Sunday
Morning Bible Study
November 6, 2005
Introduction
We left off last week as Jesus gave His final marching orders to His
disciples:
(Mark 16:15 NKJV)
… "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
:16 "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does
not believe will be condemned.
Some people would teach that you need to be baptized in order to be saved. But read this verse carefully. Jesus doesn’t say that lack of baptism leads
to condemnation, but lack of belief leads to condemnation.
Jesus said,
(John 3:16 NKJV)
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
You and I along with every human being on this planet have a huge
problem. The problem is called sin. We do things that are wrong. We do things that end up separating us from
God. And to get this problem fixed,
there is a price to be paid. The price
to get sin removed is death.
And that’s why Jesus came, to die of us.
He paid a debt He didn’t owe because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay.
And now all God asks of us is to turn Him and trust that His Son has paid
for our sins.
Paul wrote,
(Eph 2:8-9 NKJV) For by
grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the
gift of God, {9} not of works, lest anyone should boast.
We have been saved by grace, by the gracious gift of God
sending His Son to die for us. And that
gift becomes real in our lives when we learn to trust – to “have faith” in
Jesus.
It’s faith that’s essential to salvation.
Baptism is important because Jesus commanded us to be baptized. Baptism is important because it is an outward
way of showing what God has done for us on the inside. It is a public way of
telling others that you follow Jesus.
But you aren’t saved because you were baptized. You are saved because you believed.
:17 "And these signs will follow those who believe:
Some folks take these next two verses to an extreme. They feel that these
same things ought to be happening all the time in every believer. They feel that if you are a true believer,
that you need to go out and start doing these things. They take this as a list of “things to do”.
But Jesus doesn’t say to go out and do these things, He says these things
will “follow”. As we look at these
things, you will see that they “followed” the disciples.
:17 In My name they will cast out demons;
(John 14:12 NKJV)
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works
that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I
go to My Father.
In Acts 16, there’s a story of how Paul was being followed around town by
this gal who was possessed by a demon.
(Acts 16:18 NKJV) And this she did for many days. But
Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in
the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And he came out that very
hour.
:17 they will speak with new tongues;
The gift of tongues is the ability to speak in a language that you have not
learned by any natural means.
The disciples spoke in tongues on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4)
The gift of tongues is also a beautiful way to pray and give God praise in
a person’s devotional time as well (1Cor. 14:2).
But not everyone will have the gift of tongues. Paul wrote that not
everyone will have the gift of tongues (1Cor. 14:30).
There are many spiritual gifts and the Holy Spirit is the one who decides
who gets which gifts. And each person’s combination of gifts makes them a unique
part of the church. Each person in the church has a special role to play. Each
person is needed in the church. It’s important for each of us to learn more and
more about the things God wants us to be doing, and to do them. But no one has
all the gifts. Not everyone will speak
in tongues.
:18 "they will take up serpents;
In 1910, a fellow named George W. Hensley
was preaching on this passage in Mark. He
finished his message by taking a large rattlesnake out of a box with his bare
hands. He handled if for a few minutes,
then ordered his congregation to handle it too or else be “doomed to eternal
hell.” Hensley died at 75 years old on July 25, 1955, from … snake bite.
From there, the practice began to spread, mostly through the small,
Pentecostal churches in the Appalachian Mountains. After a few people began to die, the practice
also “died down” a bit as well. Today,
there is an estimated 2,000 people who still follow this practice.
In their church services, they will bring out a box with poisonous snakes
and if you are “led by the Holy Ghost”, you will take a turn at picking up a
snake. According to an article in the National
Geographic, the people don’t believe that they won’t get hurt or
die. They simply believe that they are
commanded by this verse to take up serpents and so they do it. The churches that tend to do this are family-dominated
churches, and within these families, there have been lots of experience with
people losing limbs and people dying. One
of the pastors they interviewed from Georgia, Junior G. McCormick: “Some people were bit, and I believe God was
ready for them and their time had come,” he said. “I was bit 14 times, by
rattlesnakes, copperheads, water moccasins, and I never used anti venom—all I
had was just Jesus. I’ve been bitten badly, but I’ll go back the next week and
take them out [serpents] again.”
I find it fascinating that these groups tend to be rather “in-grown”. They are mainly made up of families that have
grown up in the church and stay in the church.
They’ve confused the command with “what follows”. Instead of “going” and “preaching” the gospel
to the world, they are picking up snakes.
While some churches twist this verse and have snake handling services,
there is a wonderful example of the real thing happening in the book of Acts.
Paul had been arrested and was being transported to Rome
when he and his shipmates were shipwrecked during a storm. They were able to
swim to an island where the natives rescued them on the beach. As they were building a fire, Paul gathered a
bundle of sticks for fuel. A snake had
been hiding in the sticks and struck Paul in the hand.
(Acts 28:4-6 NKJV) So when the natives saw the creature hanging
from his hand, they said to one another, "No doubt this man is a murderer,
whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow to live."
{5} But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. {6}
However, they were expecting that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead.
But after they had looked for a long time and saw no harm come to him, they
changed their minds and said that he was a god.
From that incident, God was able to work through Paul to minister to the
people of Malta,
healing the sick and preaching the gospel.
:18 and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them;
For some people, this might be why they pray before dinner …
I think on our Russia
trip this year, the strangest looking food was the stuff we ate on the plane
between Paris and Moscow.
I’m sure a lot of people were praying before they ate (or didn’t eat).
Illustration
Little Johnny and his family were having Sunday dinner at his Grandmother’s
house. Everyone was seated around the table as the food was being served. When
little Johnny received his plate, he started eating right away. “Johnny, wait
until we say our prayer,” his mother reminded him. “I don’t have to,” the
little boy replied. “Of course you do,” his mother insisted, “we say a prayer
before eating at our house.” “That’s at our house,” Johnny explained, “but this
is Grandma’s house and she knows how to cook!”
Though we don’t have any recorded examples of this happening in the book of
Acts, this is something I like to ask God for when we pray for loved ones who
are needing to go through chemotherapy …
:18 they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."
sick – arrhostos – without
strength, weak, sick
recover – kalos –
beautifully, finely, excellently, to be well
Literally, “they will have beauty”
I think this is a wonderful privilege that we as believers have, to pray
for those who are weak, those who are broken, and those who are sick. And when it’s appropriate, we have the
privilege of laying hands on them and praying for them. And God does heal
today.
Lesson
Don’t confuse the command with what
follows …
I think the mistake is confusing what Jesus commands with what simply follows
us as we follow Jesus.
The command comes in verse 15:
(Mark 16:15 NKJV)
"Go into all the world
and preach the gospel to every
creature.
Keep the first things first. It’s
God’s heart that we focus on what He’s commanded us – to tell others about
Jesus.
Let Him take care of what follows.
:19 So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into
heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.
:20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them
and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.
Lesson
Resurrection Power
We’ve talked about how the death of Christ on the cross affects us
now.
(Rom 6:6 NKJV) knowing this,
that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done
away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
There is a sense that Jesus’ death was also our
death. And the result is that my “old
man”, my “sin nature” no longer has power over me so that I have to do what it
says.
But along with the power of the cross is the power of the
resurrection. Paul writes,
(Rom 8:11
NKJV) But if the Spirit of Him who
raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead
will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
As a believer in Jesus, the same power that raised Jesus
from the dead is now living inside of me.
I am not just “dead to sin” and live my life like a walking zombie, like
a walking dead man. I now have the life
of Christ inside of me. I now have the
ability to “live” for God.
This power comes through the Holy Spirit. It comes as I learn to yield my life to the
Holy Spirit. It comes as I learn to
allow the Spirit to empower me. It comes
by saying “yes” to God.
After His resurrection, Jesus said,
(Acts 1:8 NKJV) "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."
The power would come from the Holy Spirit. It was power to enable us to be His witnesses.
Jesus said,
(John 7:37-38 NKJV) On the
last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying,
"If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. {38} "He who
believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of
living water."
This is where the power comes from. It comes from being thirsty. It comes by simply asking and trusting.
I’ve been reading a new book, about Billy Graham (The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham, Harold Myra, Marshall
Shelley)
…As he focused and energetically began preaching and receiving ever more
invitations to speak, he sensed increasingly that his eloquence could not
persuade or transform. His deepening
humility was anchored in fact. He knew
he was not an outstanding speaker and that his personal charisma was not enough
to fulfill the great call he felt weighing upon him. He had entered a life of helplessness –
helpless to do this work that was far larger than his capacities.
As he found some success as an evangelist, he continually sought a greater
connection and empowerment. During a
mission to the British Isles, he met a young Welsh evangelist
named Stephen Olford, who had the spiritual qualities Billy longed for. “He had
a dynamic … an exhilaration about him I wanted to capture.” After hearing Olford preach on being filled
with the Holy Spirit, Billy approached him and said, “You’ve spoken of
something that I don’t have. I want the
fullness of the Holy Spirit in my life too.”
Olford agreed to set aside two days when Billy was scheduled to speak at
Pontypridd, just eleven miles from the home of Olford’s parents. The two would talk and pray during the day,
pausing long enough for Billy to preach at night.
“This is serious business,” Billy told him.
“I have to learn what this is that the Lord has been teaching you.”
In the small stone hotel, Olford led Billy step by step through the Bible
verses on the Spirit’s power, which had produced Olford’s profound spiritual
renewal a few months earlier. The
effects of the mentoring, however, were not evident in that evening’s service.
“Quite frankly,” said Olford later, “his preaching was very ordinary. Neither his homiletics nor his theology nor
his particular approach to Welsh people made much of an impact. The Welsh are masters of preaching, and they
expect hard, long sermons with a couple of hours of solid exposition. Billy was giving brief little messages. They listened, but it wasn’t their kind of
preaching.” The crowd was small,
passive, and to Billy’s invitation, unresponsive.
The next day Olford continued the instruction, telling Billy that he “must
be broken” like the apostle Paul, letting God turn him inside out.
“I gave him my testimony of how God completely turned my life inside out –
an experience of the Holy Spirit in his fullness and anointing,” said
Olford. “As I talked, and I can see him
now, those marvelous eyes glistened with tears, and he said, “Stephen, I see
it. That’s what I want. That’s what I need in my life.”” Olford suggested they “Pray this through,”
and both men knelt on the floor.
“I can still hear Billy pouring out his heart in a prayer of total dedication
to the Lord,” said Olford. “Finally, he
said, “My heart is so flooded with the Holy Spirit!” and we went from praying to praising. We were laughing and praising God, and Billy
was walking back and forth across the room, crying out, “I have it! I’m filled.
This is a turning point in my life.”
And he was a new man.”
As Billy recalls the experience years later, “I was beginning to understand
that Jesus Himself was our victory, through the Holy Spirit’s power.”
That night, when Billy preached, “for reasons known to God alone, the place
which was only moderately filled the night before was packed to the doors,”
said Olford. “As Billy rose to speak, he
was a man absolutely anointed.”
Members of the audience came forward to pray even before Billy gave an
invitation. At the end of the sermon,
practically the entire crowd rushed forward.
“My own heart was so moved by Billy’s authority and strength that I could
hardly drive home,” Olford remembers.
“When I came in the door, my father looked at my face and said, “What on
earth happened?” I sat down at the
kitchen table and said, “Dad, something has happened to Billy Graham. The world is going to hear from this man.””
You might say, “But that was Billy Graham, I’m just me …”
Illustration
China: how 12-year-old Li rescued 3,000 miners
As another wave of persecution swept through China
in the 1950’s, pastor Li was arrested in the southern province Guangdong.
He was convicted of “counter-revolutionary activities” and sentenced to work in
an iron ore mine in farthest north-eastern China.
Li’s wife and five children, including a new-born baby, had no other means of
support; they decided to join pastor Li on his 2,000-mile journey to
Heilongjiang, where they would perhaps be able to visit him occasionally, and
would be close by should he be miraculously released. They sold everything they
owned and bought tickets for the week-long rail journey. When they arrived, they
used old boards and a tarpaulin to build a rickety hut on the road to the labor
camp. Pastor Li worked as a slave for 14 hours every day, with miserable food,
in temperatures well below freezing. He died after three months. When the
family heard the news, they were desperate and deeply depressed. His wife saw
no future, and wanted to die. She neglected the children terribly. Finally, she
told the children that she would have to look for a job. The eldest daughter
said “No, mother, you cannot go to work. The baby needs you. He cries for you
the whole day long. I will go to work.” The 12-year-old girl went to the
Director of the labor camp, and told him “My father was sent to this
God-forsaken place because of his love for Jesus Christ. That was his only crime.
He was a good man, who loved people and helped them. Now he is dead, and we
have no food, no money and no place to live. We can’t even return to the south.
I would like to know whether there is some work I could do in the camp.” The
Director remembered pastor Li, and recognized the girl as his daughter. He gave
in to the tiny glimmer of compassion in his heart, and said “I have a job for
you, but it is boring, and pays badly.” She took the job immediately.
The Director took her to the place where 3,000 prisoners worked in the iron
ore mine. He asked her “Do you see that red button? Your job is to stand next
to the button all day, and if someone tells you to press it, you must do so
immediately. That is the alarm button, which sets off a siren deep underground.
When they hear the siren, the miners get out as fast as they can. You must
never press the button by accident, but only when one of us tells you to.” So
little Sister Li stood next to the button day for day, week for week. She and
her family were overjoyed when she was paid for the first time, although it was
only a few dollars. One afternoon, she suddenly heard a voice saying “Press the
button!” She turned around, trying to find out who had spoken, but there was
nobody there. She heard the same voice again a few moments later, saying
“Quickly! Press the button, now!” There was still nobody to be seen, and she
started to think she was losing her mind. She should only press the button in
an emergency, and everything looked normal. Seconds later, she heard the voice
again, saying “Sister Li, press the button, now!” with great urgency. Only then
did she realize that it was her Lord speaking to her. She did not understand
why she should press the button, but she knew she had to obey. The siren
sounded, and 3,000 men came up to the surface as fast as they could, confused
and curious to find out what had happened. The Director came running out of his
office, demanding to know why she had pressed the button. Only a few moments
after the last prisoner had left the mine, the area was shaken by a large
earthquake. The whole mine collapsed, and nobody has been able to return to it
to this day. An eerie silence spread when the earthquake was over, everyone
looking at the fragile figure who had pressed the red button. Finally, the
Director managed to ask “Comrade Li, how... how did you know that you had to
press the red button?” Li answered as loud as she could, saying “The Lord Jesus
Christ told me to press the red button. He told me three times before I did it.
Jesus Christ is the only way you can come to know the true and living God. He
loves you, and has just demonstrated his love by saving your lives. You must
turn from your sins and give your lives to him!” All 3,000 prisoners and the
director knelt and prayed that Jesus would forgive them and come to live in
their hearts. (Source: Asia Harvest Newsletter #80, www.asiaharvest.org)
God wants to use each of us. The
power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to you and I.
Some may become great evangelists like Billy Graham.
Others of us might only push a button.
Some may lay a hand on a sick person and pray. Others might start by going out to coffee
with a friend and just listening.
God wants to work. Will you let Him? Will you yield yourself to Him?