his word and
continue moving ahead in our lives. The verse not only promises us forgiveness but also a
new beginning, which we earn by looking for forgiveness. Thus his forgiveness is the greatest
prove of the love of God towards us.
Conclusion:
Mark 16, we see that God will always be there for us when we need him, and in the
name of Jesus Christ we can achieve incredible feats if we have the right motivation towards
it. We all have a chance for a new beginning and redeeming our mistakes and even after
death we have a chance of a new life with God. We can live our faith by admitting the
presence of God in our actions and thoughts and by spreading his work to everyone, and
doing so, we can earn his blessing and forgiveness. So in the new morning of the Easter, let

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us remember that there is always hope and there if the possibility of a new beginning, and in
our times of darkness and despair, when we grieve the loss of a near and dear one, when we
are face to face with an obstacle which we don’t think we can overcome, God always comes
to the rescue, bringing us peace, removing our obstacles and showing light on our way, so
that there always is hope for us. So let us not look at the new morning feeling the burden our
lives but with a sense of hope that God will help us to carry our burden and solve our
problems.

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