The Paralyzing Power of Disbelief

Good morning and welcome to Dishman Baptist Church. What a blessing it is to be in the house of the Lord today and to have all of you joining us as we worship and glorify Him together. Please take your Bibles and turn in them with me to Mark 16, Mark 16. We have been traveling through this great Gospel for the last 588 days, the last 84 weeks with a few breaks here and there for the Advent season and other special moments that required some special attention.

We have weathered through a pandemic, a crazy election season and the shutting down of our society. We’ve been going through this Gospel while our churches were closed down and while they opened back up. While some were wearing masks and others weren’t. We’ve been steadily plodding through as we’ve seen pastors arrested and set free. Now this week we’ve witnessed the closing and fencing off of that church by a democratic - albeit a parliamentary democracy that has a bit of different functions and authorities than our own governmental system - society.

And this is fitting for us I think as we look at the world around us today. The relatively peaceful existence that the church has maintained in American society seems to be coming to a close and we may soon be facing serious consequences for maintaining our faith. We really sit nearly in the same sort of position as the Roman church that Mark wrote this epistle for and it is important for us to recognize not only the truths of this Gospel but what its main thrust and message is. Mark doesn’t waste much time in telling us the reason for his writing

Mark 1:1 CSB

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

And he has spent the last 16 chapters exhibiting his case for the veracity of that statement, even in his abbreviated staccato style, and he brought that claim to a head over the last few chapters as Christ is first crucified and then demonstrated as being raised from the dead as the Son of God to fulfill the mission that He had been sent to accomplish.

Alongside of this truth, Mark has sought to demonstrate for us what it looks like to be a disciple of Christ’s, even when the cost of that discipleship continues to rise. Christ’s statement at the end of chapter 8 provided a significant shift in the teaching portion of Mark as Christ shifted from teaching the people to primarily teaching HIs disciples even while still speaking to the people.

Mark 8:34 CSB

Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

This verse really begins the lessons that He will give over the next few chapters on what it looks like to be a disciple. And it is important for us to recognize that that is what this Book is - it is a chronicle of the story of salvation purchased by God to provide for Himself a people and also a book that instructs those people on the practices and costs associated with following Him. And it is completely and fully true.

My life before Christ and my life after Christ are two paradigmatically opposite pictures. Before Christ I was as wretched as wretched could be. I was a sailor and I was everything that a sailor is portrayed to be - at least the way that sailors used to be portrayed to be before everything in society was cleaned up and polished. After Christ saved me I knew I wanted one thing - His Word. And as I looked around there didn’t seem to be many places that His Word was simply being taught. Yet that is what we as Christ’s people need to hear is His Word and so I felt compelled to study and to teach His plain Word. I went to school online, which made some aspects of learning how to handle His Word difficult, I could use some work in handling the original languages, but I first got an Associates degree in Christian Ministry, then a Bachelors in Religion and finally a Masters of Divinity in Homiletics so that I would be capable of teaching His Word to the best of the abilities that He has given me.

Now that is not to say that you need a degree in order to understand His Word, nor do you need the degree to be qualified to teach His Word. There is nothing in the Scriptures that points us to a degree being a qualification for an elder. But all of that schooling helped me with two things - the first is that it provided me the discipline and breadth of knowledge to be able to present the Word in a winsome and hopefully informative manner and the second is that it further cemented for me the truth that this Word is the only standard that we should be looking to as Christians in order to come face to face with our Creator and to deepen our faith in His holy person.

I believe that the Bibles that we hold in our hand - as long as it is a reputable translation - is 100% accurate, inerrant and the complete Word of God in every respect. If this Book is in any way false then I shouldn’t teach it. I might as well teach you the latest self-help book or find ways to make Raya and the Last Dragon apply to our lives as Christians. I might as well teach the latest pop psychology and tolerance because if this Book isn’t true then we are really wasting our time. This book isn’t meant to be a book of inspiration to the non-Christian or a book of morals that help you have a nicer life if you follow them. It is meant to teach us about God, about His person and about His plan for the salvation of a world that has fallen deep into the clutches of sin.

So now, after all of these days and weeks spent in the book of Mark, we come to the last section of the book and in many of your Bibles these verses are bracketed and there may even be a note - the CSB has a note that reads “Some of the earliest manuscripts conclude with 16:8”. There are some elements in the world who would point to this section that we’re going to look at this morning and try to use them to disprove the Bible. To say that it is false - or that it is man made. Yet those voices couldn’t be further from the truth.

What you have in your hand is the most faithfully and completely preserved document in the world - ancient or modern. There are right now more than 5000 manuscript portions of the Bible in existence dating from 135 A.D. to around 1200 A.D. To put that in perspective the next nearest ancient document with manuscript evidence is Homer’s Illiad of which 643 copies survive. That is only 10% of the manuscript evidence of the Bible.

If time is an issue then consider this there are only 10 copies of Caesar’s Gallic Wars in existence with the earliest being 1000 years after its author. There are only eight manuscripts of the History of the Peloponnesian War all of them separated from the original by thirteen or more centuries. Some of the fragments of the Scriptures are only twenty-five to fifty years removed from their authors. The writings of the early church fathers support the accuracy of the New Testament as nearly every verse is quoted in their writings. The collections of their writings contain more than 32,000 citations or allusions to the texts of the New Testament. Attesting to the verifiability of Scripture, renowned scholar F.F. Bruce said “There is no body of ancient literature in the world which enjoys such a wealth of good textual attestation as the New Testament.”

In the fact it is the science of textual criticism that most supports the truth of the Bible. We need to understand that the world’s best selling book wasn’t always as readily available as it is today - until Mr. Gutenberg and invented the printing press in the 15th century Bibles were hand copied by scribes. Even though there were strict standards and care, mistakes were made resulting in errors. But through the careful process of textual analysis and the plethora of early manuscripts available for comparison such mistakes or embellishments can be identified and corrected.

So why do we have this note in our Bibles? And what does it mean for understanding and having confidence in the truth of the rest of Scripture. It is virtually certain that Mark 16:9-20 is a later addition and not the original ending of the Gospel of Mark. There is much conjecture as to whether Mark simply ended his Gospel at verse 8 or if there may have been another original ending that somehow got lost during the intervening years. One oddity about Mark ending his Gospel with the women fleeing the tomb in fear is that he would be the lone writer of a Gospel that didn’t chronicle a resurrection appearance by Christ - something that would sound a bit odd to his original hearers. Think of it as the original Star Wars ending just as Luke is about to start his run on the Death Star. Or the Lord of the Rings ending when Frodo arrives in Mordor without ever telling what happened to the ring of power.

It would leave his readers wondering what really happened to the body of Jesus and whether or not He actually fulfilled the prophecy that He gave, in the text of this Gospel, that He would rise again and precede His disciples to Galilee. Remember that we have the luxury of the entire cannon - but the original readers/ hearers of Mark’s Gospel may not have been privy to such majestic texts as 1 Corinthians 15 and the defense that Paul gives of the resurrection. They would have had this document in hand and that was it.

Some prognosticate that Mark may have died or been martyred before being able to finish his Gospel - which seems unlikely to me as this Gospel was written, most likely sometime in the 50’s or early 60’s AD and tradition holds that Mark was killed in Alexandria in 68 AD. Either way it seems that at some point a well meaning scribe, maybe at the behest of a bishop or church leader who was dissatisfied with the ending of Mark, seems to have taken passages from other Gospels and pieced them into an ending for the Gospel of Mark that fits well with other well known stories.

it is important to note that while the two oldest manuscripts do not contain this particular ending to the Gospel of Mark, several early church fathers including Irenaeus and Tatian show some knowledge of this ending but the early Bible translator Jerome in the fifth century says that almost all the Greek manuscripts available in his day omitted verses 9-20.

It is this very fact - that we can say without equivocation that this is a later addition - that should drive us to confidence in the rest of Scripture. To know that we have so many early resources proving the original texts of Scripture that we can also identify those sections that don’t have as much support for being original makes the rest of the Bible more believable not less. And so now we come to this asterisked portion and wonder what does it have to say to us? Does it have anything important for us today? Or should we just take it as an addition and be done with it. Get to lunch early? Well, I think there is something here for us this morning. Let’s read this added text and then look into what it has to say to us and the impact it must have in our lives today.

Mark 16:9–20 CSB

[Early on the first day of the week, after he had risen, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and reported to those who had been with him, as they were mourning and weeping. Yet, when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe it. After this, he appeared in a different form to two of them walking on their way into the country. And they went and reported it to the rest, who did not believe them either. Later he appeared to the Eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table. He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who saw him after he had risen. Then he said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all 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 drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes; if they should drink anything deadly, it will not harm them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will get well.” So the Lord Jesus, after speaking 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 word by the accompanying signs.]

We need to notice here that there is a progression to this passage - a progression from the lesser to the greater that follows the standards of the day for both trustworthiness and admissibility of a witness. The stories that were chosen for this section of Scripture are meant to provide a picture of the truth of the resurrection as Christ appears three times but also of the paralyzing power of disbelief. Notice that the writer here says twice - they did not believe it then again who did not believe. This is the lesson for us today and the question that we must face as we work with this text in our lives - do we really believe?

One Witness Leads to Disbelief

One important lesson that I learned as an instructor in the Navy that also applies to this section of Scripture is that you never introduce new information in your summary. Mark has already referred to Mary Magdalene in chapter 15 verse 40 saying she was present at the crucifixion, verse 47 saying that she witnessed where Christ was buried and in chapter 16 verse 1 saying that she had gone with Mary the mother of James and Salome to buy spices. Why now, in verse 9, is it necessary to identify her as the woman that Christ had cast seven demons out of. This new information really does nothing to add to the story or to validate anything except to introduce her to a group that may not have been familiar with who she was.

The writer here is relating a story that is found in more detail in John 20:11-18 and also in Luke 24:11. John tells the full story that Mary had hung around the tomb broken hearted at the disappearance of her Lord and that Jesus had appeared to her. She mistook Him for a gardener and asked where His body was. He calls her by name and her eyes are opened to who He is. He tells her to go and witness to the disciples that He has risen. John tells us that she did this very thing saying “I have seen the Lord.” The scribe of Mark picks the story up here saying “She went and reported to those who had been with Him, as they were mourning and weeping. Yet when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe it.”

In our study of this Gospel we have already discussed the remarkable conditions that existed at the resurrection of Christ and the witnesses chosen to herald His resurrection. In the first century society in which this event is located, the testimony of a woman was not trusted in many things and certainly not in an arena of religious matters. Mary’s testimony here is met with disbelief - but I think this is only partly due to her gender. Although that would become a point of contention later in the early church’s efforts to share the Gospel - remember the pagan philosopher who needled the church father Origen regarding the “gossip of women about the empty tomb” and the “half-frantic…self-deceived” testimony those women provided. Here with the disciples it is more likely that the prospect of Christ’s resurrection was so far fetched, so removed from their imagination that they couldn’t even conceive that it might be possible. It couldn’t be true because they couldn’t conceive that it was possible.

We also see here a single witness which the Bible holds as being less than a credible source - regardless of who it is. So we are brought face to face with the disbelief and the paralysis that it brings. Mary brought to the disciples a command - along with the other women - that they should go to Galilee. Yet they were paralyzed by fear and disbelief and remained stuck in place.

Two Witnesses Leads to Disbelief

The scribe now tells us that after appearing to Mary, Jesus appears in a different form to two of them walking on their way home into the country. We know this is the two disciples on their way to Emmaus. Christ joins them along the road and He is amazed at their unbelief as they talk of what happened to Him. He opens up the Scriptures to them - which is the amazing part. Jesus walks with them and details how the Scriptures (Luke tells us that He starts with Moses and all the Prophets) concern Him, interpreting things for them and they still don’t recognize Him. This is a walk of a little over 6 miles. Jesus details all of this for them in just about two hours - what an education that would have been. They implore Him to eat with them and only after praying over their meal and breaking their bread do they recognize Him. They return to Jerusalem and find the disciples only to experience the same response Mary had received earlier.

We see here another paralyzing factor of disbelief - these were men, Scripturally qualified to witness to the risen Christ; there were two of them meeting the Old Testament’s requirement for the number of witnesses to effectively testify. They would have had the very words of Christ that He had spoken to them as He opened the Scriptures to speak about Himself - and yet the disciples did not believe it.

It is possible to hear the truth from qualified men speaking the very Word of God and still refuse to believe it. Here the power of disbelief is magnified as even when faced with a credible source, with multiple witnesses who came bearing words of truth from the Scriptures the disciples still disbelieved.

The Disciple’s Charge…And Ours

Jesus appears now to the Eleven disciples as they recline around the table. Christ rebukes the disciples for their hardness of heart - for their unbelief now made impossible by the encounter that they have had with the living Lord. That is what must happen to our disbelief - we must have an encounter with the living Christ. We can hear all the Biblical sermons, we can hear all the witness testimonies and even see changed lives but until we are come into contact with the risen Lord our unbelief will remain and we will remain paralyzed. Now I stipulate that in our day the ways that we are brought face to face with the living Lord is through the mediums of preaching and testimonies but the Spirit must move through the words spoken to impact the hearts of the listeners. These disciples had had eye witness testimony to the reality of the risen Lord but it was not until they had seen Him that their unbelief was shattered and they were influenced into movement.

What excuse have we? We have all of the testimonies of His resurrection. We hear the Gospel preached frequently. And yet in many cases we remain paralyzed short of action. The disciples couldn’t remain where they were and neither can we. They had to move and at some point they did. I think we are to read a break in time between verse 14 where Christ rebukes them and verse 15 where He delivers to them His charge. Matthew 28 tells us that the disciples finally got out of Jerusalem and went to the mountain in Galilee where Christ met them and delivered the words known as the Great Commission. Here the scribe writing Mark tells us “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation.”

Following what the command was to the disciples in Matthew we must recognize that this is a charge for all disciples at all times - not just to the eleven. We may get that false impression from the sequence of events here in Mark but Matthew (the more credible source in this instance) provides a better picture of what was happening. We must be about the business of our Master, just as He was about the business of His Father while here on earth. Even in the face of persecution - and persecution has happened in the church in all time periods so this addition to the letter bears the same weight and promise as the earlier portions written to a Roman church on the cusp of persecution - we are to be preaching and sharing the Gospel. Charles Spurgeon said

2,200 Quotations from the Writings of Charles H. Spurgeon: Arranged Topically or Textually and Indexed by Subject, Scripture, and People Evangelism

407The fact is, brethren, we must have conversion work here. We cannot go on as some churches do without converts. We cannot, we will not, we must not, we dare not. Souls must be converted here, and if there be not many born to Christ, may the Lord grant to me that I may sleep in the tomb and be heard of no more. Better indeed for us to die than to live, if souls be not saved

We are to be about this business of preaching and sharing the Gospel. The scribe gives us a confusing statement here that could be misleading except for the testimony of the rest of Scripture. He writes “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,” seeming to point to the idea of baptismal regeneration or the idea that it is baptism that saves. This could not be further from the truth.

Romans 10:9 CSB

If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

1 John 1:9 CSB

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We can be saved without being baptized - now before you take away my baptist credentials - however....baptism is the outward expression, the outward testimony of the inward reality that the Spirit has wrought in the heart of a believer. So while baptism is not required for salvation, the Scriptures do prescribe it as one of the ways that salvation is demonstrated to a watching world.

An additional difficulty with the end of this book is found in the next few verses as the scribe goes on to describe several signs that will accompany those who believe. It is important to note that all of these signs, with the exception of drinking poison, can be found through the book of Acts as the Gospel is taken by the Apostles to the world. Paul is bitten by a viper at the very end of Acts on the island of Malta and he doesn’t die resulting in a fruitful period of ministry despite his status as a Roman prisoner. What we should learn from these signs - without getting too wrapped up by them - is that these accompanied the preaching of the Gospel until the cannon was written and now the sign that attests the truth of the Gospel is the book some of you hold in your hands.

Does that mean that none of these things could ever happen again? No - God is sovereign and He can determine whether or not these things still take place whenever He wants - but they are not normative they way that we see them in the New Testament.

What does all of this mean for us? It means we have work to do and we must fight against the paralysis that has gripped the church in recent years. We must have conversion work here. We must have organic growth. Not for my glory or for Dishman’s glory but for God’s glory. Mark set out to write the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God and what more fitting way for it to end than with the ascension of Christ to the very place that He told the high priest that He would go - to the right hand of God. And the disciple’s carry out their charge - they went out and preached everywhere…how are we doing?