Evangelism, Technology… | Jan 14, 2026 013

In Admonition Podcast, Church, communication, community, faith, keywords evangelism, Ministry, outreach, resources, Scripture, technology by Aaron Cozort

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Good afternoon.

This afternoon is going to be a little bit different from uh our typical sermon because

it’s going to be kind of a combination of things.

It’s going to be a combination of evangelism training, a combination of kind of what you

might think of as a mission report, and a combination of some insight into some of the

things we’ve been doing and some of the results that we’ve had here at Collierville that

will expand into a vision of

some of the things that I’ve been involved in and the congregation has been involved in

for quite some time.

But I want us to cement all of that together with Scripture.

So we’re really going to discuss evangelism, technology, and the Word of God.

And what role, what part do they have to play with one another?

What does God have to say about

them and what we should be doing or not doing with them.

One of the things that’s important is to realize as we go through life that every

seemingly good idea of man is not a good idea in the eyes of God and is certainly not

approved of in the eyes of God.

Hence many of the things that

Men have come along and thought were great ideas, they were great things that would help

more people be more faithful or more spiritual end up being the exact opposite.

So we should always test everything we do, everything we say by the Word of God.

Paul teaches us that.

In Colossians chapter 3 verse 16, says, you do in word or deed, do all

by the authority or in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Paul is making it clear if you don’t have the authority of Christ behind you, the thing

you’re saying, the thing you’re doing should be put away.

And so when we do anything, when we evaluate anything, when we begin to practice

something, we should first ask, is this approved of by God?

Another point that we need to understand is that God has set an expectation.

before his church and before Christians that we are to utilize his resources.

My favorite passage in all of scripture is Ephesians chapter three, verses 20 and 21.

Not because of the breadth of the doctrinal deepness that’s there, but because God tells

us what we’re capable of,

if we’ll simply trust Him.

In Ephesians chapter 3 verses 20 and 21, Paul writes to the church at Ephesus and he says,

now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly, now the Him there is God.

He says, To God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think

according to the power that works in us,

to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever amen.

Paul, as he writes these words to the church at Ephesus, he instills within the message

that Ephesus is to learn that they are to stop limiting their expectations by their

abilities.

They are to stop limiting their expectations by their resources.

They are to cease limiting their expectations by their knowledge and insight and wisdom.

And they are to start measuring all of those things by God’s.

And then He tells them and He’s going to do it through you.

So many times as we evaluate what we as a congregation, what we as an individual, what we

as a family might do, can do, we often fail to ask, what is God capable of doing with us?

If we would stop evaluating what we’re capable of and start evaluating what He is capable

of.

but then consider not only God expects us to use his resources, but God has used

technology from the very beginning.

In Genesis chapter 3, when you open up the text of Genesis chapter 3, which we discussed

this morning, you’ll remember that Adam and Eve sinned and that God puts them out of the

garden.

But one of the things that God tells Adam is that he is going to spend his days in toil

and the sweat of his brow.

that he is going to have to plant and he is going to have to take care of those things

that he plants.

He’s going to have to do so in the midst of all of the struggles that will come in life.

And yet as God presents this picture of someone who’s going to have to endure the

difficulties of life, the expectation is if you’re going to be, for instance, a shepherd

or you’re going to be a person who has a field,

you’re going to have to do something other than use your hands to keep the sheep and use

your hands to plow the field.

I don’t think when Adam walked out of the garden, Adam thought, well, I gotta do it all by

hand.

Can’t use any of those newfangled inventions, because there weren’t any.

except you might picture that the same person who could name every animal also could

figure out how to make a tool to plow the ground.

And so Adam would begin in the very earliest of history farming.

We know that because his son is going to be a farmer.

He’s also going to be one who will keep flocks and herds.

We know that because he has another son who, by the way, keeps flocks and herds.

No indication anywhere in that that God disapproves of the use of the technology they

would have created to accomplish those.

But then let’s go a step further, Genesis chapter 6.

God tells Noah that all of humanity has only participated in every thought of their heart

being evil continually and as a result of that God says I’m going to destroy the world

with a flood.

And then he gives Noah the instruction to build a boat.

not a little boat, a great big massive boat.

He says you’re going to build it to this dimension, you’re going to build it to this

dimension, you’re going to build it to this dimension, but you can’t use any tools, no

technology allowed, certainly not any measuring tools.

No, God didn’t do that.

As a matter of fact, there’s every expectation that both

Noah and his sons and his family all utilized tools available to them to build the ark.

Why?

Because God gave them a command what to do and it was their responsibility to use the

resources they had to do it.

Then you consider Babel.

Over in Genesis chapter 11 when God looks down on the situation amongst the people and

they have created this vision of themselves and their grand abilities and they’re going to

build a uh tower up to heaven and they’re going to certainly show God exactly how great

humanity is.

God is going to take language and God is going to disperse humanity.

Now it’s interesting to point out that God

approved of the use of technology, but not every use of technology.

For when humanity used technology to accelerate themselves into a position where humanity

thought they were equal with God.

God said, actually, let me convince you you’re not.

Tomorrow, you won’t be able to understand a word said by the person next to you.

So beginning in Genesis chapter 11, you find that in spite of all the technology they had,

in spite of all the learning and education they had accumulated, now one person couldn’t

talk to another person, effectively limiting the production output of all of humanity.

forever in the future through language.

But then consider as well that God used technology throughout his communication.

There was a day in time when Moses stood before God on Mount Sinai and God had Moses bring

two tablets of stone and God wrote on those two tablets of stone.

What is that?

Well, that would be technology.

That would be taking a form of rock

and writing on it so that you could have written communication.

And God inscribed on those two tablets of stone the Ten Commandments.

And then Moses carried those two tablets of stone and as a result of sin, dashed those two

tablets of stone into pieces.

The next time Moses came up onto the mountain, he again had two tablets of stone except

this time he had to do the writing.

We consider as well that in out of Egypt came the new technology of papyrus.

The Egyptians had figured out how to take these papyrus plants and to be able to dry them

in such a way as to write on them.

And so when Paul will describe in Timothy as he’s writing to Timothy as he is sitting

there in a Roman prison, he’ll say to Timothy, bring with you the books and the

Parchments.

Now if the utilization of new technology, like new forms of writing material, was wrong in

the eyes of God, Paul would have been in trouble because Paul would have been using

something evil to do his own study.

But we understand that God utilizes technology all throughout history.

You begin in the book of Genesis and you find in the history of the Israelite nation, God

is going to use the Hebrew language.

He’s going to communicate to them in the language that they know that they understand

coming away from the Tower of Babel.

And so God will speak to them in Hebrew and yet when you get over into the book of Daniel

and some of the later prophets you’re going to find that the text of the Old Testament was

written in Aramaic.

Why?

Because the people began to learn Aramaic under the Babylonian captivity.

And so God would speak to them in one language and then God would speak to them in another

language and then we get over into the New Testament and guess what?

another newfangled technology has come along in the form of language and that is the

Grecian language, specifically the Koine Greek as we refer to it, common Greek, and

Alexander’s mission in not only conquering the world was also to take the Greek language

around the world so that there would be a single unified language for commerce and for

productivity.

And so when Jesus comes on the scene in Matthew chapter 1,

Jesus is going to grow up in a nation of Israel that predominantly spoke Greek because it

was the trade language of the world.

We could further discuss other things that we learn about, things that we learn about uh

from history.

We know that the Romans would build roads.

Now, did God put roads on the planet when He made it?

No.

So who thought of the idea to use technology to build roads?

Well, many people throughout history, but the Romans were very good at it because they

wanted to get their military from this side of the empire to that side of the empire if

they needed to.

And yet, what did the first century church use when they began to be persecuted in

Jerusalem?

And the text tells us in the book of Acts that they went everywhere preaching the word.

They use those Roman roads.

to go to those places to take the gospel.

God has always used technology.

God has always approved of the using of technology appropriately to carry out his mission.

So when you think about travel, another area where technology has changed, there was a

time in the world where predominantly travel occurred via foot, and then travel occurred

via camel, and maybe via horse or donkey.

But then you come along further and chariots come along and travel occurs via chariots.

Do we have a God approved example of travel via chariots?

Well, certainly we do in Acts chapter eight.

Philip is brought to a man who is traveling from Jerusalem back home to Ethiopia and

Philip will join that eunuch in his chariot and teach him the gospel.

And Philip doesn’t tell the eunuch, now you need to get rid of this chariot, this is not a

God approved form of transportation God designed for us to walk on feet.

No, not at all.

Philip joined him in that chariot, taught him the gospel through the luxury of them being

able to read instead of walk.

He was able to be taught the gospel as they went along and was baptized and then when he

was baptized he rose, came up out of the water and got back in the chariot and went on his

way rejoicing.

Paul will numerous times find himself in a boat.

And as a matter of fact, there was a man named Jonah who was also commanded to take the

message of God somewhere.

He ended up in a boat, though God’s approved method of his transportation was a fish.

See, God uses technology.

And if we understand that God uses it, then we should too, appropriately, righteously,

correctly.

But then consider there is a difference between good technology and bad technology.

So let’s maybe evaluate what is good technology.

First, it is that which increases production.

Believe it or not, Paul could reach more people and teach more people if he wrote a letter

than if he only communicated by person-to-person vocal interaction.

When Paul wrote the letter to the church at Colossians, Paul informed the church at

Colossae that when they were done reading the letter that they were to pass it on to the

church at Laodicea, yet Paul wasn’t in Colossae, Paul wasn’t in Laodicea, yet his message

was…

because Paul used technology to increase production, to increase the amount of output for

the same amount of input.

It should be that if we’re using it properly, which fights devaluation.

We ought to use technology to make things better, not worse.

And sometimes we have a hard time distinguishing between the two.

We should use technology that is appropriate.

There are often discussions about whether or not this building is an appropriate use of

technology for the meeting of the church, whether or not a PA is appropriate use of

technology for the church, whether or not a pitch pipe to properly pitch a song would be

appropriate use of technology for the church, and the answer for all three of those is

yes.

For instance, we have a God-approved example of Christians meeting in a building.

We find when Paul assembled with the Christians in Acts chapter 20 that they assembled in

an upper room where there were lights.

So not only did they have approval to meet in a building, they had approval to meet in a

building where there were lights because they met at night.

Unfortunately for one young man who it was quite warm in the upper room where they were

meeting at night, he fell asleep at a window and fell out of the window and died.

So be careful with your use of technology, might kill you.

especially with lights, electricity, not good.

All right, so we should uphold biblical principles and commands.

We should never use technology to subvert the word of God.

For instance, turn to Ephesians chapter five.

In Ephesians chapter 5, Paul writes beginning in verse 15, And see then that you walk

circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the LORD is.

Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,

speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody

in your heart to the LORD.

giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ

submitting to one another in the fear of God.

Paul as he writes to the church in Ephesus says, want you to be filled with the Spirit.

I want you to be filled with an understanding of the will of the Lord.

I want you to be filled with a circumspect walking as Christians and when you do that as

you assemble together I want you to teach one another.

uh

Paul, we’re gonna all take turns preaching a sermon?

No.

He says, I want you to speak to one another in Psalms, in hymns, in spiritual songs,

singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

And somebody comes along and says, well, that sounds great, but you know what would make

it sound better is if we just added a little banjo.

And somebody else says, well, I can’t really play the banjo, but I can bang on the drum.

And somebody else says, well, but I’m not

good with all the rhythm stuff, but I have a great skill with a harp.

See, what’s the problem with the use of the technology?

Is it subverting the command?

The command is to speak to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing

and making melody with one instrument, and that is the heart, not the harp, not the

guitar.

Not the banjo and not the drum.

You see, if we substitute technology for God’s command, we’re not using technology

properly.

But then consider that we should use technology that is either moral or amoral.

There are some technologies that are amoral.

You wanna know how I know?

We used plates during lunch today and those plates are amoral.

You can use a plate or you can pile all your food in your hand.

One of them is a little more convenient and a whole lot less mess, but it’s up to you.

You decide.

The technology and invention of a bowl or a plate is not something we need to argue about

whether or not it’s appropriate in our lives.

It is amoral.

It has no discussion on moral or immoral.

But in matters of morality, we better make sure that the technology we use is not

immoral technology.

And certainly there can be scenarios where technology is such.

But also we must never make technology an excuse for not obeying God.

some individuals have a mindset, well you know what, I’m just gonna spend some time with

the Bible and then I’m gonna go fishing on Sunday.

And I think it’s good, you know, because I get relaxation, which I need because I work

really hard all week, and I get God’s word, so you know, that’s good enough.

You see, we cannot use the availability of technology to substitute

or make an excuse for not obeying what God has told us to do.

God has given us commands and we are to follow those commands and we are never to say, you

know what, now that I’ve got this new technology I just don’t need any of that old-fangled

obedience.

So when you think about effective use, when you’re thinking about how to use technology,

when you’re thinking about using technology within religious matters and within ministry

or evangelism as we kind of fade a little bit into some of our instruction about

evangelism, we should be using technology but we should test it before committing to the

change.

Some technology is more disruptive than helpful.

I was just recently having a conversation with some good friends and they were talking

about a congregation that had done a major upgrade in their sound booth.

And now the sound booth controlled the presentation and a bunch of other things that it

had never done for them except the problem was they had problems with it every single

week.

And every single worship experience that the people had in the assembly was disrupted

because of the complexity of the sound booth.

You know, test before you make a change.

And if the change doesn’t work out, roll it back and get rid of the change because it

needs to be helpful, not harmful.

But also, do not sacrifice done for perfect.

We all realize when it comes to technology, it changes a lot, You you get used to one

thing on a phone or one thing on a computer and pretty soon the buttons change, it’s moved

to a new place.

Well, the reality is perfect is almost never achievable in terms of technology.

But done is.

So don’t trade done for perfect.

Then also measure the cost in your most scarce asset.

This is one of the ones that I really want us to

to emphasize as we go through here because your most scarce asset is never money.

Your most scarce asset is never the availability of a place to use the technology.

Your most scarce asset is time.

It’s the only thing you can’t get more of.

So if the technology is helping you with your most scarce asset be more effective in your

most important mission, then it’s a good use of technology.

because you only have so much time in this world.

It’s also important to learn from professionals when you can without trying to be one.

I learned a long time ago that I am never going to be the best in anything in technology.

I’ve always met somebody who’s better than me.

And I’ve always been okay with that too because I know it’s not my mission to be the best

technology professional.

It is my mission to be effective in ministry.

then also put people with time to work.

One of the things that you may have noticed is America has a little bit of an anomaly

happening in recent history.

It’s called the entire baby boom generation is retiring.

I don’t know if y’all noticed that, but the people are retiring and suddenly they have

time on their hands they never had before.

Now there’s a couple of things you can do when you have time on your hands.

You can sit and watch television forever.

Trust me, they will make another show you’ve never seen to put in front of you to keep you

sitting there.

But that may or may not be the best use of suddenly having time on your hands.

Too many of us have probably known somebody who got done working, retired, and was dead

within two years.

Because they didn’t have anything left to do.

Well, suddenly we have in the church

congregations filled with people who have time that they’ve never had before.

And quite often they have time and frankly, they’re not really in need of an income.

So technology is a way to help those individuals utilize their time for ministry, if we

think of it properly, and then trade teaching thousands of nominal hearers for teaching 12

committed disciples.

This is a principle from Christ.

Jesus, when he,

had fed the 5,000.

He’s the next day found on the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

And the crowds and the multitudes come around the sea and they find him where he is.

And Jesus there in John chapter six is going to discuss with them the concept of the bread

of life.

But Jesus through the course of his instructions concerning the bread of life and as well

concerning the Lord’s Supper that would later be instituted will declare to them teachings

which they will say, this is hard, who can accept it?

and many of them, the text says, will walk away and follow him no more.” Now Jesus had

pointed out to them that part of their problem was they didn’t come find him the next day

because they wanted to hear more teaching.

They came and found him the next day because they had eaten of the bread the day before.

And it is important for us as we figure out and as we evaluate how to do ministry,

evangelism, and utilize technology that we do not substitute sound, faithful, strong

Christians for lukewarm, disinterested people being entertained.

And too many congregations do that with technology.

Jesus said, I’d rather have 12 disciples that will follow me to death and carry out my

mission after my death than to have thousands of people following me wanting bread every

day.

We cannot substitute through technology faithfulness for mediocrity.

But then consider some of the things that we can use and that we do use.

Maybe if some of you are wondering why we use some of them here, these are the reasons

why.

We use the website here at Collierville.

We use live streaming, and it’s for a lot of reasons.

It’s because it’s a window for someone who’s never walked through those doors to

understand what they’re going to see when they walk through the doors, because we

understand this, people are generally more satisfied with an experience when they know

what they’re going to get before they walk through the doors.

One of the reasons why people go to Chick-fil-A,

That’s because when they go to Chick-fil-A, they get pretty much the same experience every

time, and it’s pretty good.

And the places they go to where they get a poor experience some days and an okay

experience other days and a really good experience once in a while, they quit going to.

They know what to expect when they go to Chick-fil-A.

They expect to leave and somebody to say, my pleasure, and the food to be hot.

We use podcasting.

We use internet radio through Truth FM.

I personally use a lot of AI in both research and brainstorming.

One of the things I love about AI technology, and it’s really machine learning, but Chat

gbt and other tools like that, is sometimes the AI, when I ask it about something in the

Bible, will come up with a passage I never would have thought of initially on my own.

And so I’ll ask it for a whole list of passages, give me 50 passages on this topic.

And suddenly I’m looking at a text that, you know what, I would not have remembered that

text buried in the book of Jeremiah, but the AI does.

And so I use those technologies as I’m formulating lessons and as I’m studying.

And sometimes I utilize them because my grammar when I write comes out like I talk.

And my wife will tell you that’s not always good reading.

So I’ve been using AI technology for years to fix the way I write so that people can read

it and not cringe.

It’s cut down on my use of my wife for editing for which she is grateful.

But then consider another text.

Turn to Nehemiah.

I wanna spend just a little bit of time in Nehemiah.

I wanna notice something.

And this is one of the reasons why I’ve been involved in something since 2015 that we

utilize here.

Some of you know it and probably most of you know it, but if you pay attention to the

announcements, you see it.

And it’s Truth FM.

Back in 2015, myself and another brother down in Alabama who’s now passed away, Bob

Strickland, and a brother in Virginia, Tom Hoover, started Truth FM as I was still working

with GBN and we started it to build internet radio stations, to take the concept of a

radio station and deliver it through the internet.

And then in 2017, I was at the Memphis School of Preaching Lectureship and I met a

preacher from Louisiana.

And he came up to me because I had the Truth FM booth there and he said, Aaron, I would

love for us to use Truth FM at our congregation, but we’re a small congregation and we’ve

just taken on supporting two additional missionaries and we just don’t have any budget for

it.

But I’ve got a missionary that I need you to talk to.

So as we get into the book of Nehemiah for just a few moments, I want you to think about

what it would have been like in Nehemiah’s day and the struggles that Nehemiah faced that

we read about in the text.

Let’s start in Nehemiah chapter one, verses one through three.

The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah.

It came to pass in the month of Shislev in the twentieth year as I was in Shushan the

Citadel that Hennani, one of my brethren, came with men from Judah, and I asked them

concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning

Jerusalem.

And they said to me, The survivors who are left from the captivity in the present, or in

the province, are there in great distress, and reproach the wall of Jerusalem is broken

down, and its gates are burned with fire.”

Nehemiah serves in the court of the king and Nehemiah inquires of his brother when his

brother returns from Jerusalem.

How is the situation in Jerusalem?

Now Israel had been in captivity for 70 years.

The time of the Babylonian Empire is over.

You’re in the time of the Medo-Persian Empire.

Nehemiah is serving underneath of Medo-Persian King and he finds out that Cyrus having

allowed Israel and some of the Israelites to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city, to

rebuild the temple.

things are not going well.

In verse 11, Nehemiah prays, Lord, I pray, please let your ear be attentive to the prayer

of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who desire to fear your name and let

your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.

For I was the king’s cupbearer.

Now I want us take some concepts that we’ve gathered.

throughout the lesson and string them together in the text of Nehemiah.

Number one, Nehemiah did not have the resources to solve the problem, but God did.

And Nehemiah happened to be in association with a man who had the resources of God at his

beck and call, and it was the king.

So as Nehemiah is faced with the scenario of the plight of Jerusalem and desiring to do

something about it, Nehemiah asks for God to be with him as he goes into the king because

the king has the beck and call of God’s resources.

And Nehemiah knows if he’s going to make an impact in the lives of the people in

Jerusalem, he’s going to need the king.

Then consider what else we read, chapter 2 verse 1, and it came to pass in the month of

Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when the wine was before him, that I took

the wine and gave it to the king.

Now I had never been sad in his presence before.

Therefore the king said to me, Why is your face sick, since you are not sick?

This is nothing but sorrow of heart, so I became dreadfully afraid, and said to the king,

May the king live forever.

I’ll get my words out here in a minute.

Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father’s tombs, lies waste

and its gates are burned with fire?

Then the king said to me, what do you request?

Notice the intelligence and the intuition of the king.

The problem’s been presented, the scenario of Nehemiah’s demeanor has never occurred in

his presence before, and the moment Nehemiah expresses what’s going on, the king says,

what do you need?

So I prayed to the God of heaven.

And I said to the king, if it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in

your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father’s tombs, that I may

rebuild it.

Then the king said to me, the queen also sitting beside him, how long will your journey

be?

And when will you return?

So it pleased the king to send me, and I sent him a time.

Furthermore, I said to the king, if it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for

the governors of the region beyond the river that they must permit me to pass through till

I come to Judah.

And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he must give me timber to

make beams for the gates of the citadel which pertain to the temple for the city wall and

for the house that I will occupy.

And the king granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me.

Now notice what Nehemiah says.

Nehemiah says, knew I couldn’t do it by myself.

I knew I was going to need the king.

So what did he do?

He asked the king.

There’s a principle from the book of James.

where James tells the Christians, have not because you ask not.

And when you do ask, you ask to spend it upon your lusts.

Nehemiah wasn’t doing that.

Nehemiah asked for the king, the king gave him what he asked for.

And we don’t have time to go through all of the text, but I want us to go to chapter

seven.

In chapter seven of Nehemiah,

We find beginning in verse 70, as Nehemiah has arrived, the work is commencing.

We know some of the story and we’ve recently gone through the book of Nehemiah.

We read beginning in verse 70 of chapter 7, and some of the heads of the father’s houses

gave to the work.

Notice they didn’t just expect somebody on the outside to give the work.

Now once Nehemiah is there, the people begin to give to the work.

And the governor gave to the treasury 1,000 gold drachmas, 50 basins, 530 priestly

garments.

Some of the heads of the father’s houses gave to the treasury of the work 20,000 gold

drachmas and 2,200 silver minas.

And that which the rest of the people gave was 20,000 gold drachmas, 2,000 silver minas,

and 67 priestly garments.

So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, and some of the people, the

neth and them, and all Israel dwelt in their cities.

So notice as Nehemiah arrives, the work commences, the people sacrifice of their

possessions to provide what’s needed for the work.

But then consider chapter 8.

When the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their cities.

Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of

the water gate.

They told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law Moses which the Lord had commanded

Israel.

So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men and women and all who could

hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month.” Now notice this, they’re

going to read the law.

Ezra, as we’ve read before in the book of Ezra, was one who had prepared his heart to seek

the law of the Lord and to know and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.

This was the perfect man, but guess what?

He was going to need help.

Notice what the text says.

Verse 4,

So Ezra the scribe stood on a platform of wood which they had made for the purpose.

And beside him in his right hand stood Mattathiah, Shimeah, Ani, Uriah, Hilkiah, Messiah,

and at his left hand, Padaiah, Mishael, Malkudja, Hashem, Hash-Bedana, Zechariah, and

Meshalam.

And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the

people, and when he opened it all the people stood up.

And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God.

Then all the people answered, Amen, Amen, when lifting up their hands, and they bowed

their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

Also, Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkab, Shavathai, Hodaija, Masiach, Kalita, Azariah,

Jozebad, Hanan,

Piliah and the Levites helped the people understand the law and the people stood in their

places.

So notice verse 8, so they read distinctly from the book in the law of God and they gave

the sense and helped them to understand the reading.

Now back before I went to the school of preaching I would have read that and I wouldn’t

have an understanding at all of what that meant.

But our teacher in Nehemiah helped us understand what we read.

You see, what it’s telling you is, here’s a group of people who don’t understand what’s

being read.

Wait a minute, what do mean they don’t understand?

It’s just hard concepts, maybe they needed some teaching and it’s, no, no, no.

This is a group of people who had spent 70 years in captivity in Babylon, who came out of

Babylonian captivity speaking Aramaic.

And the laws written in Hebrew,

They don’t understand what’s being read.

Have you ever sat in an auditorium or sat in a room and had somebody speak French or

Spanish to you and you don’t speak French or Spanish?

How about Filipino?

Guess what?

You sit there and you go, I see them moving, their mouth moving.

I think they’re happy.

I don’t know what they’re saying.

The people are gathered around all day long to listen to Ezra teach and read from the law,

but the law is in Hebrew and they don’t speak Hebrew anymore!

So the priests are there translating.

They’re giving the sense and helping them to understand what the law was saying in their

own language.

Because they now don’t speak the language of the law.

But then consider this wasn’t just a scenario in the Old Testament.

In Acts chapter two of the day of Pentecost, what do you find?

When Peter and the other apostles get up to preach, what is it that the people hear?

Of the 17 languages that are present, they heard every one of them in their own tongue.

Why was that necessary?

Because all of them were Jews, but 17 nations were represented in that location on that

day.

Now I want you to notice something.

On day one,

the very first day of the opening of the doors of the church, as Jesus had handed to Peter

the keys of the kingdom and Peter begins to preach the very first gospel sermon, the very

first barrier to the gospel going out was that which originated at the Tower of Babel in

Genesis chapter 11.

They didn’t all speak the same language.

which leads us to one of the things that technology can help us with today in a way it

hasn’t been able to for years.

And that is that there is now technology to be able to allow people to teach in their

language and take it throughout the entire world.

But one of the problems you have is that I meet missionaries on a regular basis that can

teach in a language.

What they’re not are technology professionals.

So let go back to my story in 2017.

I was introduced to Curry Montague, who some people know, some people who are related to

him.

He lived in Somerville.

I didn’t know it at the time, because I was introduced to him by somebody in Louisiana.

But Curry was a missionary and is a missionary in Budapest.

So I got on the phone a few months later because of some family things that were going on

with Curry.

We waited a little while and then we got on the phone and he said, Aaron, I’ve been told

by this brother that you can help us.

He said, I don’t know how you’re going to help us, but here’s what we’re trying to do.

We’re trying to start a radio work here in Budapest, but we have a problem.

All of the radio stations in Budapest are owned by the Catholics and they won’t sell us

any airtime.

They won’t let us broadcast.

on the air in Budapest.

And it doesn’t matter how much we pay them, they won’t sell it to us because we’re going

to broadcast the truth.

And he said, so we’ve tried for six months to buy airtime and we can’t get any.

And he said, brother so and so told me that you can help.

He said, I don’t know how you can help, but I’m open to hearing it.

So in 2017, we started utilizing Truth FM, which we had already been running for two

years, to take

sermons and Bible classes that were recorded in Hungarian in the local congregation in

Budapest and put them on the air, on the internet, streaming 24 hours a day in Hungarian.

But we ran into a problem.

We can’t speak Hungarian.

We didn’t know what was being said.

So we’d get an audio file and it was audio only and it’s all in Hungarian.

So we needed Curry.

to translate it or at least to edit it.

So I spent months trying to teach Curry Montague how to edit audio.

And it was not a good experience.

He’s not technologically adept and I’m trying to teach him how to do something in a

language that I don’t even understand what’s being said.

Through the course of time, we’ve been able to advance a number of things and we’ve used

some new technology at Truth FM.

But one of the things we’re now doing

is we have a brother in Albania, his name is Altin.

He works with a small congregation of about 20 people and a large part of his ministry is

actually to a blind community there in fear.

He also happens to have been educated as a technology developer, he writes code, but he

has started working with technology that we have at Truth FM.

He is now recording his Bible classes and sermons in Albanian and through a

technology platform that we have, he uploads them, he edits them, he records them, a lot

of AI tools do a lot of the work, and then he publishes them in Albanian.

Just the other day, he published a video on YouTube and had a thousand views in an hour.

But it’s only possible because of the technology we’re bringing to the table and helping

him use it.

Here’s a problem we have in America.

99.9 % of all of the content and material published by the Churches of Christ is in

English, and 20 % of the world speaks English.

You see a discrepancy?

I do.

It means you can go listen to a live stream from a thousand congregations today if you

speak English, but if you speak Portuguese,

you may not be able to find one.

You can listen to sermon after sermon after sermon and watch video after video after video

if you speak English and you can learn the gospel in no time.

But if you speak one of the few thousand dialects in India and you don’t speak any of the

main languages in India, you may not be able to find the gospel in your language at all.

So what are we trying to do?

We’re trying to fix that.

Truth FM, we are trying to launch in the next two years 50 languages where the content and

the material is streaming 24 hours a day.

There’s podcasts or social media content in all 50 of those languages coming out every

single week.

And then in five years, we want it to be 150 languages.

And we want to keep pushing and keep pushing until the gospel can be heard in every

person’s language

anywhere in the world.

I want to play just a couple of things for you, but I want to leave you with this before I

do that.

Curry wrote, for 20 years I tried to reach my mother-in-law who didn’t speak English and

lives an hour and half away from me by train when I was preaching in Hungary.

We launched the internet radio station and she started listening.

She was converted by listening to the sermons in Hungarian from Brother Peters.

He says, I recommend Truth FM.

For 20 years, Curry had been preaching in Budapest, trying to reach his mother-in-law who

lived an hour and a half away and never could because she’d only come over by train on

occasion when the grandkids were there.

And so she was never converted.

But as soon as they started the Truth FM station, even though it wasn’t Curry preaching,

it was another man in the congregation that was recorded on there, she started listening.

and curry firmly believes that it’s because of the work they did with truth FM since 2017

and still ongoing today that she’s now a christian in hungary because she could hear in

her own language

Here’s an example.

stereo one and two on the, okay.

Now that may not mean much to you, because it’s in Hungarian.

But it means a lot to people all over Hungary.

who can hear the gospel in Hungarian, but not only do we take the audio material and

create audio streaming content, we also build websites in their languages so that somebody

can go to their church website who only speaks Hungarian, who can find the church, and now

they can not only hear the gospel be converted, but they can get connected to a local

congregation.

But then we also, this one will go next, have made it possible

to help them take the content that they do have and turn it into social media content,

just like we’re doing.

I gave the men a report that through the work that we’ve done with social media, hopefully

this one won’t play yet, through the work we’ve done with social media here at

Collierville, in 2024, we had had 237 views of videos

on our Facebook page.

Because we started posting the shorts and the reels because of the evangelism program,

because of the decision we made to emphasize evangelism this last year, in 2025, we’ve had

237,900 views of videos on our Facebook page.

237,000 in a year.

And a large part of those come from our direct community in the greater Memphis area.

But we’re also, through Truth FM, reaching and taking the gospel in the countries we can’t

get to, including Iran.

We have a brother in Greece who is Iranian, who was a refugee out of Iran, who is now

teaching and preaching after having been taught in a school of preaching in America.

He’s back in Greece and he’s reaching the nation of Iran with the gospel.

and we’re him.

uh That’s the language Farsi.

That is the language of Iran.

It’s not a predominant language anywhere else in the world.

But through the work being done through Truth FM and the use of the Gospel is now on the

air and available online 24 hours a day for those who speak the language of Iran.

See, God rebuilt the wall in Jerusalem with the king’s resources and the people’s

willingness to give.

God solved the language problem of the first century church with a miraculous gift.

Now, we don’t have that luxury today.

God told us to take the gospel to every creature.

When God told Noah to build a boat, he didn’t say, is what tool to use.

He said, build a boat and build it to my specification.

When Christ told us to go and all the world and take the gospel to every creature, He

didn’t give us all the hows.

He just told us to fulfill the command.

But in order to do that, we have to make sure they can hear it, that they can learn it in

their own language.

Paul writes, how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?

And how shall they believe in him in whom they have not heard?

And how shall they hear without a preacher?

And how shall they preach unless they be sent?

So, practical application as we close.

Aaron, that’s great.

The gospel’s going to all the world.

How can it help me?

Well, for one, as all of you notice, one of the struggles that we have is meeting with

someone, meeting someone in the community and getting them to walk through the door.

And when they walk through the door, getting them to come back a second time.

So one of the things that you can do is you can grab out your cell phone and you can

download the Truth FM app.

On the Truth FM app is the gospel streaming 24 hours a day.

365 days a year.

And when you meet someone in the store who you may only have five minutes with, if you can

find a way, help them to download the Truth FM app so they can start listening on their

own.

Help them to start studying on their own.

You find someone who says they love to listen to Christian radio and they love to listen

to K-Love and they love to listen to all this denominational nonsense.

Introduce them to the Truth FM app where they can listen to the truth 24 hours a day.

If you meet someone who speaks Spanish and you don’t speak Spanish, introduce them to the

Truth FM app, help them download it, and then connect them to the Spanish station that’s

broadcasting 24 hours a day.

And every language where you meet someone that speaks a language that we don’t yet have a

broadcast, come tell me and we’ll start finding a missionary who can start teaching in

that language.

but the use of technology is approved by God and we should be using it.

We’re trying.

And I encourage you, if you don’t do anything else, pray for our efforts, both here in

Collierville and around the world, that the gospel goes to every creature in the world in

our generation.

If you’re here this afternoon and you have need of the invitation, I appreciate your

patience throughout this lesson, but also I encourage you to remember.

Our work is to take the gospel.

Our work is to spread the seed.

Our work is to introduce people to the message and then to allow them to be willing to

accept it if their heart is open and they’re willing.

If you have need of the invitation of Christ, the invitation is open to you today.

Why not come as we stand and as we sing?

Mark 16 (Lesson 2) – Aaron Cozort – May 27, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, Bible Study, evangelism, Faith and Baptism, Gospel, Great Commission, keywords Resurrection, miracles, Obedience, Salvation, Scripture by Aaron Cozort

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aaron cozort (00:01)

It’s good to see everybody this evening. Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to the Book of Mark.

Mm.

Good to see everybody. We’ll begin with a word of prayer and then we’ll get into our study.

Gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for your many blessings, humbly bowing before you and recognizing how much we are in need of your love, your care, your providence. Lord, we pray that you will be with those who are ill. Pray that you will be with those who are struggling and having difficulties in their daily lives. Pray that you give them the strength that they need to endure.

Lord, we pray also that we will be an encouragement and help to them as they go through their daily lives and strive to do the things that they need to do. Lord, we pray that you be with those who are traveling, pray that they reach their destination safely and pray that you will be with them to return home safely as well. Lord, we are grateful for this opportunity to study your word, to open the scriptures and learn more what you would have us to do.

and how to live and how to understand what your son came here to accomplish. Lord, we pray that you will forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory. All this we pray and ask in Jesus’ name, amen.

We’re in Mark chapter 16 about to close out the ⁓ book and Mark’s account of the Gospels. So we’ll get into about verse 12 ⁓ of chapter 16 as we get started this evening. Reading verse 12, after that, appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it to the rest.

but they did not believe either. Later he appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table and he rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart because they did not believe those who had seen him after he had risen. As we’ve gone through the recent verses, we know that Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene. We know that Jesus appeared to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Now, ⁓ Paul will

tell us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that Jesus also appeared to over 500 of His disciples during the intervening time between the time He was resurrected and the time He ascended back to the Father. But as He confronts the disciples here, this seems to be the first time that He is with them. He’s going to appear to them.

and then he’s going to appear to them again on ⁓ the next Sunday, the next first day of the week. But as he appears to them, they’re unbelieving at that point. They are not convinced from all the reports that they’ve heard that Jesus is actually resurrected from the dead, that he is alive, and that he is once again ⁓ walking this earth. And so,

He rebukes them for their unbelief and their hardness of heart. We talked about this just a little bit as we closed last week. What do you think was the cause of the hardness of heart that they had, the unbelief that they had?

All right, they were looking for a worldly king. They were looking for a victory over Roman power. They were looking for a return of a Davidic king sitting on a throne. They were looking for a lot of things that the Jews and the Jewish tradition had been telling them to look for.

And in spite of all of the things that Jesus had taught them about the church, about the kingdom, about what was coming, they were still looking for all of that. And so they did not understand when he went to the cross. They did not understand what was happening. Now, I want to take you over to Luke chapter 24 and point out one of the things that Jesus says to them as he is preparing to ascend back to the Father.

Luke chapter 24.

Beginning in verse 36, now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them and said, Peace be to you. But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your heart? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.

as Jesus appears to them, they’re still unconvinced. They’re still confused and unafraid as a result of this. Now, if you put all the passage together, you’ll find out that they were in a locked room when he appeared to them. So they’re startled and amazed state is understandable. But the point is Jesus says, why don’t you touch me and find out?

If you think I’m a spirit, if you think I’m a ghost, as it were, to use the term, then why don’t you put your hands on me and find out if I’m real or not? Jesus makes the point that He is both flesh and bones. He is mortal in the sense of He is fleshly and physical. He is not their imagination. He is not a vision. He is real. And so He then says, or we then read in verse 40,

when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. But while they still did not believe for joy and marveled, he said to them, have you any food here? So they gave him a piece of a boiled fish and some honeycomb, and he took it and ate in their presence.” So something else that ghosts don’t do is eat and digest food. ⁓ So they’re…

seeing this, they’re observing this, they’re still not understanding it, they’re still not fully comprehending it, now their hardness of heart has been replaced with joy, but they’re still trying to grasp what it is that is going on. Why do you think, and I know this is surmising, but I just want to spend a moment with it, why do you think they’re struggling to grasp His resurrection so much?

when they grasped ⁓ Lazarus’ resurrection, seemingly with no problem.

Correct. Okay. So I think that could be part of it. They know who called Lazarus forth from the grave. They know who spoke the seas and made them calm. But it seems as though there’s a mindset that says, well, you know what? Once you’re dead, you’re powerless, right? And the point that the scriptures are making is that Jesus was not powerless once he was dead.

As result of that, he was resurrected both by the power of God and by his own word. So then verse 44 we read, then he said to them, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me. As Jesus confronts them with the reality of his resurrection,

Jesus points out that they had been told this was going to happen. He had already told them what was coming, but they didn’t understand it. They didn’t comprehend it. They didn’t store it up and they needed to be reminded. Jesus is going to point out that all the things that had occurred

were the fulfillment of the law and the prophets and the things that had been said concerning Him.

Right, so the touch me not phrase has a couple of different translations that it could be. One of them in the way the New King James translates it is do not cling to me, okay? So the mental image and perhaps the best understanding is here is Mary, she knew he was going to be crucified, she was anticipating what was going to happen to him, she had been there at his

at the cross. She had been there the morning of His resurrection. She’s now seen Him, but He’s leaving again. And His return and His presence with her and with all of them is not permanent. And so it seems to me that’s probably the indication is not, hey, if you push too hard, I’m going to fall apart or, hey, I’m not fully back to flesh. I think the idea is

Do not hold on to me because my presence here is temporary. So I suspect, my own personal idea is that’s what the idea of there is. ⁓ Because he’s gonna say the same thing to Thomas. ⁓ When Thomas is there, at the next occasion, he’s gonna say, put your hand on my side and find out, okay?

Very much so, but, you know, as we get into the text, you’re getting ahead of me. ⁓ So, as Luke will point out, and we’ll get into miracles in just a moment, but as Luke will point out, he says, these are the things that were already spoken. This is what the prophecies of Moses, the law,

prophets, the Psalms, all said concerning me. And He opened their understanding, Luke chapter 24 verse 45, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.

The realization is that the information, the knowledge of what the scriptures had said had been with them the entire time. They had missed it. And it is honestly, it’s somewhat humbling and important for us to realize that we have to deal with the text of scripture and we cannot allow

modern mindset, teachers that we know, the people around us, to sway us away from actually understanding what the text actually says. Because that’s what had happened to them. The text had been there. The prophecies had been there. The information that they needed to understand it had been there. But they hadn’t comprehended it. They had not understood it properly.

or they had been misled in their understanding of it so as to achieve someone else’s goals and ends. That’s one of the points that, by the way, that ⁓ Ezekiel will point out and others will point out concerning the shepherds that the Good Shepherd is going to get rid of is that they were utilizing the word of God, not to the people’s benefit, but to their own.

When Jesus says Isaiah spoke concerning you in Mark chapter 7, he says Isaiah prophesied concerning you that you’re hypocrites because in vain you teach for doctrine the commandments of men. His point and the quotation from Isaiah is Isaiah saying you’re teaching people to fear God so that you are benefited by it. You’re teaching your commandments instead of

His commandments because then you remain in power. And that whole problem that they were dealing with had led to a Jewish nation that wasn’t looking for the right Messiah. They weren’t looking for a spiritual Messiah setting up a spiritual kingdom. They weren’t looking for a Messiah that was going to redeem and unify Jew and Gentile alike. They were looking for a warrior king.

So thus it was written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and arise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are in dude with power from on high.” As Jesus in Luke’s account here is reminding them

that this is what the Spirit had spoken through the prophets. This is what the Old Testament prophets had said concerning him, that everything had happened exactly the way God said it would. Now it’s time for the next step. It’s now time for what God has already said would also come. And that is going to be the institution of the church and the beginning of the kingdom. He says that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name.

to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. Now, Luke is gonna provide this basically bridge between the end of the book of Luke and the beginning of the book of Acts, because Luke is the writer of both Luke and Acts. And so Luke 24 corresponds to Acts chapter one, and Luke adds some additional commentary in Acts chapter one concerning the things Jesus said before he ascended back to the Father. But let’s jump back over to Mark.

In Mark’s account, Mark is going to record Jesus’s ⁓ great commission, if you want to give it that terminology, many have. Later, he appeared to the eleven verse fourteen again, and they sat as they sat at table and he rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart because they did not believe those who had seen him after he had risen. And he said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Now over in Luke’s account, what did Luke

record Jesus said would be preached to all nations.

repentance and

another R, repentance and remission of sins. Okay, so Luke describes the gospel in the form of repentance, that is a change of mind that brings about a change of action to reconcile oneself to God and the remission of sins. Luke looks at it from the perspective of what’s separating a person from God.

their willingness to repent and their sins. Isaiah chapter 59 verses one and two. What does Isaiah tell us? That sin separates us from God. And Isaiah chapter one tells us as God confronts Israel, he says, come, know, reason with me. If you’re willing to repent, if you’re willing to wash your hands of your sins and turn away from them, I’m willing to forgive you. So.

Isaiah’s Old Testament prophecy leads forward to that picture of the Messiah and his declaration of repentance and remission of sins. But Mark is going to focus on the idea, number one, who is to be preached to.

into all the world and he further provides a reinforcement of that to every creature. Now, does Mark mean let’s go teach the puppy dogs, let’s go teach the praying mantises, no wait, they’re already good, they’re already praying, let’s go teach the zebras, is that what he means by every creature? No, all right, he’s talking about humanity.

He’s talking about specifically everyone made in the image of God in their creation, that is all humans, and it doesn’t matter what nation they come from. It’s important to realize that Jesus is laying the groundwork for the Jews and the Gentiles to receive the gospel. And yet, just like

The prophecies that came before this are the disciples or the apostles? Are they going to grasp that immediately just based upon the fact that he said all nations and every creature? Are they going to get that? No, it’s going to take all the way till Acts chapter 10 before they finally grasp that God is sending the gospel to not just the Jews, but to all nations.

So he says here, as Mark records it, go into all the world and preach the good news. That’s what the word gospel means. Preach the message, the good news to every preacher. When Paul is preaching in Corinth, in 1 Corinthians chapter one, Paul will talk about the things that he preached while he was in Corinth. And he preached according to what he said.

Christ and Him crucified. And he said he determined not to preach anything else except Christ and then crucified. Now, does that mean that Paul didn’t teach on moral issues, that Paul didn’t teach on doctrinal issues? We know that’s not the case because he mentioned some of the things he had already taught them. But the point was in first Corinthians chapter one, I didn’t preach you my opinion. I didn’t preach you the wisdom of men.

I didn’t preach you the things that the Gentiles and all of their scholars and all of their wise men would say, and I didn’t preach you the traditions of the Jews. I preached Christ and I preached him as a crucified Savior. That’s the message Jesus is saying needs to be preached to all the world. Now, did Jesus put a timeline on this as to when we need to stop?

preaching this to all the world? No. ⁓ As far as the commission goes, it is an ongoing commission. But then he says, he who believes and is baptized will be saved. As you come to this text, you’re going to find one of those texts that much of the religious world does not like to hear. They do not like to agree with it. They don’t want to admit that it says what it says.

Unfortunately, every time you read it, it forces you to admit that it says what it says. If we were to say, he who

turns left out of the parking lot and turns right up here on this street on Byhalia is going to end up at the stoplight. Do you think it would be sufficient to just turn left?

No, if you just turn left and you just keep going, you’re going to run into a fence. You’re not ever going to get to the stoplight. The point is the instruction from Jesus is clear, but let’s let’s examine this one. If you turn back over to Luke, Chapter 24.

If we were to go to verse 46 and read, thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and arise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. If we were to read that and say, you know what, I don’t know that repentance and remission of sins needs to be preached. Why don’t we just preach remission of sin?

Let’s leave the repentance part out. Would we be doing what he says? Would we be holding faithful to his authority and to his commandment? No. If we decide, you know what, I like the idea of repentance, I’m not so sure that we’ve got any sins to be remitted, so let’s just preach repentance. Are we going to be keeping his commandments? No.

If we go to any other passage that has a this and this equals this and we leave one of them out, the religious world at large would agree that, well, if it says that and that equals that, then you can’t get that without both of those. But the moment that baptism is included in the list, many in the religious world go, well, I know that’s what it says, but you just have to read the rest of the verse to know that’s not what it means.

I know that’s what it says, that’s not what it means. We need to be careful. He says, he who believes and is baptized will be saved. Then he sets a contrast, but he who does not believe will be condemned.

Jesus makes it clear, if you do not believe the message, you stand condemned.

Now, let’s spend a moment with that because this passage actually touches more of the religious world than we think. There are those who, they don’t want to hear the first part where it says believe and baptized will be saved, but there’s those who also don’t want to believe and, or sorry, don’t want to hold on to the do not believe and you will be condemned.

We have a world, and we especially here in America have a society that has been so inundated with a concept that there is no such thing as truth.

that their mindset says, you know what, I think everyone who’s never heard the gospel will be okay. And it’s always the deepest, darkest regions of Africa. I think the people who’ve never heard the gospel in the deepest, darkest regions of Africa, if they never hear the gospel, they’ll be okay.

You have to ask yourself a Do they believe that Jesus Christ is Son of God and that He died for their sins?

if they’ve never heard of Jesus Christ, do they believe? No. So what does the text tell us their current state is? Condemned. Turn over to 1 Thessalonians.

sorry second bestelonians

In 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and in verse 3, Paul writes, we are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly and the love of every one of you all abounds towards each other, so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure.

which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer. Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God,

and those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes in that day to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.”

Paul says, if you do not know God and if you have not obeyed the gospel, what is your state?

You’re lost.

But he didn’t just say that. He actually points out, if you notice again in verse 6, that it is a righteous thing with God.

One of the biggest problems we have in our society today is we don’t believe in truth. And because we don’t believe in truth, we don’t believe in righteousness. We don’t believe that God is righteous, that righteousness cannot ignore sin. We have a society that will welcome sin

that will tolerate sin will call for unlimited tolerance to sin.

The only thing it won’t tolerate is righteousness. And it will not tolerate a God who as wholly says, no, I will not forgive those who have not obeyed. Now, point to be made is that Paul did not just say those who believe, did he?

Over in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, as he wrote those words, he said, will give you rest with us, with the Lord Jesus as revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God and those who do not what? Obey the gospel.

If someone says, you know what, I obeyed half the gospel, I should be fine. Paul will say, no, you didn’t. If you didn’t obey all of it, you didn’t obey any of it. It is not sufficient, nor has it ever been sufficient with God to halfway obey him. And you know, in our own lives, we understand that. If you’ve got an employee who you give instruction, go do this and this. They come back.

I did that. ⁓ Waiting for the next part. You did this and this? No, I didn’t do both. Then you didn’t obey.

You didn’t do what you were told to do. You did not fulfill the command and I’m certainly not giving you a commendation for doing half the job.

The same thing is true with God. Jesus would point out in Matthew chapter 7 in the Sermon on the Mount that those who say unto me, Lord, but do not do the will of my Father in heaven will not be accepted in the kingdom.

When you look at this text, first, it mandates that we preach the gospel. It’s not just that it mandates the definition of obeying the gospel, but it also mandates that we preach the gospel. What if we were to arrive on judgment day and say, you know what, ⁓ Lord, I know you told us to take the gospel to all the world.

I know you told us to preach to every creature, but honestly, I’m a little biased. I kind of think only the people from my country needed to be saved. So I didn’t bother with the rest of the world. I didn’t think it was all that important to reach the rest of the world. After all, I converted my neighbors and that’s enough. You think he’s going to accept that? Not any more than he’s going to accept hearing and believing and not doing the rest of it.

God is setting an expectation and Christ is setting an expectation of exactly what His apostles were supposed to do, who they were supposed to preach to, and what they were supposed to preach. But He then says, who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. As Jesus informs the apostles,

that they are going to go out and preach, he’s going to tell them as Luke records it that you’re going to begin this in Jerusalem. You’re going to start declaring the gospel in Jerusalem. Turn over to Matthew chapter 28 and notice what he says here.

Verse 16 says, Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end.

of the age. Jesus will tell them, as Matthew records it, to go forth and preach the gospel. Who are they supposed to preach to? Everyone, all the nations. But He also points out that they are to do what to those who believe?

Now, how do you know that they’re only supposed to baptize those that believe?

Baptism is an indication of someone hearing the gospel and responding to it. If they heard the gospel and rejected it, you’re not going to baptize them.

But if we look at this text and go, a minute, some will argue, well, wait a minute, belief is the only thing, if you don’t do it, you’ll be condemned according to Mark chapter 16. Belief isn’t even mentioned here.

Over in Luke is belief mentioned, repentance and remission of sins is mentioned. In Matthew, teaching and baptizing is mentioned. And yet in Mark, individuals who want to claim faith only come to a passage and they say, because it says in the negative, if you don’t believe you’re condemned, that means that’s the only thing you have to do, which completely ignores Matthew and completely ignores Luke.

⁓ Well, they don’t get it out of the Bible, but sure. But one of the things to understand is everywhere that belief and baptism and the concept of salvation are all in the context. Anywhere, as a matter of fact, where baptism and salvation are in the same context, baptism always precedes salvation

every single time. So, if someone were to say, you know what, we’ve got this group of people who believe we’re going to have a baptism service seven days from now, then at what point are they saved? Even if they were taught right and were doing it right, they wouldn’t be saved until after they were baptized. So, you’d be telling someone, you know what, you just hold on, I don’t think it’s that important.

We’ll wait and save you later. Good luck. Come see me in seven days. So the point is that text does not uphold in any position, in any text, that a person can believe only. Add to that, most individuals who teach belief only don’t actually believe.

belief only.

You want to know how I know? Because they always add prayer to it.

If it’s faith only, then you don’t have to pray.

They’ve added prayer, which by the way is found nowhere in the New Testament as a condition for salvation. It is found as a condition for repentance for those who are already saved, Acts chapter eight with Simon the sorcerer. But prayer is never found anywhere in the New Testament as a condition for salvation. So you ask, where did they get it from? They didn’t get it out of the Bible.

Therefore, they got it somewhere else. Yes, Justin.

James 2 24.

You see then that a man ⁓ is justified by works and not by faith only. ⁓ So the only passage, valid point, the only passage in all of the ⁓ scriptures that mentions faith and only in the same sentence says you’re not saved by faith only. But the point is even the people who teach faith only don’t believe faith only. They believe faith in prayer.

You ask them, well, wait a minute, what happens to the person who believes but before they pray they die?

Well, I think they’re probably saved anyway. Then you don’t need prayer.

you push them real hard on it and eventually you find out that well they believe the people who haven’t heard yet are safe too.

So now you don’t need faith. As matter of you’re better off if you never hear the gospel. You don’t have to do any of it. You just end up in heaven.

we have moved, and this is the thing, and the reason why I’m spending the time on this, is as a society we have stopped discussing scripture as truth, and we have started discussing scripture as what makes me comfortable with what God said.

and to be polite and yet blunt, God doesn’t care whether you’re comfortable with what He said.

He commanded you to believe it and obey it. And as Jesus is preaching to the apostles and speaking to the apostles, He’s rebuking them for not understanding what God said and not believing what the scriptures told them.

So from the same text that Jesus condemns a lack of faith, unbelief, and a rejection of what the text says, people want to take part of what the text says and throw it out.

Now, spend all that time telling you about all the things that we do need to understand and we do need to believe and we do need to comprehend for salvation and now I’m going to get in trouble with the rest of the text.

He says, these signs will follow those who believe in my name. They will cast out demons. They will speak with new tongues. They will take up servant serpents. And if they drink anything deadly, they will by no means hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.

So, if we believe that the commission and the gospel has been continuous and ongoing and authoritative from the day that Jesus spoke it until now, then should we also understand that miracles have continued to be performed by Christians from that day forward until now.

One of the things that we have to be careful with is context.

There is a group of people he is speaking to about what will happen to them in the coming days and what they will do in the coming days and what they will preach in the coming days. And when you put all of these passages together, it is important for us to do that.

and understand the limitations of the context because we’re not going to limit the context. The context is going to limit itself. We just have to pay attention to what it actually says. In Matthew chapter 28, and we’ll probably continue this discussion next week, ⁓ we’ll just continue this discussion when I pick back up with ⁓ closing out Mark ⁓ because I’m not going to get done tonight and I’m going to be gone.

So Matthew 28, he says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always ⁓ even to the end of the age. Any limiting statement in that text?

No, it is an unlimited statement. This is what you’re going to do. This is who you’re going to preach to. This is how you’re going to do it. All right, let’s turn over to Luke.

Verse 45, opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Then He said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.

Are there any limiting statements in this text? Yes. Not in the limit of the gospel, for they were to preach the gospel to every nation, but rather to the people that Jesus was speaking to in that context and what would happen to them. Now, who is present in this context?

The 11, it’s not the 120, it’s not all the disciples, it’s not the 500 that he appeared to, it’s the 11. And the text is clear on that when you go evaluate all the text. But now go to Acts chapter one.

to Luke is going to provide this chapter 24 and chapter 1 as a bridge between his two books that he writes, his two letters that he writes. And so we read and we’ll close here, verse 4, and being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father which he said, have heard from me.

For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in his own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

Is there a limitation in this context? The answer is yes. Again, Jesus promises that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is going to be poured out on the ones who are standing there. That’s the 11. That’s going to happen in Acts chapter 2. That’s going to be a fulfillment of what Joel prophesied.

and Peter’s going to tell them this is a fulfillment of what Joel prophesied. But that is not a promise to every person in every nation under heaven. That is a declaration by Jesus of what was coming for them not many days hence, as the text says. So the text,

the context limits itself. And then we have to evaluate how far that limit goes. We’ll do more of that the next time we discuss the Book of Mark. Thank you.