14 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. 15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. ~ Mark 16:14-16
Today, we continue our study of the gospel according to Mark. In Mark's final chapter, the Lord Jesus has conquered sin and death by being raised from the dead. The dark backdrop behind that wonderful news was being experienced by the disciples who had fled and were hiding out for fear. The disciples were behind locked doors and afraid for their lives. They feared that the Jewish religious authorities were coming after them next.
In v.14 of today's passage we read, "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."
Hardness of heart refers to the condition of the heart that refuses to believe in the word of God. The disciples did not believe in the resurrection, even though eyewitness testimony had been provided. For a short time, persistent unbelief among the disciples ruled them after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Throughout the whole of the Scriptures, the Jews were known to require evidence before believing anything. This was a huge mistake on their behalf because in the kingdom of God, seeing is not believing. With God, believing is seeing. He expects us to believe before we see. This is, in fact, why the Lord Jesus rebuked the disciples for their unbelief.
In Luke 24 we learn the disciples basic problem was they did not believe all that the prophets had written about the Messiah. They saw Messiah as a Conquering Redeemer, but they did not see Him as the Suffering Servant. As they read the Old Testament, they saw the glory but not the suffering, they saw the crown but not the cross.
Unbiblical unbelief is always a product of developing a hard heart. The disciples had been told repeatedly that the Lord Jesus had risen but they had refused to believe it, even after the Lord Jesus Himself had told them previously that this was going to happen. The disciples just ignored the Lord's teaching regarding His death and resurrection because it did not fit into their preconceived ideas of how they thought it would all go down. Truth that is known but not acted upon has an awful effect of hardening our hearts so that our ability to believe is lessened.
Today, many say that if we only had the ability to do miracles like the early church did, then others would really believe. Even if God granted us this kind of power, it would not translate in massive revival because miracles do not create faith. It is instructive to remember that the Lord Jesus fed over 5000 people (on two occasions!), thousands of others saw Him perform those miracles, yet on the Day of Pentecost, there were only 120 believers.
John tells us that a week later the Lord Jesus appeared to the disciples again. This time, Thomas, who had not been with them when He appeared the first time, was present. The Lord Jesus invited Thomas to put his hand on His side and touch the nail prints in His hands and feet. As a result, Thomas fell down, crying, "My Lord and my God!" When Thomas saw and felt the nail prints in the Lord Jesus, He was shaken out of his unbelief. God knows our individual frame and He taylors the truth for us, even though He knows that the lasting kind of faith is not the product of seeing and believing.
The fact is faith comes not from seeing miracles, it comes from hearing the Word of God and then choosing to believe. In John 20:29, the Lord Jesus asked Thomas: "Have you believed because you have seen? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
In v.15 of today's passage we read, "And He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.'"
In v.15 of today's passage we read, "And He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.'"
When we have adequate, trustworthy witnesses who report to us what they have seen, we are wise to respond with belief. Even though we have not seen Him, we believe because of the eyewitness accounts. After rebuking the disciples for their unbelief, the Lord Jesus gave them a command to preach the gospel. Many, down through the years, have emphasized the word "go" as a command, but, it is a present active participle, meaning "as you are going." We best evangelize others by living the life God has called us to and sharing the gospel with whoever will listen because in is is the power of God unto salvation.
Now, the good news, is clearly, the death, the burial, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Through the good news, we who believe enjoy the security of knowing that our sin is forgiven us by God. We have been freed from that which griped us and was destroying us through the sacrifice of God's Only Begotten Son. Heaven is not the good news; but it is a result of the good news. The good news is that the power of evil in our lives has been broken! It has been broken by the power of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In v.16 of today's passage we read, "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned."
It is not baptism that saves us. Baptism is a way to outwardly show that we have believed in the Lord Jesus as our Savior. During the first century, baptism was much more meaningful than it is today since everyone in the town would have witnessed it in the local water hole or river. We err when we baptize someone in the confines of a building.
The reality is when we believe in the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we will be saved. It is difficult to understand this word "saved" if we do not understand the hopelessness of our fallenness. Once we see how absolutely helpless and hopeless we are due to our sinfulness and the fact that we are separated from God, we will begin to understand what it means for us to be "saved." We will not believe until we see our utter need to be saved. Then, once we see that we are utterly lost, it is then that we may believe. This is why the Lord Jesus said, "believe and be saved."
