Have you ever noticed that sometimes there are single events in life
that have a way of changing the entire direction of your life or
even of a nation?
For example, an accident that you have, that leaves you handicapped. We all think,
oh I'm always going to be healthy, always going to be able to walk around, be mobile.
And then somebody goes through a red light, hits your car, breaks your ankle, and for
the rest of your life, that ankle, you can't run like you used to run, and it hurts.
Something in your life changes because of an event.
Or the birth of your first child. Talk about changes. We have several in
our congregation that are expecting first children or have just recently
had a first child and ask them how their life has changed.
Since that blessed event. Or perhaps you're
offered a new job in another city. Another place, another
group of people that you will have to grow used to. And your life
takes another turn because of that.
Sometimes the event is one that changes the character or the course of
history for an entire nation, not just a person.
How different things would have been without Pearl Harbor, for example, happening,
or the election of John F. Kennedy, or even, here at home, the changes in our own city
and how the rest of the world perceived us since the Oklahoma City bombing;
for which we have just had the anniversary a few days ago. How about
the 9/11 attack in New York City, how that has changed
life in America,
travel in America, so many things have changed, one
single event. And so, single events have and continue to change
the direction of our lives. There is one event, however, that has not
only changed the direction of society, but actually
became the turning point for all of mankind, forever.
One event. The event is recorded in Mark chapter
16, verses 14 to 16, when Jesus was with his
Apostles after His death and subsequent resurrection;
and he said to them, and we read in Mark chapter 16 beginning in verse
14, "Afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were
reclining at the table; and He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of
heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen.
And he said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all
creation. He who has believed and has been
baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved
shall be condemned." This command of
Jesus, to His Apostles, was the turning point
in the history of mankind. After these words were
pronounced, nothing would be the same anymore.
With these words, some things ceased to be forever and
others would begin to change the world from that point on.
So this evening I'd like to share with you four things that
changed forever when Jesus said these words.
First change, the history and purpose of the Jewish
nation was completed at this point.
In Genesis 12 God selects Abraham to become the father of a
special nation, through whom God promises He will send His Son.
From this point, in the Old Testament, to the end of Malachi, the
various writers chronicle the growth of that people from a single family,
to twelve tribes, to a nation with its own land and its own
king. We observe how God formed them, protected
them, blessed them, and punished them, but all the while
preparing them to produce, one day, the Messiah that He
would send to save the entire world. And so, the
Savior had to be a human being. He had to have a human
identity. He had to have a culture. He had to have a language. God was
not just going to appear as something, had to be
a type, a culture of some kind. And instead of borrowing a culture that was
already in existence in order to create a body, a human
body for His Son, He created a brand new culture, a brand new nation, a
brand new people, in order to provide for His Son
a history, and a nation, and a language. So as I say, instead of
borrowing a culture and a history from existing nations, He chose to create a
completely distinct people, culture, religion, for the Messiah to
inherit. All of it, tailor-made for Him. You could
say that the Jewish nation was an historical stage upon which God would
send His Son, in order to play out the plan to save man
and reconciled the world to Himself. However, with
these words in Mark chapter 16, Jesus signals the
end of the preparatory role of the Jewish nation.
After these words, the Jewish nation had to take their
place alongside all other nations in receiving the good news of
Jesus Christ. They would be
first in line, of course, the first ones to hear the good news because of the
nature of their role in history, but grouped with other nations of the
world. From now on, all nations had equal
access to God through Jesus Christ and were to respond to Him
in exactly the same way: belief,
repentance, and baptism. Of course, it's interesting to note
that history shows that the Jewish nation rejected Christ.
And they continue to actively do so today, in the large part.
if you look at books produced by Jews throughout history, you will
note that a large portion of them have to do with identifying themselves.
It's as if they have an identity crisis that they're trying to solve.
This is understandable. I mean, where do you go and what do you do once you
have played your part in history, but refuse to accept the conclusions about
your role. They were given a role to play and they refused to play it.
They refused to fulfill it. And so since that time they have searched to find an
identity. Their identity was determined for them from the very beginning.
They were to prepare the way for the Messiah, but they rejected the Messiah when He came.
And so for 2000 years they've searched to find out who are we?
What are we supposed to be doing?
The nation that had the greatest religious insights,
the most beautiful and elaborate traditions and Temple,
has now gone full circle with the words of Jesus in Mark chapter
16. Never again will there be a chosen race
based on culture or tradition. From now on, all the ones who
follow Jesus Christ, will be God's chosen
people. And I make a kind of a political aside, here. Aside
from the political ambitions that are going on in the Middle East, their
fight over religious differences is really futile, because the religious
solution is Jesus Christ. They're going to keep on being at war
until the end of time or that they accept the fact that Jesus
is the Messiah.
He is the Savior and no one else. Another change that takes
place with Jesus's words in Mark Chapter 16:
man's vision of God is changed forever. Up until this moment there were
thousands of religious cults and mystery religions and nature and state
religions developing their own ideas about the supernatural.
Now, God reveals Himself to man in a way that
there can be no mistake or confusion as to His character, His
will, and His purpose for mankind. For the first time in
history God has revealed Himself to all the nations.
God takes on the nature of a man and as that man performs
miracles, provides revelation in a way that no mere
man could duplicate. God, as a man, doing what
only God can do. God has come to live among
mankind as a historical fact, along with eyewitnesses and
written historical records to serve all future generations.
All of the world has seen and heard God in Jesus,
on the stage of Jewish history. The Jews
were given special insight into God's nature, but now the Gentile
nations would no longer have to guess or speculate about God. They
could now see and hear Him in the person of Jesus Christ.
No more cultural barrier. You didn't have to understand Jewish
religion in order to know who Jesus was. And so, in Mark chapter
16, verses 14 to 16, Jesus is telling the Apostles
to proclaim the new dawn of possible religious
certainty to the entire world, something that had never
been done before. And once again, I say, I mention on a personal note,
I spoke to Marty after his lesson this morning,
where he was talking about proclamation, what Jesus was doing, and I said, well I've got part
two of your sermon tonight.
And we keep doing that. Thank you Lord, for guiding us in our
lesson selection. Number three change is this: a final solution to life's
problems has now been offered once and for all.
In Mark 16, Jesus is telling the Apostles to preach the "good news",
but what exactly is so good about the news that
they are preaching? Well, the good news is that God has offered all
men or all mankind a solution to two of their greatest
problems: sin and death. Until this
time, the only solution man has figured out was to either indulge the
flesh or deny the flesh. It was the only - I mean, if you take all the
philosophies and all the religions and you boiled them down to what they were actually
trying to do in dealing with sin and death, they had only one of two
solutions: indulged the flesh or abstain.
One or the other. I mean, you're imperfect. You're going to die.
So forget about it and have a good time until you go. That was one of the
philosophical positions. You're going to die anyways. Eat, drink, and be merry, because
you're going to die anyway. That's one solution and that solution was wrapped up in all kinds of different
philosophies and practices; but basically that was it. The other solution,
you're imperfect. You're going to die. So deny yourself all pleasure
and beat death at its own game by dying ahead of time. Total
denial. And so you have no feelings. In other words, you're getting ready for death.
One way to get ready for death, take it all in, chew on it,
absorb as much of the world as you can. That's one solution. The other solution, well, get away
from the world as much as you can and die ahead of time, so that when the
actual death comes, you won't feel so bad about it.
Those were the best solutions that human beings had come up with for the problems
of imperfection, sin and the consequence of sin was
death. Jesus comes along. And His words offer a dramatic new solution to these very old
problems. To the problem of sin, the perfect life and
sacrificial death of Jesus pays the moral debt that we owe to
God, because of our sins. There's the solution of
Christianity. We don't have to be ashamed or guilty or deny
ourselves to pay for our sins anymore, as if we could.
What a futile effort that was.
Jesus pays our debt in full with His cross.
Our sins are simply taken away in baptism and we have
a clear conscience, First Peter chapter 3, verse 21.
The problem of death - The power of death and its finality is
overcome by Jesus's resurrection. And Jesus's
resurrection defeats death in three ways: First of all,
death has always made man afraid, Hebrews 2, verse 14, and the
resurrection takes away that fear by showing men that death is not
final.
It shows that resurrection is possible. What is so great about resurrection?
Why did Jesus have to resurrect? Well, would we actually believe that there is life
after death if someone didn't come along and actually demonstrate it?
I mean, what if Jesus died on the cross and then just, kind of, went straight to heaven. Paid for our sins,
went straight to heaven, and the Apostles went out and said, you know what, your sins are paid for, you're
all good. Now you're all going to live forever.
And somebody says, yeah, but what happens after we die? Well, then
you resurrect. And the crowd would say, well, how do we
know we resurrect? Oh, just take our word for it.
Anybody for baptism now? I don't think there'd be too many takers.
So what does Jesus do? He actually resurrects. He actually
shows Himself to people, hundreds of people, after His
resurrection. Also, life after death gives man hope, Job 14 verse 12. Knowing that the resurrection
exists gives man hope and courage to live a good and faithful
life, because he knows there is a reward. Let's face it,
sin makes us weak. And part of the weakness is, we have
trouble believing. And part of that weakness is, we don't always do the
things we ought to do for the most noble reasons. We don't always do what
we ought to do because it's the right and good thing to do. That's the highest ideal.
God is so merciful that He will accept from us the idea that we do
what is good because He has promised us a reward. That's not the highest ideal, but you
know what? It'll work. He will accept that from us. Why? Because
we are weak. Otherwise we'd be in despair and live foolishly,
thinking that this is all there is. How many people in this - ask yourself,
how could people - I keep thinking of the president of Syria.
How could a man, who himself has children,
how could a man like that sleep at night when the day before he
gave the order for his Air Force to go and drop
bombs, barrel bombs full of nails and ball bearings on
a hospital, on children.
How can a guy like that sleep knowing that he's dropped cyanide,
poison gas, and killed little children and
babies and they experienced a horrible death. This man who has children,
how can he do such a thing? Because this is all there is.
When this is all there is. You're amazed what you can do.
When this is all there is. Because this is all I got.
And if this is all I've got, then I'm going to protect it.
I'm not going to let anybody take it away from me. And I will do what I want to
do. And I will do what it takes, no matter what, to protect what I
have. Because there is nothing else after this. But if you
know, if you know that there is a judgment and there a punishment and there's a
reward coming, that kind of makes you think twice. And that's okay. It's meant for
us to think twice. Skeptics are persuaded by power, not love. Our faith, our message,
has no power without the resurrection. That's what gives it its power.
The promise and the evidence of the resurrection is what wins over the
nonbelievers. In Mark 16, a resurrected
man is telling His disciples to go and tell the world
that their two oldest problems have been solved once and for all.
That's pretty good news. This was a message never
heard or ever imagined before. No one ever heard a
message like this. No other religion promised this. No other prophet or religious leader or guru
ever promised their followers that if they believed in
him he would give them resurrection.
He would resurrect them from the dead and then went ahead and demonstrated his power.
Nobody ever did that.
That message and that power, that was, we say today, a game changer.
That wasn't just a game changer. That was a world changer.
Nothing had ever been said or done like that before and never would be
promised ever again. Two thousand years have gone by, have we had a religion
or a philosophy that has promised anything better than that? No. The only promises we
get, in the last 2000 years, are what? Well, you either
live - eat, drink, and be merry, because you die or you abstain
from everything and die ahead of time. We haven't come up with a better philosophy even.
And then the fourth change: once and for all, mankind has a clear choice.
For the first time in history, mankind had a clear choice over
life and death, which could be made personally.
Before it was fate, or it was your master, or it was
the age, or it was whoever was over you, they were the ones that
decided about your life and your death. Whether you were man, or old, woman, rich, or poor slave,
free, whatever, this decision over life or death was
now yours to make. A personal decision. The
good news to a guilty sinner is that his two worst problems: sin and
death, have been solved. And now God offers him a
choice. A Choice. Choice number one, those who
believe Jesus and are baptized will be saved. There is the choice number
one. Interesting, if we get into a little grammar here, the word saved in
english comes from the Greek word sozo, which means or which
has an interesting background. When a person comes under the influence of
another person or a thing, to a point where he can no longer
exercise his will, or this person is in a
situation where his strength or his resources cannot free him
from his situation or his obligation -
think, for example, you're on a - you're crossing the Atlantic on a
ship and you fall overboard in the middle of the night, with no life jacket and the
ship sails away and your only option is to drown or to
swim to England. What do you think's going to happen to you? Your
situation is greater than your resources. Your situation is
greater than your ability to get yourself out of trouble. You know right then and there
you will not make it. Why? Because you can't swim a thousand miles. That's why.
In other words, a situation where a third party is
needed to come in and save you or rescue
you. When that was the situation, the word sozo was used. And that's the word that is used in Mark.
Suggesting that humankind or human beings are in a
situation that they have no power to free themselves from.
Basically, the word means to
rescue, to save, or to free. So Jesus
is saying or promising that those who believe in Him and are
baptized as a result, will be rescued, they'll be saved.
They'll be freed from the power of sin and the sentence of death
over which they have no power.
That's the point. And how? Well, at baptism their sins
will all be forgiven and they will receive the Holy Spirit, who will give them the
power to overcome sin in their lives and raise their bodies from the grave, just like the spirit did
for Jesus Christ, when they die, Acts 2:38. Romans Chapter
eight, talk about this. If you choose to obey,
then Jesus will save you. However, and here's the second choice,
if you disbelieve you will be condemned. So you have a clear choice.
And it's written in a very simple way.
If one chooses to disbelieve, to reject, to postpone and consequently
refuse baptism, which is part of that disbelief, those who
refuse to be baptized are really saying that they don't believe and they don't believe enough to be
baptized. This is the same thing as disbelief. These people,
Jesus makes the promise to them, that they will be judged and the outcome of their
judgment will be condemnation.
What's significant about this, for the first time in history,
mankind could deal with life and death on a personal
basis and have some control over it. From now
until the end of time, mankind could choose to live forever in
joy, or suffer forever in hell.
I mean, has there been, in history, any other decision
more important than this, for any human being? Of course not.
And so, I call Mark chapter 16, verses 15 and 16, the
Hinge of History. The Hinge of History. It was the
turning point for the Jewish nation. It was the turning point for
religion and philosophy in general. It was the moment when
Satan and his fiercest weapon - death, were both
defeated. And it was also the time in history where mankind
gained control of its eternal future.
This verse continues to be the hinge upon which each one of our lives can
change forever,
because upon this hinge is attached the door that opens into the
eternal kingdom of light, or closes, leaving one in the
eternal kingdom of darkness. And every single one of us
has made a choice based on these words.
We either believe then and have been baptized, calling on Jesus to
save us and to give us eternal life. Or we have
disbelieved, and postponed, and been unfaithful, and are
presently awaiting His judgment,
while we live out the few remaining years of life that we
have here on Earth. And some people say, you people in the Church of Christ, you
make things so simple, black or white.
Well, I'm ready to acknowledge that not everything is black or white,
there are some things in the Bible that are difficult to understand:
who is the man of lawlessness? When will Jesus come? What is the significance of some of the imagery that we
see in the book of Revelation? It's not all evident. A lot of the things in the scriptures
require teaching and understanding and study, of
course, but there are some things that are quite clear.
And purposefully so. What if you were God and you were offering
to mankind the choice between eternal life and
eternal death. Wouldn't you make the conditions pretty clear on that?
What if everybody had to understand calculus in order to be saved. What if everybody had to have perfect pitch?
To sing perfectly, every note in order to be saved. We would all be in trouble.
When God makes the choice unmistakable.
Those who believe and are baptized, they'll be saved.
And those who disbelieve, will be condemned.
That's at the heart of the message. As Marty was saying, Jesus provided
ample proof of who He was. He
provided miracles and teaching. And, of course, His resurrection,
to demonstrate that what He said was, in fact, true.
Was from God. And so, in my lesson tonight,
I merely go one step further. This is the conclusion of the message:
those who believe and are baptized will be saved. Those who disbelieve will be lost.
Preachers often say, let's get the message out and let's
proclaim the message to our community. You can't win souls unless you sow seed.
The message is not that we're a friendly church. That's not the message of
Christ. The message of Christ is not, we've got a great youth group. We do have a great youth group, but
that's not the message of Christ. The
message of Christ
is, that those who believe and are baptized will be saved and those who disbelieve will be lost.
That's the message we need to get out of the building and
into the community. That may not make friends with some people
who will call us names.
And accuse us of being, Oh, any number of things. But it'll represent life to
those who believe that message. It'll be a great cause of joy for
those who understand and say, Ah, that's it!
That's what I've been missing. This is the answer to my question. Those people will be happy.
They will rejoice with us. I repeat again, that's why the the billboard on 23rd
says, Sinners are Welcome at the Church of Christ.
Why? Because we have a message for you and we have a decision that you need to make. That
everyone needs to make. Now on Sunday night, obviously, you know I'm preaching to
the choir here, as far as the message is concerned, but if there is
anyone in our audience tonight who has not believed
and been baptized, then I encourage you not to delay and to be baptized this
very night, so that you may be saved this very night.
Or if you have already done that and perhaps have neglected your faith, been
unfaithful to Christ. Perhaps living in a way which is not a witness
of your faith, and you need to repent of that, you need to change that, then make
that decision tonight and return to Him and allow the elders to pray for you
and to encourage you back into the fellowship of the saints. If you do have a
spiritual need tonight or any need, then we encourage you to come forward now as we stand and sing our song of encouragement.