James Nisbet Commentary - Mark 16:20 - 16:20

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James Nisbet Commentary - Mark 16:20 - 16:20


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CHRIST IN THE WORLD

‘The Lord working with them.’

Mar_16:20

Most people, if asked to express their idea of our Lord’s Ascension, would probably say that He has gone immeasurably far from us. That certainly was not His meaning when He spoke of the expediency of His departure from our sight. He has vanished from sight, but He has not gone from among us. Before He ascended, the Apostle connected His presence with certain places, as the upper room; after His Ascension that presence became to them constant and perpetual, secured by means of His own appointment to the Church.

I. What is the effect on life?—We see the whole of His human life carried to the throne of God. As we ascend in heart and mind to Him, we are assured that no part of our lives will be without its end; that all parts of our lives hang together, and that all will be brought together.

II. The fruits of Christ’s work cannot be exhausted.—Its value is eternal; it is continually applied to the Church, and through the Church, and every member of the Church to the world. The best way to try and realise what He is doing is to read the first five chapters of the Revelation. To believe, then, in His Ascension is to believe that He is present with us, as He promised, ‘all the days.’ This year is the year of Christ; this day a day of Christ; it is a time when He is really working with us, and ‘confirming the word,’ by indications no less fruitful, because no less charged with His presence among those who work with Him, than when Apostles healed in His name the sick, or cast out devils, or raised the dead.

III. The glorious issues of redemption impose on us a duty.—What was the last title bestowed by the Lord on the Apostles? Not merely, as it is wrongly given in our ordinary English translation, ‘Witnesses unto Me,’ but ‘My witnesses.’ He meant us to understand that we are to be the free, and intelligent, and conscious agents of His own life.

—
Rev. Chancellor Worlledge.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

CHRIST’S CO-OPERATION

I. Who they were of whom the text speaks.—They were men. Not an insignificant fact. They were disciples. Hence ready obedience.

II. What they did.—‘They … preached.’ They preached because of the command, ‘Go … and preach.’ They preached because it pleased God ‘by foolishness of preaching (not by foolish preaching) to …’ (Rom_10:17). ‘How beautiful …’ (Isa_52:7). ‘How shall they preach, except they be sent?’ (Rom_10:15). Are we preaching or sending?

III. Where they went.—‘They went forth … everywhere.’ Did not wait until all their own countrymen were converted. Has not experience taught us that the way ‘to strengthen the stakes’ is ‘to lengthen the cords’? May it not be said of a Church (Pro_11:24)? Do we act as though we believed this, or do we grudge both men and money?

IV. The Lord’s co-operation.—‘The Lord working with them.’ His co-operation an absolute necessity; no success unless He gives it. Man not the agent, only the instrument. He confirmed the message. ‘Confirming the word with signs following.’ These signs spoken of in preceding verses (17, 18). But these not the only ‘signs that follow …’ In the experience of the believer the Lord confirms the Gospel message (Joh_10:41).

Bishop Billing.



PREPARATION AND EFFECT

‘Confirming the word with signs following.’

Mar_16:20

If we wished to make the Gospel for Ascension Day the subject of a sermon, one way of dealing with it effectively might be this: to consider the preparation for the Ascension, and the effect of the Ascension; in both cases with reference to the disciples.

I. Preparation for the Ascension.—We have in the passage, obviously, a sort of epitome of the conversations held by our Lord with His disciples between the Resurrection and the Ascension. He establishes, first, the fact of His Resurrection. Then He gives them their commission. They are to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. To reject their message will be no trifling matter, for ‘he that believeth not, shall be damned’; and it shall be enforced by the many ‘signs’—manifestations of miraculous power—which shall be seen in the case of those who have received the message.

II. The effect of the Ascension is a prompt and glad obedience on the part of the previously disheartened disciples. They return from the Mount of Ascension to Jerusalem with ‘great joy.’ And why with great joy? Because they feel that their work is to claim the Kingdom for the King, to Whom all power in heaven and in earth has been given. The cause is one which is certain to succeed. The King is invisible, it is true; but He is not absent. He is with them, and with them always. He ‘works with them,’ for the cheering of their hearts, for the confusion of their enemies, for the confirmation of their message. They have something present to point to, and not only to speak of something future.

Do ‘signs’ follow now? Yes; but spiritual signs. The casting out of the devils of impurity, pride, deceit; the speaking with a new tongue the praises of God.

Rev. Prebendary Gordon Calthrop.