What This Means For Us?
14 Later he appeared to the Eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table. He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who saw him after he had risen. 15 Then he said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel 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; if they should drink anything deadly, it will not harm them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will get well.”
19 So the Lord Jesus, after speaking 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 word by the accompanying signs.
Mark 16:14-20
This is the Word of the Lord. Sanctify us, O Lord, by Thy Truth. Thy Word is Truth. Amen. Christ Is Risen!
Why does Jesus rebuke them…or us for not believing…and notice it was not believing when seeing, but believing THE REPORT…THE MESSAGE…THE WORD…THE WORD OF PROMISE here…?
Because this is the only way to believe.
You won’t believe because you see. That is obvious…that has been always obvious. As no matter what God did for people…in amazing ways…or what Jesus did right in front of them…even more amazing things all the time…like raise the dead even…
Well, most think that there is always some other explanation than what HE SAID WOULD TAKE PLACE WHEN HE ARRIVED….YES AS DESCRIBED…and this repeatedly! From the beginning….
For too many, there IS a way to rationalize away what they saw…
So…then…what about when He goes away? What then?
Blessed are… HE SAYS… about those who believe and have not seen.
But what did He tell them in His High Priestly prayer? That people would believe from…what? From their writing, speaking, telling, and preaching of THE MESSAGE–that message the Father sent by Jesus, who then gave to them.
The Message that now He is telling them…and us…that will be preached wherever Christians are doing what we do in this life.
Yes, but if you did not notice, He IS talking to Christians here. Not very good ones it seems…right?
AS IT is, they are the same kind as we are. The same ones who are just like those men that told Jesus they did believe…
…but then asked Him to help their unbelief.
These are believers. These are people who have been given faith… but won’t stand on it…who push it aside…who walk away…physically or mentally or emotionally.
How often? How often do we?
So… what then…does this mean for us?
Well, as Christians we have accepted the Law…that we know is true, right and good…even as it kills us and takes away any notion of us ever saving ourselves.
And then too, we believe …correctly… that we are saved by Grace alone. Not of ourselves as St. Paul tells us… so we have nothing to boast in…
But then what? What does it mean for us from this point…as this is just one side of the coin. This is the Justification side…the salvation…side…
What about the SANCTIFICATION side? The side where we are being purified each day…and made to be more like Jesus?
Lutherans have been told that they are great Easter preachers…great at relaying the saving Gospel message, but are very poor at this sanctification stuff. We tend to sit on our laurels…our hands…becoming Sunday only Christians.
Ever knowing all the great doctrines…well… it seems… all but one…
The one about the renewed Christian life after baptism…after regeneration…
We forget that these events are not static…not something that happens in the past and stays in the past as if they are not alive or moving…
…not active in producing…fruit in and from us…
No, these Words continuously…act on us…to and for us…in this life…for our entire lives…
For this Christian life…for our sanctification…
…to enable us to live that God-pleasing life…to do and be…what God wants us to be.
But we MUST remember…that Sanctification is also not our work…
The difference…that difference between Justification and Sanctification…is that we are not passive this time…
We are active…not in changing ourselves…or coming up with the how and the will power…
But just by being who we are in Christ and doing what we are to do with what He gives us…
We mess things up when we try to do other things…and in other ways than what He prescribes and provides…
We are to cooperate, yes. We are to listen. We are to take His gifts. We are to eat and drink His Food. We are to believe and not doubt.
Doubting is a choice after regeneration, don’t you know?
Refusing His gifts are a choice we still do have.
How many people are willing to get up real early to go fishing?
How about for a chance to go on a trip to some special place?
How many people will sit for hours at a game?
But how much trouble is it to get up for church? Or sit in church more than an hour?
Why? Why is this? The world, the flesh and the devil.
Let’s get to the text. Let’s put ourselves in this narrative.
Jesus has come and done what He said He will do. He has saved us–justified us. Now He is sending us to do His Work… that is, sanctification in action.
First, we have here Justification Words from Jesus…from Law and Gospel:
16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved…and… but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
And then we have sanctification Words, also from Law and Gospel:
Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. (that’s the Law part)…
… also verse 20: And they went out and preached everywhere…
And then here is the Sanctification Gospel part:
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; if they should drink anything deadly, it will not harm them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will get well.”
and the end of verse: 20 … while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word by the accompanying signs.
Notice that there is more Gospel than Law? On purpose…as this is the Grace and Mercy of our Lord.
And this Sanctification Law is the third use of the Law. It is instruction on what we are to do as Christians. It is not how to become or remain Christians. It has nothing to do with our salvation. It is for our Sanctification…
Some may say that these things promised don’t apply to us…as they were meant just for the Apostles and special in-the-field foreign-land type missionaries.
True…maybe…but…
Then let’s include St. Matthew’s account of Jesus’ Great Commission. Matthew does not talk about these types of fantastic things…
He instead has a greater and broader miracle of the Gospel to announce: And Lo, I will be with you always…even unto the end of the age.
…yes…He is…Jesus is…here with and for you…WHILE you are going about your business in this world that you are in, but not of…
…WHILE you are doing what God has given you to do…among the people and places He has put you…
Yes, Go and do…just as He told us through the message of Luke and Matthew… to make disciples…wherever you are in the world…in whatever age you were born…with whatever God-given abilities you have…
But with His tools…His means…
… not OURS…
…no, with the only things that work–with His Word and Sacraments…
That is the life of sanctification. Fed and nurtured in His house, and then put into action in the world in which you live.
And the Gospel part, if you have not yet figured it out…
Is what?
No, not the go and work part. The Gospel is still defined as “Jesus doing for us.”
We so often are told…taught…or just plain misunderstand… that it is somehow now our turn to do our part. We are to be all grateful…and thankful…and doing the Law as if we now could…
…all like that well-raised child kind of way that we ought to be…should have been by now…should be…should be doing….
Doing great things for God…by now… already…I mean how long have you been a Christian anyway? Hear that? Have you been told that?
In this way of thinking, the Gospel portion of Sanctification ends up just being more Law. Not good news at all, is it?
And so… we feel guilty because we are not running over to Africa on mission trips. We are not selling all we have and giving it to poor.
And because of this…this guilt and shame…we then avoid God as often as we can…especially when we are feeling like we should have…but have not…
Is it to be … for us also… just like Adam and Eve hiding in the bushes all over again?
That is not Gospel! That is not Scriptural. That is not the Christian life.
Rather, two things we have to see of this wonderful Sanctification Good News…the Gospel of it.
First, St. Paul answers the whole giving to the poor thing. He says only if, when we give, it is not make us lack what we need.
Now, we could go without dinner, sure…to help, but not starve. And no, it is not sanctified to make our families go without dinner.
Personally, we can choose to suffer for others, but don’t make others do so…and don’t make them feel guilty for not doing what you do either…
No, we don’t have to lack so someone else can have.
Second, and this is even bigger than the first, is that…
Jesus does not say, hey, I did my part, now it is your turn. No, He has not left to retire in heaven. He left to be with us even more than before. He HIMSELF…and this is ALL THE TIME…and EVERYWHERE…and…
He works in us here, to WILL and to DO those good Works that HE GIVES US TO DO….that are right in front of us…
The Gospel is that we are not required to win people over to Christ. We are not required to change minds and hearts. To make anyone Christians or good, or decent people…we are not to change to world…NOT AT ALL…
…just like we cannot be any of these things ourselves, by what we do. Only God can and does this. EVER!
The Gospel is that we are not required to live in poverty like the monks and nuns think. We are to be hospitable and generous, sure…giving from a willing heart…but Christians are not required to end world hunger…
No, we are to make disciples through His Church, using His methods and means…But it is Him…that makes these things happen.
We plant the seeds He gives us, and then He causes them to germinate and grow. He brings in the increase…the crop…the yield.
If this were not the case, then what did Jesus mean when He says to come to Him all who are weary…who labor and are heaven laden? That He will give you rest?
For what? All so…that He then can put you to work and burden you with impossible tasks…again…
That it is like keeping a new set of Laws? IS THE CHRISTIAN LIFE TO BE…just like before?
All so we can fail and feel guilty and ashamed again?
Not a Chance! He has done all that He has done, not so we then somehow go and do…but that we do in and with Him… what He still continues to do.
It is all kind of like when dad had you stand on His feet to show you how to dance. Who carries the weight? Who guides and makes the moves? Who begins and ends the dance? Dad, right? Yet, we dance, all the same, don’t we?
These Great Commission texts would never get done–ever…if He left…and it was up to us…if He was not here with us in those ways He promised to be…accomplishing what He accomplishes through and in and by us…with the means He has given…and that HE continues to use to give away enough Grace, Mercy and Peace…to forgive the entire world, one soul at a time.
No, that other shoe will never drop…as God has already dropped it on Jesus.
It is Good News…Gospel, or it is nothing!
Or what good ever is it then to proclaim that Christ is Risen? Just back to the same old grind? No! As Christ is Risen! And Ascended!
….and so then are we…now…and then fully soon, but always in Christ, the very author and perfector of our faith–sent to us here by our Loving Heavenly Father, together with the Spirit, our Sanctifier. Amen.
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