Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
March 9, 2022: SOAP #4479:  Deuteronomy 10-12; Mark 16

SCRIPTURE:  Mark (NIV) 16:19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.  20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

OBSERVATION: The ministry of Jesus was a teaching ministry that was confirmed by the signs and wonders he performed.  People might deny the truth of His teaching, but they could not deny the miraculous healings. 

Here at the end of the book, Mark speaks of His (Jesus) leaving AND His continued ministry through the disciples.  The confirmation that the disciples were doing God’s work was “the signs that accompanied it.”  It was the same confirmation that accompanied Jesus’ ministry. 

APPLICATION: The same Holy Spirit that descended on Jesus at His water baptism was the same Holy Spirit that descended on the disciples un the upper room on the day of Pentecost.  The Spirit-anointed ministry of Jesus continued in the disciples.

That same Holy Spirit came to live within me when I accepted Jesus as my Savior.  It was the same Holy Spirit that overflowed my life when I was baptized in the Spirit.  At salvation, the Spirit comes to live within me.  I contain the Spirit.  He goes where I go, He is my ever-present Comforter.  When I was baptized, I entered the life of the Spirit.  He contained me!  I go where He leads, say what He gives me, and do what He directs. 

(Salvation is like a jar being filled with water.  The jar contains the water.  Baptism is like the jar being thrown into the ocean.  The water contains the jar!  The jar now moves at the influence of the currents in the water.)

PRAYER:  Holy Spirit, thank you for revealing Jesus to me. I want you to flow through me as you did through Jesus on this earth.  As Jesus did, I want to live in the ever-flowing current of the ocean of your presence.  Amen.

Pastor Leon
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