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Mark 16:6- Mark 16:20; The end of Mark and Jesus' commission to the Church to preach the Gospel to the entire world

In our study of Mark we are in Mark 16:6; where the women enter the tomb unhindered and see the angel who rolled back the stone and caused the Roman soldiers to faint from fear.

Mark 16:6; The angel sees their fear and commands them to "stop being afraid." The Greek word "ekthambeo" translated "amazed" in the NASB is in the passive imperative so it is a mandate to "stop responding with fear."

He goes on to tell them that "Jesus who they are looking for who was crucified and was raised is not there and he shows them where His body had been laid.

The word "raised" is in the passive voice indicating that God had raised Him. John 10:17-18;

The reality of Jesus' resurrection becomes the emphasis of the entire New Testament and the basis of the gospel message and our faith. (Acts 3:15; Acts 4:10; Rom 4:24; Rom 8:11; Rom 10:9; 1Cor 6:14; 1Cor 15:15; 2Cor. 4:14; 1Pet 1:21;

They could easily see that His body was not there because The tomb was empty.

The angel's message clearly identified Jesus who was raised from the dead as the one who had been crucified and whose body had been laid there. Both refer to Jesus, historical Person, and it revealed the meaning of the empty tomb.

The certainty of the Resurrection is established on the angel's message from God that He expects everyone to believe. The historical fact of the empty tomb confirms God's message.

Mark 16:7; The angel then gives the women a command to "go tell the disciples and Peter that He (Jesus) is going ahead of you into Galilee and you will see Him there just as He told you He would."

The words "and Peter" are only in Mark indicating that even though Peter had denied Jesus 3 times He was to be included with the other disciples.

Jesus had told them in the upper room that He would see them in Galilee after His resurrection. Mark 14:28; but the disciples weren't listening they were too busy contradicting Jesus.

Mark 16:8; So the women ran out of the tomb and ran away because they were gripped with fear and were trembling and they were so shocked by what they had seen that they said nothing to anyone because of their fear.

According to the best manuscripts this is the end of the book of Mark but most translations include a second ending in brackets. Net note 9

The abrupt ending is consistent with Mark's or actually Peter's style and emphasizes his development of the themes of fear and astonishment throughout his Gospel.

The abrupt finish leaves the reader to consider the angel's interpretation of the empty tomb with shock and awe.

The material in the longer ending is consistent with the other Gospels and was included early enough to be accepted by the church so it was included in the canon even though the vocabulary and writing style do not match the rest of the book.

Mark 16:9; The longer ending starts with a recap of Mary's experience. Notice in the NASB that it is in brackets indicating that it was added.

Jesus appeared to Mary first. The Greek word "phaino" translated "appear" indicates that even though they could see Him that people could not recognize Jesus in His resurrected state unless He deliberately revealed Himself to them. Luke 24:16,31;

Mark 16:10; As instructed by the angel she went to where the disciples were gathered together grieving His death and reported that Jesus was alive.

Mark 16:11; They did not believe her and in their unbelieving grief they blew her off. The disciples therefore did not immediately go to meet Jesus in Galilee as He had instructed in the upper room so He had to make additional appearances to them in the vicinity of Jerusalem in order to convince them that He really was alive.

Mark 16:12-13;These verses summarize the story about the two disciples on the Emmaus road. Luke 24:13-35; The words two of them indicates that they were part of the group who had not believed Mary.

While they were out walking, going from Jerusalem to a small village called Emmaus, Jesus joined up with them but they did not recognize Him until He revealed Himself.

When they returned to Jerusalem and reported the event to the rest of the disciples, they did not believe them either

Apparently, despite of the growing number of eyewitnesses to the fact of His resurrection the disciples initially regarded Jesus' post-resurrection appearances as apparitions Luke 24:37; Net notes 99 and 100

Mark 16:14; He finally appears to all 11 of the disciples simultaneously as they are having a meal where He rebukes them for their unbelief and hardness of heart.

By hearing about Jesus but not seeing Him they had personally experienced how difficult it is to simply believe the testimony of eyewitnesses without actually seeing for yourself.

This would be the case with everyone that they would preach to in their upcoming mission to witness to and evangelize the entire world. 1Pet 1:8;

Mark 16:15; This is the commission that Jesus gave to His disciples and by extension to all of His followers to go and preach the gospel to the world to all creation.

Mark 16:16; Being baptized is an external response that indicates publicly that they had believed the gospel message.

Though the New Testament writers generally assumed that under normal circumstances believers would be baptized this verse does not mean that water baptism is a requirement for personal salvation.

The second half of the verse indicates by contrast that one who does not believe the gospel will be condemned ( by God) in the final judgment. John 3:36;

The basis for condemnation is unbelief, not the lack of any ritual observance including water baptism.

The only requirement for personally appropriating God's salvation is faith in Him. No ritual is necessary. Rom 3:21-28; Eph 2:8-10; Acts 16:31;

Mark 16:17; This verse lists some of the temporary spiritual gifts that would be given to those who believed in Jesus Christ in the early part of the Church Age.

Temporary spiritual gifts were operational during the pre-canon period of the Church Age that extended from the day of Pentecost when the Church Age began in 30AD until the canon of New Testament scripture was finished around 96AD.

No Christian doctrine was taught in the Old Testament so God provided temporary spiritual gifts to function in place of New Testament scripture to enable Church Age believers before New Testament doctrine was available. Many of those gifts were spectacular.

These temporary spiritual gifts only functioned during the pre-canon period. On the day the Church Age began, there was no New Testament so temporary spiritual gifts were given to take up the slack in the Church Age until the mystery doctrine of the Church Age was compiled and documented and the New Testament Canon was completed and circulated,

The word translated "tongues" is the Greek word "glossa" that means languages. This means that they would be able to speak to others who had native languages that were new to the disciples for the purpose of evangelism. Net note 10

Mark 16:18; This verse describes signs that will authenticate those who are communicating the Gospel. In the Greek the first two clauses in this verse are conditional clauses with a conclusion in the third class condition of "if." "Maybe this will happen and maybe it will not," but if it does then they will be protected.

An interpretive rendering would be, "And if they are compelled to pick up poisonous snakes with their hands and if they should be compelled to drink deadly poison, then it shall by no means (ouk me, emphatic negative) harm them."

This promise of divine protection refers to situations where persecutors may force believers to do these things. This does not justify voluntary snake handling or drinking of poison that were not practices of the early church.

Paul's encounter with a snake at Malta was unintentional (Acts 28:3-5;) so it was covered under God's promise of Divine protection for His people.

Another authenticating sign was that they would put their hands on sick people and they would be healed. This type of healing is described in Acts 28:8; and the gift of healing functioned throughout the early church. 1Cor12:30;

These authenticating gifts were all phased out as the New Testament canon was completed. 1Cor 13:8-13;

Mark 16:19; This verse describes the ascension and session of our Lord that occurred 40 days after His resurrection.

The Greek word "anelemphethe" translated "was taken up" is in the aorist tense and passive voice tells us that at that with His work finished, God took Him into heaven.

The Greek word "kathizo" translated "he sat" is in the aorist tense active voice indicating that He sat down at the right hand of the Father where He is presently.

The reality of this was confirmed by Stephen's vision. Acts 7:56

At this point Jesus' personal mission to provide redemption for mankind was complete and it would be His body the Church who would communicate the message.

Mark 16:20; The disciples went out from Jerusalem and preached the gospel everywhere and Jesus was working with them through His Word. The signs that they performed authenticated the message.

The communication of the gospel continues to be the only responsibility that Jesus delegated to the church while it is on the earth in the devil's world.

 

© Copyright 2007, Michael Lemmon Bible Ministries. World Rights Reserved.  This document was created on 7/26/2015