The reason why is to show you that there is no such thing as a modern day apostle.
They don't exist.
And people like to go to Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12 and say, look, it says apostles
and prophets and teachers, teachers exist.
Yeah, but apostles don't anymore.
And we're going to show you why they don't exist, okay?
Now, why did God give the apostles this ability to be able to heal people?
Look at Mark 16 and verse 15.
Mark 16 is a parallel passage to Matthew 28 in regards to the Great Commission.
The difference is, is that Matthew 28 is to all believers.
Portions of Mark 16 is to all believers, but specifically, it's also referring to
the apostles.
Look what it says in verse 15, and he said unto them, go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall
be damned.
And these signs shall follow them that believe.
In my name shall they cast out devils and they shall speak with new tongues.
They shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt
them.
They shall lay hands on the sick and shall, and they shall recover.
Now let me stop right there.
You know what I want to do?
I want to go to these false apostles who say they're apostles and just bring them a
black mamba.
Bring them a cobra and say, so you're an apostle.
Man, great.
Just catch.
Catch.
And look, let it bite you because the apostle that I know, the apostle Paul, a viper jumped
out of the sticks, hung onto his arm and he just shook it off into the fire and he
didn't drop down dead.
You know why?
Because God gave him that special ability.
So because you're an apostle, let me go ahead and give you this cold king cobra,
this black mamba rattlesnake you choose, let it bite you and prove to us that you're
an apostle.
Cool.
Look at verse 19, it says, so then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received
up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God.
And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them.
And look what it says, and confirming the word with signs following.
You see, God was confirming their message based upon the signs that they're able
to do.
Because they're able to do these miraculous things that Jesus did, they're like, okay,
these guys were actually sent by God.
These guys are actually messengers of the Lord.
I mean, the viper bit his arm and he just shook it off like it was nothing.
You know, it's like, I do that to ants and stuff like that, but I ain't doing that
to no black mamba, viper, you know.
So what was the purpose of these abilities?
It was to confirm the word.
He said, well, and they'll say, well, yeah, but that's why we're doing it today,
is to confirm the word.
No, no, no.
The confirmation is already here.
We have all 66 books, faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God.
They did not have a canonized Bible at that time.
You know, the Bible, the New Testament was still being written during this time.
But now we have all 66 books.
Every miracle that we need is right here.
Look, if they don't believe what the Bible says, though one rose from the dead, they
will still not believe.
So they don't need some sort of special miracle or sign, you know, like the Jews
require a sign or whatnot.
No, they need the Bible.
Okay.
Now.