April 21, 2006

THE FINAL CHAPTER

Mark 16

One of the great miracles of the Christian faith is the inspiration of Scripture, the Word of God. Paul tells us in II Timothy 3:16, that all Scripture is God-breathed. Peter tells us in II Peter 1:21, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.  As a result of the Holy Sprit’s inspiration, 66 books, written by over 40 human authors over a span of almost 1500 years, combine together to tell one consistent story of the Divine plan of God for the salvation of the world.

There is another great miracle of the Christian faith, and that is the reliable transmission and preservation of those Divinely inspired texts. You see, we do not have any of the original manuscripts or scrolls in our possession today. All are lost in history. But God has sovereignly preserved his Word so that what we do have are many manuscript copies of the original texts. Now keep in mind that this was before any kind of copy machines or even printing presses. All copies had to be made by hand. But as scholars have compared those copies, (in the case of the New Testament, literally thousands of manuscripts containing some or all of the Scriptures) there is an incredible accuracy and unanimity in these witnesses to the original text. Where differences occur, scholars are able to compare the different manuscripts and determine the original reading with a high degree of certainty. So strong is the agreement of the different manuscripts, that scholars estimate that only one or two words per page come into any serious question, and the vast majority of these differences are minor variations that in no way change the meaning of the sentence or call any major point of theology or historical event into question. Those who claim that the Bible is unreliable because it has been changed down through history will have to look elsewhere than the evidence of the manuscripts to support their case. The evidence of the manuscripts points to a remarkable accuracy in the copies of the text upon which our modern translations are based.

Now, why have I explained all that? I say all that because Mark 16 is the exception to that rule. The last 12 verses of Mark 16 contain one of the most troubling textual questions in the whole New Testament. Here are the facts. Two of the most reliable and earliest of the ancient manuscripts do not contain verses 9-20. They simply end with verse 8. On the other hand, the vast majority of later manuscripts do contain these verses. That is the manuscript evidence. What is equally puzzling, however, is the dramatic change in style in these last 12 verses. Mark’s normal writing style is very fast paced, like a news reporter giving eye-witness details, and there is a distinctive vocabulary and certain characteristic stylistic devices he uses to move the account along. All of those are missing in the last paragraph. This may be more obvious when reading the Greek text, but it is a stark contrast. These facts lead to speculation that verses 9-20 may not be the original ending, but represent an early attempt by another writer to “finish” the text by adding a summary of the resurrection appearances and of early church history.

These facts leave us with a number of possible explanations. First, Mark ended his Gospel account at verse 8 deliberately. If so, we have to decide whether verse 8 seems a likely way to end his book: They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid. The second option is that Mark wrote up through verse 8, and something prevented him from ever finishing his account. He didn’t intend to stop at verse 8. He just never had a chance to finish. The third option is that Mark did finish his account, but somehow the original ending was lost, torn off, damaged or destroyed in some way. The fourth explanation is that verses 9-20 do represent Mark’s original ending. If so, the stylistic differences might be explained by the fact that Mark has moved from an eye-witness reporting style into summary and conclusion mode, and altered his style accordingly.  The two early manuscripts that do not contain these verses may have been damaged or been incomplete, but the original ending was preserved in other manuscripts and made its way into later copies. Those are the basic options or conclusions open to us, and I am going to let you choose the one that seems most logical or satisfactory to you.

With all that in mind, I want to go back to verse 8. Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. I want you to humor me a little bit this morning. Let’s assume that that is where Mark’s account ends. But when we read those words, there is something inside us that cries out: “No! The story can’t end there. Someone has to finish the story.”

Here is what I want to propose. I propose that it is up to each one of us to finish the story. It is up to each one of us to write our own final chapter to Mark’s Gospel. Do you remember how Mark began in Mark 1:1? The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Mark has given us the beginning of the gospel. Now it is up to us to finish it. How will your final chapter read?

Whether original or not, the ending we have in verses 9-20 does give us the two critical ingredients that will determine how we write our final chapter. I would summarize these two ingredients with the words response and responsibility.

For almost 7 months and 20 messages, we have studied Mark’s gospel together. We have witnessed his miracles and listened to his teaching. We have heard his claims. We have watched him die and heard reports of his resurrection. Now, just like the women at the tomb, we are called on to make a response. How will you respond to this good news? We are told that their first response was one of fear. Then as the reports of the resurrection appearances trickled out, the initial response was often one of unbelief. We see that in verse 11: When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.  Then the account tells of his appearance to two disciples in the country, presumably the appearance on the road to Emmaus which is told in the gospel of Luke. Once again, when they reported this, we are told that they did not believe them either. In verse14, we are told that Jesus rebuked them for their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him, probably referring specifically to doubting Thomas. However we reconstruct these early appearances, it is clear that the reports of Jesus’ resurrection called for a response. And the response was either one of belief or unbelief.

I would proclaim to you today that that is the very same response decision that is called for today when we are presented with the entirety of Mark’s gospel message. Do you believe? Or do you refuse to believe the good news about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Did he do the things Mark says he did? Did he say the things Mark records? Did he claim to be the Messiah, the Son of God? Were his claims true? Did he give his life as a ransom for us? Did he rise from the dead? Do you believe? Or is it all a lie? Is it just a make believe story, joining multiple other myths and legends concocted by human imagination? You have to decide. Do you believe? How will you write the final chapter? What will your response be?

Before you make your response, you should know what is at stake. Listen to what the Apostle Paul says about the gospel in Romans 1:16-17: I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith (belief) from first to last. What is Paul saying? Simply this: That when we respond to the gospel message with belief (faith), that gospel has the power to save us and make us right with God. Without that faith in God’s good news, we remain in our sin, and the wrath of God remains on us. What is your response?

But the final chapter is not complete with our response. With that response comes responsibility. According to Mark 16, when Jesus’ disciples had crossed the divide from unbelief to belief in his resurrection, Jesus gave them a commission. It echoes the commission given in the other three gospels as well as that in the book of Acts. It is found in verse 15: Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Good news cries out to be proclaimed, does it not? If Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, if he did die for our sins, if he did rise from the dead, if faith in him will save us from God’s judgment, and make us right with God, then that’s good news. And the rest of the world has the right to hear that good news and make their own response to the message.

I like the way Paul expresses this, if we turn back to Romans 1. For Paul, it began with a deep sense of obligation. In verse 14 he says: I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. In other words, to everyone! The word “obligated” literally means to be a “debtor” or a person with a debt. Out of that sense of obligation came an eagerness. In verse 15: That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome. The eagerness could be described as a burning passion. I wonder how many of us would describe ourselves as “eager to preach the gospel?” For Paul that sense of obligation and that eagerness were both rooted in the confidence he had in the gospel – that it represented the power of God to save everyone who believed, as he read in verse 16.

That was the passion of the apostle Paul. It was the passion of the other disciples as well, as we read in Mark 16:20: Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere. It was the passion of the early church. When persecution broke out against the early church in Jerusalem, scattering the early believers, we read in Acts 8:4: Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

That same passion has carried the church forward in missionary endeavors ever since. William Carey, the great missionary to India said it this way: “Surely it is worthwhile to lay ourselves out with all our might in promoting the cause and kingdom of Christ.”

Samuel Zwemer, an early missionary to this region of the world said this: “Face to face with these millions in darkness and degradation, knowing the condition of their lives…this great unfinished task, this unattempted task, calls today for those who are willing to endure and suffer in accomplishing it.”

John R. Mott, a leader in the Student Volunteer Movement in the last century said, “In view of the constraining memories of the Cross of Christ and the love wherewith he hath loved us, let us rise and resolve at whatever cost of self-denial, that live or die, we shall live or die for the evangelization of the world in our day.” Remember, the words evangelism and evangelization are both taken directly from the Greek word for “gospel.”

The passion and eagerness that Paul had for sharing the gospel has been carried on by Christ’s followers down through history as each one wrote his own concluding chapter to the gospel. And now it is our turn. By the way, do you know what the initials ECC stand for in the acronym for our church? Do you catch the connection between “evangelical” and “evangelism”? When we call ourselves an “evangelical” church, that is another way of saying that we are a “gospel” church. We are a church that believes the gospel and also believes we have a responsibility to spread that good news.

So, what kind of conclusion are you writing to Mark’s gospel? He gave us “the beginning of the gospel.” He has left it to us to write our own conclusion to the gospel. First of all, what is your response to the good news? Do you believe it? Have you put your faith (belief) in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God and trusted in him as your Savior from sin? That is the first step. Two basic options: belief or unbelief. What will your response be?

But with the response of belief comes a responsibility.  It is the responsibility to share the good news with others. Are we eager to do that? Are we seeking for opportunities to do that? Now here is the exciting part about our church. Here we are located in the heart of what is sometimes referred to as the 10-40 window; the region between 10 and 40 degrees latitude, across Africa and Asia in which the vast majority of the world’s unreached peoples live. We are located in a city with people from over 150 nations living and working here. And here we are, over 600 people scattered across this city at every level of the economy – in classrooms, in offices, in palaces, on oil platforms and on construction sites. What a fantastic place to write another chapter to the gospel! What an opportunity to write a fitting conclusion to “the gospel about Jesus Christ” by making that good news known!