Mark 16:14-20--The Great Commission

Mark 16:14-20
English Standard Version

The Great Commission
14 Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. 15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole 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 cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

​19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.]]

Cross-reference passages for today:

Matthew 28:16-20
English Standard Version
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The Great Commission
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Acts 1:6-9
English Standard Version
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The Ascension
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

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I've included the other "Great Commission" passages so we can cross-reference them and try to see how this event is a different one than is talked about in Matthew 28 and Acts 1.  Mark describes a scene where the disciples were sitting down to dinner and Jesus appears to them and rebukes them for their unbelief.  Here Jesus had sent them multiple witnesses and probably Peter and John had seen the empty tomb by this point (John said he believed right away, but it is uncertain if they really understood what they were seeing as Jesus had not given them the Holy Spirit yet to open their hearts and minds--we see that at the end of the gospel of John (this passage may closely relate to John 20:24-29 (even though the conversation matches closely with verses 19-23, Mark insists that all of the Elven were there, so this could not have the time that Thomas was missing, but since Mark mentions the Ascension immediately following this, it could also coincide with Matthew 28 and Acts 1, which I've included).

In all of these passages, Jesus tells the Eleven that there is work for them to be doing, and He exercises His authority as King of Kings and Lord of Lords to make them ambassadors of His Kingdom.  He sends them out to all the nations (they will have trouble understanding this at first) and He will send them with special power and authority to do miracles, signs, and wonders to prove that they are the true messengers of God with the true message of salvation.  Yes, we are also to carry on the work of the Great Commission and to be His ambassadors, but there is some question as to if Jesus meant the promises of the miracles, signs and wonders only fir this "first generation" or maybe more broadly to those who were being sent to unreached people groups who did not have the Word of God.  The problem with the later hermeneutic (which is one I often proclaim--we shouldn't expect to have God speak in miracles when we won't read His written Word), is that God intentionally gave them signs to speak to the Jews because the Jews, who had the Old Testament Scriptures, were told to test those who came in the name of the LORD by asking them to perform signs--we've seen that a lot in the Gospels when the Jews asked Jesus to perform a sign to validate His claims of His identity and His gospel message.  So, we are at least in a position where we have to say that sign gifts are used by God whenever He wants to validate the message and the messenger, but "sign gifts" are not the main focus of this passage.

No, Jesus is rebuking the disciples for their unbelief and for sitting still when there is work to be done.  They should not fear the commission He is giving to them, because He has all power and authority and is sharing some of this power and authority with the Eleven (we are going to see them trusted with authority that won't belong to anyone else, for they would help lead the church in the first generation until the New Testament canon is also closed.  After that, we see that we have the doctrine and the teachings of the apostles through Scripture to guide us, and we don't see God specifically gift people with apostleship (I don't believe for instance that the Pope is a modern-day apostle).

Let's talk about some of the other things that Mark says about Jesus's words that are important.  Jesus says that true salvation should be followed by believer's baptism.  The two should be inseparable in people's minds Those who have been saved should want to be baptized and only those who are saved should be baptized by the Church.

As we've talked about, Jesus promised great power and authority to the Eleven (and later to other New Testament apostles like Paul and Barnabas).  We see many of these promised signs fulfilled in the book of Acts and some are referenced in Hebrews 11 in the "Hall of Faith," but nowhere do we see that we should use these verses as a "litmus test" to see if people are genuinely saved like the "snake-handlers" of the cults in Kentucky do.  That is a poor reading of this passage.  We should not put the Lord our God to the test like that.  I think the long-and-short of this passage is that we should go wherever the Lord sends us, even to faraway or dangerous lands knowing that we are going under His authority and protection.  No one and nothing can hurt us unless He permits it.  Should natural or supernatural forces try to stop us from accomplishing the mission He's sent us on, He is the one responsible to intervene to deal with the weather, snakes, demons, diseases, and anything else that may try to delay, slow or hinder us in any way.  That is a promise that I know all of us can hang our hats on.

Verse 20 is a summary of the entire Church Age, but especially the book of Acts.  Notice that Jesus has ascended to heaven, but Mark still says that everywhere the Apostles went, that Jesus was working with them to accomplish the mission He had given to them.  That's exactly what we see in Acts and the Epistles--the Holy Spirit, also called the Spirit of Christ--is still doing the work of Jesus so that Luke says in the beginning of the book of Acts, "In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen."  The word "began" implies that Jesus continued His work even after he was "taken up," and He would continue that work through these Eleven men and some other like Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Mark and Timothy, but it does not even imply that it ended with this generation, for Jesus is still working through His Spirit and through the Chruch today.