Mark 16:1-20 — What Am I supposed to Do? (A Resurrected Sermon)

The following points are taken from my first sermon, given to a group of young adults in 1985 at B4 Church in Beaverton, Oregon. I recently pulled these typed (what we did before computers) notes out of the filing cabinet tomb where they had been buried for many years. 

This message may in fact serve as an appropriate if brief summary of our journey through the Gospel of Mark. If you have missed out on some of these posts (there were 94) feel free to click on the "Blog Archive" at the bottom of the right side of this page. They are devotional in tone and short in length but cover the whole text of Mark.

Who Does What In the Work of the Kingdom?

A Brief Job Description

In this passage (Mark 16) we see God doing three things and we, in response, as followers of Christ have a role to play.

God Works on us—He rolls away the stone (v.4) He removes the barrier between man and God. He is the One who saves! The Greek word for salvation (sozo) is far more holistic than we often realize… immediate and eternal spiritual salvation from sin and death, but also physical and emotional healing as well as temporal deliverance from danger.

We are called to Believe (v.14, 16) childlike-expectation, trusting God to do the miraculous. Through the Gospel of Mark, we have seen Jesus loving people and demonstrating the power of God over sickness, storms, death, and the power of sin. He died and rose again to set us free from our fear of death (Heb. 2:14-15). 

Remember Mark 9:22-24? There the father brought his demonized son to Jesus and said, “If you can…” to which Jesus responded, “All things are possible to those who believe.” The man honestly responded, “I believe…help my unbelief!” This is my prayer.

God Works With Us (Greek sunergēo) (v.20) What a comfort! We don’t have to do anything alone. He is a help-mate, a co-worker, and a partner in the proclamation of the Gospel. His presence keeps us from fear and trembling.

We are called to go into all the world & proclaim the gospel to the whole creation (v.15) not just the clean, attractive, or receptive. We have to be willing to be dirty. Here the women were willing to go to the tomb and be unclean for seven days as a result. If they can do this for the dead, why can’t we do more for the living?

Remember Mark 1:40-45 when Jesus touched and healed the leper, despite the tremendous personal cost the healed man would create. We too need to make sure we do not view people from an economic perspective. Jesus works relationally.

God Confirms His Word (v. 17-18, 20), by the attesting miracles that followed. His word will not return void nor fail to accomplish the purpose for which it was given (Isaiah 55:10-11).

We are called to operate in the name and power of Jesus—working with God because he “has the toolbox, the know-how, and the desire” to fix what is broken in the lives of people (v.17-18). My knowledge, ability, and compassion may be limited, but Christ's isn't. 

Remember in Mark 10:46-52 when Jesus healed blind Bartimaeus? We need to stop going along with the crowd and minister compassionately like Jesus did, rather than telling hurting people to be quiet. We need to make sure we are not avoiding the challenges to our faith but rather embracing them in the love of Christ.

Let our feelings of inadequacy or insignificance drive us to review this chapter—Considering what God has done in us, what he is doing with us, and what we can do as a result. If we love Him we will obey His command to believe. 

Thanks for going on this journey with me!

Mark 16:9-20 — “When He Rose Early”

 

“Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.

After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.

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. And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 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 cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 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.”

So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs. (Mark 16:9-20)

Comments:

This passage in Mark 16 is often put in parenthesis because it is not in some of the earliest manuscripts. I have addressed this concern in a previous post on our Bible Answers blog so I won’t expand on it here.

What we find in this passage is like a brief (that is in Mark’s Dragnet “just-the-facts” style), and early harmony of resurrection experiences (John 20, Luke 24) and missionary experiences (Acts). We can see four different sections:

Garden Tomb, Jerusalem

Appearance to Mary Magdalene (v. 9-11). That Jesus appeared to Mary is also recorded in Matthew 28:1-7, and Luke 24:1-11, and the extended “Director’s Cut” is provided in John 20:1-18. I love the counter-cultural approach of Jesus to first appear to the faithful women (whose witness would be discounted) rather than the men.

Appearance to Two Disciples (v. 12-13). These two verses sum up the whole “Road to Emmaus” pericope found in Luke 24:13-35. What we see from this section is that not only did the disciples not believe the report of Mary and the other women, but they also rejected this (legal) testimony of two or three witnesses as well (Luke 24:36-44).

Appearance to the 11 where the Great Commission was given (v. 14-18). This section briefly sums up Matthew 28:18-20 and possibly Acts 1:8. They were commanded to go into the entire world as witnesses of the gospel (v.15) and those who would believe their message would be saved. Interestingly, they had two episodes of their own unbelief in response to the testimony of others, so perhaps they would be more patient and understanding when they themselves were not believed. What is unique in Mark's account is the list of signs that would “accompany those who believe.” They would deliver people from demonic influence, they would speak in new tongues, they would lay hands on the sick and they would recover. All of these activities have a lot of biblical support. It is the snakes and the poison part that has become a euphemism for ignorant hillbilly Christianity. Admittedly, much goofy and dangerous theology has been based on one clause of verse 18 (despite violating all orthodox principles of interpretation). However this was not a prescriptive verse telling people to pick up snakes, but descriptive of God’s protection of his witnesses in their travels. While it may be alluding to such OT passages as Numbers 21 and Jeremiah 8:17, it certainly hearkens back to previous teachings of Jesus about their conflict with the forces of evil (Luke 10:18-20) and looks forward to experiences like that of St. Paul on Malta (Acts 28:3-6). The gist of this section is that when you believe and testify to it, stuff will happen that causes people to glorify God.

The Ascension and Their Response (v. 19-20).

John Singleton Copley,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Verse 19 summarizes all of Luke 24:50-52, and Acts 1:6-11 on the ascension of Christ. Much of the teaching in the epistles is also included in this statement of Christ’s victory and position in heaven. But the last verse is what brings it home. It is obviously a retrospective of the period covered by the Book of Acts. The apostles and disciples went out preaching while… (wait for it…) “the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.”

So what is our testimony? How do we see the Lord working with us today?

[Please note: My post is already too long—so no room for my brief sermon notes from 35 years ago. But then again, only one person wanted to see them!]

Mark 16:1-8 — Who Will Roll Away the Stone?

 

Dawn over the Mt. of Olives

Mark 16:1-8 

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. ² And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. ³ And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?”

⁴ And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large.

⁵ And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed.

⁶ And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, 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 that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”

⁸ And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

A Smaller version of that "Great Stone"

Comments:

When I read this section I remember preaching on it in my first sermon at Beaverton Foursquare Church as a student intern in the fall of 1985. In fact, I still have the notes…from the days before computers were feasible. My notes were typed on an electric typewriter. I dug them out of a filing cabinet today. Some of you my Facebook friends, were probably there that day. I am tempted to tag you!

The women were not looking for a resurrection. They were simply going to finish the hurried job of caring for the body of Jesus now that the Sabbath was over. Their concern was a practical one—who would be available to help them move the stone away? What I love about these women on their morning mission of mourning (sorry…I couldn’t help it!) was that they didn’t deny the obstacles—the unsolved problems—but neither did they let those unanswered questions keep them from doing what they could do.  

As it turned out, God took care of what they couldn’t do. He sent an angel to roll the stone away (Matthew 28:2) so that they could see that Jesus was no longer there. What is unmentioned in Mark is the soldiers guarding the tomb were trembling in fear like dead men before the angel, while the women took a tour, and only after the women left did the guards flee. Mark probably was wise not to rub that fact in for his Roman audience!

Who will roll away the stone? God himself will do what only He can do to enable our humble faith to receive His saving grace.

I wonder what it is that God is putting on our hearts to do? How will His love move us to serve Him today? Will it require us to get dirty? Is it something that will require him to move in miraculous power? It may well be something that once we begin in simple faith and limited understanding will become something far more wonderful than we could have ever imagined!

In case anyone is wondering what I said about this chapter in that first sermon, 29 years ago, I might tell you in my next post…if you want to know. For now let me say that after reading my notes, I was encouraged to find that I still believe today what I spoke about then so long ago.