July 24, 2011
Morning Worship
Text: Mark 16:15-18
Subject: The Great Commission
Title: What Real Faith Can Do – The Great Commission Part 3
Before the age of the GPS, whenever we would take a vacation we always had to rely on the Rand McNally Road Atlas and highway signs to get us to where we wanted to go. As the time of our departure would draw near I would have studied the map to the point that I pretty much knew every highway number and every town that we would be passing through. It was something I enjoyed doing and it made the trip a lot easier because my potential navigators weren’t too good at map reading. I can’t say that I never got lost because I did, but I never got lost to the point where I couldn’t get where I needed to go. Many times when there was a problem it was because the road signs were either missing or just plain wron
A cop pulls over a carload of nuns.
Cop: "Sister, this is a 65 MPH highway -- why are you going so slow?"
Sister: "Sir, I saw a lot of signs that said 22, not 65."
Cop: "Oh sister, that's not the speed limit, that's the name of the highway you're on!
Sister: Oh! Silly me! Thanks for letting me know. I'll be more careful.
At this point the cop looks in the backseat where the other nuns are shaking and trembling.
Cop: Excuse me, Sister, what's wrong with your friends back there? They're shaking something terrible.
Sister: Oh, we just got off of highway 119.
Now, with a GPS all you need to do is type in your destination address and off you go. And anywhere you go you have as many as seven satellites tracking you. It is easy to put your trust in a GPS. But it is still a good idea to have some idea where you are going.
When Jesus gave the Great Commission to His disciples He also gave them very good directions on how to carry it out. The real difficulty in navigating to the place where Jesus wants His church to be is to have the kind of faith that you need in the directions He has given to get you there.
Today as we go through Part 3 of the Great Commission series I want you to understand that it is your faith that will get you to where God wants you to be in building His church.
Lord, open my eyes to see and my ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church…
Mark 16:15-18
15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
I. THE COMMAND… In Part 1 of our series I told you about how the gospel of Mark was written with the Greek/Roman mindset in view. It is a gospel of action. When Matthew and Luke begin with the stories of the birth of Jesus Mark begins with, 1 The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 It is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way” 3 “a voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” So it is appropriate that Mark ends his gospel the same way that he began it. 15 He said to them, “Go into all the world… The consistent theme for evangelism in all of the gospels has this one thing in common. GO! Jesus never intended for his followers to go hide in an upper room and have a prayer meeting till He comes back at the Rapture. If that were the case then the church would only have 120 people to go at the Rapture. But the message is “GO!” Now, since this is Mark’s gospel – the gospel of action – the command is to go into all the world. At this time in history world travel was as easy as it would ever be. I’m not talking about the time of travel, but I am talking about the ease with which one could travel from one country to another. The Romans had built major roads as they established trade routes. So Jesus’ command in Mark naturally would be to take this gospel everywhere that you are allowed to go. Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. I want you to understand this. Going into the whole world was not a Jewish idea. They would never have thought of doing that. They wanted to keep their salvation to themselves for fear that it would become unclean by allowing Gentiles to partake of it. They would have wanted to keep it right there at home among their own people. The Romans wouldn’t have been much different. Their mindset would have been that each person was on their own. It was up to them to decide for themselves what they would believe in a religious sense. But Jesus command is so radical that He says to Go and preach to every creature. That word “creature” in the Greek means, “everything that has been made”. What does that mean. Am I supposed to go out and preach the gospel to Bud Bremmer’s cows? No, we are only going to share the gospel with the part of God’s creation that can be saved – those who have been created in His image. And in the process you are bringing the good news to all creation. Romans 8:18-20, 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. That is what the good news does. And this gospel of action says to go into all the world and preach the good news…
II. THE CONDITION… When we are faithful – keep that word in mind - (full of faith) – when we are faithful to do what we are commanded to do in respect to the Great Commission, then there are conditions that will be met in regard to people’s faith… 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Look at the conditions. 1) Whoever believes… Whoever believes what? the good news… What does it mean to believe? The Greek word is pisteuo and it means, “to have faith in, to give credit to, or entrust yourself to something or someone.” When you take into consideration the root words that it stems from it literally means to be fully persuaded – to have no doubt. 2) Whoever believes… and is baptized… Here we go back to that age-old argument. “Do you have to be baptized in order to be saved?” If you look at this in the context of what I talked about last week and the context of the New Testament concerning salvation, you know that baptism is not required. But the word that is translated “baptized” means simply, “to be fully immersed”. It is actually a repetition of what it really means to believe. What is it that you are believing? The good news… and what is that good news? Unfortunately, too many will say that it is the good news of salvation and that it stops there. And salvation truly is good news. Without salvation there is no hope. However, we need to understand that salvation was not merely for us to gain eternal life. It’s not just for eternity but also for right here and right now. Turn over to John 6:35-36, 35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. Follow this line of logic with me. Jesus is the bread of life… If we believe (are fully persuaded in) Him we will never be hungry or thirsty. Matthew 4:4, Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ So we not only place our faith in Jesus, but in every word that comes from where? … the mouth of God… Let me reiterate what I said last Sunday. Water baptism is important, but in this context believing and baptizing means being fully immersed in every one of God’s promises, His word, His presence, His power and His character and nature; being fully persuaded that it’s all true and valid for you today. The truth is that you cannot be saved without being fully persuaded and immersed in God. That is why Mark includes that warning at the end of verse 16, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. In Luke 18:8 Jesus asked a question that really makes me think. I think that this is a question for everyone who has made a confession of faith but is living something different, or, it is for those who have not been totally immersed in God in regard to faith in His word. when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” When Jesus returns for the church will He even find anyone who is fully persuaded, totally immersed, or will He find those that Isaiah prophesied about in Isaiah 29:13, These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me…?
III. THE CONSEQUENCES… Mark’s version of the Great Commission ends with the consequences that come from going and preaching and believing and being immersed in God. 17 And these signs (Gr an indication of the supernatural) will accompany those who believe… 1) In my name they will drive out demons… In my dealings with people over the years, if I can think back, I would have to say that I have had a minimum of twenty occasions where I have dealt with people who were either possessed by a demon or heavily oppressed by a demon or demons. In some of those cases the demons were invited in by the person, at the time to them it seemed innocent – they didn’t really know what they were doing. As a new believer in some of those cases I did not understand the authority we have over demons. I have to continually go back to Luke 10:19, I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. If you are preaching the good news you should expect the supernatural signs that are connected to it. It’s only for those who believe. These signs will accompany those who believe that they will… those who are fully persuaded and fully immersed in God’s ability to do what He promised. 2) they will speak in new tongues… an obvious reference to being baptized in the Holy Spirit. Preaching the good news should include the message about the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Why do some struggle with this doctrine of the baptism in the Spirit? One reason is that there is a lack of understanding concerning it. Next week we will go deeper into the baptism. Secondly, there may not be that desire to be fully immersed in the things of God. Speaking in tongues as spoken of here is the language you receive when you are baptized in the Holy Spirit and it is for praise, prayer and for the building up of the individual. This is not the same purpose as the gift of tongues. I want you to notice one important thing in this. Jesus expected this to be a normal event in the life of a believer. It really wasn’t an option for Him. …they will speak in new tongues… 3) There will be supernatural protection in your life…18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all… Do not try this at home… Luke 4:12, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test… There have been times throughout church history where God has supernaturally protected His people. Paul was bitten by a poisonous snake and he shook it off into the fire with no apparent effects. According to tradition and historical reports of the time the apostle John was to be killed by being boiled in oil under orders from Roman emperor Domitian yet he miraculously survived. Is this type of protection from God new? Ask Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego. This same God delivered them from a fiery furnace. 4) …they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well. This is the great debate among Christians. Why doesn’t God heal like He did in the days of Jesus? If we don’t see healings then healing must not be for today. Right? Everybody say, “It is God’s will… that people be healed.” From Mark’s version of Jesus’ great calling for the church I deduce these things. First, there is a lack of real faith in today’s church. And these signs will accompany those who believe… Our faith has to be like Abraham’s faith who … in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” Second, the gospel is not being preached outside of the church. Look at Mark 16:20, Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:4, My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. There is not a one of us that really has a good excuse for not witnessing to the lost because God doesn’t want people to be saved because of your persuasion. He wants to show Himself to them with a demonstration of power. Third, even though we all know that what I had just said is true, most of the church is not walking with the LORD in a way that we can honestly say we are fully immersed in Him. Yes, we have personal times when we can feel the tangible presence of God. You get the goose bumps and the spiritual rush. But are you walking close enough with the LORD that you know that even in times of trials that He is right there beside you? Are you experiencing His love every moment of your life? And are you living out that love by loving others – even your enemies - in the same way? That is what it will take to begin to see God work healing miracles among us on a regular basis.
George Sweeting, in his book The No-Guilt Guide for Witnessing, tells of a man by the name of John Currier who in 1949 was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Later he was transferred and paroled to work on a farm near Nashville, Tennessee.
In 1968, Currier's sentence was terminated, and a letter bearing the good news was sent to him. But John never saw the letter, nor was he told anything about it. Life on that farm was hard and without promise for the future. Yet John kept doing what he was told even after the farmer for whom he worked had died.
Ten years went by. Then a state parole officer learned about Currier's plight, found him, and told him that his sentence had been terminated. He was a free man.
Sweeting concluded that story by asking, "Would it matter to you if someone sent you an important message -- the most important in your life -- and year after year the urgent message was never delivered?"
We who have heard the good news and experienced freedom through Christ are responsible to proclaim it to others still enslaved by sin. Are we doing all we can to make sure that people get the message?
Mark’s Great Commission challenge is one that tells us to Go, Share the Good News, Be Immersed in God, Believe Every Promise, and Expect Miracles, Speak in Tongues, Heal the Sick.
Isn’t that the kid of church that you want to be part of?
Let’s begin right now!
Be baptized in the Holy Ghost.
Be fully saturated with the presence of God.
Pray for the sick and expect God to do something.
Share the good news.
