Latest / Admonition Podcast / Mark 16 (Lesson 2) - Aaron Cozort - May 27, 2026
Transcript
- aaron cozort (00:01) It's good to see everybody this evening. Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to the Book of Mark. Mm. Good to see everybody. We'll begin with a word of prayer and then we'll get into our study. Gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for your many blessings, humbly bowing before you and recognizing how much we are in need of your love, your care, your providence. Lord, we pray that you will be with those who are ill. Pray that you will be with those who are struggling and having difficulties in their daily lives. Pray that you give them the strength that they need to endure. Lord, we pray also that we will be an encouragement and help to them as they go through their daily lives and strive to do the things that they need to do. Lord, we pray that you be with those who are traveling, pray that they reach their destination safely and pray that you will be with them to return home safely as well. Lord, we are grateful for this opportunity to study your word, to open the scriptures and learn more what you would have us to do. and how to live and how to understand what your son came here to accomplish. Lord, we pray that you will forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory. All this we pray and ask in Jesus' name, amen. We're in Mark chapter 16 about to close out the ⁓ book and Mark's account of the Gospels. So we'll get into about verse 12 ⁓ of chapter 16 as we get started this evening. Reading verse 12, after that, appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it to the rest. but they did not believe either. Later he appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table and he rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart because they did not believe those who had seen him after he had risen. As we've gone through the recent verses, we know that Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene. We know that Jesus appeared to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Now, ⁓ Paul will tell us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that Jesus also appeared to over 500 of His disciples during the intervening time between the time He was resurrected and the time He ascended back to the Father. But as He confronts the disciples here, this seems to be the first time that He is with them. He's going to appear to them. and then he's going to appear to them again on ⁓ the next Sunday, the next first day of the week. But as he appears to them, they're unbelieving at that point. They are not convinced from all the reports that they've heard that Jesus is actually resurrected from the dead, that he is alive, and that he is once again ⁓ walking this earth. And so, He rebukes them for their unbelief and their hardness of heart. We talked about this just a little bit as we closed last week. What do you think was the cause of the hardness of heart that they had, the unbelief that they had? All right, they were looking for a worldly king. They were looking for a victory over Roman power. They were looking for a return of a Davidic king sitting on a throne. They were looking for a lot of things that the Jews and the Jewish tradition had been telling them to look for. And in spite of all of the things that Jesus had taught them about the church, about the kingdom, about what was coming, they were still looking for all of that. And so they did not understand when he went to the cross. They did not understand what was happening. Now, I want to take you over to Luke chapter 24 and point out one of the things that Jesus says to them as he is preparing to ascend back to the Father. Luke chapter 24. Beginning in verse 36, now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them and said, Peace be to you. But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your heart? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. as Jesus appears to them, they're still unconvinced. They're still confused and unafraid as a result of this. Now, if you put all the passage together, you'll find out that they were in a locked room when he appeared to them. So they're startled and amazed state is understandable. But the point is Jesus says, why don't you touch me and find out? If you think I'm a spirit, if you think I'm a ghost, as it were, to use the term, then why don't you put your hands on me and find out if I'm real or not? Jesus makes the point that He is both flesh and bones. He is mortal in the sense of He is fleshly and physical. He is not their imagination. He is not a vision. He is real. And so He then says, or we then read in verse 40, when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. But while they still did not believe for joy and marveled, he said to them, have you any food here? So they gave him a piece of a boiled fish and some honeycomb, and he took it and ate in their presence." So something else that ghosts don't do is eat and digest food. ⁓ So they're... seeing this, they're observing this, they're still not understanding it, they're still not fully comprehending it, now their hardness of heart has been replaced with joy, but they're still trying to grasp what it is that is going on. Why do you think, and I know this is surmising, but I just want to spend a moment with it, why do you think they're struggling to grasp His resurrection so much? when they grasped ⁓ Lazarus' resurrection, seemingly with no problem. Correct. Okay. So I think that could be part of it. They know who called Lazarus forth from the grave. They know who spoke the seas and made them calm. But it seems as though there's a mindset that says, well, you know what? Once you're dead, you're powerless, right? And the point that the scriptures are making is that Jesus was not powerless once he was dead. As result of that, he was resurrected both by the power of God and by his own word. So then verse 44 we read, then he said to them, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me. As Jesus confronts them with the reality of his resurrection, Jesus points out that they had been told this was going to happen. He had already told them what was coming, but they didn't understand it. They didn't comprehend it. They didn't store it up and they needed to be reminded. Jesus is going to point out that all the things that had occurred were the fulfillment of the law and the prophets and the things that had been said concerning Him. Right, so the touch me not phrase has a couple of different translations that it could be. One of them in the way the New King James translates it is do not cling to me, okay? So the mental image and perhaps the best understanding is here is Mary, she knew he was going to be crucified, she was anticipating what was going to happen to him, she had been there at his at the cross. She had been there the morning of His resurrection. She's now seen Him, but He's leaving again. And His return and His presence with her and with all of them is not permanent. And so it seems to me that's probably the indication is not, hey, if you push too hard, I'm going to fall apart or, hey, I'm not fully back to flesh. I think the idea is Do not hold on to me because my presence here is temporary. So I suspect, my own personal idea is that's what the idea of there is. ⁓ Because he's gonna say the same thing to Thomas. ⁓ When Thomas is there, at the next occasion, he's gonna say, put your hand on my side and find out, okay? Very much so, but, you know, as we get into the text, you're getting ahead of me. ⁓ So, as Luke will point out, and we'll get into miracles in just a moment, but as Luke will point out, he says, these are the things that were already spoken. This is what the prophecies of Moses, the law, prophets, the Psalms, all said concerning me. And He opened their understanding, Luke chapter 24 verse 45, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. The realization is that the information, the knowledge of what the scriptures had said had been with them the entire time. They had missed it. And it is honestly, it's somewhat humbling and important for us to realize that we have to deal with the text of scripture and we cannot allow modern mindset, teachers that we know, the people around us, to sway us away from actually understanding what the text actually says. Because that's what had happened to them. The text had been there. The prophecies had been there. The information that they needed to understand it had been there. But they hadn't comprehended it. They had not understood it properly. or they had been misled in their understanding of it so as to achieve someone else's goals and ends. That's one of the points that, by the way, that ⁓ Ezekiel will point out and others will point out concerning the shepherds that the Good Shepherd is going to get rid of is that they were utilizing the word of God, not to the people's benefit, but to their own. When Jesus says Isaiah spoke concerning you in Mark chapter 7, he says Isaiah prophesied concerning you that you're hypocrites because in vain you teach for doctrine the commandments of men. His point and the quotation from Isaiah is Isaiah saying you're teaching people to fear God so that you are benefited by it. You're teaching your commandments instead of His commandments because then you remain in power. And that whole problem that they were dealing with had led to a Jewish nation that wasn't looking for the right Messiah. They weren't looking for a spiritual Messiah setting up a spiritual kingdom. They weren't looking for a Messiah that was going to redeem and unify Jew and Gentile alike. They were looking for a warrior king. So thus it was written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and arise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are in dude with power from on high." As Jesus in Luke's account here is reminding them that this is what the Spirit had spoken through the prophets. This is what the Old Testament prophets had said concerning him, that everything had happened exactly the way God said it would. Now it's time for the next step. It's now time for what God has already said would also come. And that is going to be the institution of the church and the beginning of the kingdom. He says that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name. to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. Now, Luke is gonna provide this basically bridge between the end of the book of Luke and the beginning of the book of Acts, because Luke is the writer of both Luke and Acts. And so Luke 24 corresponds to Acts chapter one, and Luke adds some additional commentary in Acts chapter one concerning the things Jesus said before he ascended back to the Father. But let's jump back over to Mark. In Mark's account, Mark is going to record Jesus's ⁓ great commission, if you want to give it that terminology, many have. Later, he appeared to the eleven verse fourteen again, and they sat as they sat at table and he rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart because they did not believe those who had seen him after he had risen. And he said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Now over in Luke's account, what did Luke record Jesus said would be preached to all nations. repentance and another R, repentance and remission of sins. Okay, so Luke describes the gospel in the form of repentance, that is a change of mind that brings about a change of action to reconcile oneself to God and the remission of sins. Luke looks at it from the perspective of what's separating a person from God. their willingness to repent and their sins. Isaiah chapter 59 verses one and two. What does Isaiah tell us? That sin separates us from God. And Isaiah chapter one tells us as God confronts Israel, he says, come, know, reason with me. If you're willing to repent, if you're willing to wash your hands of your sins and turn away from them, I'm willing to forgive you. So. Isaiah's Old Testament prophecy leads forward to that picture of the Messiah and his declaration of repentance and remission of sins. But Mark is going to focus on the idea, number one, who is to be preached to. into all the world and he further provides a reinforcement of that to every creature. Now, does Mark mean let's go teach the puppy dogs, let's go teach the praying mantises, no wait, they're already good, they're already praying, let's go teach the zebras, is that what he means by every creature? No, all right, he's talking about humanity. He's talking about specifically everyone made in the image of God in their creation, that is all humans, and it doesn't matter what nation they come from. It's important to realize that Jesus is laying the groundwork for the Jews and the Gentiles to receive the gospel. And yet, just like The prophecies that came before this are the disciples or the apostles? Are they going to grasp that immediately just based upon the fact that he said all nations and every creature? Are they going to get that? No, it's going to take all the way till Acts chapter 10 before they finally grasp that God is sending the gospel to not just the Jews, but to all nations. So he says here, as Mark records it, go into all the world and preach the good news. That's what the word gospel means. Preach the message, the good news to every preacher. When Paul is preaching in Corinth, in 1 Corinthians chapter one, Paul will talk about the things that he preached while he was in Corinth. And he preached according to what he said. Christ and Him crucified. And he said he determined not to preach anything else except Christ and then crucified. Now, does that mean that Paul didn't teach on moral issues, that Paul didn't teach on doctrinal issues? We know that's not the case because he mentioned some of the things he had already taught them. But the point was in first Corinthians chapter one, I didn't preach you my opinion. I didn't preach you the wisdom of men. I didn't preach you the things that the Gentiles and all of their scholars and all of their wise men would say, and I didn't preach you the traditions of the Jews. I preached Christ and I preached him as a crucified Savior. That's the message Jesus is saying needs to be preached to all the world. Now, did Jesus put a timeline on this as to when we need to stop? preaching this to all the world? No. ⁓ As far as the commission goes, it is an ongoing commission. But then he says, he who believes and is baptized will be saved. As you come to this text, you're going to find one of those texts that much of the religious world does not like to hear. They do not like to agree with it. They don't want to admit that it says what it says. Unfortunately, every time you read it, it forces you to admit that it says what it says. If we were to say, he who turns left out of the parking lot and turns right up here on this street on Byhalia is going to end up at the stoplight. Do you think it would be sufficient to just turn left? No, if you just turn left and you just keep going, you're going to run into a fence. You're not ever going to get to the stoplight. The point is the instruction from Jesus is clear, but let's let's examine this one. If you turn back over to Luke, Chapter 24. If we were to go to verse 46 and read, thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and arise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. If we were to read that and say, you know what, I don't know that repentance and remission of sins needs to be preached. Why don't we just preach remission of sin? Let's leave the repentance part out. Would we be doing what he says? Would we be holding faithful to his authority and to his commandment? No. If we decide, you know what, I like the idea of repentance, I'm not so sure that we've got any sins to be remitted, so let's just preach repentance. Are we going to be keeping his commandments? No. If we go to any other passage that has a this and this equals this and we leave one of them out, the religious world at large would agree that, well, if it says that and that equals that, then you can't get that without both of those. But the moment that baptism is included in the list, many in the religious world go, well, I know that's what it says, but you just have to read the rest of the verse to know that's not what it means. I know that's what it says, that's not what it means. We need to be careful. He says, he who believes and is baptized will be saved. Then he sets a contrast, but he who does not believe will be condemned. Jesus makes it clear, if you do not believe the message, you stand condemned. Now, let's spend a moment with that because this passage actually touches more of the religious world than we think. There are those who, they don't want to hear the first part where it says believe and baptized will be saved, but there's those who also don't want to believe and, or sorry, don't want to hold on to the do not believe and you will be condemned. We have a world, and we especially here in America have a society that has been so inundated with a concept that there is no such thing as truth. that their mindset says, you know what, I think everyone who's never heard the gospel will be okay. And it's always the deepest, darkest regions of Africa. I think the people who've never heard the gospel in the deepest, darkest regions of Africa, if they never hear the gospel, they'll be okay. You have to ask yourself a Do they believe that Jesus Christ is Son of God and that He died for their sins? if they've never heard of Jesus Christ, do they believe? No. So what does the text tell us their current state is? Condemned. Turn over to 1 Thessalonians. sorry second bestelonians In 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and in verse 3, Paul writes, we are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly and the love of every one of you all abounds towards each other, so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure. which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer. Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes in that day to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed." Paul says, if you do not know God and if you have not obeyed the gospel, what is your state? You're lost. But he didn't just say that. He actually points out, if you notice again in verse 6, that it is a righteous thing with God. One of the biggest problems we have in our society today is we don't believe in truth. And because we don't believe in truth, we don't believe in righteousness. We don't believe that God is righteous, that righteousness cannot ignore sin. We have a society that will welcome sin that will tolerate sin will call for unlimited tolerance to sin. The only thing it won't tolerate is righteousness. And it will not tolerate a God who as wholly says, no, I will not forgive those who have not obeyed. Now, point to be made is that Paul did not just say those who believe, did he? Over in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, as he wrote those words, he said, will give you rest with us, with the Lord Jesus as revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God and those who do not what? Obey the gospel. If someone says, you know what, I obeyed half the gospel, I should be fine. Paul will say, no, you didn't. If you didn't obey all of it, you didn't obey any of it. It is not sufficient, nor has it ever been sufficient with God to halfway obey him. And you know, in our own lives, we understand that. If you've got an employee who you give instruction, go do this and this. They come back. I did that. ⁓ Waiting for the next part. You did this and this? No, I didn't do both. Then you didn't obey. You didn't do what you were told to do. You did not fulfill the command and I'm certainly not giving you a commendation for doing half the job. The same thing is true with God. Jesus would point out in Matthew chapter 7 in the Sermon on the Mount that those who say unto me, Lord, but do not do the will of my Father in heaven will not be accepted in the kingdom. When you look at this text, first, it mandates that we preach the gospel. It's not just that it mandates the definition of obeying the gospel, but it also mandates that we preach the gospel. What if we were to arrive on judgment day and say, you know what, ⁓ Lord, I know you told us to take the gospel to all the world. I know you told us to preach to every creature, but honestly, I'm a little biased. I kind of think only the people from my country needed to be saved. So I didn't bother with the rest of the world. I didn't think it was all that important to reach the rest of the world. After all, I converted my neighbors and that's enough. You think he's going to accept that? Not any more than he's going to accept hearing and believing and not doing the rest of it. God is setting an expectation and Christ is setting an expectation of exactly what His apostles were supposed to do, who they were supposed to preach to, and what they were supposed to preach. But He then says, who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. As Jesus informs the apostles, that they are going to go out and preach, he's going to tell them as Luke records it that you're going to begin this in Jerusalem. You're going to start declaring the gospel in Jerusalem. Turn over to Matthew chapter 28 and notice what he says here. Verse 16 says, Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end. of the age. Jesus will tell them, as Matthew records it, to go forth and preach the gospel. Who are they supposed to preach to? Everyone, all the nations. But He also points out that they are to do what to those who believe? Now, how do you know that they're only supposed to baptize those that believe? Baptism is an indication of someone hearing the gospel and responding to it. If they heard the gospel and rejected it, you're not going to baptize them. But if we look at this text and go, a minute, some will argue, well, wait a minute, belief is the only thing, if you don't do it, you'll be condemned according to Mark chapter 16. Belief isn't even mentioned here. Over in Luke is belief mentioned, repentance and remission of sins is mentioned. In Matthew, teaching and baptizing is mentioned. And yet in Mark, individuals who want to claim faith only come to a passage and they say, because it says in the negative, if you don't believe you're condemned, that means that's the only thing you have to do, which completely ignores Matthew and completely ignores Luke. ⁓ Well, they don't get it out of the Bible, but sure. But one of the things to understand is everywhere that belief and baptism and the concept of salvation are all in the context. Anywhere, as a matter of fact, where baptism and salvation are in the same context, baptism always precedes salvation every single time. So, if someone were to say, you know what, we've got this group of people who believe we're going to have a baptism service seven days from now, then at what point are they saved? Even if they were taught right and were doing it right, they wouldn't be saved until after they were baptized. So, you'd be telling someone, you know what, you just hold on, I don't think it's that important. We'll wait and save you later. Good luck. Come see me in seven days. So the point is that text does not uphold in any position, in any text, that a person can believe only. Add to that, most individuals who teach belief only don't actually believe. belief only. You want to know how I know? Because they always add prayer to it. If it's faith only, then you don't have to pray. They've added prayer, which by the way is found nowhere in the New Testament as a condition for salvation. It is found as a condition for repentance for those who are already saved, Acts chapter eight with Simon the sorcerer. But prayer is never found anywhere in the New Testament as a condition for salvation. So you ask, where did they get it from? They didn't get it out of the Bible. Therefore, they got it somewhere else. Yes, Justin. James 2 24. You see then that a man ⁓ is justified by works and not by faith only. ⁓ So the only passage, valid point, the only passage in all of the ⁓ scriptures that mentions faith and only in the same sentence says you're not saved by faith only. But the point is even the people who teach faith only don't believe faith only. They believe faith in prayer. You ask them, well, wait a minute, what happens to the person who believes but before they pray they die? Well, I think they're probably saved anyway. Then you don't need prayer. you push them real hard on it and eventually you find out that well they believe the people who haven't heard yet are safe too. So now you don't need faith. As matter of you're better off if you never hear the gospel. You don't have to do any of it. You just end up in heaven. we have moved, and this is the thing, and the reason why I'm spending the time on this, is as a society we have stopped discussing scripture as truth, and we have started discussing scripture as what makes me comfortable with what God said. and to be polite and yet blunt, God doesn't care whether you're comfortable with what He said. He commanded you to believe it and obey it. And as Jesus is preaching to the apostles and speaking to the apostles, He's rebuking them for not understanding what God said and not believing what the scriptures told them. So from the same text that Jesus condemns a lack of faith, unbelief, and a rejection of what the text says, people want to take part of what the text says and throw it out. Now, spend all that time telling you about all the things that we do need to understand and we do need to believe and we do need to comprehend for salvation and now I'm going to get in trouble with the rest of the text. He says, these signs will follow those who believe in my name. They will cast out demons. They will speak with new tongues. They will take up servant serpents. And if they drink anything deadly, they will by no means hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. So, if we believe that the commission and the gospel has been continuous and ongoing and authoritative from the day that Jesus spoke it until now, then should we also understand that miracles have continued to be performed by Christians from that day forward until now. One of the things that we have to be careful with is context. There is a group of people he is speaking to about what will happen to them in the coming days and what they will do in the coming days and what they will preach in the coming days. And when you put all of these passages together, it is important for us to do that. and understand the limitations of the context because we're not going to limit the context. The context is going to limit itself. We just have to pay attention to what it actually says. In Matthew chapter 28, and we'll probably continue this discussion next week, ⁓ we'll just continue this discussion when I pick back up with ⁓ closing out Mark ⁓ because I'm not going to get done tonight and I'm going to be gone. So Matthew 28, he says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always ⁓ even to the end of the age. Any limiting statement in that text? No, it is an unlimited statement. This is what you're going to do. This is who you're going to preach to. This is how you're going to do it. All right, let's turn over to Luke. Verse 45, opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Then He said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. Are there any limiting statements in this text? Yes. Not in the limit of the gospel, for they were to preach the gospel to every nation, but rather to the people that Jesus was speaking to in that context and what would happen to them. Now, who is present in this context? The 11, it's not the 120, it's not all the disciples, it's not the 500 that he appeared to, it's the 11. And the text is clear on that when you go evaluate all the text. But now go to Acts chapter one. to Luke is going to provide this chapter 24 and chapter 1 as a bridge between his two books that he writes, his two letters that he writes. And so we read and we'll close here, verse 4, and being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father which he said, have heard from me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in his own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. Is there a limitation in this context? The answer is yes. Again, Jesus promises that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is going to be poured out on the ones who are standing there. That's the 11. That's going to happen in Acts chapter 2. That's going to be a fulfillment of what Joel prophesied. and Peter's going to tell them this is a fulfillment of what Joel prophesied. But that is not a promise to every person in every nation under heaven. That is a declaration by Jesus of what was coming for them not many days hence, as the text says. So the text, the context limits itself. And then we have to evaluate how far that limit goes. We'll do more of that the next time we discuss the Book of Mark. Thank you.