Great Commission And Ascension Series

GOSPEL OF MARK: GOD’S SERVANT IN ACTION

GREAT COMMISSION AND ASCENSION

4/19/20 – Garfield

Good morning, Family.

I hope and pray that you and your family continue to be healthy and safe. And I hope during this time that we are having to shelter in you have been spending time in God’s Word and in prayer.

Today marks the fifth Sunday that we are unable to worship together as a family, and, sadly to say, we will not be meeting next Sunday either. However, I do believe that we are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel until we are together again. There may still be some restrictions and precautions in place, but we can get through this. Preaching with a MASK may be a little strange. And you HUGGERS out there will just have to get used to AIR HUGGING six feet apart—I’m talking to you Mike P.

Whatever PRECAUTIONS we need to take, will be worth it to be back TOGETHER again as a FAMILY worshipping our Father in Heaven. Can you imagine what that first Sunday is going to be LIKE? Get ready for the Holy Spirit to do His thing!! I whole-heartedly believe that a REVIVAL is coming! And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to MISS it!!

So, once we are allowed to back at Garfield Christian Church worshipping together, PLEASE BE THERE!!

A. Let’s get started with our LESSON today. We now come to a part of this Gospel that has created much

CONTROVERSY: Mark 16:9-20.

1. If you use the NIV translation as I do, you will see a parenthetical statement added by the publishers

stating: [The earliest manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have Mark 16:9-20.]

a. I am spending only a brief time on this CONTROVERSY because whether or not these verses were written by Mark’s own hand, they DO NOT contain anything that CONTRADICTS other

writings found in the New Testament.

b. Mark 16:9-20 (READ)

2. As you know, there are literally THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of complete and partial New Testament MANUSCRIPTS that were copied and re-copied by different people over centuries with a

whopping 99.5% accuracy rate, according to EXPERTS.

a. The PROCESS was very simple.

COMMENT:

The churches that received a GOSPEL or a LETTER from the original writers, would, in turn, METICULOUSLY COPY it and send it on to the NEXT CHURCH where it was PAINSTAKINGLY COPIED again and sent on to the NEXT CHURCH and so on. Thus, the MANUSCRIPTS were PASSED DOWN from one GENERATION to the next, all with very few DIFFERENCES in content.

b. The only explanation that I can think of for such ACCURACY is that God guided the hands of

those SCRIBES to preserve His writings throughout the AGES.

3. Of the 1600 plus MANUSCRIPTS that we have on the Gospel of Mark, a whopping 99% of them

contain vv. 9-20 as the writings of John Mark.

a. Effectively there are only two Greek manuscripts that DO NOT contain these 12 verses, but they

are the OLDEST of the MANUSCRIPTS that we have from the FOURTH CENTURY.

b. However, we do have early CHURCH FATHERS from the second century, such as Irenaeus and

Justin Martyr, who quote from these verses and accredit them to John Mark.

COMMENT:

As I email this VIDEO SERMON, I will include a link from Apologetics Press written by Dr. Dave Miller for you to STUDY and draw your own conclusions regarding the AUTHENTICITY of

this section from Mark’s GOSPEL.

4. But, if Mark DID NOT include vv. 9-20, he certainly ENDED his GOSPEL rather strangely with

the “women leaving the EMPTY TOMB, afraid.” THE END.

a. If v. 8 is the ENDING, Mark is the only Gospel writer who doesn’t say ANYTHING about Jesus

APPEARING before His disciples after His RESURRECTION.

b. So, for my LESSON today I am treating this section of Scripture as written by Mark himself, and will include other New Testament passages as CONFIRMATION to the TRUTH of these words.

B. Remember, “the women who were at the TOMB were told by the ANGEL to tell the disciples and,

specifically, Peter that Jesus had RISEN from the dead and would meet them in Galilee”– Mark 15:7.

1. As the WOMEN make their way to TELL the DISCIPLES what they saw, Jesus appeared.

a. Mark 16:9 states that “Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene.”

b. Matthew 28:9-10 states that “Jesus appeared to all the women”, which must have happened

shortly after appearing to Mary Magdalene.

c. John’s Gospel speaks only of “Mary Magdalene seeing and speaking with Jesus in the garden

after His resurrection”- John 20:10ff. (Which Mike Gritt shared with us last week.)

d. And Luke’s Gospel doesn’t MENTION any of the WOMEN seeing Jesus after His resurrection, but instead puts the EMPHASIS on “two DISCIPLES that Jesus APPEARED to on the Road to