Miracles

Last week Mike preached on Jesus walking on water, and a few weeks ago was about Jesus feeding the 5000.

Those are 2 of the most significant events recorded in the Bible. Arguably 2 of Jesus’ most astounding miracles.

Then we come to these last 4 verses of chapter 6, and they almost seem to get lost behind these 2 powerful events. We’ve seen Jesus feed 5000 people and in the next section we see Him walking on water , and the we read this.

The New International Version Chapter 6

53 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. 54 As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. 55 They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

There isn’t a lot of detail there, but lets dive in and see what we can learn.

They land the boat in an area called Gennesaret, which you’ll see here on this map. The text is talking about this whole area, which consisted of multiple towns and cities.

A very fertile land, it likely supported a large population.

Jesus’ popularity, as a healer, is becoming widespread, as we see in verses, 54 and 55.

The New International Version Chapter 6

54 As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus.

People started recognizing Him immediately, and as soon as they saw Him, what did they do?

The New International Version Chapter 6

55 They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was

They went and started bringing all the sick in the region to Him to be healed. I’m guessing He travelled the region, because the text says they brought the sick to Him wherever they heard He was. It’s almost like they had people keeping tabs on Him and relaying messages from town to town about where He was and was going.

People were desperate to be healed, so much so that they begged Him to touch the edge of His Cloak. The word edge, in Greek is referring to tassels. Which God commanded Jewish men to wear in Deuteronomy 22:12

Deuteronomy 22:12 ESV

12 “You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.

and Numbers 15:37-39

Numbers 15:37–39 ESV

37 The Lord said to Moses, 38 “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. 39 And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after.

Just showing that Jesus kept even the smallest commands of God.

The text then tells us that all who touched it were healed.

It wasn’t the garment or the act of touching that healed them, it was the faith that Jesus could heal them that did.

Jesus heals people with different means, with touch, and with out, close up and from a distance, the point is it always comes from faith.

This little section of verses is a great way for Mark to wrap up Jesus’ time in Galilee. As we’ll see over the next few weeks Jesus is going to move on to other areas now.

Chapter 6 of Mark is primarily made up of the 2 huge miracles, Jesus feeding 5000 and walking on water. Ending in Jesus healing, what i would assume to be a large number of people in this on region.

To finish up this section of Mark i want to talk about miracles. Have you heard people say Jesus was a great teach, but i don’t know about the other stuff. Meaning the miracles or the super natural stuff. This brings into question Jesus’ divinity. Or have you heard someone say if they say God or a miracle right here right now they would believe. Well I want to try to answer the 3 questions.

What is a miracle?

Are the miracles recorded about Jesus in the Bible true?

Do miracles still happen today?

What is a Miracle?

From the Lexham Bible Dictionary.

An event that defies common expectations of behavior and subsequently is attributed to a superhuman agent; an occurrence that demonstrates God’s involvement in the course of human affairs.

Examples in the New Testament.

Jesus turns water to wine.

Jesus walks on water.

Jesus feeds over 5000 People.

Jesus calms a storm.

Jesus instantly heals the sick, brings sight to the blind, and makes the lame walk.

Miracles cannot be explained by science, because they are super natural events in a natural world. You cannot recreate or test these events, because they defy natural laws.

The source of a miracle has to be something or someone outside of the natural.

Next question: Are the miracles recorded about Jesus in the Bible true?

There are organizations and people that have been trying, to find the “historical Jesus” which many Christian historians do also. The difference is those seeking the historical Jesus automatically deny any miracles or supernatural events recorded in the Bible.

This is a dishonest approach to trying to determine if a historical event actually occurred. It would be like looking for the historical Abraham Lincoln but throwing out anything to do with his presidency, saying, i don’t believe he was ever a president. It’s a dishonest search for Abe Lincoln.

Eye witness testimony

What you much go by is the reliability of the eye witnesses that saw these events first hand or spoke to someone who saw them.The Gospels are just that eyewitness testimonies of people who either saw the miracles of Jesus or interviewed and recorded, the testimony of someone who saw those miracles.

Closeness of time to the events

You have to look at the closeness of when the texts were written to the event. 3 of the Gospels were written within 40 years of Jesus’ life, and on within 70 years. To short a time to make up and develop such an elaborate hoax, if it were one.

The authors staked their lives on it

People will die for something they whole heartedly believe in, but no one will die for what they know to be a lie. Tradition holds that all but one maybe 2 of the disciples were martyred, proclaiming what they saw, through imprisonment, torture and death. John was boiled alike in tar but survived. Through all this not a single person wavered in their faith. Then if it was a hoax who created the hoax? Not the disciples, because at least one of them would have caved but none did. If Jesus was crazy and created a hoax, it dies with Him on the cross and none of the Gospels get written.

Next Question: Do miracles still happen today?

I found a book called 50 modern day miracles. and some of the miracles told in that book are just amazing. I want to share one of them with you. The story of Patti G. Foster.

I waited patiently for the LORD; He turned to me and heardmy cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud andmire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place tostand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to ourGod. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD(Psalm 40:1-3).It happened at 6:45 in the evening during rush-hour traffic. This is when my life was changed forever. I was with three other women in a red Tahoe, on our way to our last Bible study meeting before taking a summer break. Envision this with me.I was sitting in the backseat behind the driver. We were all talking with one of the front seat passengers, Heather, a wonderful young lady who had just graduated from high school. She had just come from her senior trip to New York City.I had bought flowers for all the ladies in the Bible study. As we stopped at the intersection, I took off my seatbelt so I could turn and check on the flowers behind me. At that exact point, bam! The impact happened. A semi pulling a trailer full of cars going full-speed down the highway (70 mph, to be exact) rear-ended us with no warning. That’s when life changed.I was ejected out of the back—opposite side—of the Tahoe and thrown into the air. An eyewitness later told me, “When your body flew out of the vehicle, it was as if the hand of God came down to suspend you in the air right above the very SUV you had been thrown out of.” The eyewitness remembered seeing the Tahoe spinning beneath me.When it had stopped spinning and had gone out from beneath me, my body went down to the ground and across the highway. I was told by an RN, who had just finished her shift, that my body looked like a piece of laundry floating in the air.Cars and trucks were still zooming by us on the highway. And thankfully, one of the trucks pulled in front of my body to keep other vehicles from running over me. From what I’ve been told, I could have been run over time and time again.My body went into a coma as they air-flighted me to the nearest hospital. I remained in the coma for the next six weeks.Everything I have learned about what happened to me during those few weeks is from doctors, nurses, family, and friends. I was told that the doctors had to prepare my friends and family for the worst. They expected me to die. The doctors said, “Bodies can’t endure this kind of trauma. If she does live, she will be a persistent vegetable. She will never see out of her right eye again. She will never walk again. She will never have the use of her right arm. She will never be able to speak in complete sentences. Her personality will not be anything like it was before the wreck. She will barely be able to exist.”When I began to wake up from the coma, I was at Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation in downtown Dallas. Because of the continued severity of my condition, the staff secured me in one of the beds in room 307, “The Gwen Goddard Ward,” where the worst of the traumatic brain injury patients are admitted. All of us required 24-hour nursing care.At that time, I could not make any sort of connection with my own thoughts and emotions, let alone make a connection with others. But the Lord gave me a wonderful caretaker, a nurse I called “Mama Joan.” I began to trust her and to connect with her, something I was not supposed to be able to do because of the trauma. This connection was one of countless things I had to re-learn about myself, about others, about life.After some days and weeks had gone by, I began to learn how to connect with others by using nonverbal communication. This was the first language I learned after I began to wake up from my coma. I didn’t have any other way of communicating with others or the outside world. I had to learn how to communicate by reading the look in someone’s eyes, watching facial expressions, paying attention to the slightest of gestures, responding to tone of voice, and sensing the touch from another human being.I became like a toddler. I had to re-learn the ABCs, how to identify them, write them, and read them. I even had to learn how to walk again. I had to wear a “gait belt” that was woven into a vest that I wore over my t-shirt. I had to learn how to put one foot in front of the other and to keep going. There is one thing I never had to relearn, and that is the truth of Jesus. At one point, I did get to go to Heaven. I remember seeing the beautiful blues. It was gorgeous. Most of all, I remember the presence of Jesus coming up beside me and touching me. I never turned to look at Him. I never saw His face, but I remember His Presence. I knew He was with me every step of the way. “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you” (Heb. 13:5).I continue to make miraculous progress along my journey of recovery; however, there are still moments of darkness when the stressors of life become overwhelming. I know I will never be the same, but I am learning to cope with my new life. That is what you have to do after suffering from a traumatic brain injury—cope.When I get discouraged, I cope by talking to God and giving it to Him. He gives me passages of His Word to hold onto and not give up. Deuteronomy 31:6 from The Message Bible has helped me many a time when struggles have weighed me down: “Be strong. Take courage. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t give them a second thought because God, your God, is striding ahead of you. He is right there with you. He won’t let you down; He won’t leave you.” Hallelujah, I proclaim.God has blessed me as I learn to live again. I am walking again and talking again. I am now able to speak to others all around the world about that fateful night at 6:45 in the evening when my life was changed forever. I am able to tell others about the miracle of life and about how the Lord brought me through a deep, deep pit.Each day the Lord Jesus helps me and brings encouragement to my heart in some way through someone at some time. It’s very much like He showers my insides with, what I often refer to as Vitamin B-12…it gives strength to the heart. Sometimes it’s a smile or a phone call or even a note of encouragement. No matter how it’s packaged, I’ve learned that, oftentimes, the small things in life make the biggest difference. As I’m writing this paragraph, I’m remembering a deep truth that the apostle Paul taught us: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (2 Cor. 1:3-4).Though the evil one meant the wreck for evil and to harm me, God meant it for good, so that many lives would be saved (see Gen. 50:20). As long as I live, this miracle that started on June 18, 2002, lives on to my Father’s Glory.

The greatest part of that story is she is using, what was her worst time in her life, to bring glory to God.

A personal miracle happened in 2010. Though, it’s probably the hardest things that’s ever happened to me, it was a miracle never the less. Or daughter Isabella was diagnosed with a fatal birth defect, anencephaly. The doctor said it was the worst case he’d ever seen. Meaning that she likely wouldnt’ be born alive. Our prayer was of course complete healing, but we also prayed she would be born alive, so we could hold her and say good bye. She was born alive, against all odds, she lived for 3 minutes. Long enough for both of us to hold her and say good bye.

Though hard, and at the time i started hating and resenting God, it was a miracle. And that little, 3 minute miracle, 4 years later would help me find Jesus and saved my life. That is a miracle!

How many times have we heard stories of fatal diagnoses, that when the person goes in for surgery or treatment, it wasn’t nearly as bad as they thought. Was it the doctor’s mistake, the tests read wrong? I say miracle.

What about those who didn’t know how bills were going to get paid and some how money just shows up, or the money you had some how stretched just as far as it needed to go. I call that a miracle.

So, Yes miracles still happen today!

Miracles are God’s super natural intervention, in our natural lives.

To help us, sustain us, bless us and amaze us. And we should be pointing the glory back to Him.

There is one more miracle i want to talk about. It’s the single greatest miracle to ever. And that is The fact that Jesus came to earth, lived as one of us, died a criminals death on a cross and rose 3 days later.

If you don’t know Jesus we’d love to answer any questions you have and pray with you about that. But it really is simple, all you have to do is get on BASE with God. This acrostic came from Rick warren but i love how simple it is.

B- Believe

A-Admit

S-Surrender

E-Express

If you ready to make a decision or if you need prayer, we’ll be in the back ready to pray with you.

I want to leave you with this one last thought.

God still performs miracles, we just have to open our eyes to them.