SERMON TITLE: Snakes, Poison, and Manuscripts
TEXT: Mark 16:9-20 (ESV)
SPEAKER: Josh Hanson
DATE: 4-24-22
Watch the sermon here.
Take notes with the Sermon Discussion Guide here.
As always it’s a joy to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And there’s one thing I want you to know — and this is true if you’re worshiping with us for the first time or are joining us at our North Main campus — the one thing I want you to know is that God loves you and that I love you too.
A quick reminder of something I mentioned a few weeks ago. Tomorrow — Monday — April 25th at 6:30pm — we’ll be hosting a Findlay Forward meeting here in the gym at our County Road 9 campus. Our city council is seeking input from the community as it puts together a strategic plan for the future of Findlay. Their goal is to get feedback from a thousand people and — based on initial community participation — we have the opportunity to be a large percentage of those who speak into the direction of our city’s future. So please plan on coming out tomorrow evening and let your voice be heard in this important process. The event is for city residents and for anyone who wants to speak into the direction of Findlay’s future. Again — the meeting is tomorrow — Monday — April 25th — at 6:30pm here in the gym of our County Road 9 campus.
Today — we’re finishing up the gospel of Mark — can you believe it? We’ve been traveling through Mark’s gospel since 2018. That’s four years of us walking through the account of Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection. Again — four years! So — on the count of three — let’s all throw our hands in the air and say “This is the End!” Are you ready? One. Two. Three. “This is the end!”
So let’s turn to our passage for today. If you have your Bible please turn with me to Mark chapter 16. We’ll be looking at verses 9-20 together today. We’re jumping right into Mark chapter 16 — beginning in verse 9.
“Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11 But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. 12 After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. 13 And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. 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.” (Mark 16:9-20 ESV)
So I asked a few staff if they thought I should have some live snakes on stage with me — for this sermon — and the idea got shot down. Apparently they’re not fans of snakes or — more specifically — Carsten’s not a fan of snakes. I bring up snakes because — this is the passage that’s used by Christians who you may have heard of who do snake handling in their worship services. In fact — when I was interviewing at a church in West Virginia — the church I pastored before coming to Gateway — one of the things they asked me about during the interview process was snake handling. And they brought up these verses from Mark. And — in case you’re wondering — they did not do snake handling. But — as disappointing as it may be — there’ll be no snakes on stage with me today.
One other thing you should know — especially if you’re someone who’s used to just following along with the verses we put on the screens and don’t bring a physical Bible with you or open up a Bible app — you should know that you’re at a disadvantage today because you may not be aware of something that others — who have a physical Bible or app open — are aware of. So — first — let me encourage you to always bring your Bible with you. And — second — let me catch you up with what others are aware of. It’s a note that most Bible translations have just before our verses. And the note says this.
“Some of the earliest manuscripts do not include Mark 16:9–20.”
So what’s up with this note being in our Bibles? And what’s up with these verses being in our Bibles if — apparently — there’s a question as to whether or not they’re supposed to be in our Bible? Well this brings us back to the kinds of questions we’re going to address today. Our verses are a springboard into an important discussion on the topic of the Bible — God’s Word. How did we get the Bible and what should we do with passages like this — where there's a question of their authenticity? These will be the questions we answer as we finish the gospel of Mark today.
So — our first question: How did we get the Bible? Let’s begin with Scripture. The apostle Paul writes, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NLT) Another Bible translation — instead of using the phrase “inspired by God” — says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God…” (2 Timothy 3:16a ESV)
So what does it mean that God “inspired” the Bible? Does it mean that God motivated human authors to write the Bible? In a sense — yes — but it means more than this. Does it mean that God’s Word is to be inspiring to us? Again — in a sense — we must say yes — the Bible does inspire us. But — as we’ve seen by looking at different translations — the idea behind “God inspiring all of Scripture” is that all of Scripture is breathed out by him. And that seems like something more than just God inspiring us or the original authors. A Bible scholar is helpful here — he writes, “In short, the Holy Spirit so directed the human writers that the finished product was precisely what he intended…The authors of Scripture expressed the truth in words which were inspired by the Holy Spirit.” (Stephen Yuille, “What Does the Inspiration of Scripture Mean?,” September 4, 2018. https://ca.thegospelcoalition.org/article/what-does-the-inspiration-of-scripture-mean/)
Or — as the apostle Peter writes, “Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, 21 or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God.” (2 Peter 1:20-21 NLT) The Bible scholar — quoted earlier — goes on to write, “Peter’s not talking here about reading and interpreting Scripture, but about its origin. His point is that prophecy wasn’t the result of the prophet’s own interpretation of things. It wasn’t the author’s idea…The verb [translated as “moved by” or] ‘carried along’ was used of a ship ‘carried along’ by the wind. This means that the Holy Spirit carried along the human authors in such a way that what they wrote was his, not theirs. The Bible, therefore, isn’t the product of human invention; rather, it’s the Word of God.” (Yuille, “What Does the Inspiration of Scripture Mean?”)
So — the beginning of our answer to the question “How did we get the Bible” — must include that God has given us his Word. God is the Author of Scripture. He inspired the words — breathed them out — as he carried along the human authors as they wrote down his Word.
So what does this mean? If God is the Author — what does this tell us about Scripture? It tells us that the Bible is both inerrant and infallible. What do these fancy words mean? Inerrant means that the Bible is without error. It must be since it’s God’s Word — for God is perfect — he is truth (Matthew 5:48) — he cannot lie (John 14:6) — God doesn’t make mistakes. God’s Word is without error.
When — speaking of inerrancy — you’ll often hear something like “regarding the original autographs” — meaning the original manuscripts — that were inspired by God — were inerrant. So what does that mean? It means that a typo in your English Bible doesn’t make it no longer inerrant. The focus of inerrancy is on the original manuscripts — what the authors of Scripture originally wrote down was without error. But the bottom line is that the Bible is inerrant — it’s without error.
That’s inerrancy — so what does infallible mean? Infallible means that the Bible is incapable of error. Not only is the Bible without error — inerrant — but it’s incapable of error — it’s infallible. And this tells us that whatever the Bible teaches is true, trustworthy, and authoritative. God’s Word stands over us — in authority — we don’t stand over it and judge it. We submit to God’s Word — God’s Word doesn’t submit to us. And we live in a world full of competing authorities for your life — so you must choose this day what will be the final authority over your life. God and his Word or something else? And — if you choose something else — even subtly so — like when we say “well I know the Bible says this, but science or psychology or critical race theory or my favorite politician says…” know that — ultimately — you’ve bowed your knee and given your allegiance to that person or thing and not to God. You can’t serve two masters — at least — that’s what Jesus said. And — yes — he was speaking about money — but the principle applies to anything we allow to be our master in place of God.
Now — some would say that this is all ridiculous because I’ve used words of the Bible to defend it as the Word of God. They’d say this is a circular argument. In fact, one website uses the Bible as an example of a circular argument. (https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Circular-Reasoning) But this shouldn’t bother us. What should bother us is how the circular argument is used to try and dismantle the Bible as an authority while many other claims to authority use circular arguments — and yet — get a pass. Some examples.
My point — circular arguments are everywhere! So if you’re someone who dismisses the authority of the Bible because it uses a circular argument — are you being fair and dismissing everything else that uses a circular argument? And — if you’re honest — there’s no way you are! We live in a world full of circular arguments.
But — back to the Bible — and why it shouldn’t be dismissed as the authority in your life. Let’s talk about this book’s history. How was this book put together? The individual books in the Bible were written over the course of nearly 2,000 years. Forty different human authors wrote the words we have in our Bible — again — as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. They lived on three different continents, wrote in three different languages, and — as you can imagine — having lived over the course of two thousand years — they had many different life experiences. (Josh McDowell, The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1999), 4.)
And — believe it or not — this is one of the strongest arguments in favor of the authority and trustworthiness of the Bible. Why? Because it still has one unifying theme even though it’s written by many different authors, over the course of many centuries, on three different continents, and in three different languages. Think about it. The odds of there being a unifying theme — by chance — are — well — there’s no chance. But — in being inspired by God — well — then there's a 100% chance. And what’s the one unifying theme of the Bible? Jesus. It’s why we do our “Finding Jesus” series here at Gateway — where we look at the one unifying theme in all of the Bible — Jesus — and find him in all of Scripture.
But the Bible is even unified on its minor themes. The major theme of the Bible is Jesus — and there’s unity regarding Christ in all of Scripture. But we even find unity regarding the minor themes of Scripture. Regarding creation — the Bible is unified. Regarding Noah’s flood — the Bible’s unified. Regarding the Exodus story — the Bible’s unified. Regarding God’s promise to Abraham — the Bible’s unified. Regarding human sexuality — the Bible is unified. Regarding the New Creation — the Bible is unified. And on and on we could go.
But how did the individual books get put in the Bible? Was there a vote or something — you know — where the gospel of Matthew got enough votes — so it’s in — but the gospel of Mary came up a few votes short — so it’s out? How’d that work? History shows us that there were three guiding principles used to validate the books included in the Bible. The first principle is that the book needed to be written by a prophet or apostle — or by someone in close acquaintance with a prophet or an apostle. For example Mark was a close acquaintance with the apostle Peter. Second, the material in the book could not contradict or disagree with Scripture that was written earlier. And — finally — there needed to be general consensus — by the early Christians — that the writing was inspired by God. (John MacArthur, Jr., “How We Got the Bible,” http://www.onthewing.org/user/Bible%20-%20How%20we%20got%20it%20-%20MacArthur.pdf.)
By the time Jesus was born — the Old Testament was already agreed upon. Jesus often quotes from the Old Testament as the Word of God — he refers to it as the Word of God — he appeals to it as truth and having authority. So let’s go with Jesus regarding the Old Testament being God’s Word. Now realizing that — in the time period when the New Testament was being written — there were no computers — not even printing presses — we understand that a bit of time was needed for the new writings to be distributed. But — here’s the amazing thing. By the second century — just over a hundred years after the last apostles of Christ died — most Christian churches in the world acknowledged that — in addition to the Old Testament — the four gospels, Acts, Paul’s letters, 1st Peter and 1st John were all Scripture. And by the year 325AD, we find agreement upon all of the books that we have in our Bibles today. (Bruce Metzger, “The Formation of the New Testament Canon,” January 30, 2014. https://theologymatters.com/authority-of-scripture/2014/the-formation-of-the-new-testament-canon/.) That’s amazingly fast in a world where everything was copied by hand.
And when compared to other ancient writings — the evidence is overwhelmingly in the Bible’s favor that — what we have today — is what was written thousands of years ago. And I don’t just mean “do we have the right books in the Bible” — I mean — “do we have the right words.” So what’s evidence? And — again — this is where I’d ask those — who doubt the Bible’s accuracy or validity — to be fair and not hold it to a standard that you don’t hold against other ancient literature.
For example, take the The Gallic Wars of Caesar — which is called a “classic of western literature.” (https://www.oupress.com/9780806142524/caesars-gallic-war/) It’s Julius Caesar's account of his conquests during the first century BC — written sometime between 100-44BC. The earliest manuscript we have of this writing is from 900AD — that’s 1,000 years between when this was originally written and the earliest surviving copy we have of the writing. And how many manuscripts do we have of this writing? Ten! We only have 10 ancient copies of this “classic of western literature.”
Or take The Histories of Herodotus. Columbia University — in New York — uses this book in their humanities department. (https://www.college.columbia.edu/core/content/histories) Brown University calls Herodotus “the Father of History.” (https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/courses/greekpast/4694.html) This work was written between 480-425BC. Yet the earliest manuscript we have is from 900AD. That’s 1,350 years between the original writing and the earliest copy we have. And how many ancient copies do we have? Eight!
I could mention the Annals of Roman Historian and Senator Tacitus written around 100AD. The 20 manuscripts we have of it with the earliest being dated 1,100 years after the original. Or Pliny Secundus’ Natural History written between 61-113AD — the 7 manuscripts we have of it — the earliest dated 750 years after the original.
Or — we could get excited about Homer’s Iliad — there’s one you’ve probably heard of. Written around 80BC. We have 643 manuscripts of Homer’s work — there’s some improvement, right? Yet the earliest manuscript is still 400 years after the original was written. But this is the best scenario thus far. We have over 600 manuscripts of the Iliad — giving us great confidence in knowing what Homer actually wrote down.
Now — all of that was a set up — to give us Christians great confidence in our Bible — and to give those who doubt the validity of the Bible a challenge. What am I talking about? Well you’d have to throw out all of those writings — you’d have to say “Well, we can’t really be certain that we know what Julius Caesar wrote because we only have 10 manuscripts and there’s a thousand year gap between the original writing and the evidence we have” — you’d have to throw out the “father of history’s” writings and even Homer’s the Iliad if you want to dismiss the Bible as being possibly invalid or tainted or corrupted or something. Here’s why? Just taking the New Testament — because it's contemporary to the writings just mentioned.
The New Testament was written between 50-96AD. The earliest manuscript copies we have are from 114AD — those are fragments — not complete manuscripts. The earliest full manuscripts — of entire books in the Bible — are dated around 200AD. Incomplete New Testaments dated around 250AD. And the entire New Testament — as we have it today — dated around 325AD — so ancient copies of the New Testament within 50 to 225 years of the originals being written. Not thousands of years — not even 400 years. Two hundred and fifty years — after being written — we have copies of the entire New Testament. And within 50 years — of the New Testament being written — we have fragments — or incomplete sections of the New Testament.
And how many manuscripts do we have? Remember Caesar’s number? Ten. The Father of history? Eight. Homer — that’s when we got excited — nearly 650 manuscripts. Just for the New Testament alone — we have 5,366 manuscripts. Scholars have called it an embarrassment as to how much evidence we have that the words in our Bible — today — are the original words written down by the authors of Scripture.
So — Christians — have confidence. What’s in your Bible is what was originally written. And — if you doubt the validity of the Bible — I’d just ask you to be fair and give Columbia University, and Brown University, and the University of Oklahoma — and I’m sure there are countless others — those are the websites I checked out — give these universities a call and tell them they’re using ancient writings in their programs that you have serious doubts about.
But Josh —there’s passages like ours in Mark chapter 16 — with little notes about early manuscripts not including these verses. How should this affect our view of Scripture? First, we should acknowledge that a note — of some sort like this — about the ending of Mark — has been included in manuscripts since around 900AD — over eleven hundred years a note like this has been included about the ending of Mark. A monk named Ephraim included this note claiming these verses were an addition and not original to Mark’s gospel. And many scholars believe that the note wasn’t original to Ephraim but something he copied while writing out Mark’s gospel by hand — a note possibly going back a few hundred years earlier than Ephraim’s time.
So scholars look at the manuscripts we have of the New Testament. And they date them all. They compare them to one another — you can imagine this takes awhile — because we’ve got so many manuscripts. And then they do their best to determine what was originally written down by the author when there’s a discrepancy. Remember — we don’t have any of the original documents — we don’t have the gospel of Mark written down in Mark’s handwriting — we have copies of Mark’s gospel. And that’s true for the entire Bible.
And — of the small — we’re talking less than one percent of the entire Bible — of the small amount of words that we’re unsure of what the original was — of the few words that scholars make their best educated guess about — none of these words hold any significance when it comes to the core doctrines of the Christian faith. What we believe — as Christians — isn’t affected by the few words — in our Bible — that scholars question, “Was the original word this or that?”
So — back to our verses. Regardless of whether this ending to Mark’s gospel is original or not — the tomb of Jesus Christ is still empty and Jesus is alive. Death has been defeated. And believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved — is still what we proclaim. What we believe — based on what God has said — is clear. So trust your Bible. Trust God’s Word.
So — now that we have a basic understanding of how the Bible was put together — we come to our second question — really it’s two questions: What should we do with passages like our verses — passages where their authenticity is in question? And what should we not do with passages like our verses?
Let’s begin with what not to do. But — first — let’s remind ourselves of our verses.
“Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11 But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. 12 After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. 13 And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. 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.” (Mark 16:9-20 ESV)
OK — so the first thing — not to do — is to throw out the entire Bible as being some sort of fake news — where you reject the entire Bible because of verses like this. We’ve already covered this so I won’t say any more. Just don’t throw out the entire Bible because of a few verses where we have questions as to their validity.
The second thing not to do. Don’t build your theology — or Christian practices — on these verses alone. Now this is a much more practical point — so — let me say it again. Don’t build your theology — or Christian practices — on these verses alone.
Examples from our verses would be…
So those are a few examples of what not to do with our verses. Now we can consider what we should do with verses like this.
Here’s the principle. Where other Scripture affirms these verses, have confidence that the truth they teach is biblical. Where other Scripture affirms these verses, have confidence that the truth they teach is biblical. And that means — you’ve got to really know your Bible. So — what in our verses — is affirmed elsewhere in Scripture?
So — when other Scripture affirms what you find in texts like this — allow the other Scripture to give you confidence that “Yes, Jesus did rise from the grave on Sunday.” “Yes, we’re to go into all the world and preach the gospel.” “Yes, having banners in our worship centers that say ‘You are sent’ with a reference to Mark 16:15 is appropriate.”
But where other Scripture doesn’t affirm what you find in texts like this — be very cautious. A guiding principle is to allow Scripture to interpret Scripture. Allow the more clear and obvious Scripture to interpret the less clear and less obvious Scripture. Allow the easier to understand verses help you interpret the more difficult to understand verses.
So — as we end our time in the gospel of Mark — I’d like to encourage you — maybe even challenge you — to take God at his Word. Take Jesus at his Word. To believe in Jesus means that you now follow him — and that includes following his view of Scripture. And he viewed Scripture as the very Word of God. As an authority over his life — so much so — that he fulfilled everything written in it on our behalf. He lived by this book and we — his followers — are to follow his example and live by this book as well. We’re to be corrected, and encouraged, and equipped by this book as we’re transformed into the image of the One who gave his life — in loving obedience — for us. Your view of Jesus will affect your view and relationship with this book. And your view of this book will affect your view and relationship with Jesus. What does your view of this book say about your view of Jesus? Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for your Word to us. Thank you for preserving your Word to us — throughout the centuries — so that we can know that you have spoken and know what you’ve said. Thank you for the embarrassment of manuscripts that you’ve revealed to the world — a visible demonstration that — though some may doubt whether or not the Bible is divinely inspired — there’s no reason to doubt the accuracy of what’s been written.
Spirit of God — thank you for inspiring these words of Scripture. For carrying along the human authors so that they wrote down your inerrant and infallible Word to us. Help us to live under the authority of your Word — to keep it as the final authority over our lives — and not bow our knee to any other authority. For we cannot serve two masters. Either you and your Word are our final authority or not.
And — Jesus — thank you for demonstrating to us how we should view Scripture and how we’re to live under it as our authority. For you did so — on our behalf — in love for us. Even when your submission cost you your life. Help us to see the freedom in living the way we’ve been created to live — by taking you at your Word. It’s in your name that we pray for all of these things. Amen.
As we come to the end of Mark’s gospel — may we all go taking God at his Word — living under the authority of his Word and by the power of his Spirit. Amen.
God loves you. I love you. You are sent.
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