Mark 16:14  Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.
15  And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
16  He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
17  And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
18  They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
19  So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.
20  And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.

This passage of Scripture is part of the reason why some people believe it should not be included in the Bible. It has been twisted and misused by different religious groups. All Scripture must be understood in its context.
God directed Peter to write:

II Peter 3:16  As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Only those who are truly saved will be able to understand the intricacies of the Scriptures. All people can know that God is the Creator of all things. All people can know that man fell due to Adam’s disobedience. That disobedience plunged humanity into sin. All people can know there is only one Saviour — “the seed of the woman”. It does not say seeds, but one seed. All people can know they must trust in this one true Saviour in order to be saved. Once a person is saved, the indwelling Holy Spirit is there to help the saved person to begin to understand the rest of the Scriptures. There are far too many self-made theologians. They pontificate and if they are smooth enough talkers, they gain a following. Lost people are easily swayed. Not all are swayed by the same thing, but all can be deceived. The charismatic movement is a great tool of the devil. It feeds the flesh and that makes lost people feel good about themselves.
In our text we read that Jesus appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat. Judas had committed suicide before Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus had not yet named a replacement for him. We see here that Jesus upbraided the eleven for their unbelief and hardness of heart. Jesus upbraided/chided them for not believing those who had seen Him after His resurrection. We have already noted that they had no reason to doubt His resurrection. He had taught them about this fact often. They had not accepted that truth. After His crucifixion, burial and resurrection, they were fearful rather than comforted.
In verse 15 Jesus told them to get on with what they needed to do. He chose them. He taught them for three plus years. They observed Him closely. They knew He was not a fraudster. They knew He was not like the Pharisees and their ilk. Now He commanded them to “go into all the world”. Jesus was not going to allow these men off the hook. He chose them for a purpose. He trained them for the work of fishing for men. Jesus was not like any human teacher. His teaching was with authority and power. The eleven were not pretenders. Judas was removed because he was not genuine. Jesus would replace him with Saul/Paul, but not now.
These men needed to grow a backbone and they needed to get out there and preach the gospel to every creature. They needed to place their trust in Jesus Christ. There is not a nation in the world that is not worthy of the Gospel. Jesus pointed to the importance of believing the message. These men needed to believe the message that Jesus had given them. Now they needed to go and proclaim the Gospel with conviction. God would bless the message because it was not their own. The Gospel is the Gospel of Christ.
We see here the close tie between believing and baptism. False religions have corrupted this and taught baptismal regeneration. No one is saved by baptism. Many religions have corrupted the meaning of the word baptism and they suggest that pouring and sprinkling are equal to immersion. This is again because people do not believe we have an inspired and preserved Word of God. Biblical baptism is always by immersion. Immersion is a picture of the submission and surrender that has already taken place in the heart of the true child of God.
This is again why New Evangelicalism is a false religion. New Evangelicalism suggests that the recipient of God’s gift of salvation, makes an appointment with God/Jesus, to negotiate their own particular terms of service. That is heresy.

Ephesians 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Those who are saved are created in Christ Jesus unto good works. That is God’s design. In our text, those who are saved will see the importance of Biblical baptism because they will be taught the purpose of baptism. Because they are saved, they will not fight against the truth.
The person that does not believe is already damned. That person is already on the way to hell. Rejecting the truth is extremely unwise and dangerous.
Verse 17 is one of those verses that those who are unlearned and unstable, wrest. They twist it out of its context and they make it say something it does not say. This was given to the disciples prior to the completion of the Scriptures. The book of Acts records the apostles’ ability to cast out devils. This was especially true of the apostle Paul. The apostles would also be able to speak with new tongues. Tongues in the Bible are a reference to languages. They do not in any way refer to the noise that comes from the charismatic false teaching. In Acts 2 we read of this gift being given to the apostles. It was a sign to unbelieving Jews. The people heard the wonderful works of God in their own language. We find this gift given a few more times in the book of Acts. Each time it was given, there were unbelieving Jews present. In Acts 10&11 there were spiritually unbelieving Jews present, and Peter and other believing but doubting Jews were also present. Peter doubted that Gentiles could be saved as Jews were. He needed to realize that God’s gift of salvation was for all people.
In verse 17 we read of taking up serpents. The apostle Paul was bitten by a viper on his trip to Rome. The island people believed he must be a criminal who had escaped the storm on the sea, but would now die from that bite. Paul shook off that viper and when the people observed that he did not swell up and die, they wrongly assumed he was a god.
The apostles also had special ability to heal the sick. God is still able to heal today, but He has chosen to limit that gift today. At the time of the apostles the Scriptures were not completed yet. The apostles were given signs and wonders to authenticate them as having the authority to write Scripture. There are false teachers who claim to write Scripture today. We can know they are frauds, because the Scriptures were completed with Revelation 22:21. Nothing more will be added. That is God’s design, not mine.
We know these facts are true. As the Scriptures were being completed, the sign gifts faded into the background. Today, an evangelist called to go and speak to another people group has to spend a long time learning the language of those people or he needs an interpreter. He does not go there and immediately know how to speak their language. We have many hospitals and clinics where sick people can go for help. I have never seen any “faith healer” go to any hospital and clean it out because he actually had the gift of healing. When they conduct their fraudulent services, they blame the sick person if they are not healed. Jesus healed people that did not believe. His healing caused some of them to believe on Him. He raised the dead as did Peter and Paul. A dead person certainly cannot exercise faith. People need to use the brain that God gave them to think carefully before they just accept some teaching.
In verse 19 we read that after Jesus had spoken these words, He was received up into heaven. The other Gospels give us more details of Jesus’ time on earth after His resurrection and prior to His ascension. He was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God. His Work of redemption was finished. He now took His place as the Mediator between God and man. It is essential to note that when a Christian prays, he always prays to God the Father and he prays in Jesus’ name. No legitimate prayer is made to Jesus or to the Holy Ghost. Lost people need to be taught to pray to God the Father and in Jesus’ name.
In verse 20 we read that after Jesus’ ascension, the disciples went forth and preached every where. Notice that it was the Lord working with them that made their work effective. Notice as well that the Lord confirmed their word with signs following. This was just as Jesus had declared in verses 17-18. The disciples were empowered by God to prove their authenticity by being able to do the particular signs Jesus spoke of. The Jews demanded signs. Many of them did not believe even when they saw the signs. They just wanted entertainment.
Today we do not need to see signs and wonders. Those who are waiting for that are ready for the antichrist. He will do lying signs and wonders. That is exactly what the charismatics are doing today. They are frauds who need to be exposed. We cannot stop them, but we certainly can show that they are frauds. We can warn the saints not to be deceived. We can also warn the lost of the deception that many of them are falling for. Preaching the truth is just as needful today as at any time. True preachers are not that common. Frauds are a dime a dozen. Choose wisely and be sure you are not being deceived.
Pastor Bartel