MARK 16 THANK GOD FOR RESURRECTION SUNDAY

The sequence of this Easter week has been...

(i) Palm Sunday - Jesus is received with Hosannas

(ii) Thursday - the night that He was betrayed, Jesus celebrated the Passover and instituted what we now know as the Lord’s Supper. 

(ii) Friday - the cross

(iii) Saturday - the silent day when Jesus rested  on the Sabbath day from His finished work on the cross

(iv) Sunday, the first day of the week (16:2) -the day of the Resurrection.

Everything happened, just as Jesus had said earlier in Mark 8:31, Mark 9:31 and Mark 10:33-34.  He had said that He would be killed and after three days He would rise again.  

THE ENDING OF MARK 16

I need to comment briefly on that note in your Bibles which says concerning the ending of Mark’s gospel, “Some of the oldest and most reliable New Testament manuscripts   do not include Mark 16:9-20”.  The oldest manuscripts referred to here are the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus. The King James Bible of 1611 contains 16:9-20 without that footnote because the translators of this version used the Textus Receptus, the text handed down through the church age.  Since 1611, however, older manuscripts have been discovered, notably in 1844 when the archaeologist Constantin von Tischendorf discovered ancient manuscripts at the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mt. Sinai. These documents did not include 16:9-20. The conclusion was that these verses were added later.  This may disturb some and you may wonder perhaps whether there has not been more tampering with the Bible. We can put your fears to rest. When these more ancient documents were discovered by von Tischendorf in 1844, followed by the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls in 1946 onwards, it was found that there were some discrepancies with the Textus Receptus, but these were not of a major nature. No major or even minor doctrine was affected by the differences.  But what can we say about what is taught in 16:9-20?  Apart from 16:17,18 there is nothing unusual or controversial here. It is entirely in harmony with the other gospels. So then, we are free to focus on the great theme of this chapter, namely the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In this chapter we see two repeated thoughts concerning the resurrection.

The first is, “They did not believe”.

The second is, “He appeared“.

These two phrases dominate the content of Mark Chapter 16, and I want to use them to show us despite our unbelief how great the grace of God is to us.   

1. The Ever - present Problem of Unbelief  

Think about this.  Nobody lived physically closer to Jesus than these people here mentioned in our text.  They were privileged to see His real miracles and the evidence of His sinless life with their own eyes. They were privileged to hear His convicting preaching. They heard Him say on numerous occasions that He would be killed, buried and raised again. The sobering reality is that none   of Christ’s close associates really believed Him when He said that He would rise from the dead!  Whilst we take note of the recurring unbelief of all concerned, we must not read ‘unbelief’ here as something of a final fact.  These people all had loved Jesus deeply in life. And they were truly grieving and missing Him now. They mourned and wept after He had died (16:10). Let’s consider them....  

The women: Mary Magdalene  (Jesus had cast out 7 demons from her 16:9), Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, after the Sabbath was past, and early on Sunday morning they went to the tomb to anoint the dead body of Jesus. That is actually a sign of unbelief. If Jesus (being who He said He was) said that He would rise from the dead on the third day, then there was actually no need to buy and apply these funeral spices. All they needed to do was to wait for the resurrection! But they clearly did not expect the resurrection. So, when they came to the tomb the next day (the first day of the week) they saw that the tomb stone had been rolled away, but still they made no connection. John records that Mary Magdalene had run back to tell Peter about this. She reported (note the language of unbelief) … “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” (Jn. 20:2,13). No thought of the resurrection here! Even when Jesus appeared to her, she thought that He was the gardener (Jn. 20:15). She genuinely thought that he might have carried the body of Jesus away. Only when Jesus addressed her by her name, “Mary”, did she recognize Him.   This is the power of unbelief! There are none as blind as those who will not see!  A closed mind chooses to see what it wants to see and hear.  This is the truth about us.  However, as I have reminded you, in this case this is not cynical unbelief- and yet we shall see that it is still sinful unbelief. 

The disciples:  The angel at the tomb confirms the fact of the resurrection to the women: “Do not be alarmed, you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here … but go and tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he has told you” (16:6,7). When the women told the grief-stricken disciples, they too would not believe her. Even though they have heard the Lord Jesus speaking to them plainly about His resurrection they did not hear Him!  Observe the power of the closed mind, the stuck mind, the power of unbelief! We all engage in selective hearing. We all choose to hear what we want to hear! Jesus repeatedly challenges us to consider carefully how we hear, e.g. Mk 4:9,23,24; 8:18  

The two walking in the country (16:12) were according to Luke 24:13-35 talking about these things on the road to Emmaus. It is clear that they were depressed at this thought,  that Jesus had been crucified and buried in a grave. They had no expectation of His resurrection. The language of the text reveals this.  Now again, this has nothing to do with cynical unbelief. In their minds they were simply not able to bring themselves to believe that Jesus would come back from the dead, even though He had proven that He had the power over death in the raising of Lazarus in John 11. Later He opened their eyes to recognize Him (Lk.24:31).  For the first time we are helped to see the remedy for unbelief,… they were helped to see! 

The 11 disciples: In 16:14 we find   the 11 disciples in Galilee, when Jesus suddenly joins them. We read, “...and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.”  This is an important insight. Jesus categorizes this unbelief as a sinful hardness of heart! 

What about you? Now, you may say, “I believe in the resurrection of Jesus with all my heart“.  We modern New Testament believers, having been exposed to the Easter story for so many years find it easier to believe in the resurrection than the women and the disciples, because we have become so used to hear this familiar story!  

So, let’s see whether we cannot find nother avenue to test our own tendency to unbelief.

If you believe in the resurrection of Christ and do not question this because the resurrection is now an established, historical fact, then do you also believe in the second coming of the Lord Jesus?  To get personal: are you living in the constant anticipation of His appearing, whether by your death or by His personal appearing in the clouds? And does it make a difference to the way in which you live now and make decisions now? Do you get the point?  

2.   He appeared ....  

Following His resurrection, we read that He appeared. 

Why did He appear?   This was a sheer act of grace. He appeared to deal with their unbelief! He appeared - this phrase is repeated 3 times in 16:9-20

(i) 16:9 “he appeared first to Mary Magdalene”

(ii) 16:12 “he appeared in another form to two of them”

(iii) 16:14 “Afterward He appeared to the Eleven themselves...”.

These were not the only instances of Christ’s appearance following the resurrection. 

In 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 the apostle Paul speaks of many more resurrection appearances, “…he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.”  Paul wrote these words about 20 years after the resurrection. Many of those who met the risen Jesus Christ were still alive at that time. From Paul’s perspective the evidence for the resurrection is utterly overwhelming!  And the resurrection appearances were not that of a ghost. This was a physical Christ!  He spoke to Mary. He spoke to the men on the Emmaus road. He had a meal with his 11 disciples.   The apostles ate fish that Christ had caught and prepared at the seaside. Ghosts don’t do breakfast for their friends!  

He appeared says Mark three times.

He appeared, says Paul 4 times in the letter to the Corinthians just quoted. 

Peter says the same thing in Acts 10:39-41 in the home of a Roman soldier: “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen – by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead...” This is what we also affirm today on this Resurrection Sunday. He appeared! And He will appear again at the second coming.    

When He appeared He came to deliver His beloved people from the power of unbelief by His resurrection appearances. This is Grace!  Truly God is patient with His people. 

We have to settle the fact that we are hard work! 

Even plain speech and plain logic is easily  lost on us.

It is hard for us to grasp spiritual truth.

The Bible teaches us to incorporate far bigger thinking into our ordinary thoughts. We must get over the fact that the supernatural is not irrational! Yes, we do not understand how a man can die and live again, but are we saying and assuming that we can know everything? Surely our own experience tells us that we don’t know everything!   There is the planet Mars, and we have a rover there, but the truth is that we know very little about Mars. But we know that Mars is there, and we trust that we will see more of it in years to come.  So too, the resurrection of Jesus is a fact. The evidence is there, and Jesus took care to present the evidence in His post resurrection appearances. He knows how weak and unbelieving we are, and so He took care to strengthen our faith by His appearings.   

Don’t be slow to believe all that is written in the Scriptures.   And thank Him that He works even this day to overcome our unbelief with Grace. Thank God for the gift of the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit given to us at Pentecost   

Where does the knowledge of the Resurrection leave us?    

The resurrection leaves us with an evangelistic duty.

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” (16:15,16).

Go and tell!  Do not be unbelieving, tell people about His life, death and resurrection.

16:20 tells us “...and they went out and preached everywhere.” Soon there were believers everywhere – in Rome, in Corinth, Ephesus …in every major city in Asia minor in the Roman and the Greek world spreading into North Africa and Europe and into the Far East. Many of them experienced persecution and sufferings. Many lost their lives doing this work. They endured it all. Would they have done this if they weren’t convinced that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead and had commanded them to go? What else can explain the fact of the growth of the church in the world today?  Do not be unbelieving… Grace has been given to you not only to believe but to be active in the sharing of your faith?  Does your neighbour know about Jesus?  

Thank God for Resurrection Sunday! His resurrection is the guarantee of ours.  

MARK 16 THANK GOD FOR GOOD FRIDAY!

In  Mark 11 we considered the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday.  

In Mark 14 we find  Jesus revealed as the Passover Lamb – the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29,36). Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to be that Lamb!

In Mark 15 the key thought is this: Jesus is handed over to be killed. And therefore it  becomes  Good Friday for us!  

Let's  see then how this can be so.

Consider the sequence of events as they unfold in Mark 15

1.      15:1-5 The chief priests, the elders and scribes and the whole council hand Jesus over to Pilate. They accuse Him of many things.

2.      15: 6-15 Pilate hands over Jesus over to the crowd who kept on shouting “crucify Him!”  

3.     15:16-20 Jesus is handed over to the soldiers who hurt Him, mock Him, strip Him and eventually crucify Him.  

4.      15: 21- 32 The soldiers hand Jesus over to the cross to die. 

5.     15: 33- 41 On the cross Jesus is handed over to forsakenness and to death.

6.      15: 42-45 From the cross on which Jesus dies He is handed over Joseph of Arimathea. 

7.      15: 46 Joseph of Arimathea hands Jesus over to the grave.

Jesus is handed over. All these points emphasize the forsakenness of Christ. He was handed over to die.  He was handed over to the grave.  At face value this all sounds very depressing.

And who should we blame for his death?  For every death humanity looks for a guilty party.  When a loved one dies on the operating table people want to blame the doctor and nurses.  In a   fatal car crash people blame the other driver. 

Who should we blame for Jesus’ death?  

In the sequence of events, we saw that Jesus had now been handed over into the hands of men,  for them to do what they wanted do with Him. The whole chapter is essentially about people and what they do to Jesus. BUT it is not just about  people. It is also about God...

In this chapter Jesus the Lord, the sovereign King of the Universe, is quiet.  He does not say a word. He lets people  do what they want to do to Him,  although in Matthew’s account of the arrest he makes mention of this:  “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and He at once can send  me  more than 12 legions of  angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so?  

But it must be so. Therefore   Isaiah prophesies, "Like a lamb He is led to the slaughter".  

• The disciples have all abandoned Him at  this time. 
• The faithful women who had ministered to Jesus stood at a distance and looked on in horror.
• The crowd shouted  at Him.
• The soldiers mock Him and spit on Him. They steal His clothes and they divide them. They crucify Him on the cross –naked and exposed. 
• The by-passers  mock  Him and insult Him,  “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” (15:29,30). T
• The chief priests and  the scribes mocked him, “He saved others; he cannot save Himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now  from the cross that we may see and believe".  (15:31) 
• Those who were crucified with  Him  also   reviled Him.  (15:32) 

The only nice man here is Joseph of Arimathea “who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God   that took courage and went to Pilate  and asked for the body of Jesus … and laid him in a tomb that  had been cut out of the rock.”  (15:43-46).

We might  have some sympathy for  Simon of Cyrene who was forced  to carry the cross of Jesus cross.  (15:21)

We  note that one of the thieves crucified with Jesus believed in Jesus in his dying moments. (Lk 23:42)   Mark doesn't say this.

We  have some sympathy for the Roman centurion,  who after Jesus  died,  said, “Truly this man was the Son of God !” (15:39) 

Other than this, everything is  very  harsh.

And we ask, "but who is ultimately guilty for handing  Jesus  over to  His death”? 

There is such a long list  of  potential people to blame. Can we find the real culprit and so perhaps get him to bear the blame for sending the Son of God to the cross?

Can we blame PILATE?  Pilate was perhaps one of the most powerful and influential men in Jesus' day in Judea. He was a Roman procurator, the administrator of Judea. He had the political power to stop the killing of Jesus. Moreover, as Scripture makes clear, Pilate was convinced of Jesus' innocence. Three times he declared publicly that he could find no basis of accusation against Jesus. He really wanted to free Jesus, but he also wanted to please the crowd. His conscience was ultimately drowned out by the loud shouts of the crowd. Should we not accuse him?

Should we blame the ROMAN SOLDIERS? They mocked Him, and they ultimately crucified Him.  Can we accuse them? Possibly, but we need to realise that this was their job. They did what they were commanded to do.

What about the JEWISH PEOPLE and their PRIESTS? Here we have quite a strong case.  On the day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter makes it very clear, that he considered the Jewish people and their rulers guilty of this crime.  Should we not blame them?

But what about JUDAS ISCARIOT? After all, he betrayed Jesus most directly into the hands of the Jewish people and their priests. Isn't he the guilty one - ultimately?

 The Bible has two responses to this  dilemma

1.      Human Responsibility: The fact that so many people can  be blamed should cause us to think very carefully. In fact we shall discover very quickly that the Bible teaches the corporate guilt of  all humanity.  When it comes to putting the blame at someone's feet, the Bible points to all of us, even though it is true that those who actually commit the deed are guilty of a greater sin. Pilate, the Jewish people and their priests, who shouted, "crucify him" clearly have a lot more to answer for. But essentially, we would all be guilty for crucifying Jesus.  For if we were there,  we would have joined the crowd. Horatio Bonar (1808-1889) a Scottish pastor and theologian wrote an excellent hymn that expresses  that corporate guilt:

 ‘Twas I that shed the sacred blood, I nailed Him to the tree; I crucified the Son of God, I joined the mockery.

 Of all that shouting multitude, I feel that I am one; And in that din of voices rude, I recognise my own.

 Around the cross the throng I see,  mocking the sufferer’s groan ; Yet still my voice it seems to be, as if I mocked alone.

It is deeply entrenched in our sinful human nature to deny our personal guilt  and to point fingers at someone else, but the Bible says that ultimately the whole world is responsible for Jesus’ death. 

He died because we all  put Him there!

But there is  yet another reason  as to why Jesus  was handed over:

2.      Divine Sovereignty:   Jesus died because it was His Father’s will. Jesus died to fulfil the Scriptures (14:49). Jesus died  because the Father’s love took Him there. "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall  not perish but have eternal life." (Jn. 3:16) – see also  Romans 8:32.  And so we must conclude that ultimately  God the Father handed over His Son, and His motive was love – love for His sheep – His people!    

So, we need to look at the cross in two ways

1.      On a  human level  all of us are responsible for  Jesus’ death. Our sin took Him there.

2.       On a divine level  God the Father gave Him up to die for us.

Acts 2:23  is  a key verse in this respect. Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost:

” … this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”  

Here you find both, human responsibility and divine sovereignty as reasons as to why Jesus  was handed over. But the last reason- the love of God for sinners  such as us  is the profoundest one!

That is why we speak of the day on which  Jesus  died as Good Friday!

Why good? Because something very good happened there. Christ died to deal with my and your sin. He did that in two ways:

1.Christ  dealt decisively with our sin by freeing us from its power (expiation) -  there is now no more condemnation  for them that are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1) 

2.Christ  dealt with the righteous anger of God towards us (propitiation). 

Thank God for Good Friday !