Joel Littlefield

The following is what I currently believe about sign gifts. By no means is this to be considered an exhaustive study of the subject. I hold it confidently, and carefully. I’m always learning.

I was reading Mark 16 today in preparation for our small group discussions on the resurrection, and noticed this text at the end.

“So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.” (Mark 16:19-20)

Faith “Healers”

Entire ministries are wrongfully built around signs and miracles. People crave immediate and impressive results, and will do almost anything to get it. Studies have been done to show that the body can respond in peculiar ways when the environment is just right. When the visibly miraculous is pushed hard, the needy and desperate, along with the unaware and naïve, can experience a surge of strength or “healing” simply due to endorphin levels. The environment is one of expectation, but I think it is misdirected expectation. Think of placebo “medicines” and “surgeries”. So-called faith healers caught on at some point, and are taking advantage.

Jesus did not tell us to have ministries built around the sign gifts.

The Context

Take a look at that text in Mark again. Jesus had just given the great commission. He told them that they would do many great miracles in His name. This was true. Then He ascended, and the Holy Spirit came. The signs mentioned here were unique to them. They’re not for us. Not in the same way anyway. That’s the context. The message was still new.

After the death of the final Apostle in the first century, the uniqueness and the intensity of the signs ceased. God can still work any sign He wishes. He’s God. We should give Him the glory for all that He does, whether seemingly mundane, or miraculous. The change that took place after the Apostles died left no amount of disadvantage for Christians in the centuries that followed. We still have the Spirit of the Lord. We have the preaching of the finished work of Christ, the record of the Apostle’s (their signs and wonders), and their bold obedience written for us in the completed Canon of Scripture. Additionally, one cannot deny that the persecuted Church has inspired hope through the ages as a sign that Christ is real, gives eternal life, and the courage to endure suffering for the promise of the life beyond this one.

What Signs Do We Have?

As with the Apostles, the Lord is still working through His Church. The signs that accompany our message are strong and no less wonderful. We look for repentance from sin. We preach Christ to sinners by the power of God and look for the confession of faith in our Lord, Jesus. We have the public sign and witness of the baptism of believers by submersion, and the sign of His death in the bread and wine. These did not pass with the Apostles.

We have plenty to go on. May there be no sign to accompany your mission that is greater than the miraculous saving power of God to forgive sinners through the “foolishness” of the message preached. Keep going, brothers and sisters.

“Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1 Corinthians 1:22-25)

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