Preaching With Signs Following
"And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen." Mark 16:20
This is one of my favourite verses because of course, it still applies today. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim 3:16-17).
The scripture therefore is much more than just a historical record of what happened in those days but an instruction to us about what will happen still in these days. If you go forth and preach the Word, the Lord will work with you and confirm what you are preaching to be true by means of signs that follow this preaching. This is true and the purpose of this post is to share a recent series of events that demonstrate this.
When I saw the signs from the Lord I was so heartened and encouraged, it gave me joy for the rest of the day. However, one thing stands out to me. I don't think a person who isn't born again would be able to see and recognize these signs for what they are. Jesus spoke of the need to be born again in order to see and enter the kingdom of God. I suspect these signs will only be seen and understood therefore by the evangelist himself and not by the ones he preaches to who do not yet know the Lord. The signs serve therefore for exactly the function they had in my life yesterday when these events occurred: to encourage and confirm that I am preaching the right message.
In Mark 16:20 there're two parts to what the Lord does: He works with the preacher, and He confirms the message by signs following. Paul also makes reference to this when he says that he laboured more abundantly than them all, yet not he himself but the grace of God which was with him (1 Cor 15:10). So the first part of Mark 16:20 appears to be for the listener, the work of God to draw the listener to Christ. The second part is for the preacher, to encourage and strengthen by confirming the Word, and I believe also, for the unseen spiritual powers who, I am convinced, are definitely affected by the preaching of the Word (Eph 3:10, 1 Peter 1:12). It used to bother me that I could see signs following and yet those who I preached to, could not. I was disappointed because I felt that the preaching was ineffective because they didn't see the confirmation. But now I think they are not supposed to see the confirmation; the work of God's grace on them is another part of Christ's working that I do not see, a working which is distinct from the signs following. So if you are in the same situation, do not be disheartened or feel that your preaching is in vain just because others do not perceive signs following.
Only once that I can recall have I been able so far to point out a sign to a person I had preached the Gospel to and have her recognize it and be amazed by it. After sharing the Gospel with her, we both boarded a bus and sat down. She happened to sit directly beneath an advertisement by a local, faithful church, which advertisement proclaimed a verse of scripture. I don't remember now what that verse was, but it was a rare thing in that region to see an advertisement of a church. So I caught the young woman's attention and pointed up above her head to the scripture advertisement and she saw it and was amazed. Later on we got off at the same stop and before we parted ways she admitted to me that what happened on the bus was quite amazing. Now I wish I remembered what that verse said!
Anyway, as to what happened yesterday. To give some background, I work in a meat department at a grocery store. I had prayed for an open door and the Lord's help to share the Gospel with my supervisor but yesterday was our last day working together before he left to move to another city in another province in order to pursue his comedy career. I was not thinking about trying to create an opportunity to tell him about the Lord. And indeed I did not share the Gospel with him but only ended up speaking about a certain event from the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus to him. It was what the circumstance allowed.
But here is what happened. The Lions Club ordered a lot of peameal bacon for a barbeque and it filled three plastic totes. My supervisor was instructing me to price it up for when the Lions Club representative came to pick it up. I asked him whether I should weigh and price each tote's contents separately and then give the three price tags to the customer, for him to pay at the front cash. The supervisor said yes that would be fine, but I pointed out that since he would be repacking the peameal in his own boxes, he could present only one or two of the tags instead of all three and thereby steal some peameal. I didn't really think he would do that but I did want to raise the possibility to the supervisor so that he could make an informed decision. He said something to the effect of, it's okay, after all, they're Lions Club. In other words, because they are known as a charitable organization, their representative is not going to steal anything.
Immediately, what came to mind was Judas who was one of Jesus' apostles and the one who held the money bag for the group, yet he stole from the bag! I briefly debated about whether I should say this and then decided to. I believe my supervisor is Catholic; he's certainly Italian! He said, "Really? I didn't know that." So I told him the account from the scriptures, as exactly as I could remember. "A woman poured an expensive vial of perfume on Jesus' feet, but Judas was angry at her and said, 'This perfume should have been sold and the money given to the poor!' But he said this not because he cared for the poor but because he carried the bag and used to steal from it." Again my supervisor was surprised and said he had not known that. I told him that Jesus knew about Judas from the beginning. So we worked in silence for a minute or so and then I said, "Some might say, if God knew that Satan would rebel against Him, why did He create him in the first place? It's like how Jesus chose Judas to be one of His apostles." My supervisor nodded and seemed interested in what the answer might be, so I said, "Well, God is kind to the unthankful and to the evil. Jesus taught that we should love our enemies, do good to them that hate us, and pray for those who persecute and despitefully use us, that we may be children of our Father which is in heaven. For the Father makes His sun to rise and rain to fall on the heads of the righteous and the wicked." We laughed together about how if it's a sunny day then everybody gets to enjoy it, whether they are good or bad. But I didn't want to leave my supervisor with the idea that God never judges or is indifferent to good and bad! So I said, and it sounded rather ominous (for it is ominous!), "They," (meaning the devil and the antichrist), "Will never be able to say that they were never given a chance or that they were treated unfairly." This seemed to really strike my supervisor and that was the end of our conversation on that subject. It was only afterwards that I remembered that I had prayed for an open door and the help to pass through it concerning sharing the Word of God with him, and that it was his very last day in this workplace.
Now to the signs following! Almost immediately after that, I realized that while I had been speaking with him, I was pricing up the food bank order, which was a Christian food bank called "Loaves and Fishes", referring of course to Jesus' miraculous multiplication of a few loves and fishes to feed the four thousand, and on another occasion, five thousand. Then a delivery man came in, whom I knew and have been meaning to speak to, wearing a steel cross necklace prominently displayed. He said to me, "Hi brother," and I said without thinking, "It's the fish man!" because he was delivering fish. But I immediately thought about ICHTHYS, which is the Greek word meaning fish and which is also an acronym (in Greek) for Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour. This is why the symbol of the fish is used by Christians. So I suppose a Christian is, in a manner of speaking, a "fish man".
When I left work I saw a sign saying, "We go ALL OUT for you!" and being a sinner I thought first about how I had served the Lord in evangelism but then I realized that it is GOD who has gone ALL OUT for me. One thing I have noticed that when you do serve the Lord, you will get a deeper glimpse of His tremendous, overwhelming love and care towards you. It's much better to interpret things in terms of Jesus Christ's goodness and greatness than in terms of yourself. He went all out in that He poured His blood ALL OUT for us. And then on the other corner at the same intersection a sign read, "Shobrook Gardens", Shobrook being a form of Sure Brook. And Sure Brook Gardens made me think of the River of the Water of Life flowing from the Throne of God and of the Lamb (Rev 22:1), and the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden of God (Rev 2:7). And now that I think about it again, I remember the Tree of Life in the midst and on both sides of the street of the River (Rev 22:2), just as the two signs I saw were on both sides of the street. And as the Tree of Life is in the midst of the street also, and in the Heavenly Jerusalem the servants of God and of the Lamb shall serve Him (Rev 22:3), so I by His grace His servant drove between the signs in the midst of the street. And as the scripture says, Jesus Christ came by water and blood; not by water only, but by water and blood (1 John 5:6). And one of the two signs speaks of Him pouring His blood ALL OUT for us, and the other speaks of the Sure Brook as in the River of the Water of Life.
I think it is funny that the door to preaching the Word the Lord chose to open was the peameal order made by the Lions Club, which is a fraternal order and perhaps related to the Freemasons, which I believe to be an ungodly and Christ-denying organization. But that is a subject you can learn a lot more about elsewhere, from those more knowledgeable on the subject than me.
And that's really all I have to say about it except to say Thank You to the Lord GOD for all His mercy and grace to me of which I am totally unworthy, for opening up my eyes and for helping me in every way to do some small thing to spread the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ to others.
"Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:21
"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Rom 14:17
"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God...Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." John 3:3, 5
"To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:" Acts 1:3
This is one of my favourite verses because of course, it still applies today. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim 3:16-17).
The scripture therefore is much more than just a historical record of what happened in those days but an instruction to us about what will happen still in these days. If you go forth and preach the Word, the Lord will work with you and confirm what you are preaching to be true by means of signs that follow this preaching. This is true and the purpose of this post is to share a recent series of events that demonstrate this.
When I saw the signs from the Lord I was so heartened and encouraged, it gave me joy for the rest of the day. However, one thing stands out to me. I don't think a person who isn't born again would be able to see and recognize these signs for what they are. Jesus spoke of the need to be born again in order to see and enter the kingdom of God. I suspect these signs will only be seen and understood therefore by the evangelist himself and not by the ones he preaches to who do not yet know the Lord. The signs serve therefore for exactly the function they had in my life yesterday when these events occurred: to encourage and confirm that I am preaching the right message.
In Mark 16:20 there're two parts to what the Lord does: He works with the preacher, and He confirms the message by signs following. Paul also makes reference to this when he says that he laboured more abundantly than them all, yet not he himself but the grace of God which was with him (1 Cor 15:10). So the first part of Mark 16:20 appears to be for the listener, the work of God to draw the listener to Christ. The second part is for the preacher, to encourage and strengthen by confirming the Word, and I believe also, for the unseen spiritual powers who, I am convinced, are definitely affected by the preaching of the Word (Eph 3:10, 1 Peter 1:12). It used to bother me that I could see signs following and yet those who I preached to, could not. I was disappointed because I felt that the preaching was ineffective because they didn't see the confirmation. But now I think they are not supposed to see the confirmation; the work of God's grace on them is another part of Christ's working that I do not see, a working which is distinct from the signs following. So if you are in the same situation, do not be disheartened or feel that your preaching is in vain just because others do not perceive signs following.
Only once that I can recall have I been able so far to point out a sign to a person I had preached the Gospel to and have her recognize it and be amazed by it. After sharing the Gospel with her, we both boarded a bus and sat down. She happened to sit directly beneath an advertisement by a local, faithful church, which advertisement proclaimed a verse of scripture. I don't remember now what that verse was, but it was a rare thing in that region to see an advertisement of a church. So I caught the young woman's attention and pointed up above her head to the scripture advertisement and she saw it and was amazed. Later on we got off at the same stop and before we parted ways she admitted to me that what happened on the bus was quite amazing. Now I wish I remembered what that verse said!
Anyway, as to what happened yesterday. To give some background, I work in a meat department at a grocery store. I had prayed for an open door and the Lord's help to share the Gospel with my supervisor but yesterday was our last day working together before he left to move to another city in another province in order to pursue his comedy career. I was not thinking about trying to create an opportunity to tell him about the Lord. And indeed I did not share the Gospel with him but only ended up speaking about a certain event from the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus to him. It was what the circumstance allowed.
But here is what happened. The Lions Club ordered a lot of peameal bacon for a barbeque and it filled three plastic totes. My supervisor was instructing me to price it up for when the Lions Club representative came to pick it up. I asked him whether I should weigh and price each tote's contents separately and then give the three price tags to the customer, for him to pay at the front cash. The supervisor said yes that would be fine, but I pointed out that since he would be repacking the peameal in his own boxes, he could present only one or two of the tags instead of all three and thereby steal some peameal. I didn't really think he would do that but I did want to raise the possibility to the supervisor so that he could make an informed decision. He said something to the effect of, it's okay, after all, they're Lions Club. In other words, because they are known as a charitable organization, their representative is not going to steal anything.
Immediately, what came to mind was Judas who was one of Jesus' apostles and the one who held the money bag for the group, yet he stole from the bag! I briefly debated about whether I should say this and then decided to. I believe my supervisor is Catholic; he's certainly Italian! He said, "Really? I didn't know that." So I told him the account from the scriptures, as exactly as I could remember. "A woman poured an expensive vial of perfume on Jesus' feet, but Judas was angry at her and said, 'This perfume should have been sold and the money given to the poor!' But he said this not because he cared for the poor but because he carried the bag and used to steal from it." Again my supervisor was surprised and said he had not known that. I told him that Jesus knew about Judas from the beginning. So we worked in silence for a minute or so and then I said, "Some might say, if God knew that Satan would rebel against Him, why did He create him in the first place? It's like how Jesus chose Judas to be one of His apostles." My supervisor nodded and seemed interested in what the answer might be, so I said, "Well, God is kind to the unthankful and to the evil. Jesus taught that we should love our enemies, do good to them that hate us, and pray for those who persecute and despitefully use us, that we may be children of our Father which is in heaven. For the Father makes His sun to rise and rain to fall on the heads of the righteous and the wicked." We laughed together about how if it's a sunny day then everybody gets to enjoy it, whether they are good or bad. But I didn't want to leave my supervisor with the idea that God never judges or is indifferent to good and bad! So I said, and it sounded rather ominous (for it is ominous!), "They," (meaning the devil and the antichrist), "Will never be able to say that they were never given a chance or that they were treated unfairly." This seemed to really strike my supervisor and that was the end of our conversation on that subject. It was only afterwards that I remembered that I had prayed for an open door and the help to pass through it concerning sharing the Word of God with him, and that it was his very last day in this workplace.
Now to the signs following! Almost immediately after that, I realized that while I had been speaking with him, I was pricing up the food bank order, which was a Christian food bank called "Loaves and Fishes", referring of course to Jesus' miraculous multiplication of a few loves and fishes to feed the four thousand, and on another occasion, five thousand. Then a delivery man came in, whom I knew and have been meaning to speak to, wearing a steel cross necklace prominently displayed. He said to me, "Hi brother," and I said without thinking, "It's the fish man!" because he was delivering fish. But I immediately thought about ICHTHYS, which is the Greek word meaning fish and which is also an acronym (in Greek) for Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour. This is why the symbol of the fish is used by Christians. So I suppose a Christian is, in a manner of speaking, a "fish man".
When I left work I saw a sign saying, "We go ALL OUT for you!" and being a sinner I thought first about how I had served the Lord in evangelism but then I realized that it is GOD who has gone ALL OUT for me. One thing I have noticed that when you do serve the Lord, you will get a deeper glimpse of His tremendous, overwhelming love and care towards you. It's much better to interpret things in terms of Jesus Christ's goodness and greatness than in terms of yourself. He went all out in that He poured His blood ALL OUT for us. And then on the other corner at the same intersection a sign read, "Shobrook Gardens", Shobrook being a form of Sure Brook. And Sure Brook Gardens made me think of the River of the Water of Life flowing from the Throne of God and of the Lamb (Rev 22:1), and the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden of God (Rev 2:7). And now that I think about it again, I remember the Tree of Life in the midst and on both sides of the street of the River (Rev 22:2), just as the two signs I saw were on both sides of the street. And as the Tree of Life is in the midst of the street also, and in the Heavenly Jerusalem the servants of God and of the Lamb shall serve Him (Rev 22:3), so I by His grace His servant drove between the signs in the midst of the street. And as the scripture says, Jesus Christ came by water and blood; not by water only, but by water and blood (1 John 5:6). And one of the two signs speaks of Him pouring His blood ALL OUT for us, and the other speaks of the Sure Brook as in the River of the Water of Life.
I think it is funny that the door to preaching the Word the Lord chose to open was the peameal order made by the Lions Club, which is a fraternal order and perhaps related to the Freemasons, which I believe to be an ungodly and Christ-denying organization. But that is a subject you can learn a lot more about elsewhere, from those more knowledgeable on the subject than me.
And that's really all I have to say about it except to say Thank You to the Lord GOD for all His mercy and grace to me of which I am totally unworthy, for opening up my eyes and for helping me in every way to do some small thing to spread the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ to others.
"Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:21
"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Rom 14:17
"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God...Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." John 3:3, 5
"To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:" Acts 1:3
