Mark 16:14-18
(14) Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.
(15) And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
(16) He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
(17) And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
(18) 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 they shall recover.
Mark 16 is the first time the English word “tongues” occurs in the New Testament. I would like for you to notice that there are several other miraculous gifts that were to accompany tongues. They are:
1. cast out devils
2. take up serpents
3. if they drink any deadly thing (poison), it shall not hurt them
4. lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover
So far as I know, there is no record of anyone drinking poison in the Bible. But there are plenty of examples of “casting out devils” and “laying hands on the sick.” There is an example of the final sign occurring in the book of Acts. The situation took place very near the end of the Acts Period (33AD-64AD(?)) shortly before Israel was set aside and the Temple in Jerusalem was burned to the ground. Paul was ship wrecked on an island in the Mediterranean Sea called Melita (Acts 28:1). It was cold and raining so to warm him and the others in is company the locals build a fire (Act 28:2). Acts 28:3-5 reads: “And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper (venomous snake) out of the heat, and fastened on his hand…And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm.” This snake was so deadly that the local inhabitants, “were waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after waiting for a long time and not seeing anything unusual happening to him, they changed their minds and said, "He is a god!"” (Acts 28:6, GNB) He survived being bitten by a poisonous serpent just as Jesus had said! In fact Paul lived until he was martyred perhaps by Nero shortly after the burning of Rome.
I have always wondered why people who promote speaking in tongues as some sort of “spiritual language” aren’t consistent and also promote getting snake bite as “proof” that they are among the initiated few. I would like to ask them why it is that in all that Paul wrote AFTER the end of the Acts Period, there is not one word about any of the sign gifts, indenitifed in Mark 16, mentioned. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that “the Jews require a sign…” (1Co 1:22) and after the end of the Acts Period, God set Israel (the Jews) aside and took away their most favored nation status. They are no longer “above all people” (Exo 19:5). In their place He created the “one new man” of Ephesians (Eph 2:15); “The church which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Eph 1:23). As “members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones” (Eph. 5:30), this church, unlike any before it, has been “raised…up together, and made…[to] sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6). While the church of the Acts Period had only the Mark 16 sign gifts “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” has blessed the Church of the Mystery “with all spiritual blessings (lit. every blessing that is spiritual)in heavenly places in Christ!” (Eph 1:3)
Why anyone would be satisfied with Israel’s earthly blessings is beyond me. I am thankful that, “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall… [we] also appear with him in glory.” (Col 3:4) The church of the Acts Period had no such hope!
Selah – meditate on this.
Allen