What's a miracle?
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
My name is Jamie, I am one of the pastor here at REVO
I am so glad you guys decided to come and hangout with us
We are continuing in our series “When Pigs Fly” looking at the miracles of Jesus
Before we dive into the Word lets pray
Pray
Pray
Setting the scene
Setting the scene
On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal.
This is near the start of Jesus’ ministry and we see a few key things here
The first thing we see is that He was gaining in popularity
Rather that be because people were hearing Jesus’ miracles, or because they respected His teachings He was gaining a following
In verse 17 it tells us that they came from all across the village and land to come and hear Jesus
Another interesting thing we see here is that the people that came to hear Jesus was the Pharisees and teachers of the Law
If you know about the life of Jesus you know that these religious leaders were more times than not the ones that opposed Jesus’ ministry
They were the ones that were constantly fighting Jesus and what Jesus as trying to do
Jesus often said “He came to seek and save the Lost” - yet he was surrounded by those who we would think are not lost
The Pharisees knew the OT, they were the priests and teachers, and they were the ones that were crowding around Jesus
Which brings us to our last that we see Luke includes here in verse 17
“the power of the Lord was with him to heal”
This is interesting because this phrase is only common in Luke’s Gospel
The word he is using is the Greek word dynamis which refers to Spiritual ability
Furthermore, Luke is also referring to the power of the Lord - Greek word Kurios
In almost every occurrence of the word Kurios Luke is referring to Jesus as Lord, but here it is more vague - is he referring to Jesus, or the Lord (God the Father)
You put these two Greek words together and I think Luke is trying to teach us something in the very beginning of this passage
Something that is very important that will potentially shake the faith of not only the people that are in the room at the time, but also of every reader of his gospel
Enter the friends
Enter the friends
And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus,
Luke then after setting the scene of Jesus in a house teaching moves to focus on a different group of people
Luke doesn’t give these guys names, but simply calls them “some men”
These men saw a man paralyzed and decided to bring him to Jesus to be healed
For whatever reason they heard of Jesus’ miracles, heard of His teachings, maybe even saw a miracle Jesus performed and decided that they would help this man get healed
See the men saw a need and commited to fixing it
They saw a broken man who is hurting and commited to help him
Oh church what would we look like if we were like these guys
What would happen to our church and our city if we started to act like these men
Because look at what they did
but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus.
These men, knowing how important Jesus was, said we must get him to Jesus no matter what!
This story is mentioned in the book of Mark where Mark tells us that the house was so packed that no one could get in
Because of this the men that were taking the paralyzed man to Jesus had to get creative with it
They climbed onto the roof of the house and started to tear the roof of this place just to get that man to Jesus!
They did everything they could just so that man could be in the presence of Jesus and be healed by Jesus
Church here’s the first thing we need to know about miracles
JESUS NEEDS TO BE THE GOAL
For these men they were willing to do anything to get their friend to Jesus
They were willing to destroy roofs just to get him to Jesus
They were willing to deface property, to break every social norm just to get their friend to Jesus!
In hopes of a miracle!
Church here is what I believe we do so often
Something bad happens, an illness, or a tragedy or some unforeseen thing and we start going to God
We start praying that the Lord would help us, that the Lord would heal the situation, that things would change in our life
And don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with that - But we start to make the main thing the healing, the miracle, the saving, and not Jesus
We start to make the miracle that God does for us the thing of our worship, not the God that does the miracle.
We want a genie god. You know, one that when things are going bad you can rub the lamp, and poof he appears!
We tell him the things that we are dealing with, what we need to be fixed or changed, he does that, and then poof he is gone. We go back to our normal life
That is the god that so many of us want!
Newsflash - that is not our God! That is not Jehovah God, that is a false ideal that you’ve been led to believe!
Our God can heal, but He doesn’t have to!
Our God can save, but He doesn’t have to
Our God can change the tragedy, but He doesn’t have to!
Why does He not have to?
Paul tells us
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
God is working things out for good!
The good for His children, may not always be a healing, or a miracle
The good, may be a death, a sickness, a tragedy that brings you closer to God
The good may be a healing, a saving, a rescuing out of a tragedy
We need to realize just as these men did, that Jesus can save, and do miracles - BUT the main thing is Jesus
The main thing is our worship of the God that can, not on the worship of the thing God did
The miracle
The miracle
20 And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”
Praise God!
Hallelujah!
Jesus looked at this man, and the faith that he had, and the friends had, and performed a miracle!
He healed that man!
No the man can’t walk, but He is healed of the far serious spiritual aliment that is running rampant on the man
His sins are forgiven!
The miracle that the men carrying the mat were praying for has happened!
The miracle that the man on the mat that can’t walk has happened!
His life has been changed!
He is no longer seen as an enemy of God, now a child of the Most High!
He is now no longer a slave to sin, but is now free in Christ in Christ!
Angels are bursting in song as another person’s life is changed and they are following Jesus!
Are you not happy?
Is this not the miracle we want?
Is this the miracle that we are praying for? That God would save?
This is after all what Jesus’ mission was on earth
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
So why are we not shouting for praise?
Why are we not so excited?
This leads to the second thing on miracles
JESUS’ SAVING IS THE MIRACLE
The most important miracle that Jesus has ever done, or ever will do is not one of healing, but is one of saving!
The most important miracle Jesus will ever do is one of changing a dead man, into a free man by His power and death on the cross
By looking at death and saying “no no no - this one is mine”
By changing us from enemies who are deserving of God’s wrath, to friends of God
Jesus saw this man’s faith and said “your sins are forgiven”
What a blessing
Charles Spurgeon - one of the greatest pastors of all time said it best
The greatest of all miracles is the salvation of a soul.
Charles Spurgeon
Yet we don’t see it that way
For some reason we don’t see God’s saving a man as a miracle
We don’t see the radical change in a child from death to life as a miracle, we only see the cancer survivor who was given a terminal outlook, but then radically there was no cancer found in her as a miracle
We don’t see the sinner, who has been struggling with addictions, finally accepting Jesus as the miracle! We don’t see the man who is now following Jesus and trying to be the head of his family as a miracle
Church we need to change our perspective! We need to change what we see as a miracle!
So often we think that miracles don’t happen because the only way we see miracles is by a healing, by a miraculous thing, but we miss the miraculous things that God is doing every time a sinner is saved by His grace
God is performing miracles every day, we have just closed our eyes to what He is doing!
The pharisees aka the church
The pharisees aka the church
21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
The Pharisees, the religious leaders saw this and doubted the man
They doubted Jesus
They doubted the miracle that had just took place
They questioned is this really God?
They said he speaks blasphemies - He claims to be God, but he is a prophet, he is a man, he is not God
They missed who Jesus was
Look at how He responded
22 When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?
Jesus perceives their thoughts - He knows what you’re thinking
He knows your motives
And said to them - which is easier, forgiving sins, or rising and walking?
Is forgiveness of sins hard?
Think of what Jesus has to do to forgive sins
The pain He goes through, the punishment He endures
The cross was no easy feat, and that was so that sins can be forgive
The “rise and walk” that is easy
God/Jesus created the body, formed it, knows every detail of it
13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
He knows how every piece works and how to make it back right
To God, the human body is nothing more than piece of IKEA furniture that just has a piece put in wrong, all He has to do is move the one piece and it all works
Sin however, that takes death. That takes sacrifice, that takes something paying the penalty for it.
When Jesus looks at them and says which is easier, forgiveness, or healing he is asking which is more important?
That leads to our third thing about miracles
DO YOU VALUE JESUS’ MIRACLES?
For the Pharisees the answer was no
They didn’t believe that Jesus could forgive sins, they didn’t see forgiving sins as a miracle that is worthwhile and they even claimed Jesus’ was blaspheming for it
But what about us?
Miracles are a hard thing to talk about, because we so often only believe that a miracle is a miracle if some healing has been done
I think Jesus’ question belongs to us as well - which is easier?
Which is more important?
A physical healing is great - sickness being overcome, death being denied this time, a tragedy being taken away
But Jesus asks which is easier? Which is more important?
Sickness may be taken away through healing, but what about the eternal situation of the soul?
What about the reality of how you are a person worthy and deserving of God’s full wrath without Jesus?
What then?
Do we value the miracle that Jesus performs?
But that you may know
But that you may know
24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” 25 And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. 26 And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”
Jesus then performs the miracle that the crowd expected
He heals the man of his paralysis and allows him to walk out of the house - praising and glorifying God