Miracles

Here’s a joke that you might have heard before:

A deeply religious man was perched on his roof loudly praying while floodwaters licked at his feet. His pastor came by in a boat and said, “Get in!” The religious man replied, “No, I’m up here praying, and I know God will grant me a miracle.”

Later the water was up to his waist, and another boat floated by and that rescuer yelled for him to get in. The pray-er responded that God would answer his prayers and give him a miracle.

With the water chin high, a helicopter threw down a rope ladder and told him to climb to safety. He again turned down the offer. “My prayers will be answered.”

Finally he gulped his last breath and found himself at the gates of heaven. With broken faith he cried to St. Peter, “I thought God would grant me a miracle. He let me down.”

“I don’t know why you’re complaining.” St. Peter chuckled. “We sent you two boats and a helicopter.”

The guy missed the miracle because it wasn’t the miracle he wanted or expected.

I am going to take the next couple of weeks to preach on the topic of miracles. In a way, I’ve been studying this topic my whole life, but before I left for Africa this year, I concentrated my efforts on what a miracle is, does God still work in miracles, and how can I get in on them if He does.

A book I read during my trip was very helpful in my study.

ERIC Metaxes Book.

I encourage you to buy this book if you’re interested in learning more about miracles. I plan on using many thoughts, stories, and quotes from this book in these next few messages because I really found it practical and biblically based.

What is a Miracle?

Our minds might go to the big miracles in the Bible.

God speaking to Moses from the burning bush. Exodus 3

Jesus walking on Water. Matthew 14

Jesus healing the Sick.

Paul and Silas being set free from prison.

There are so many amazing stories in the Bible that we would consider miracles. But how would we define a miracle?

The Holman Bible Dictionary define miracles:

Miracles: Events which unmistakably involve an immediate and powerful action of God designed to reveal His character or purposes.

I like that definition because it reminds me of why Jesus operated in miracles.

Luke 7:21–23 CEV

21 At that time Jesus was healing many people who were sick or in pain or were troubled by evil spirits, and he was giving sight to a lot of blind people. 22 Jesus said to the messengers sent by John, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard. Blind people are now able to see, and the lame can walk. People who have leprosy are being healed, and the deaf can now hear. The dead are raised to life, and the poor are hearing the good news. 23 God will bless everyone who doesn’t reject me because of what I do.”

Jesus used miracles to prove that He was fulfilling the prophecies about the Messiah from Isaiah 29 and 35. The miracles of Jesus involved powerful action that could only come from God. These miracles revealed His character and purpose.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to see Jesus doing these amazing things? What if you were there in person and you got to see blind people see, lame people walk, leprosy healed, and deaf people suddenly able to hear - would you believe in Jesus as the Son of God?

Not everyone believed in Jesus during His time on earth, although they saw His miracles and heard His teaching. Many did believe — but others didn’t, and some of them even turned against Him and urged the authorities to put Him to death.

Why didn’t they believe? They SAW the miracles! Well, it’s the same reason some people today don’t believe, although they’ve heard the Bible’s message that God loves them, and that Christ died to give them new life, both now and forever. The problem is inside of us — in the stubbornness of our hearts and wills. We want to run our own lives — and we know that if we yield ourselves to Christ, we can’t keep on living the way we once did. Like the rebellious men in one of Jesus’ parables, we say,

Luke 19:14 CEV

14 But the people of his country hated him, and they sent messengers to the foreign country to say, “We don’t want this man to be our king.”

In reality, of course, people today come up with all kinds of excuses not to believe in Jesus or yield their lives to Him — just as they did in Jesus’ time. Pride . . . a particular sin . . . doubt . . . peer pressure . . . these and countless other excuses keep Jesus out of our lives. But it doesn’t have to be that way, because He alone offers us lasting hope in the midst of a world of despair and sin.

Don’t let these things — or anything else — keep you from Christ. Instead, realize who He is and what He has done for you by His death and resurrection.

I’m convinced that miracles alone won’t convince anyone to accept Jesus. Yes, they can reveal the truth of God’s character or purpose, but proof doesn’t always convince people who refuse the truth.

Here’s a quick question:

Can a “Smart” person believe in miracles?

Science is for smart non-religious people who don’t operate in faith - they operate in facts, right?

WRONG! There are facts in science that have been proven, but there are still many unknown things that science guesses about and even accepts as fact.

The miracle of our universe explained by science takes more faith than believing God created everything! Science teaches that the universe came into being by chance from nothing via the Big Bang. Fourteen billing years ago nothing collided with nothing and all matter in the known universe - over one hundred billion galaxies, each of which contains hundreds of billions of stars and many more planets, exploded out of nothing.

For me, I CHOOSE to believe God was behind creation. However it happened, I believe God was behind it all. This takes faith. I can’t explain how it happened other than the Biblical account, but I believe and trust that God is the creator.

I bet everyone in this room believes God created the entire universe. Christians in general believe that God created everything.

What an accomplishment. If God can create all that we can see or know, how powerful must He be? It’s hard to even consider His greatness. We are like the write of this Psalm:

Psalm 145:1–3 NLT

1 I will exalt you, my God and King, and praise your name forever and ever. 2 I will praise you every day; yes, I will praise you forever. 3 Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure his greatness.

No one can measure his greatness! Wow, God is amazing.

Now, even with the evidence of how great God is, I’ve heard great teachers and preachers say something like this:

The miracles of God stopped at the end of the book of Acts. I have a problem with this for many reasons, the first and foremost being that we are STILL in the book of Acts! Did Jesus return for His church? I don’t think so…which means the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that empowered the church is the same authority in which we are to be operating today.

The mandate of the church has not changed. WE are the church.

To say that God created the entire universe, but for some reason He is now unable to reveal His character and purposes now through small miracles seems illogical.

Think about it this way:

We’ve all probably had to read the book, “To kill a mocking bird” by Harper Lee. Not to believe the creator of the universe has the power to perform a small miracle would be like saying, “Oh, yes, I believe that Harper Lee could write the manuscript for To kill a mocking bird, and that she did, but I could never believe she’d be able to place the commas where she wanted to in the manuscript.”

If God actually created this universe, can we not believe He would be able to do almost anything else? Logically, we’d have to believe He can do ANYTHING He wants to do.

Smart people can believe in miracles because they can believe in God. God can do whatever He wants to do - even miracles.

Are there Miracles NOT from God?

Matthew 24:24 CEV

24 False messiahs and false prophets will come and work great miracles and signs. They will even try to fool God’s chosen ones.

Jesus warned us that with everything that is good, the devil has a counterfeit version available to deceive people. Remember this truth:

2 Corinthians 11:14 CEV

14 And it is no wonder. Even Satan tries to make himself look like an angel of light.

We have to be very careful to examine what seem to be miracles.

If we believe that God can do anything, what’s to stop us from believing that He does EVERYTHING?

In his book, Eric Metaxas refers to something called “Disney Theology” that says “Believe” in everything with childlike wonder.

Can you remember the first time your grandpa pulled a coin from your ear? What a miracle! Well, not really. It was just a trick! But as a kid, it was a miracle.

If we aren’t careful with what we believe in, we will end up believing in anything. To believe anything is to open ourselves up to potential nonsense, and even to things that will be harmful to our faith and to the faith of others.

It’s one thing for a child to believe in the tooth fairy, but for an adult to believe in the tooth fairy? YIKES! We’d have them committed! At some point we must know the truth. We must seek the truth. We’ve got to grow up and learn to be able to distinguish what is real and what is imaginary.

So, when we think about miracles, it’s ok to ask questions. It’s ok to think critically. We don’t have to accept every story. Facts matter.

The first way we can determine if a miracle has happened is to ask a simple question. Did it do what a miracle should do?

The greek word for Miracle in the new testament is “semeion” which means signs. That’s what a miracle is - it’s a sign.

Now, a sign is never about themselves. Think of a stop sign. When you see a stop sign do you say, “I’m so proud of that sign, it’s doing what it says, it stopped right there in the ground!”? No, you know that when you see a stop sign, it means that you are supposed to stop. It tells you something more. It points you to a conclusion.

Miracles are the same way. They point us to something beyond the miracle itself. They point us to God. It speaks to the character of God. It can be confirmed with the Bible, which is the basis of all truth concerning God.

Let me give you an example. I once attended a miracle service where the ministry was praying and told everything that God was sending ACTUAL gold dust to fall on everyone who could lift their hands in the air. Well, I lifted up my hands, and let’s just say, I didn’t have to wear gloves the rest of my life to cover the gold dust on my hands.

In what way was that pointing to the character and purposes of God? I’m still trying to figure it out!

Let’s look at the Bible:

Exodus 3:20–21 CEV

20 So I will use my mighty power to perform all kinds of miracles and strike down the Egyptians. Then the king will send you away. 21 After I punish the Egyptians, they will be so afraid of you that they will give you anything you want. You are my people, and I will let you take many things with you when you leave the land of Egypt.

Why did God perform the miracles? To reveal His character and purpose. He fulfilled a promise to people and showed them how to proceed.

There are no miracles that aren’t from God because by definition, miracle point us TO God. So called “miracles” produced by false prophets or like Jesus warned us about are counterfeit because they lead people AWAY from God.

Miracles are for a purpose and that purpose is to confirm the Word of God.

Why do Miracles still happen?

It seems to me that if God created our reality, sometimes in order to get our attention, He does something completely contrary to reality to startle us and get our attention.

Think about Jesus. In particular, the resurrection of Jesus. This is a miracle that is FAR outside the normalcy of our reality. Jesus was dead. Rising from the dead is still an impossibility in the reality that I live in. People in Jesus’ day didn’t rise from the dead. And just in case you didn’t know, people in our day don’t rise from the dead!

And yet, we have irrefutable evidence that Jesus did in fact rise from the dead. We base our entire salvation on this fact. It was a miracle.

Why did it have to be that way? It was so out the ordinary that even the skeptics had to believe it could only happen if God was involved.

In the old testament we read about the parting of the Red Sea. Another example of something that happened that was so far outside the ordinary that it could have only been from God. If the red sea had a history of parting from time to time, then it wouldn’t have been a miracle.

God could have saved the children of Israel in a million other ways. But he chose the impossible. Why? He parted the red sea to communicate something to the people. He wanted them to know Him. His nature. His ability.

Miracles are only miracles is they point us back to God and they communicate something to us about God.

God does still perform miracles today. They reveal His Glory.

You are a product of the miracle of Salvation. God changed your heart when you surrendered to Christ. Salvation points us back to God and communicates to the world that if God can reach you then He can reach them! You’re a walking miracle!

We should expect the miraculous because God wants us to know Him. The people we read about in the Bible who experienced the miraculous did so because the perceived the miracle was from God. The recognized that something was out of the ordinary. Jesus rising from the grave was not the norm. The parting of the red sea was not normal. They had to examine those things and when they understood they revealed God’s character and purposes then they perceived they were miracles.

In your life, God is working. There are a million miracles happening to get you to where God wants you to go. The question is whether or not you perceive them?