The church is the only cooperative society
in the world that exists for the benefit of its nonmembers. -- William Temple,
Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 4.
Scripture
Text:
Mark 16:15 He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the
good news to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,
but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will
accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will
speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when
they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their
hands on sick people, and they will get well." 19 After the Lord Jesus
had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand
of God. 20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord
worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.
The Believers:
those who hear and believe and
follow the message of the disciples. We
are the believers of today. We
are those who have believed and received.
Now what? Since we’ve
been saved and now we have Christ what should we do?
If we have been saved then we can hear the message of the Lord and go
into the world. We can’t give
them what we don’t have. Do we
have something to give the world? Do
we have the Lord and His salvation, and then will we go?
How have we gone?
How will we go? When will
we go? Where will we go?
Give them the good news. John 3:16 says…
Salvation is the greatest
healing a person can experience. Salvation gives you Christ who will carry you through
everything.
Give them a new life.
Do you have new life to give to
those who are outside the family? A
new life consists of a new hope, a new help,
Give them salvation.
Salvation is Jesus will you give
them Jesus?
Here are the signs:
Will you show them the signs?
This is the proof of our
Lord. The accompanying signs from the Lord.
Give them freedom from the
possession of demons. They
can be free from demonic possession. The
greatest demon of all is the demon of unbelief.
Let God set them free to believe in the Lord.
Give them a new language. Do you have a new language to give them?
It is the language of the Spirit.
It is the language of God. It
is the language of love. This is
the language of grace. It speaks
the truth in love and seeks to share the Lord with all those it comes in touch
with.
Give them healing from
deadly poison from snakes and
chemicals. Supernatural
protection from the demonic/worldly attacks of the devil.
In no way is the Lord encouraging his followers to drink poison or
handle snakes. This would be
tempting the Lord. Just as Jesus
would not tempt the Lord then neither should we.
But this describes supernatural protection from evil attacks on
believers.
Give them healing from
diseases. The
healing touch of the Spirit of the Lord will bring healing to their body,
spirit, and life. Until God is
welcome to enter a life then something is still missing.
There is no hope and there is no help.
Give them eternal life and hope.
Then the disciples went out. If we don’t go out then we won’t experience the power
that accompanies the evangelists.
When they went the signs
accompanied them and confirmed their word/His Word.
If we will go out then the power of the Lord and his signs will
accompany us to fulfill his word.
Albert McMakin was a
twenty-four-year-old farmer who had recently come to faith in Christ.
He was so full of enthusiasm that he filled a truck with people and
took them to a meeting to hear about Jesus.
There was a good-looking farmer's son whom he was especially keen to
get to a meeting, but this young man was hard to persuade --- he was busy
falling in and out of love with different girls, and did not seem attracted to
Christianity. Eventually, Albert
McMakin managed to persuade him to come by asking him to drive the truck.
When they arrived, Albert's guest decided to go in and was
‘spellbound' and began to have thoughts he had never known before.
He went back again and again until one night, he went forward and gave
his life to Jesus Christ. The
man, the driver of the truck, was Billy Graham.
The year was 1934. Since
then Billy Graham has led thousands to faith in Jesus Christ.
We cannot all be like Billy Graham, but we can all be like Albert
McMakin --- we can all bring our friends to Jesus. By Nicky Gumbel, Questions
of Life, Kingsway Publications, Eastbourne, England, 1995 pp 193,194
Many years ago there was a
medical missionary in Africa named George Harley. He built a small clinic and
a chapel next to it. Very quickly the natives started coming to the hospital
but for some reason they refused to go to the church. For the better part of
four years the only people who entered that chapel were Dr. and Mrs. Harley
and their young son.
One day, though, Harley's son
fell off a ledge and hit his head on a sharp rock. The missionary ran to the
youngster's side, but he could not save the boy's life. A casket was made for
the lad from old shipping crates and a memorial service planned. Only the two
missionaries attended, and not a word was spoken. Dr. Harley recounted,
"I could not speak, I could not pray, so finally I just picked up the
casket and put it on my shoulder and started to carry it out to the place
where he would be buried. As we walked along the road, a man came alongside
and asked, 'Great Father, what do you have in that box?' I replied, 'It's my
son. He died last night.' Then the man took one end of the casket and I took
the other, and we carried it to the graveside where I broke down completely
and began to cry, 'Why, God, why?'
Then man looked at me and
then ran back to the village with the announcement, shouting it from house to
house, 'The Great Father cries, just like us. The Great Father cries just like
us.' Then they came running from all directions and put their arms around us,
and tried to comfort us. And from that time on, every time we had a service in
the chapel, those who were not in the clinic were in the chapel. And that's
how we finally got through. But oh, the cost."-- Paul W. Powell,
"How to Start a Church Fire" p. 43-44.
If In Doubt, Go
While at the beach in
Jacksonville, Florida, one summer, I saw a lifeguard suddenly jump to his feet
in his tower. He took the Red Cross flag out of its standard and waved it
frantically so they could see him at the main life guard station. He then
threw it to the ground, jumped down, grabbed a life buoy and rushed out into
the water. With strong strokes he swam toward a man waving for help.
In a few seconds, sirens
wailed as an ambulance came up and three other guards swam out to help. They
rescued the man and gave him artificial respiration. Scores gathered around.
All were deeply moved as the man was revived. The same scene was repeated
several times that day, for the undertow was unusually strong.
Late that afternoon I went to
the main station to say thanks as a private citizen for the dedication of
these men. When I walked into the station I was struck by a sign on the wall
in large red letters which read, IF IN DOUBT, GO! It struck me that this ought
to be on the wall of every church and on the table of every heart as we see
the multitudes around us and read the command of God to “Go!”
—C. Summer Wemp[1]
Postman’s Confidence
A postman was telling me what
a sense of security he felt in his work of delivering the mail. “Why,” he
said, “all the resources of the Government are pledged to support me in
carrying on my work. If I have only one small postcard in my bag, no man dares
to molest me in its delivery. All the Federal police powers of the United
States would be thrown into action if necessary to secure the safe delivery of
that post card.”
And that led me to think how
confidently you and I may set forth with our life, our personality, our
equipment, such as it is, to deliver the flaming truth of the Gospel. The Word
of our Lord is just as much for us today as it was for the disciples, when he
said: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go … and, lo, I
am with you always, even unto the end” ( Matt. 28:18–20 ). —Sunday
School Times[2]