The Ascension

I have your Bibles with you today. Turn with me if you would to Mark chapter 16 and we're looking at verses 9 through 20.

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 the 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, 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. Bow with me as we go to our Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father I lift up our sick and our suffering to you this morning. I pray for Trudy Robinson's brother Bill who's suffering with fluid on his lungs. I pray for Nicole Loce who's in need of a heart valve repair. For Jeremy Carriker and Jim Belk and Renda Torrance.

For Judy Swigard and Chris Williams. Lord I pray a prayer of thanksgiving for Melody Daniels who received a no cancer report on her biopsy yesterday. Father bring healing and comfort to all these.

Lord I also pray for our Alaskan team that you would help them to accomplish much for your kingdom and bring them safely back to us. Father today we finish up the Gospel of Mark. This Gospel was written primarily to the Gentile world and Mark lifted up Jesus in a very powerful and glorious way. Lord when we started this study we pointed out a verse that I just felt like encapsulated the thrust of the whole Gospel. Mark chapter 10 verse 45. The son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. We saw that Jesus was not just fully God but he was also fully man. We received a very powerful picture of his death, his burial and his resurrection. My prayer today is that the truths in Mark's Gospel would draw us ever closer to our precious Lord. We ask this prayer now in the holy and precious name of Jesus. Amen.

You may be seated. If the Lord does not return before next October, if the Lord allows me to live until next October, if this church doesn't fire me before next October, then I will have been here as your pastor for 35 years. In those 35 years I have quoted the following statement not once or twice but perhaps hundreds, maybe even thousands of times. And that statement is this, that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible, plenary, verbal, God-breathed Word of God. And in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 18, it was the Lord Jesus who said that not one jot or tittle shall pass away from his law. What is a jot? A jot is the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. It's the Hebrew letter yod, looks like a little apostrophe. What is a tittle? A tittle is a little mark on several of the Hebrew letters.

You say, well, what does that matter? Well, if you take the tittle off of the Hebrew letter bath, then you have a complete new letter, which is the letter kaph. So here's the problem. You change a tittle, you change a letter. You change a letter, you change a word. You change a word, you change a statement. You change a statement, you change a doctrine. If you change a doctrine, you have heresy.

Folks, this is tremendously important. If the Bible is the infallible, inerrant, plenary, verbal, God-breathed Word of God, I stand on that truth. I love that truth. I will fight for that truth.

Having said that, I need to say this. The truth of the perfect inerrancy of Holy Scripture is true for the original autographs or the original manuscripts. As Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Paul, Peter, and James, as they were writing their Gospels, as they were writing their epistles, the Word of God came off their pens exactly as God wanted it, every jot and every tittle. But as the years went by, there were copies made of the Scripture. And in those copies, every once in a while, you will see an arrow over years, over decades, over centuries.

Every once in a while, not often, you will see an arrow. The passage that we are looking at today is one of those situations where it appears that it could have been added on later. In the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus, which are two of the very earlier manuscripts, the Gospel of Mark stops at Mark chapter 16 and verse 8.

So what happened? There is a possibility that someone, or maybe better said, many someones, did not like the ending that we have in verse 8 of chapter 16 of the Gospel of Mark. Let me read that verse. So they went out quickly and they fled from the tomb for they were, for they trembled and were amazed and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. Brothers and sisters, I can understand why a committed, dedicated, God-loving, Jesus-honoring scribe would not like the ending of the Gospel of Mark right here. Because if this is where it was ended and we didn't have anything else, then we would not have any post-resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ. We would not have the Great Permission.

We would not have the excitement that we feel in the heart of the disciples and others over the resurrection of Jesus. So most scholars, including R.C. Sproul and John MacArthur, for example, and many others that I trust and love, say that this passage was not written by Mark, but it was added later by a scribe.

That does not mean it's not true. It just means that it was not written by Mark. So I want to read you what R.C.

Sproul said. We'll get onto the text after this, but listen to this carefully. Manuscript evidence leads scholars to conclude that the long ending of Mark was not in the original manuscript, but was added to this Gospel later in time by someone other than Mark.

I agree with that conclusion. If that is the case, why are these verses in our Bibles? The translators believe that even though the authenticity of this section is disputed, it provides a suitable conclusion to the Gospel of Mark. If it were not part of the book, Mark's Gospel would end with verse 8, which says, so they went out quickly, fled from the tomb for they trembled and were amazed.

And they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. That first conclusion would leave the information about the disciples encounters with the risen Christ and about his ascensions. It is believed that early in the second century, the Christian church wanted to give an appropriate conclusion to the abrupt ending of Mark. So this section was added based on what the apostles recalled and the other Gospel writers had said. In any case, the doctrines that are found in this passage are consistent with that which is taught throughout the New Testament.

Thus we can read and study it with confidence and profit. All right, got four points that I want to share with you. The first one is disbelief. Look with me at verses 9 through 14. 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 in 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 the 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. Now Mary Magdalene, according to John's gospel, got to the tomb of Jesus very early on that resurrection morning. When she got there, the stone that had been in front of the tomb was thrown all the way up the hill.

The tomb was empty. There was an angel there and the angel spoke to her, told her that Jesus had had risen from the dead. And then Jesus actually appears. She doesn't know that it's Jesus.

She thinks it's the gardener. She said, sir, if you know where they placed his body, please tell me. Jesus had one word. He said, Mary. And immediately she knew that it was him. And she ran over to Jesus. She fell down at his feet.

She threw her arms around his feet. And it was an act of love. And it was an act of great, great worship. Then she cried out one word, Rabboni, which means teacher or pastor.

The scripture tells us here that Jesus had cast out seven demons from Mary Magdalene. As I look at all the appearances of the different people and or groups of people that saw Jesus after he had been resurrected from the dead, I have to believe that Mary is one of the most excited, the one and most joyful people that experienced that post-resurrection appearance. She was so excited. Folks, why would she be the most emotionally pumped up of all the people that saw the resurrected Christ?

How is that so? Well, I think it had to do with what Jesus had done for her. Jesus cast out seven demons from this woman. Demonic spirits had attacked her, had attacked her heart, had attacked her mind, had attacked her body. Perhaps they led her into horrible immorality. Perhaps they led her into alcohol addiction.

We don't know for sure. But whatever it is, we know it was bad. For Jesus said in John chapter 10, verse 10, that the thief, that is the devil, cometh not but to kill, steal and destroy. Folks, Mary was not attacked by one demon, but by seven demons. Rest assured of this, that they put her through hell itself. They stole her joy. They controlled her mind. They attacked her heart. She could not control her emotions.

She could not think clearly. She was going through an unbelievably tough time and Jesus came. He cast out the demons and when he did, they were gone and she was free.

Jesus gave her the ability to repent of her sins and to trust him as her Lord and Savior. In a matter of just minutes, her whole life changed. No longer did she love her sin, now she hated her sin. No longer did she run from God, now she ran to God. All of a sudden, there was great clarity in her thinking.

Everything had changed. Jesus ministered to her. Jesus set her free. Jesus gave her joy unspeakable and full of glory. Jesus gave her life and he gave it to her abundantly. In Luke chapter 7, Jesus had gone to the house of Simon the Pharisee and he was going to eat supper there and while he was sitting there, a lady came in.

She's described as a horrible sinner. She comes in, she falls down at Jesus' feet and she takes his shoes off. She takes perfume and she anoints his feet with that perfume.

She weeps over his feet and then she wipes his feet off with her own hair. Now, there are many scholars who believe that this woman that did that was Mary Magdalene. We don't know that for sure, but as this is going on, Simon the Pharisee got mad and he starts questioning Jesus' integrity about why Jesus would let this woman who's a horrible sinner do this terrible, do this thing for him.

He doesn't like that. Let me read you Luke 7, what happened there. And Jesus answering said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you and he answered it, say it, teacher. A certain money lender had two debtors, one owed 500 denarii, the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now, which of them will love him more?

Simon answered, the one I suppose for whom he canceled the larger debt. And he said to him, you have judged rightly. And turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet. She has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet.

You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you her sins, which are many are forgiven for she loved much that he who is forgiven little loves little. And he said to her, your sins are forgiven. Then those who are at the table with him begin to say among themselves, who is this?

Who even forgives sin? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you go in peace. Now I'm not saying that this woman was Mary Magdalene.

I personally think that it very well might have been. But if it was, if it was not, this woman would experience something that was very, very close to what Mary Magdalene experienced. Jesus had freed Mary from demons. He had saved her soul from hell. He had given her a relationship with the living God. And in my opinion, in my opinion, her love for Christ was greater than I think any of the others. I think greater than the disciples, greater than the apostles, greater than his friends and family. Why would I think that? Because he who's given much loves much.

So to say that she was pumped up would be a vast understatement. A couple weeks ago, I got a call from a man. I've been praying for this man's salvation for over five years. He called me up. He said, Doug, I got saved. He said, I want to talk to you.

I came over to my office one night and we sat over there for two hours. He shared with me what Christ had done and he wept. He told me about the alcohol addiction that Christ had broken. He told me about the drug addiction that Christ had broken. He told me about how Jesus had set him free. We rejoiced together.

He left. After he left, I sat in my office for just a minute and I wept. I wept and I was excited for answered prayer. I was excited for what God had done in this man's life. Now, I started studying Mary Magdalene last week and all I could think about was this guy.

For he who is given much loves much. That's the way it was with Mary. So first Mark tells us about Mary and she went immediately after this and she told the other disciples that she had seen the resurrected Christ and what happened. The scripture says they didn't believe her. They just disbelieved. Then he mentions the two on the country road going to Luke's gospel and these are two they were on their way to a mass or disciples. Now, we don't know. They could have been husband and wife.

They lived in the same house. So they're walking down the road. They're talking about the rumors about Jesus being resurrected. All of a sudden Jesus appears. He walks up to them and they see him there and they look at him, but they don't recognize that it's Jesus and they start talking to him about Jesus and the possibility of his resurrection.

What does Jesus do? He takes them right to the word of God and he starts with Genesis. He goes all the way to the book of Malachi chapter verse by verse and goes all the way through and he uses that to tell them this truth that in every book of the Bible we are being pointed right to Jesus Christ. They finally get to their house. They invite him in for supper.

He sits down with them at the meal. The scripture says that as they were breaking the bread, their eyes were opened and they recognized that this was Jesus. As soon as that happened, Jesus just vanished from their sight and they look at each other and they say, wow, did our hearts not burn within us when he opened to us the scripture?

And what did they do? They didn't stay there. They ran back to Jerusalem to tell the disciples that they had seen the resurrected Jesus. And the scripture says that the disciples did not believe. Then verse 14 tells us that Jesus appeared to the 11, walked right through the wall of the upper room where they are and they are there around the table.

And the scripture says that Jesus rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of hearts. He said, guys, do you not remember how I told you time and time again that I was going to be crucified and then three days later I'd be raised from the dead? He said, then Mary Magdalene comes to you. She tells you that she has seen me. She has seen the resurrected Christ and you brushed her off. Then the two disciples from the Emmaus road come and they talk to you and they tell you that they have seen the resurrected Christ and you brushed them off. He says, guys, here I am.

I would have loved to have been there. I would have loved to have seen Jesus just hold his nail scarred hands out to him. Say, guys, do you see this?

Do you see my nail scarred hands? Now do you believe? I think they probably did then. Point two, the great commission. Look at verse 15 through 16. And he said to them, go into all the world, proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. So Jesus gave the apostles and every true child of God a command and that command was for us to take the gospel to every creature. Now what is the gospel?

Well, let me tell you what it's not. The gospel is not God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. The gospel is not you come to Jesus and he will give you purpose in your life. The gospel is not your own testimony.

The gospel is not anybody's testimony. In first Corinthians 15, Paul shared with us what the gospel is. That Jesus died for sinners in order that he might pay our sin debt. Then that Jesus was buried and he lay dead in the grave for three days. That proved the incarnation. That Jesus was not only fully God, but that he was fully man. And then Jesus was raised from the dead for what purpose? To break the power of death, not just over him, but over us to break the power of death. Now what verses would you use if you're going to share the gospel with somebody?

Let me just share a few with you. Romans 3 23 for we have all sinned to come short of the glory of God. Romans 5 8 for God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 6 23 for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. John chapter 3 verse 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Luke chapter 13 verse 5 Jesus said except you repent you shall all likewise perish. Ephesians 2 8 9 for by grace he is saved through faith that not of yourself.

It is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast. Romans chapter 10 and verse 13 whosoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. 2 Corinthians 5 17 if any man be in Christ he is a new creation old things are passed away behold all things are become new. Now the scripture says here that after this Jesus said he who believes in his baptized will be saved. So I went through those verses did you notice I didn't say anything about baptism? I didn't use baptism not once.

Now Sproul did a great job in explaining what's the meaning of this passage here and I want you to listen very very carefully because I think this is tremendously important. Jesus statement that he who believes in his baptized will be saved is somewhat confusing. Some people conclude from it that baptism is necessary for salvation. Therefore they infer that just his faith is a necessary condition for salvation so is baptism. However the rest of the New Testament makes it very clear that the only absolutely necessary condition for our salvation is faith and that condition is sufficient.

Anyone who truly puts his trust in Christ will be justified at that very second. Furthermore we see examples in scripture of people who were saved without being baptized such as a thief on the cross. Jesus added he who does not believe will be condemned. Notice the absence of the term baptism in that part of Jesus's statement. He did not say in a parallel fashion that anyone who is not baptized is condemned. However faith is essential for salvation. Therefore the lack of it results in condemnation. Most Christians are familiar with John 3 16.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. However John 3 18 makes the opposite point. He who believes in Jesus is not condemned. He who does not believe is condemned already because he is not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God.

I stress this for this reason. Jesus did not come into a world of innocent people but a world in which every person was under the condemnation of God. Many people believe and teach that those who never hear of Jesus are not condemned because they cannot reject a savior of whom they do not hear. That Jesus taught that all people even those who never hear of him are in a state of condemnation because they have universally rejected the general revelation of God the Father who has made himself known to every creature.

Every human being has exchanged the knowledge of God for idols, exchanged the truth for a lie and worships and serves created beings rather than the Creator for which reason all people are under God's righteous condemnation. Alright point three is signs that follow. Look at verse 17 through 18. 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. Jesus listed some signs here that would follow after he left them. And needless to say these verses had been used to create some bad theology and some very dangerous practices. But it is true that we saw these signs in the apostolic age. In the early church the apostles are still ministering and living. Before the New Testament was completed we saw these signs and we saw them often.

Just take a look at them. Jesus said they would cast out demons. You go through the book of Acts and you'll see over and over again people casting out demons in the same way that Jesus had done it when he was walking on this earth.

They were doing this. For example, Acts chapter 16 Paul went to the young girl who had a spirit of divination. He cast the demon out of that girl and when he did that she could not speak and tell fortunes anymore. She could speak but she could not tell fortunes.

She was unable to do it. The demon was gone. And folks you go over into Acts chapter 19. Paul is witnessing to a group of men. These guys were disciples of John the Baptist. They didn't know Christ. Paul shared the gospel with them. They came to know the Lord and then the Lord allowed them to speak in other languages. It was very interesting.

So that was the second thing. They will speak in new languages that they did not know. We see this on the day of Pentecost, don't we? When the apostles had never learned these particular languages and here's Peter getting up on the day of Pentecost.

He preaches. Three thousand people are saved. Many of them are people that did not know Hebrew, did not know Aramaic and Peter speaks and they hear the language and they come to Christ. And in Acts 19 passage that I mentioned just a moment ago. Then thirdly they would take up serpents and not be harmed.

Acts 28 after the terrible shipwreck Paul finds himself on the island of Malta. They're very cold. It's raining and Paul goes out and he finds some brush, some branches and he starts picking them up and a viper grabs onto his hand and just holds onto it, biting him. It's a snake.

And so the natives that are there saying, oh, we know what this means. This means that this man must be a horrible terrible man because God let him be bitten by this snake and he's going to swell up and he's going to die. Well, that didn't happen. Paul didn't swell up. Paul didn't die.

He lived right through it as if nothing had happened. Now I know that this verse is used as a proof text for snake handling cults. We see that still in our day, don't we? You handle snakes and you let them bite you and if you don't get sick and you don't die, then that proves you that you're a great Christian. Or you handle snakes and they don't bite you at all, that proves you're a great Christian. Folks, that's nonsense. There's nothing to that. That's doing nothing but testing God.

It's dangerous and to put it bluntly, it's stupid. Fourthly, they would drink poisonous drinks and it would not harm them. And we don't have any particular example of this in the New Testament, but we do have it in church history. For during that very same time, there was a Christian who was arrested by the Roman soldiers.

They forced him to drink of this poisonous substance that should have killed him right like this and he didn't even get sick and he did not die. The last thing that was mentioned was laying on the hands and the recovering of the sick. We see this with Ananias where Ananias and Paul were together. Paul's there.

He had just seen Jesus on the Damascus road and Jesus was bright and shining. Paul went blind. And so Ananias lays his hand on Paul and immediately Paul receives his sight. Think of Peter in chapter 9 of the book of Acts.

Dorcas, everybody loved her. A strong Christian and she had died. And Peter goes over to her.

He lays his hand on her. Immediately, she's raised from the dead. I think in Acts chapter 3 of Peter and John going by the beautiful gate. And as they go by, there's the lame beggar that's there. He can't walk.

And he starts begging for money. Peter says, silver and gold have I none, but that which I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he jumped up and he went into the temple leaping and jumping and praising God. Folks, these signs were fulfilled in the apostolic age in the early church before the New Testament was completed.

My last point is the ascension. Look with me at verses 19 through 20. 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 they preached everywhere while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs. So Jesus was received up into heaven. In Acts chapter 1, we are told that he was received up into a cloud. I believe that that cloud was the Shekinah glory of God, the manifest presence of God that was visible.

They could see it. And Jesus went right up into the Shekinah glory. Then there was an angel that two angels that were there and they spoke to the disciples. They said, you men of Galilee, why stand you here gazing into heaven? He said, this same Jesus who just left you is going to come again in like manner just as you've seen him go. Now just right before Jesus left, he gave them a great promise. And that promise is found in Acts chapter 1 verse 8.

And he says this, but you shall receive power. After that, the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and into the uttermost parts of the earth. With that promise that one day Jesus was coming back, the disciples went back to the upper room. Let me tell you, they were pumped up. They had hope, they had joy, and they had peace.

I can't begin to imagine the emotions that they must have been experiencing . Jesus would no longer be with them physically, but they had a promise that they were going to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. When we read Matthew's account of the Great Commission, Matthew or Jesus said, and I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Concerning the human nature, he's no longer with us.

Concerning the divine nature, he will never be absent from us. Let me read you Mark 16 verse 20. And I want to read this from the New King James Version.

I like the way it says it. And they went out and they preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen. They obeyed Jesus. They went out and they preached the gospel message. And when they preached the gospel message, God did miracles.

I call these confirmation miracles. It was God's stamp of approval on the gospel message that they were preaching. God said, listen to what's being said.

Here's the miracle that shows you that what they are saying is absolute truth. I read this in the New King James Version because it ends the Gospel of Mark with a great word. And that word is Amen. What does Amen mean?

It means this is truth. Folks, we have just finished our study of the Gospel of Mark. And it ends with Amen. And what's he telling us? He's telling us from Mark chapter 1 verse 1 through Mark chapter 16 verse 20, it is all truth. Every jot, every tittle, every word, every statement, every doctrine, we can believe with all our heart. Amen. Amen.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, in these final verses, Jesus gives the disciples and us a great commission, the great commission. We are commanded to take the gospel to every creature. Father, this church believes in missions. We send missionaries out to the four corners of the earth.

We reach people through radio and internet. But Lord, I wonder how we're doing with our neighbors. I wonder how we're doing with our friends, our acquaintances, our family. Help us to be a better and more faithful witness than we have been. May our lives be an Amen to your gospel. For it's in Jesus' holy and precious name that I pray. Amen.