THE MYSTERY OF MIRACLES
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Transcript
THE MYSTERY OF MIRACLES
THE MYSTERY OF MIRACLES
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
The modern academic opinion of the miracle stories in the Bible is that they simply did not happen.
Some say these accounts were interpolated upon the Gospel stories in order to bring them into accord with pagan religions.
The scenario runs like this:
There was a certain teacher of righteousness, perhaps named Jesus, or perhaps anonymous. A diary of sorts was written of his wise sayings, some of which were original and some of which were merely the distillation of the wisdom of his day.
He acquired a following, and after his death - which just might have by execution, even by crucifixion, an aura, a mystique, grew about his memory. This gradually worked itself into the diary, or source book, which later, perhaps around 200 A. D. , became one of the Gospel accounts.
Other gospels were written from teh first one and at last we have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the collection of the fables of the Christian religion.
Some scientists believe that all observable data discredit any belief in the supernatural.
Some Philosophers say Christianity is an umbilical that needs to be cut.
Even some ministers have abdicated the position of faith in a divine Christ.
A. T. Robertson said, “If we are really honest to God, we must admit that there is no evidence of God.”
Altizer & Hamilton said flatly, “God is Dead.”
One wonders how such intelligent individuals can see nothing of wonder and awe just in creation itself.
But on the other side, some of America’s bravest men, her astronauts, found the voyage to the vicinity of the moon to be life changing.
In the article in Time Magazine, several years ago, entitled “God, Moon, and Apollo,” these men had succinct and meaningful comments to make.
One declared, “There is somebody bigger than all of us.”
Another came back to earth to become a preacher.
And another declared that the experience had a profound effect on his philosophical outlook.
And still, one more said his intense search for Truth, with a capital T, began while he was on the moon.
The names Cernan, Aldrin, Mitchell, Erwin and Bean, became household names.
In Matthew 6:28 Jesus said,:
And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
He also said, “Your heavenly Father clothes the grass of the field.”
In verse 26, He said, “Consider the fowls of the air,” and then said, “Your heavenly Father feedeth them.”
In 5:45, He said that, “He maketh His sun to rise on the good and on the evil, and maketh the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.”
These allegedly common earthly processes - lilies growing, birds eating, the sun rising, and the rain falling - may not be so common and explainable after all.
Jesus said the creator was involved in a direct way - clothing, feeding, making to shine, and making to fall.
The great error of many modern intellectuals is to suppose that to name a process is to account for it.
Thus we have such terms as “photosynthesis, meiosis, mitosis, gravity, rotation of the earth, revolution around the sun.” and so on and on, as though to describe and name the process is to give account for it.
Not to take anything away from the modern biologist or astronomer or physicist, but Jesus said, in effect, there is a mystery here.
There is something unaccounted for.
Something which cannot be fully accounted for.
Here God is at work.
Those who consider the miracle stories of the Gospels as fables, or as mere interpolations upon a diary of a “teacher of righteousness”, have missed something unique, mysterious, awesome, and wonderful.
There was a world of difference between the miracles of Jesus and the fanciful tales of Grimm and Aesop.
In those tales men become wolves, trees talk, witches fly, and the gingerbread men come to life and run.
Not so with the miracles of our Lord.
They were a demonstration at a faster speed of what He has done, is doing all the time, or is eventually going to do.
Water into Wine
Water into Wine
Just look at the beginning of Jesus’ miracles - His changing water into wine at Cana of Galilee.
Some might see this as a cheap trick, sleight of hand.
Perhaps, but it is recorded in the Word of God that they filled water pots with water and it became wine.
In some ways, perhaps, the pagans were closer to the truth than the moderns.
They at least honored the god Bacchus, the god of pleasure, for taking air, water, earth, and seed and producing the fruit of the vine.
They saw something unexplainable about the process,
something worthy of awe and worship.
They were not blinded by such biological terms as germination.
But by doing the miracles quickly, instantly, Jesus Christ was showing at a different speed what He has done, or what He is doing all the time.
He was the creator who said, “Let the earth bring forth,” and it brought forth.
He was the power, the divine power, behind every vineyard and orchard on the earth.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
John said about Christ, that “all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.”
Bread and Fish
Bread and Fish
In Decapolis, He multiplied bread and fish - a boy’s lunch - and fed 5,000 men, besides the women and children.
Just what happened?
A miracle took place quickly and instantly. The same miracle that is taking place all over the world, during the earth’s growing seasons. The God of heaven, who was manifest in the flesh of Jesus Christ, is causing the lilies to grow, as well as the barley, the grains of wheat, the corn, the rye, the potatoes, and beans. In Decapolis, it was the Creator on earth, doing it quickly.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
The pagans said it was Adonis, the corn King.
The moderns say it is photosynthesis.
But Jesus showed that He was the power behind every blade of grass and sprout on the earth!
Withered Arm
Withered Arm
In the synogogue, He discovered a man with a withered arm. He called him forth and said, “Stretch forth your hand.”
The people gasped when they discovered the man’s withered arm was exactly like his good arm.
The Bible says it was “whole as the other.”.
Why?
Because the one who formed the good arm made the other well.
Because the God who formed Adam form the dust of the earth, carefully fashioned his body in the form that He himself would later occupy!
Blind
Blind
In John 9, a blind man from birth found the Lord Jesus Christ.
When asked why this man was blind, Jesus said, “…that the works of God should be manifest in him.”
Jesus spat on the ground and made clay, and placed it on the man’s eyes and said, “Go wash.” The Bible says, “he went his way, therefore, and washed, and came seeing.”
Why?
Jesus Christ was demonstrating quickly, that he was the one who fashioned the eyes of the first man, Adam.
He also demonstrated that He is the One behind every healing wound on earth.
Finally, two chapters further along in John, chapter 11, Jesus faced the ultimate test - a dead corpse, dead four days; and an unbelieving and critical group of mourning family and friends.
Did you ever try to make a corpse get well?
He spoke, “Lazarus, come forth”
Then as though someone had taken a film and ran it backwards....
The cells and fiber returned to their original places.
The heart began to beat
The chest began to rise....
The one who breathed life into Adam...
By the one whose hand, my breath and your breath is this day.
By the one who will one day command from heaven, with a shout, the dead to rise out of their graves, to meet the Lord in the air....
There is no mystery here.
The Lord is able to bring your body forth from the tomb.
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
We are dealing with the God of heaven, manifest in the flesh!
