Mark 16
Notes
Transcript
“Mohammed, Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha), Confucius, Jesus Christ. To many, these names are all of equal value; they represent great teachers who spoke words of wisdom and enlightenment. They are the leaders of major religions, and their words and ideas live to this day, each having won the loyalty of millions and even billions of followers. All four of these men died and were buried. However, three still lie in the grave.” (Missler)
Verses 1-6
Verses 1-6
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the vey climax of human history! In fact the powerful truth and its results have been the primary teaching of the Christian church since its inception on the day of Pentecost.
The women seeing the empty tomb and seeing the risen Lord first is very out of the ordinary for a whole religious group which began in that period of history to hold such a deeply held belief (the resurrection) coming from the testimony of women.
It makes the whole event even more important because of the fact that women had such a low standing culturally. To think that a whole movement called the church of Jesus Christ or as some would call it Christianity would get its world wide start based on the testimony of women is phenomenal!
If this was all a made up story the disciples would have made up men to be at the tomb, not told the truth about the women being their first.
These sweet ladies were the last at the cross and followed Joseph to the tomb, and now they are the first ones at the tomb to bring spices to offset the decomposition process since Joseph and Nicodemus had to do everything so quickly.
Matthew’s gospel account tells us that the tomb was secured by a group of Roman special forces and also reveals how the stone was moved…
1 Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.
2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.
3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.
4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.
The stone was rolled away to let the world see that Jesus had been resurrected from the dead. Jesus in His resurrected state did not need the stone to be rolled away for Him to escape the tomb. He had already escaped the grips of death, a big rock wasn’t going to prevent Him from going anywhere. We read of of appearances by Christ to His disciples and at times they were in locked rooms for fear of the Jews (John 20) and Jesus didn’t need anyone to open any doors for Him, He simply walked through the walls in His resurrected from.
Don’t you love that as Jesus birth is proclaimed by the angels to a small few shepherds who were one of the lowest classes of people in the culture, so is His resurrection. God is never worried about winning over the highest classes of mankind, because God is God and never has an identity crisis nor does He have self esteem problems.
Verses 7-8
Verses 7-8
Go and tell has been the charge of the church all along.
We are first told to go and tell by the angel (who is speaking on behalf of Jesus) and later commanded to do so by Jesus our risen King when he gives us the Great Commission
Jesus already told them that He would meet them in Galilee after His resurrection, so this message that the women will bring is meant to remind them and build their faith in Him…
27 And Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’
28 But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.”
If you remember from John 21 Jesus does in fact meet His diciples in Galilee as they are out fishing.
When Jesus met His disciples there something incredibly important happened. They saw Him just as He told them!
That is what is necessary for every disciple of Jesus Christ isn’t it? For us to see Him again and again as He reveals Himself to us in those various moments of our lives in which we desperately need to be reminded of His presence and His promises.
Tell His diciples and Peter -
Mark 2. The Angel Gives the Women a Message to Relay (7–8)
“If any of you have behaved worse to your Master than others, you are peculiarly called to come to him now. You have grieved him, and you have been grieving because you have grieved him. You have been brought to repentance after having slidden away from him, and now he seals your pardon by inviting you to himself.” (Spurgeon)
The Controversy of Verses 9-11
The Controversy of Verses 9-11
[[Most Bibles will make some sort of note about verses 9-20. The note will say something like these verses did not appear in the earliest Greek manuscripts of Mark.
There are of course various arguments for and against verses 9-20 being included in Mark.
Against:
The 2 oldest Greek manuscripts known to exist from 325 A.D. and 340 A.D. do not include anything past what we read in verse 8. In fact there are another 100 or so ancient manuscripts in multiple languages that do not include anything past verse 8. There are even some ancient manuscripts that include verses 9-20 but they have a marking to indicate that they may not have been in the original manuscripts.
Eusebius (300 A.D.s) and Jerome (400 A.D.s both wrote that the known manuscripts of their day did not include verses 9-20 either.
So the debate has been a long standing one.
There are some very early manuscripts that include a slightly different ending to Mark with one being shorter and one being a bit longer than what we have in verses 9-20.
Another argument against verse 9-20 is that the vocabulary is very different from the rest of Mark’s gospel account, not to mention the odd transition between verses 8 & 9.
Because of all of that many if not most of modern Bible scholars reject verse 9-20 as being part of the original manuscript.
However there are numerous arguments for verses 9-20...
For:
Many very early Christian writers and leaders refer directly to what is written in verses 9-20 which means they had a copy of it that they believed to be part of Mark’s original gospel message.
Guzik gives a detailed list for us in his commentary...
Mark B. Preface to Mark 16:9–20: Do These Verses Belong in Our Bible?
Papias refers to Mark 16:18. He wrote around A.D. 100.
• Justin Martyr’s first Apology quoted Mark 16:20 (A.D. 151).
• Irenaus in Against Heresies quoted Mark 16:13 and remarked on it (A.D. 180).
• Hippolytus in Peri Charismaton quoted Mark 16:18 and 19. In his homily on the heresy of Noetus, he refers to Mark 16:19. He wrote while he was Bishop of Portus (A.D. 190–227).
• Vicentius, Bishop of Thibari, quoted from 2 of the verses in the 7th Council of Carthage held under Cyprian (A.D. 256). Augustine, a century and a half later, in his reply, recited the words again.
• The apocryphal Acts of Pilate contains Mark 16:15–18 (thought to be written in the somewhere around A.D. 200).
• The Apostolic Constitutions clearly allude to 16:15 in two places and quote Mark 16:16 outright (thought to be written somewhere in the late third century or the early fourth century).
The vast majority of ancient manuscripts do include verses 9-20.
Iranaeus the bishop of Lyons who lived from 140-202 tells us that the church at that time and leading up to his day believed that verses 9-20 were a genuine part of Mark’s original writing.
So what’s our take?
Obviously something came after verse 8. It is an odd and abrupt way to end a letter at verse 8.
So it is possible that verse 9-20 are original, or that the ending was lost and someone added verse 9-20 from memory.]]
Verses 9-11
Verses 9-11
You might remember the fuller picture of this from John’s account of resurrection morning...
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.
Appeared = “phaino” in the greek
appeared = to bring forth into the light - to make evident - shine -
The same word is also used in the description of Jesus - Revelation 1:16 - where it is translated into English as shining
16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
Regarding Jesus coming to earth - John 1:5 - shines
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
In the way we will see Jesus appear - Matthew 24:27 - shines/flashes (NKJV)
27 For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
It is interesting and sad to see that the 11 did not believe Mary Magdalene.
Verses 12-13
Verses 12-13
You might remember this from Lukes account of Jesus revealing Himself to the 2 men while they walked on the road to Emmaus...
13 That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem,
14 and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.
15 While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.
16 But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
17 And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad.
18 Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
19 And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,
20 and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him.
21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.
22 Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning,
23 and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive.
24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”
25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”
27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Not only did the diciples not believe Mary Magdalene, they also didn’t believe these 2 men.
Verses 14-18
Verses 14-18
Since the 11 did not believe the witnesses that Jesus sent ahead of Himself, He now shows up in their midst and rebukes their unbelief.
When we read verse 17 we need to remember the context which is the great commission. This isn’t intended to be a dare for those who would follow Christ.
Verses 19-20
Verses 19-20
This work continues to this day as the church actively fulfills the Great Commission across the globe.
We will see the beginning of this work as we jump into the book of Acts next.
There is an added portion that is found in some translations like the NASB...
Mark 16:20 (NASB 2020)
20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed. And they promptly reported all these instructions to Peter and his companions. And after that, Jesus Himself also sent out through them from east to west the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.
With this final verse of Mark we have now studied through the entire NT verse by verse over the last 12 years together! God is faithful!