 So tonight we're in Mark chapter 16, so I'm going to go ahead and read the whole chapter. It's sort of like a short chapter, but it says here, Now when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices that they might come and anoint him. Very early in the morning on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the son had risen. And they said among themselves, Who will whirl away the stone from the door of the tomb for us? But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, for it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe, sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. But he said to them, Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He has risen. He's not here. See the place where they laid him. But go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you into Galilee. There you will see him as he said to you. So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. Verse nine. Now when he arose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene out of whom he had cast seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him as they mourned and wept. And when they had heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. After that he appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either. 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. And he said to them, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes in his baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe. In my name they will cast out demons and they will speak with new tongues. They will take up serpents and if they drink anything deadly it will by no means hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. So then after the Lord had spoken to them, he was received up into heaven and sat at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere. The Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen. A man once said in talking about anxiety, he said this and I quote, Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones. And when you have finished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake. I believe that best describes the last chapter of Mark chapter 16. The disciples experience great sorrow over the death of Jesus. They were mourning. But once it was all done, once Jesus was crucified, they came to realize that God was not dead. That God was in a way awake or that he showed himself alive. You see the resurrection is the central message of the Christian faith. The resurrection in fact is an essential of the Christian faith. You cannot say you're a Christian and deny the resurrection. There are some essentials of the historic Christian faith that we have to abide by in order to call ourselves Christians. The death of Christ, the resurrection, the virgin birth. And there's so many others that are very important for us to believe. But the resurrection is a central theme. I mean the message of the gospel centers around the resurrection. That is the good news that we tell people. We're not just talking about the crucified Christ because he didn't stay there. We're talking about what happened also afterwards. The crucifixion is what actually cleanses us from our sins. What Jesus did on the cross. But then the resurrection is what confirms to us heaven, eternal life. I was carrying a conversation, a very deep theological conversation with my three-year-old today. And she's going to be four next month. And she was telling me. I don't know how we got into this discussion, but on the way to church here. She says, Daddy, I think I was something like... Oh, we went by a Jehovah Witness church. And I said, honey, those people don't believe in Jesus the way we do. The first time I've ever said that to my little girl. She's like, well, that's not good, Daddy. They don't believe in Jesus. Why do people not love Jesus like we do? I said, honey, they have a different Jesus. Well, why do they have a different Jesus? I said, because they believe that Jesus is an angel. Well, why would they believe that? It's because they're liars, I just said. They're liars. They don't believe in Jesus. You know what I mean? I mean, how else do you explain this to a three-year-old? And then we got into this discussion about heaven. And I said to her, you know, people who know Jesus, who truly know Jesus, who love Jesus, will go to heaven. And my little girl says, I don't want to go to heaven. I said, what do you mean you want to go to heaven, honey? What's wrong with you, you know? She goes, no, Daddy, I'm going to miss coming to church. I'm going to miss doing this and that. And Daddy, are they going to have toys in heaven? I'm like, Jesus, help me on this one. I'm getting stumped here, you know? I said, honey, heaven is going to be an amazing place. Trust me. If there's going to be toys, Jesus will provide toys for you. You know what I mean? But just heaven is going to be awesome. And when we share the gospel of Jesus Christ with people, we always include the resurrection of Christ, because that's the hope, that's the hope that we have in this life and in the next life. Because see, we're all going to experience death. Everybody's going to taste death here, but it's going to be such a quick transaction that you're going to go from here to there right away. There's no purgatory. There's no in-between, as some people believe. The Bible says very clearly in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 27 that it is appointed for man to die once and then after that is the judgment. There's nothing in between. It's like once you close your eyes here, you're opening them up in eternity. And where will you spend eternity? That's really what it comes down to it. You're going into heaven, you're going to run into heaven, or you're going away from heaven, you're going to go into a place that the Bible calls hell, Hades, and that's the gospel message, the good news that we have, and we see that the disciples experienced this great sorrow over the death of Jesus. You know, as we're getting closer to Easter, you're going to see a lot of documentaries on TV debunking the resurrection of Christ. This is the time for skeptics to put out books, articles, and TV shows, basically trying to put doubt in your mind that Jesus truly resurrected. I mean, they do that. It happens all the time. You're going to see that all of a sudden, probably the next week, all these mysterious documentaries about the resurrection, but these guys are just denying the resurrection. And this is not something new. This has happened throughout the ages. I mean, for example, there was this philosopher, a German philosopher by the name of Ludwig Feuerbach. This guy was just an anti-God. I believe that God was just a projection in the human mind. You made him up. And this is what he said. He stated that Christianity is merely make-believe, wishfulfillment of people who are trying to explain in afterlife that they want but will never get. This guy was raising a Lutheran home. Pretty interesting. But you see, you have philosophers like this guy, Ludwig, and others that deny the resurrection, deny the afterlife. They portray themselves as if they know the truth. Like, this is what's going to happen. This is where you're really going to go. And what we see here very clearly, that the Gospels present Jesus not only as a crucified Christ, but as a risen Lord. And this is what we come to. The body of Jesus had been taken off the cross and a wealthy, prominent council member by the name of Joseph of Arimathea asked for the body of Jesus. If you guys remember, that's where we left off. His body was wrapped in fine linen and they laid him in the tomb. So, the rest of the disciples were grieving. They were grieving over the death of Jesus. They just really believed that Jesus was dead. He was dead. He was done. It wasn't a good weekend for them. From sunset Friday to sunrise Sunday, they were in a desperate state. They basically had a hard time with this entire event. They did not know what to believe, what to do, but you see, a new day brought a new discovery. And what we see here is that Jesus himself influenced the lives of these disciples in a very, very deep way. He taught them about life. He encouraged them how to live the true life. And that's what Jesus came here to do, is to teach us about life, about how to live life. I mean, Jesus said in John chapter 10 verse 10, I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. John 17.3 says, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. So, when we talk about life, true life is knowing Jesus Christ because life without Jesus is an empty life. It's a hopeless life. And I'm sure some of you here can testify to that that before you were a Christian, you were trying to live life. You were trying to somehow conjure up this exciting life, but it never worked. You were still empty. Drinking didn't help. Drugs didn't help. Relationship after relationship didn't help. You were so empty, so hopeless, but you were always trying to just attain some type of happy life, but it never happened until you met Jesus. And the moment you met Jesus, it's like God just made the world colorful for you. Now the world looked different, a different world view. You really had hope. Now your perspective in life totally changed. And we see here that the disciples were giving some amazing teachings from Jesus. They had the teachings of Christ, but now he's dead. All of that stuff to them was like, now what? What do we believe? What do we do? As we get into chapter 16, I want to outline this chapter. I'm going to divide the chapter into four sections, and I'm going to give this to you. The first eight verses, we're going to look at a new discovery. Verses 9 through 13, a new crisis. Verses 14 through 18, a new opportunity, and then we're going to conclude in verses 19 and 20 with a new relationship. It's the way I'm going to outline this chapter. I'm going to kind of divide it into these four sections. So let's look into the new discovery. Let's start with the first section. Verse 1, we see very clearly there, in Mark chapter 16, that the Sabbath was passed. It's over. Everybody's back to work. Everybody's back to business. But the women that were here, as we see here, they had work to do. In fact, they're the ones that went over to the tomb. Not the disciples. They were faithful women who did not give up on Jesus. They did not quit because of their grief, but they stayed focused on what they set out to do. These women proved to be the most devoted followers of Jesus Christ. They had the honor to be the first people to proclaim the good news. Now, I mean, obviously, going to the tomb, we still do that today when a loved one has passed away. We'll go to the tomb, perhaps at the time, you know, their date when they passed away. We just have some quiet time and we bring flowers. The Jewish people have that, but their custom was a little different, though. They actually visited a tomb three days, for three days. They were there for three days because there was a superstition that they believed that the spirit of the deceased actually hovered over that tomb for three days. So to them, it was like they wanted to kind of hang out there while this was happening. Of course, it's not true. It's not biblical. But that's what they believed. Now, I'm not saying that the women believed that, but they went there to honor the body of Christ. They went there to see, and as we see here, that these women proved to be the most devoted followers of Jesus. I believe that the application for us from this is this, is that as followers of Christ, when you and I are truly devoted to the life of Christ, or to Jesus himself, God will open up big doors of opportunity for us. That when you and I are truly devoted to God, God is going to use you. God is going to open up amazing doors. Let me give you some examples. Back in the Old Testament, Noah. Noah was a devoted man. He was devoted to God. And God used him in a very powerful way. He was the arch-builder. And not only that, but God saved him and his family from the judgment, from the flood. So we see that Noah, a devoted man to God, played a big part in what God did in his generation. Another person that comes to mind is Joshua. Joshua was another devoted man. He was faithful in serving Moses. But Joshua never really, I doubt that he actually had any kind of inclination that God was going to use him after Moses. But he was a faithful general. And because of his devoted life to God, then God all of a sudden said, you are going to be the successor. Moses is dead. You're the one that's going to continue with the children of Israel. Now your church has gone to 2 million people. You're crossing them across this desert. I mean, it became big for him. That's why in chapter 1 of Joshua, you see him really freaking out. And God says, be strong and very courageous. And he says, be strong and very courageous. God was kind of calming him down. I mean, wouldn't you? God says, you're going to pass for a church of 2 million people. What? I doubt some of you were like, yes, that's what I wanted. You're like, wait a minute. What? How do you do it? And there are whiners, complainers, right? Well, obviously God gave him the opportunity to take the children of Israel and he made it across to the Promised Land with the second generation, the children of the first generation, because it was their parents that blew it. They died, but their children were the ones that made it. And we see that God will use you. God will use me when we are truly devoted to him. And Psalm 31 verse 19 says, oh, how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have prepared for those who trust in you in the presence of the sons of men. 1 Corinthians 2, 9, I has not seen or ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. The question is, do you love God? Do you love him? Well, these ladies were used by the Lord in a powerful way. Their devotion was rewarded. And I believe the same for us, that God will use us when we are truly devoted to him. Well, what did they do? Notice in verse 16, or chapter 16 verse 1, they went there for what? To anoint him. The earliest was Sunday morning because it was still dark on Saturday evening to do this. They actually couldn't do it because it was still Sabbath and they couldn't walk and go too far. They were limited in their traveling because that was their law. So they had to actually wait until the end of the Sabbath to be able to go basically beyond those steps that they couldn't go. So it's Sunday morning and there they are expecting to find a dead body, expecting to find a corpse. You know, it's interesting because this was Sunday morning. This is early early in the morning as the sun was rising, as Mark says. You know, Sunday is always a neat time. Sunday is really the time that we meet as Christians. We don't meet on the Sabbath day. I know there's certain beliefs that say you should be meeting on Saturdays, but really it was the first day of the week which was Sunday morning. Sunday morning is actually the day that we meet and we honor the Lord. We come corporately as a body of believers. We unite together to worship and to learn corporately. That's what we do on Sunday mornings, on Sunday nights, just the whole day on Sunday. It's a time to celebrate the Lord's presence as a church family. Because when we come to church, we come to church because we have a risen Christ. He's alive and he receives our praises. He receives our hearts when we come together as a family. I read an article about a pastor who actually was offering help to those who really don't normally go to church. So he began to kind of put down some criteria, some things that he would actually offer them to help them come to church. And he says this. He says that he would provide steel helmets for those who say the rook would cave in if they ever went into church. He would give out cots. Cots would be available for those who say Sunday is their only day to sleep in. He would give eye drops. He would supply eye drops for those who have red eyes from watching late Saturday night TV shows. He would provide blankets for people who think that church is too cold. Fans for those who say it's too hot. Scorecards for those wishing to list all the hypocrites present. TV dinners for those who can't go to church and also cook dinner. Finally, a sanctuary would be decorated with Christmas poinsettias and Easter lilies for those who have never seen the church without them. The first Sunday was a bit different, though, for the disciples. The only thing that we see here that was very different is that these women and what they saw. And what did they see? Notice in verse 1 it says there that the sun had risen. Mark has given us some key clues here of the time that this was happening. But this wasn't the only thing that was risen. This is the only thing that actually rose. The women saw much better sunrise. They saw the sunrise. S-O-N. The creator of the sun. S-O-N. The creator of those amazing sunsets and sunrises. They actually encountered Jesus, the maker of those things. The Bible says that through Him all things were created and all things consist. So in verse 3 and 4 is their new discovery. They get to the place and notice it says the chief priest I'm sorry, I'm wearing the wrong chapter. Verse 3, let's go here. And they said among themselves, who will roll away the stone but when they looked up they saw that the stone had been rolled away for it was very, very large. It weighed tons. What is going on here? Well, in their minds they're thinking who would roll away the stone? And why would they roll away the stone? Matthew chapter 27 verse 65 and 66 tells us that guards were placed around the tomb so no one would come and steal the body. So the women did not have the strength to do it. The disciples couldn't overcome the Roman guards and the Roman guards were guarding the tomb with their lives. There's no way that they would have done it. So what do they see in verse 5? They see a messenger. It says when they entered the tomb they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side and they were alarmed. Well, I would too. I would be alarmed as well. The picture here is a heavenly, his heavenly origin and splendor. This was not your typical human being. You know it says in Luke chapter 9 verse 29 as he prayed it says the appearance of his face was altered and his robe became white and glistering. This is something that was divine, something that was very heavenly. In Acts chapter 1 verse 10 it says as they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel. We see here that this, as they see this, Luke and John mentions two angels. Matthew and Mark mentioned only one. Now you're like, oh, there's a contradiction. What's going on here? I knew it, I'm leaving church now. No, hold on, don't leave. It appears here that Mark and Matthew are focusing on the one who was talking. The one that spokes person out of the two. Those are the one, that's the person, that's the angel that they're focusing on. The other two obviously gave you a different view and when you look at the Gospels, you've got to keep in mind as you're reading the Gospel, the Gospels are the account of the resurrection containing various differences. They're free to summarize, to specify and emphasize different aspects of the same event. And the same thing with you, when you see an event or something that happens out on the road or crash, you're going to have a different perspective than the other person. You're going to probably focus on the car that crashed more than the other cars that spun out. And that's just the way it was with the Gospels, the way they actually wrote the Gospels. But the point here that I want to make here is in verse 6, is that Jesus was not there. That Jesus was not there. Verse 6 is the actual Gospel. He says, Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He is risen. See the place where they laid him. He's gone. Now, two powerful statements here. One is, why is he not there? And where did he go? I mean, if you could imagine, this is not your typical day. I mean, many of us have gone to funerals before. And when we go to a funeral, all of us here expect to see a body in that casket if it's an open casket funeral. And I doubt that some of you have experienced a funeral where they stopped and said, Funerals canceled, Steve has risen from the dead. We don't know where he's at. He's probably at home. Sorry. This is not your typical day. This is not your typical funeral. You're coming there expecting to see a corpse and it's not there. Where is Jesus? Could you imagine trying to process this in your human mind? Trying to understand this. But we saw him crucified. He bled to death. He was beyond recognition. Where is Jesus? What happened to him? We have to understand the emotion behind this. Because these women, as you're going to see here, were amazed. They were perplexed. They were totally blown away. And we see here that as this angel is telling them that he's not here, it literally was mind-boggling to them. You know, Jesus was the first to resurrect from the grave. Now Lazarus, as you know, was brought back to life in the same body. But then he died again. Where Jesus was, he came back in a new body. He never died again. He's living. He's alive now. And what we see here is very clearly is that in verse 7, they're instructed to do something interesting. Notice it says, go tell his disciples and Peter, I love that, and Peter, and that he is going before you into Galilee, there you will see him as he said to you. In other words, listen ladies, don't keep this to yourself. Go and tell them. And I love the fact that he's telling them not only 11 disciples, but he's saying also Peter, he made that clear. Make sure Peter knows about this. Why? Because Peter failed Jesus. Remember that? And Peter was still under this dark cloud. Listen, when you fail Jesus, it hurts, doesn't it? Seriously, it hurts. It's hard to rebound when you fail Jesus. And you will go day after day just bummed out that you actually did what you did. Or you said what you said. It hurts. That's good because it shows that you truly are saved. It shows that you really truly are connected to Jesus and the Holy Spirit resides in you. Because if you can actually sin and fail God and continue on and say, oh well whatever, no there's a problem there. But when you and I fail Jesus, it hurts. Listen to this guys. Jesus did not leave Peter that way. He still had hopes to go to Peter and to restore Peter. He did not leave him alone. And listen, when you fail God he will not leave you alone. He comes to you offering forgiveness. That's the Savior we have. A lot of us think that when we fail God God leaves you. I'm done with you. Forget it. I can't stand this anymore. I can't do that. The Bible makes it very clear that God is with us to the end of the age. He will never leave you nor forsake you. So when you and I fail the Lord know this, that God is there reaching out to you through conviction and offering you forgiveness reminding you that he will forgive you if you just turn from your sin and say, God I'm sorry. Peter was that way. He didn't leave Peter alone. Jesus was not bitter. He wasn't resentful of what Peter did. He knew Peter was a frail man just like Jesus knows that you and I are frail people. We're not perfect. We strive to honor him. We love Jesus. But there are times that you and I when we're in our lows sometimes the enemy trips us up or we fall into sin because of our flesh or the world. That's the hope that we have because of our risen Savior. That's the hope that we have. And we see here when he tells them tell Peter is because Jesus wasn't going to leave Peter condemned. He was going to work with Peter. He didn't hold grudges like we hold grudges. He doesn't get back at people like we get back at people. Jesus is in the business of always restoring people. And that's exactly what he wanted to do with Peter. You know, I find it interesting that Jesus or that the angel didn't say first go tell Pilate. Tell Pilate. He didn't care. He wanted his babies, his disciples, his precious lambs to actually know that he's alive. Forget the others. These guys are hard hearted but I want my lambs to know I'm coming and I will use them. And that's exactly what happened. And we see here very clearly that this was a huge message to be the first to know means that you're special. Means that you're important. When somebody calls you to tell you they're good news, whether they got accepted at a college or maybe they're pregnant and you're the first to know, don't you feel special? I'm like well thank you for calling me. Because if you're like you find out later on on your own you should have called me, you know what I'm saying? If it's like somebody that should have called you. But you feel very special when somebody shares the news with you. They're good news for the first time. You're at the top of the list. Well listen, the good news of the gospel the people that were at the top of Jesus' list were the 11 disciples Peter, the women. They're the first to know. And we see here very clearly that Jesus did not have to go and try to present himself to the non-believers. And I'm like, remember me? He didn't have to do that. He didn't have to go into this apologetic kind of thing. Jesus is trying to convince him please Pilate, look I'm alive. He wasn't into that. Jesus knows he's alive. And as Christians, listen we have an objective faith that Jesus Christ is real and alive. You don't have to try to convince people that Jesus is real. Just give him the gospel and give him the rest. Don't get him in a headlock. Say, you gotta believe man. Just be like, you know what here's the gospel. Jesus died on the cross for your sins. He rose again on the third day to give you eternal life. That's power. Romans 116, right? Paul says I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is what? The power of God unto salvation. Listen, there's power when you share the gospel. You don't have to yell it at people for the power. On the freeways one of the overpasses had this sign believing Jesus would go to hell. I was like, man. Turn a burn. I'm like, man. Is John and James still around here? Son's a thunder. But you know what though? As I drive in I saw that I'm like, that's the truth. What else do you do? That is the truth. I can't go against that. I mean, you know. But we see here that this is something that is important for them and the disciples were the first to know. So he says to them that Jesus is going before them. He's going before you. Jesus was already several steps ahead of them. And that's always a good place to be as a Christian always keeping Jesus in front of you, not behind you. You don't want to lead him. Sometimes we want to lead Jesus. Follow me, Lord. Follow me. No, listen. Make sure that he's in front of you. I love what Moses said in the Old Testament. He says, Lord, if you don't go with us, I do not want to go. I love that. That is the best prayer you could ever pray when you're looking for direction and guidance. Lord, if you're not going, I don't want to go. And Jesus was already steps ahead of them perfect place to be and they were to go and follow and he would meet him where they're at. John 12, 26, if anyone serves me, let him follow me and where I am there, my servant will also be. So the women in verse 8, they go and tell the good news and notice what it says there that when they went out quickly and fled from the tomb for they were trembled and were amazed and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. It's like, no, share. The overwhelming fear of this unusual event left them silent. Do you remember when you first saw the Passion of the Christ? You remember you're on the way home, you're right home? I mean I remember when I saw it I took some brothers with me and on the way home we were like this. It's like, that movie really impacted me. The way Mel Gibson portrayed the death of Christ, to just the gore and all that stuff that happened to Jesus. That's exactly what... That's what happened to Jesus. When you try to process that in your mind you're like, oh my word, Jesus went through all of that for me? That's crazy. And it was worse. We see that the women were stunned. But notice a new crisis comes. The death of Jesus was their previous crisis. 9. It says that when he rose early on the first day of the week he appeared first to Mary Magdalene out of whom he had cast seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him and they mourned and wept. And when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her they did not believe. So the women were not considered eligible witnesses under Jewish law. So they were kind of stuck in that. 11. Notice that they did not believe. The two that Jesus revealed himself to also were rejected. Luke chapter 24 verses 13 through 27 is the road to Emmaus. Chapter verse 12 to 13 is that section Mark is only giving you a quick little note on that. It says he appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country and they went and told it to the rest. But they did not believe them either. You could see that story actually in Luke chapter 24 verse 13 through 27 the road to Emmaus. Jesus was walking with him. They did not recognize him until Jesus revealed himself and said, wait a minute, this is Jesus. And then when they went out there to tell the rest they didn't believe either. So what was going on here is there was a crisis of belief. They had a hard time believing their reports because they were so stuck that they were dead. He was dead. So it was very hard for them to understand. So verse 14 through 18 is our new opportunity notice. Later he appeared to the 11 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. Jesus rebukes his disciples for their hard hearts. He's still rebuking them even after these are the guys he wants to use to change the world. Would you use them? If you guys don't believe me now, I'm going to go find another 12. What else do you want? Here I am. These guys saw Jesus walk on water. These guys saw Jesus multiply bread and fish to over 15,000 people. They saw Jesus stop a storm. They saw Jesus cast out demons. Why was it so hard for them to believe that they didn't want to believe? The hints, even the clear reference to the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus told them very clearly, listen, I'm here to die, but I'm going to rise again. It was like it went from one ear out to the other. They just did not want to believe it. Unbelief is very, very bad. In fact, it's unbelief that kept the first generation like I mentioned earlier of Israelites in Hebrews chapter 3 verses 16-19 says, for who having heard rebelled indeed was it not all who came out of Egypt led by Moses. Now with whom was he angry for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpse fell into wilderness, and to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Listen, unbelief is a sin. Unbelief is a sin. Hebrews chapter 3 verse 12 beware brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God. The consequences that come from an unbelieving heart is a departure from God. I don't believe in God and you just depart from him. You don't want anything to do with him. That is why Jesus rebuked his disciples because they were in a state of unbelief and he was in front of them. He rebukes them. He reaches out to them because he did not want to keep them in that way. He did not want these guys to depart from God. So Jesus made himself very clear and then Jesus gives him a new opportunity. Verse 15 Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature he who believes and is baptized will be saved but he who does not believe will be condemned and these signs will follow those who believe. In my name they will cast out demons they will speak with new tongues they will take up serpents and if they drink anything deadly they will by no means hurt them they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. Now this is a very, very very interesting section because we have churches on the east coast that take this which is pretty literal the snake dancing when they get a bunch of snakes and dance all around them and people have died from it they have been bitten and they die children but they go into this text here and they say this is what Jesus said we can drink poison and we will be fine and I can drink Drano and everything will be great I don't know if you are really reading this correctly the key word here is believe not so much baptism because you see here the baptism you are like baptism saves but the key word here is believe when Jesus is saying go and preach this is the message of the death and burial and resurrection of Christ it's for everyone, not just the disciples this is a command not a suggestion it's not an idea it's a command but the key word is believe one rests on disbelief not on baptism baptism doesn't save you believing in Christ saves you and I'm going to explain this a little bit more here Romans chapter 10 verses 9 and 10 says this if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised them from the dead you will be saved for with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation that's why when we ask people to come forward with an invitation we want you to confess Jesus Christ we want your heart to say something because out of your mouth is what the heart will speak and we see here that baptism is not essential for salvation but it is absolutely essential for obedience Jesus commanded baptism therefore essential because he said to do it but baptism is a work that follows faith that's what it is baptism is really a witness if you get saved what will follow is baptism because you're going to want to identify with Christ publicly it's a witness to those watching it's you saying that I'm identifying myself with Jesus I'm being buried it's all a symbolism it's just you going underwater as you're being buried and you're coming up into a new life and as people see this in a public way you're being a witness to them because you're being obedient and that's where we see baptism come into play but what saves you is your belief in Christ it's your belief in Jesus Christ so when a Christian says well I don't think I need to get baptized why should I the thief on the cross wasn't baptized he was dying he was dying but you're still alive so you have time to actually get baptized why wouldn't you why wouldn't you identify yourself with Jesus that's what baptism is doesn't save you anymore but it just says I am a follower of Jesus and we see here that as Jesus is describing or explaining these things this is what he's saying when it comes to baptism now what about these signs verses 17 and 18 we see here that as a confirmation of this message to the world Jesus promised that they would see some unusual signs that would follow them to basically authenticate their ministry and it happened in some interesting ways even in the book of Acts in the early church since the church just barely started they were doing some unusual miracles and the Bible even says it there in the book of Acts that some unusual miracles were done through the hands of Paul and Peter handkerchiefs and all kinds of crazy stuff it was amazing but I want you guys to understand one thing these signs were to follow them they weren't to follow the signs what do we see today what there's a healing service let's go there wait a minute what are you talking about signs and wonders let's go there it's the other way it's backwards Jesus didn't say you're going to go follow the signs go find where there's signs and wonders services and where people's arms are getting back I mean no as you're out in the mission field these signs are coming to you you don't have to go follow them in our world today though sad that we see Christians following signs going after them that's not what Jesus meant and we see here very clearly that these signs became proof to an unbelieving world that these guys meant business and it actually made their message more powerful signs were God's stamp of approval on their ministry so in verse 19 and 20 we conclude here with a new relationship Jesus made it clear that after the Lord spoken to them he was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God and they went out and preached everywhere the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs there it is and then he ends with amen so be it he says well let me close with a few things we have some thoughts here before we go into our communion time the resurrection is about Jesus Christ revealing himself it's God revealing himself through Christ it's all about revelation in verse 7 of chapter 16 it says he's going before you to Galilee there you will see him it's about revelation it's about revealing himself to his disciples it was the first day of the week it was Sunday and they were going to see Jesus you know it's interesting as I was looking at this and I'm thinking you know it was Sunday and Jesus made himself present how many of you come to church every week expecting to see Jesus amen what do you mean Robert do you mean physically no through his word through the fellowship God has ways to reveal himself to you when you come to church on Sunday God wants to reveal himself to you every day I mean tonight he revealed himself as the conqueror over death he just presented himself to you today through his word that listen I have conquered death but there's other ways that God wants to reveal himself to you when you come to church it's so easy to get into this boring cycle of I just got to go to church I got to do it because if I don't I feel really bad no to see Jesus through the teaching of God's word through the fellowship in any way God has ways to reveal himself to you corporately as a body as a family and that's exactly what he did to his disciples he revealed himself to the group of course he revealed himself to different people one on one but when we come to church let's come to church expecting to see Jesus because if you don't come with that expectation listen church will be boring and you're like I don't want to go to church see you know it's the songs again you know forget no listen I want to go to church because I want to see Jesus I want to experience them I want to reveal himself through his word I want to know him how is he going to reveal himself to you well he wants to reveal his nature to you and maybe he wants to reveal himself that he's truly the God of love the God of mercy the God of grace maybe he wants to reveal himself by rebuking you maybe he wants to rebuke you because of something you've done or something you're doing or he wants to reveal himself to you by giving you new opportunities maybe there's a ministry that God is going to call you to serve in or maybe there's a calling he wants to reveal himself to you and say hey this is where I want you to go son hey daughter this is where I want you to go