The Ending of Mark?
Notes
Transcript
Good morning
In Jamaica, a slice of pie costs $3.50
In the Bahamas, a slice of pie costs $5.50
these are the pie rates of the Caribbean
Next Saturday is the Men’s breakfast.
I am excited for this new year.
I have several new ideas for reaching out and engaging the community. I know some of us are tired. That is ok, I completely understand. I just ask that when you can and fell up to it, come and join us for some of these up coming out reach opportunities.
Today we are going to be in Mark 16:9-20
Last week we saw the empty tomb. We saw the women who were at the cross and watch them take Jesus’ body down and put it in the tomb, go and buy spices. They didn’t understand Jesus’ teaching about His death and resurrection. They went to the tomb to finish anointing His body to only find it empty, well empty of Jesus’ body. What they found was an angel! We saw that there were two angels and we saw how they were on the right and left of where Jesus’ body had been. This was an image of the mercy seat in the old testament. We got to see the reward of the faithfulness of these ladies. They were the first to hear of Jesus’ resurrection. They were chosen to be the ones who let the rest of the disciples know the He is risen! We also saw a miracle that the women said nothing to anyone!! I can understand that they were amazed and afraid at the same time. That was a lot for them to take in. They were so emotionally low at this time and all of a sudden an angel appears and tells them that their Messiah has risen, that He is not dead! Then they are to go and tell the rest of the disciples and Peter! What a morning!! I love how God cares so much for us, when we have done something that we think is unforgivable, He reaches out to us and lets us know we are forgiven. We can see this with Peter. The angels specifically tell the women to tell Peter to go to Galilee and Jesus will be there. Jesus wanted to make sure that Peter was there so that He could restore Him. We serve such a great and compassionate God!
Today we are going to look at the last 12 verses of Mark. In most of your Bibles these verses are bracketed! That is because it is not found in some of the earliest manuscripts that we have found. But that is ok.
Who believes that the Bible was written by God through man?
Who believes that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God?
Who has Mark 16:9-20 in their Bibles?
Did you know that we have several books of the Bible that have multiple authors?
1 & 2 Samuel - written by Samuel, Nathan, and Gad
Psalms - David, Solomon, Moses and others
Proverbs - Solomon, Agur, and Lemuel
I believe that someone else wrote these last verses in Mark.
It is not easy to see in the English language, but in the Greek, the style and grammar do not match any in all of Mark.
I say all of this to say, not matter if you think this is original to Mark, or added and even shouldn’t be in the Bible, we can have assurance that the Bible is the Word of God and we can trust it.
Believing in the Bible is part of our faith.
There is no other book that even comes close to having the number of copies found and the accuracy of the copies found.
It is amazing that it has survived all these years with all the persecution that has been on the Christian faith. It is only by the grace of God that we have it still today! The enemy has done everything in his power to wipe it out and he has failed! We can trust the Bible!
It is from God.
Author Date Written Earliest Copy Approximate time # of copies Accuracy
between original of copies
and copy
Lucretius died 55 or 53 B.C. 1100 yrs 2 ----
Pliny A.D. 61-113 A.D. 850 750 yrs 7 ----
Plato 427-347 B.C. A.D. 900 1200 yrs 7 ----
Demosthenes 4th Cent. B.C. A.D. 1100 800 yrs 8 ----
Herodotus 480-425 B.C. A.D. 900 1300 yrs 8 ----
Suetonius A.D. 75-160 A.D. 950 800 yrs 8 ----
Thucydides 460-400 B.C. A.D. 900 1300 yrs 8 ----
Euripides 480-406 B.C. A.D. 1100 1300 yrs 9 ----
Aristophanes 450-385 B.C. A.D. 900 1200 10 ----
Caesar 100-44 B.C. A.D. 900 1000 10 ----
Livy 59 BC-AD 17 ---- ??? 20 ----
Tacitus circa A.D. 100 A.D. 1100 1000 yrs 20 ----
Aristotle 384-322 B.C. A.D. 1100 1400 49 ----
Sophocles 496-406 B.C. A.D. 1000 1400 yrs 193 ----
Homer (Iliad) 900 B.C. 400 B.C. 500 yrs 643 95%
New Testament 1st Cent. A.D. (A.D. 50-100) 2nd Cent. A.D. (c. A.D. 130 f.) less than 100 years 5600 99.5%
Bible over 24,000
Caesar’s Gallic Wars was written in the first century B.C. There are only 10 manuscripts in existence. The earliest textual evidence we have was copied 1,000 years after the original. Gallic Wars
Aristotle’s Poetics was written in the fourth century B.C. There are only 5 manuscripts in existence. The earliest textual evidence we have was copied 1,400 years after the original. Poetics
The Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947 are dated from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D. These manuscripts predate by 1000 years the previous oldest manuscripts. They represent every Old Testament book except Esther (as well as non-biblical writings). There is word for word identity in more than 95% of the cases, and the 5% variation consists mostly of slips of the pen and spelling.
Of the four Gospels alone, there are 19,368 citations by the church fathers from the late first century on. Even if we had no manuscripts, virtually the entire New Testament could be reconstructed from these quotations. This argues powerfully that the Gospels were in existence before the end of the first century, while some eyewitnesses (including John) were still alive
Clement of Rome (a disciple of the apostles) cited Matthew, John, and 1 Corinthians in 95 to 97 A.D. Ignatius (who knew the apostles well) referred to six Pauline Epistles in about 110. Polycarp (disciple of the apostle John) quoted from all four Gospels, Acts, and most of Paul's Epistles from 110 to 150. Taitian's harmony of the Four Gospels completed in 160 A.D. Irenaeus (who apparently heard the apostles) quoted from Matthew, John, Acts, and 1 Corinthians in 160 A.D.
We are talking decades after the apostles writings not centuries!
The devil wants you to doubt the Bible. That is one of his oldest tricks. We can have confidence in the Bible! We have more copies of it than any other book! It is God’s Word given to us from Him!
Let’s look at our last verses in Mark!
Please stand as we prepare to hear God’s Word.
9 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. 10 She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11 But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.
12 After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. 13 And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.
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.”
19 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. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.
We can see that 9-15 are familiar verses. We can see these verses in the other gospels. Who ever wrote these verses only used 6 verses to talk about Jesus appearing to the disciples and the women.
Jesus first appears to Mary Magdalene, we can see a more detailed telling of this in John 20:11-18
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.
Again we see the image of the mercy seat. Mary sees Jesus and doesn’t recognize Him. He concealed His identity from her for a moment.
When Jesus called out her name, she instantly recognized Him. She clung to Him, I can only imagine what that moment would have been like, the sheer joy that Mary would have gotten to experience hugging Jesus after she had seen Him be buried and then thinking that His body had been stolen!! What an emotional rollercoaster!
We can see that she goes and tells the others what she had experienced. They did not believe her!! They will, soon!
Next we see the story of the road to Emmaus. It is a little different than in the other gospels, but not a difference that is concerning, just different as if a human had written it. We can see the longer story in Luke 24:13-35. I’m not going to read all of these verses. A couple of differences is that Mark says that they were going into the country, Luke tells us that they are going to Emmaus. Not a big difference and you can’t leave the city and go to a city that is 7 miles away without entering the country.
Another difference is that Mark says that He appeared in a different form. He disguised Himself again like He did with Mary. Luke tells us that their eyes were kept from recognizing Him. Just a little different angle on the matter. Mark was not there and didn’t hear these two when they came back and told everyone, he is telling a story from a story that was told to him. Again, we do not lose anything in this difference, the story isn’t changed enough to change the idea of the story, it is just a little different perspective.
Next Mark tells us about Jesus appearing to the eleven. We can see this in Luke 24:36-49. Jesus rebukes them for their doubts and being troubled at seeing Him. Again, He had told them all of this was going to happen.
In verse 15, we can see the great commission. We are to go and take the gospel to all the world! All of creation.
Verse 16 is were it starts to get a little off, so it appears. This is the verse that most who believe that baptism is a part of salvation will quote. I don’t see it that way at all.
Yes, Mark says whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. In scripture, we see that almost every single conversion is followed by almost immediate baptism. They didn’t make them wait a long time, when people in the Bible were saved, they were baptized. It was just the way it was. It wasn’t like our Christianity we have here in America. We have thousands of people who say that they are saved and have never followed through with baptism. Good or bad! I think it is bad, if you are saved and you won’t get baptized, why would you obey any of Jesus’ other commands? Just like our faith grows, so does our obedience. The more we do it, the easier it is.
He also doesn’t say whoever doesn’t believe and is not baptized will be condemned. Condemnation comes through unbelief, just salvation comes through belief.
We do not make doctrine from one single verse. We have way more scripture saying salvation is from faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone, than this one verse that adds baptism to it. I think it was just a known thing during that time that when you believed you were baptized. Mark is not stating theology, he is just commenting and using what he knows. When people were saved, they were also baptized almost immediately.
Then we have verses 17 and 18.
We have all of a sudden gone pentecostal!! No where in any of the other gospels do we see them talking about signs that are given to believers. Another reason I believe that someone else wrote this later on.
The casting out demons, we saw the apostles do this. Jesus taught them to do this. We can do this in Jesus’ name today. The speaking in tongues, I believe that this has to have someone who interprets it or it is not from God. It also most of the times we see it in the Bible, it is a language that the speaker is not able to speak, but through the Holy Spirit they are able to.
18 is a really tough one. I do not think that God is telling us that we should go and pick up poisonous snakes, or we should go around drinking poison! If we do that, we are testing God. That is what the devil tried to temp Jesus to do in the desert. What I believe Mark is trying to tell us is that a believer can survive these things when we are going the will of God, going and telling. We can see an example of this with Paul. He was ship wrecked on an island and the locals were helping them. Paul gathered some wood and a serpent came out of the wood when he through it on the fire. It bit Paul and the locals said he is going to die, he must have been a murderer and now he is getting his punishment. But the poison never bothered Paul. When Paul survived, they thought he was a God. Paul was doing God’s will, being obedient and God saved him from the poison. That is what I think Mark is telling us here.
Then we see the laying on hands on the sick and they recover. This is not a new one either. Jesus told the disciples to heal when He sent them out two by two. Peter healed when he went by the beggar at the temple. God worked miracles of healing through Paul in Acts 19. Clothing that touched Paul was taken to the sick and when they touched it they were healed and even demons were cast out this way to.
Only the snakes and poison are odd ball things here. Everything else we can see in the Bible.
Now I believe that signs still are used today. We don’t see them very much here in America, because we have had the Gospel here for several hundred years. It has been passed down from generation to generation. I believe that signs today are generally used when the Gospel is taken to a new people group and through those signs, the message is given validity. It shows the power of Jesus and the Gospel. It gives credit to the people who are trying to reach these new people. I believe that we still see some signs here today, just not a often as elsewhere.
Finally we see Jesus taken up into heaven and seated at the right hand of the Father. Jesus returns to the place He left to come to earth and provide salvation to the whomsoever.
verse 20 says that they went and preached everywhere, that didn’t happen right at first, God had to bring heavy persecution to them to get them to leave Isreal and Jerusalem. But they did go and God did do mighty signs through them to validate what they were telling the people. The signs confirm the message of hope and that Jesus is God. Only God can do the things that He does.
Church, I just want you to know that we can trust our Bibles that we have today. Through all the manuscripts that we have, we have a greater than 99.5% accuracy with it. It is the same Bible that our earliest church fathers had. They used it and quoted it so much that we could recreate the New Testament with their quotes. That is amazing in it self!
The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to us. You want to know God and His will, read you Bible.
Study your Bible.
Develop spiritual discipline this year. Give up the things that are keeping from having the closest relationship with Jesus and God.
Focus on the Word.
Focus on the things that are eternal, not the things that will perish.
Liberty, Let’s make 2026 a special year for our walks with Jesus. May we come to know Him more than ever before and may we be more obedient than ever before.
Let’s pray.
