Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2467
“And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the Word through accompanying signs. Amen.” Mark 16:20.
THE previous verse tells us that “after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into Heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.” It was expedient for His disciples that He should go away and He had gone to the best place for helping them in their work. He could survey the field better from an eminence, so the Captain ascends on high. He could best send to them succor from the Throne, so the Lord ascends to His Glory. He could better lead them by the Holy Spirit than by His own personal bodily Presence, so He was in the best place when, “He was received up into Heaven.” The disciples were in their best place on earth. We do not always think so—we are sometimes eager to go Home. We have often thought, concerning a convert, that if the first day it is said of him, “Behold he prays,” we could also say, “Behold he sings in Heaven,” it would save us a world of care and trouble and disappointment. Yet, all things considered, for the Glory of God and for the working out of the Divine purpose, the saints would not be best if they were immediately received up into Heaven. No, it is better to read concerning them, “They went out and preached everywhere.” Christ is best up there, but it is expedient for us and for God’s Glory that we should remain a while here.
I like the thought of Christ being taken up to Heaven because His work was done and His people being left on earth because there was still work for them to do. If we could steal away to Heaven, what a pity it would be that we should do so while there is a single soul to be saved! I think that if I had not brought to Christ the full number of jewels that He intended me to bring to adorn His crown, I would ask to come back even from Heaven. He knows best where we can best serve Him, so He ordains that while He sits at the right hand of God, we are to abide here and to go forth to preach everywhere, the Lord working with us and confirming the Word with accompanying signs, even as He did with His first disciples.
I am going to say just a few practical words upon the fact, first, that they worked—“They went out and preached everywhere.” Secondly, the Lord worked with them—“the Lord working with them.” Thirdly, the two workings were in delightful harmony, for when the Lord worked, He confirmed the Word with accompanying signs and, as the writer of this verse has put, “Amen,” at the end of it, we will say, “Amen,” and feel, “Amen.” Lord, make Your people work! “Amen.” Lord, work yourself! “Amen.” Lord, make the two workings to be but one sweet monotone after all! “Amen.”
I. First, then, THEY WORKED—“They went out and preached.”
The disciples did not say, “Well, the Master has gone to Heaven, so the eternal purposes of God will be quite sure to be carried out. It is not possible that the designs of Infinite Love should fail, the more especially as He is at the Father’s side, therefore let us enjoy ourselves spiritually. Let us sit down in the happy possession of Covenant blessings and let us sing to our hearts’ content because of all that God has done for us and given to us. He will effect His own purposes and we have only to stand still and see the salvation of God.” No, Brothers, it was not for them to judge what they ought to do. When they were told to tarry at Jerusalem, they tarried at Jerusalem. There are times of tarrying, but, inasmuch as the Master had commanded them to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, they also, when the hour had struck, went into all the world and began to preach everywhere the Gospel they had learned at Jesus’ feet! It is not for us to judge what would seem most reasonable, much less what would be most comfortable—it is for us to do as we are told, when we are told and because we are told, for are we not servants and not masters? It is not wise to map out the proceedings even of a single day, but to take our cue from Him who is our Guide and Leader, and to follow Him in all things.
I would like you to notice concerning the working of these disciples that all of them worked. “They went out and preached everywhere.” They might not all formally preach—some of them might not feel that they could stand before a large assembly—but they all actually preached in the sense of proclaiming, announcing, delivering the Truth of God before witnesses. The women were as good witnesses as the men, for some of them had seen more than the men had! They beheld the risen Lord even before the very first of the Apostles beheld Him and, inasmuch as they could all bear witness to the fact that He was risen from the dead, their duty was to go and tell the news that He who had been crucified in weakness had been raised in power and was now to be proclaimed as the Savior of men, that, “whoever believes in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life.” “They went forth,” not merely some of them, but all of them.