A New Era
Notes
Transcript
Mark 16:14-18 ESV
14 Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. 15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Something about me that some of you may not know is that in many ways, I may be what you might call an “old soul”. In other words, many of the things that I like aren’t the things that people may age would normally like because many of the things that I like are things that were around before I was born. And one of those things that I like that make me an “old soul” are old TV shows.
In fact, I think my favorite TV show of all time is “Green Acres”. And one of my favorite characters on “Green Acres” was the county agent, Hank Kimball.
On the show, it was Mr. Kimball’s duty to visit all of the farms in the county and offer any kind of assistance that may be needed. But Mr. Kimball was so dense that he couldn’t provide any kind of real assistance to anyone in the Hooterville valley. In fact, all he seems to do is pester all of the farmers with his nonsense, especially Mr. Douglas, the main character of the show.
Well, in the episode titled “Kimball Gets Fired”, Mr. Douglas finds out that Mr. Kimball had, well, gotten fired by the county. Initially, Mr. Douglas thought that this would be a good thing as there might be a new county agent that knew what he was talking about and might offer some real assistance.
And Mr. Kimball’s replacement did indeed know what he was talking about, but he was so rude that Mr. Douglas and the other farmers longed to see Mr. Kimball rehired.
That’s when Mr. Douglas went to Mr. Kimball’s new boss, who right after behind hired, fired Mr. Kimball. When he asked his boss why he fired Mr. Kimball, he asked Mr. Douglas, “Haven’t you ever heard the saying, ‘a new broom sweeps clean?’” insinuating that there was a new boss and a new way of doing things, and that new way of doing things didn’t involve poor Mr. Kimball.
Now, I’ll give you a spoiler alert and let you know that by the end of the episode, Mr. Kimball had gotten his job back, but that expression that Mr. Kimball’s boss used, “A new broom sweeps clean” is what we will be focusing on throughout our Easter sermon this morning.
And the reason why is because of the importance of what takes place in our reading for this morning as Jesus our King makes the proclamation that His resurrection and subsequent ascension to heaven marks a new era, things will be different now, and the King gives His servants their marching orders.
As we open our reading for today, we look to the first half of verse fourteen, which says,
Mark 16:14a ESV
14a Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table,
So, we begin with the word “afterward”, which speaks of a chronological progression. What this signifies is that what follows in this particular verse takes place after what was spoken of before had taken place.
What was spoken of before is how Mary Magdalene and the women with her reported to the eleven apostles, the empty tomb, the visitation of the angels, and Magdalene’s personal encounter with the risen Jesus.
Also, what was spoken of before was the report given to the apostles by the two disciples who had walked and talked with the risen Jesus, Who appeared “in another form” to them on the road to Emmaus.
Now, with the eleven remaining apostles being together in the same locality, as they reclined at the table, likely sharing a meal, the Lord Jesus appeared before them all, literally and physically.
And we read in the second half of verse fourteen that when He appeared to them,
Mark 16:14b ESV
14b he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.
So, what we see is that at this juncture is a rebuke from Jesus to the apostles. And while it isn’t recorded for us here what exactly Jesus said when He rebuked the eleven, He nonetheless rebuked them. This indicates that Jesus verbally confronted and challenged the apostles with the intent to correct their behavior.
And what Jesus sought to correct in His apostles was, as our reading tells us, “their unbelief and hardness of heart”. And what this unbelief and hardness of heart manifested itself in, as it says at the end of this verse, their disbelief in the reports given to them concerning the resurrection of Jesus and the encounters that were made with Him.
This, I believe, happened not long after the Lord’s resurrection, what follows in verses fifteen through to the end of this chapter and book, I believe take place many days after what is spoken of in verse fourteen.
You will see what I mean when we look first, at verse fifteen, which reads:
Mark 16:15 ESV
15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.
We should be able to recognize this as part of what we call, the “Great Commission”, which we typically read in Matthew 28:19. And if you know that portion of the Bible well, you know that Jesus gave His apostles the “Great Commission” right before He physically left the world and ascending to the right hand of God the Father in heaven.
That’s why I said that I believe that what is said here and what took place here, and then all the way through to the end of this chapter had taken place many days after the brief account given in verse fourteen.
But let’s take a close look at what exactly the Lord’s commission entails.
He first tells His apostles that they are to “Go into all the world”. This means that the Lord commands His apostles to do what He commands them to do, not only within the bounds of Judea, but indeed, to “all the world”, every known part of creation.
And what He tells them to do as they “go into all the world” is to “proclaim the gospel”. To preach the gospel, the true gospel. The gospel that speaks of man’s sin, depravity, and inability to free himself from his sin, and salvation from the eternal consequences of sin made possible through the blood of Jesus and made effectual to those who believe, being saved by grace and justified by faith.
So, Jesus tells them to go into all the world and to spread the gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ. And He tells them to preach this gospel to “the whole creation”.
Now, the whole creation means just that, every person, all people of all kinds, not to Jews alone. Now, this was something that took a little while to fully settle into the minds and hearts of the apostles.
It took some convincing for the apostles to accept the fact that God has an elect people even of the Gentiles and that therefore they too must be preached to that they may be brought into the fold, but indeed, “the whole creation” signifies all people.
So, after giving the command, the “Great Commission”, Jesus then goes on to declare to the apostles what the effects of receiving and the rejecting the gospel are for those to whom they preach, in verse sixteen, where we read:
Mark 16:16 ESV
16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
That gospel that we just spoke of, that man is naturally damned and is therefore naturally in need of salvation which can be given only through the blood of Jesus being graciously applied must be believed by those who hear it.
Now, of course, that sounds like a no-brainer, “If I have to believe to not go to Hell, of course I’ll believe!” is what many will say, but true belief comes as a gift from God to whomever He is pleased to give it to.
Nobody wants to think that they are so deeply and wickedly depraved and sinful that there is absolutely no way that they could ever be saved from eternal damnation through anything that they do. Most people will at least admit that there is something wrong with them, other people will admit that they are naturally broken, but there are very, very few who will say, “I can’t fix this myself! God must fix me”!
There are very few who will say that they agree with God’s judgment, that they do deserve to go to Hell. And there are very few who will look to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to deliver them from damnation and to eternal life.
That is why I said that legitimate belief, legitimate faith is not something that we conjure up, but rather, it is given to us by God.
But notice what else Jesus says here. He says that whoever believes will be saved, and yes, we all believe and accept that, but He doesn’t leave it there. He says, “whoever believes and is baptized will be saved”.
Now, first thing’s first, what Jesus is not saying here is that in order to be saved you must receive a water baptism. But rather, what Jesus is saying, I believe, is that, as baptism is an outward work performed on the one being baptized, an outward evidence of God’s favor resting upon the one being baptized, so must the one who truly believes, reveal outward evidence of their salvation in a sanctified life.
In other words, God’s favor clearly rests upon those whom He is pleased to save, and this favor will show itself to others as they live lives that show that they love their God most of all.
And these ones, Jesus says, those who believe and are showing the fruit of sanctification, are being saved and will receive a full salvation at the establishment of the new heavens and earth.
But Jesus also tells His apostles that “whoever does not believe will be condemned”.
Indeed, there are a great many reasons as to why what is likely the majority of the people in this world reject the gospel and refuse to believe. But as I said, chief among those reasons is the one that says, “I can’t be that bad.” “Why would God be angry with me of all people, overall, I’m a pretty good guy”.
And because such a one is convinced that he’s not that bad and a pretty good guy who therefore doesn’t need to be saved from any kind of evil, because he refuses to trust in God’s remedy and continues to attempt to save himself, because this is the case, he will be condemned to the Lake of Fire.
And then lastly, as a confirmation to the apostles and to those whom they preach to, Jesus goes on to speak of the signs that will accompany those who believe in the last two verses of our reading, verses seventeen and eighteen, which read:
Mark 16:17-18 ESV
17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
This is certainly quite the plethora of signs! And what a sign is, is an outward proof of the testimony given. And all of the signs that are mentioned here, other than the one about drinking poison are mentioned as being performed particularly by the Apostles throughout scripture.
Just in the book of Acts we read of the Apostles casting out demons, the Spirit of God falling on them on the day of Pentecost, which was manifested as speaking in different tongues, Paul being bit by a poisonous snake and yet living, and laying hands on the sick, who then recover.
Now, many charismatics will look at verses such as these and say, “See all of the miraculous things you can do?! All you have to do is have enough faith and you can do all of this stuff!” but I disagree.
There are many who are cessationists and thus believe that all miracles and spiritual gifts have ceased, and I personally am not one of those people; I believe that God may do as He pleases, when He pleases, to whomever He pleases. And if God wants to work a miracle through someone He can and He will.
The problem is when we think that we can manipulate God, and tempt Him, such as making ourselves babble nonsense, grab snakes, drink poison, or command that God makes a sickness or ailment leave someone.
You see, if God wills for anyone to do any of these things, then they will most certainly be done. But to think that I can make God do anything is the height of foolishness.
But obviously these signs were distributed much more in the early Church age than they ever have been. This shows us that the high frequency of these signs were confined primarily to that time, probably for the initial spread of the gospel. That doesn’t mean that God can’t or won’t make these signs widespread every again like He did in the days of the early Church, it simply means that God works however He wills to work, whenever He wills to work, to whomever He wills to work through, for His own glory.
But what we see here is that Easter, the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord marks a new era! It marks what the scriptures call, “The Last Days”.
Beloved, what the resurrection of Jesus means is that there is but one more thing to be fulfilled, and that is the return of the same Jesus Who rose from the grave!
Therefore, may we, like faithful servants, display the fruit of our sanctification, take advantage of the ordinary means of grace, live lives dedicate to the service and worship of our God, and longingly look to the heavens and say, “Come quickly Lord Jesus!”
