He’ll Confirm His Word with Signs
Scripture: Mark 16:20Devotional Series: The Holy Ghost and Power
Teaching: The Holy Ghost and Power pt. 5 (SUN_AM 2024-10-27) by Pastor Star R Scott
“Go ye into all the world,” Mark said. Let’s go back to Mark 16 for just a moment. “Preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth…shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” Verse 17, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them.”
Now, just to clarify, most of us here know this but we have people that have come over the recent weeks and have been added and we praise God for that. This is not talking about your Kentucky/West Virginia snake handlers. In fact, in today’s society, when you tell people you’re Pentecostal, that’s where their minds go. In our conversation it doesn’t hurt, when we tell people we’re Pentecostals, to clarify and share that a Pentecostal is just someone who believes that the charisma has not passed away. These charismatic gifts are still operating today. All the gifts of the Spirit—signs and wonders, miracles, healing—are for the church today. That’s what makes us distinct. And then, of course, be ready and able to take them to the Scriptures and show them. “See, right here, this is what it says. One of the passages is this right here.” There’s nothing in Scripture that negates or does away with this commandment of Jesus to go into all the world and perform these ministries. Nothing in the Scriptures.
And He said, “I want you to go out and perform these great works and ‘lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.’” So then after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, sat at the right hand of God, “And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following” (Mark 16:20). Hallelujah! Never negated. In fact, just the opposite. In the Book of Acts, when Jesus told the church, on the very day that the church was birthed, the day of Pentecost, “But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16). He said, “People today are preaching and teaching there’s a great revival coming. There’s a great empowering coming to the world and it’s the latter-day rain.” The latter-day rain happened 2000 years ago. In Joel’s prophecy, the latter-day rain took place on the day of Pentecost and the church has been under that unction, that power, ever since. We are not a unique twenty-first century church. There’s only one church that’s 2100 years old; amen? What they did, we do. Cultures have changed, mores have changed, ideologies have changed; God is true and anybody who opposes it is a liar.
This stuff doesn’t fly in society today. You know those real tolerant people. There’s a group of people that really feel their great tolerance. They’re very tolerant, until you don’t agree with them. I was with someone when he was getting one of his—the next step in his belts that he does in this UFC stuff—and a guy that I used to watch years ago when UFC first started, was from the Gracie family that came from Brazil. In the old days, it started with just big, fat bar-room guys, any tough guys off the streets, and people fighting each other. Then, of course, it began to refine itself into the techniques and what it has evolved into today in that type of fighting. But one of the original guys that came from Brazil, one of the Gracie family that started this whole thing, was telling us a story. He said, “You know, people think this is tough.” He said, “What was tough was when we first started out and we came to America, and we were fighting in back rooms of warehouses and everything. I can’t remember—it was either a $50,000 or something—they challenged anybody in the world to come and fight them for $50,000, winner take all.” And he said, “We didn’t have any money. If we lost, we didn’t have anything to pay these guys. They would kill us.” That’s a motivator; isn’t it?
Now, just to clarify, most of us here know this but we have people that have come over the recent weeks and have been added and we praise God for that. This is not talking about your Kentucky/West Virginia snake handlers. In fact, in today’s society, when you tell people you’re Pentecostal, that’s where their minds go. In our conversation it doesn’t hurt, when we tell people we’re Pentecostals, to clarify and share that a Pentecostal is just someone who believes that the charisma has not passed away. These charismatic gifts are still operating today. All the gifts of the Spirit—signs and wonders, miracles, healing—are for the church today. That’s what makes us distinct. And then, of course, be ready and able to take them to the Scriptures and show them. “See, right here, this is what it says. One of the passages is this right here.” There’s nothing in Scripture that negates or does away with this commandment of Jesus to go into all the world and perform these ministries. Nothing in the Scriptures.
And He said, “I want you to go out and perform these great works and ‘lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.’” So then after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, sat at the right hand of God, “And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following” (Mark 16:20). Hallelujah! Never negated. In fact, just the opposite. In the Book of Acts, when Jesus told the church, on the very day that the church was birthed, the day of Pentecost, “But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16). He said, “People today are preaching and teaching there’s a great revival coming. There’s a great empowering coming to the world and it’s the latter-day rain.” The latter-day rain happened 2000 years ago. In Joel’s prophecy, the latter-day rain took place on the day of Pentecost and the church has been under that unction, that power, ever since. We are not a unique twenty-first century church. There’s only one church that’s 2100 years old; amen? What they did, we do. Cultures have changed, mores have changed, ideologies have changed; God is true and anybody who opposes it is a liar.
This stuff doesn’t fly in society today. You know those real tolerant people. There’s a group of people that really feel their great tolerance. They’re very tolerant, until you don’t agree with them. I was with someone when he was getting one of his—the next step in his belts that he does in this UFC stuff—and a guy that I used to watch years ago when UFC first started, was from the Gracie family that came from Brazil. In the old days, it started with just big, fat bar-room guys, any tough guys off the streets, and people fighting each other. Then, of course, it began to refine itself into the techniques and what it has evolved into today in that type of fighting. But one of the original guys that came from Brazil, one of the Gracie family that started this whole thing, was telling us a story. He said, “You know, people think this is tough.” He said, “What was tough was when we first started out and we came to America, and we were fighting in back rooms of warehouses and everything. I can’t remember—it was either a $50,000 or something—they challenged anybody in the world to come and fight them for $50,000, winner take all.” And he said, “We didn’t have any money. If we lost, we didn’t have anything to pay these guys. They would kill us.” That’s a motivator; isn’t it?