Basic Bible Doctrines - Miracles

Introduction:

We use the word “miracle” in a variety of ways.

My favorite types of movies are inspirational sports stories. My all-time favorite movie is an interesting one for me: Miracle. It’s a hockey movie… And I don’t even particularly care about hockey.

In the 1980 Winter Olympics, the US Ice Hockey team defeated the superior Soviet team, which led Al Michaels (who called the game for ABC television) to ask the viewers, “Do you believe in miracles?”

Humanity is drawn to the miraculous. We love magic shows, last second half-court heaves, and a Jr. High boy who cleans his room.

How would you define miracle?

Key Truth:

Definition:

A miracle is an event in which God makes an exception to the natural order of things, or supersedes natural laws, for the purpose of demonstrating His glory and/or validating His message. — The Gospel Project

What is a miracle? A miracle is something God does that usually cannot be done so that we can know He is all-powerful. — Kids Big Picture Question (starting this week)

Psalm 77:14 KJV 1900

14 Thou art the God that doest wonders: Thou hast declared thy strength among the people.

God has all power; He can do all things according to His character. When we think of God’s miracles, it will be helpful to know this truth. Throughout the Bible, God displayed His great power by doing things that usually cannot be done. Every time God performed a miracle, people knew who deserved the praise. Only God can perform such wonderful acts!

We must agree with and understand this truth about God before entering our study of miracles. God is all-powerful. There is no one who can exceed God’s power. God is all-powerful: there is nothing God cannot do so long as it does not contradict His own nature or law.

Purpose:

to demonstrate His glory or to validate His message.

Miracles glorify God by putting His power on display.

Think about the way that people responded to the Acts of the apostles as they proclaimed the gospel. The result was that people believed and glorified God. The same is true of the miracles we see in the Old Testament, such as the parting of the Red Sea.

Miracles glorify God by confirming the truth of His message and the trustworthiness of His messengers.

Who are His messengers? Who is able to perform miracles?

The sign gifts were uniquely given to the Apostles as a confirmation of their Apostleship and as a means by which direct revelation would be given to them, the church, until the canon of Scripture was completed.

Luke 9:1–6 KJV 1900

1 Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. 2 And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. 3 And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece. 4 And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide, and thence depart. 5 And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them. 6 And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where.

Do miracles continue today?

As a cessationist I believe God still heals and does miracles today. I pray for the healing of the sick and believe God can do so miraculously. Simply, believers today don’t have the gifts of doing/performing miracles and healing.

1 Corinthians 12:1–11 KJV 1900

1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. 2 Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. 3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. 4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. 8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: 11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

1 Corinthians 13:8–13 KJV 1900

8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Who can perform miracles?

None of us has authority to heal a body, only the Creator does (Acts 3:12–13 “12 And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? 13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.”).

Key Examples:

Examples of Miracles in the Old Testament:

What are some examples of miracles in the Old Testament?

The Old Testament designates certain extraordinary phenomena as “signs” and “wonders” demonstrating divine power. Forms of miracles in the Old Testament include:

• celestial events (e.g., Joshua 10:9-15);

• instantaneous healings (e.g., 2 Kings 5:14);

• control of nature (e.g., Exodus 14:21-22);

• objects and animals acting in unexpected ways (e.g., Numbers 22:22-35; 2 Kgs 6:5–7).

Examples of Miracles in the New Testament:

What are some examples of miracles in the New Testament?

New Testament miracles display God’s power, confirming or demonstrating the gospel message.

• Mark’s Gospel treats miracles as symbolic demonstrations of the kingdom of God rather than validations of Jesus and the gospel.

• Matthew’s Gospel uses miracles to portray Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s promise to raise up a prophet like Moses.

• Luke’s Gospel and Acts refer to the miracles of Jesus and the early Christ-followers as validating signs and wonders (e.g., Acts 2:43). Miracles in Acts work within a mutually interpretative relationship with the Gospel message.

• John’s Gospel describes Jesus’ miracles as explanatory signs (σημεῖα, sēmeia); the text never calls them “miracles” (δύναμεις, dynameis).

• Miraculous signs and wonders are confirmations of Paul’s apostleship and valuable evangelistic tools (Romans 15:19; 2 Cor 12:12). Paul considers the ability to perform miracles a spiritual gift (1 Cor 12:10, 28–29).

Key Concepts:

The function(s) of a miracle can be identified by several categories, including:

Instrumental—such as the heavenly manna (Exod 16:11–21), which serves to provide nourishment for the Israelites;

Communicative—for example, the hand that writes on the wall of Belshazzar’s palace (Dan 5; Collins, Daniel, 250);

Punitive—like the tumors that afflict the Philistines while they possess the ark of the covenant (1 Sam 5:6–12; Culley, “Themes and Variations,” 9);

Sociopolitical—as when God confirms that Elijah is the superior prophet by sending fire from the sky to consume his water-soaked offering (1 Kgs 18; compare Theissen, Miracle Stories, 231–64);

Theological—which can be divided further into four primary functions:

Validation of God—for example, the consumption of Elijah’s offering (1 Kgs 18) validates the superiority of the Hebrew God over Baal and questions Baal’s existence, and the heavenly voice and descending Spirit at Jesus’ baptism confirm His status as God’s Son (Kee, Medicine, Miracle and Magic, 80, 86);

Validation of God’s message—such as Moses’ miracles before Pharaoh (Exod 7–12; Woods, “Evidential Value of Miracles,” 21–22);

Signal of God’s activity—such as Jesus’ miracles in Matthew and Mark (Glasswell, “Miracles in Mark,” 154–55);

Divine act of salvation—the miracles in Acts, for example, are themselves are saving acts, not just signs of salvation (Lampe, “Miracles in Acts,” 171–78).

Lewis wrote, “The Christian story is precisely the story of one grand miracle, the Christian assertion being that what is beyond all space and time, what is uncreated, eternal, came into nature, into human nature, descended into His own universe, and rose again, bringing nature up with Him.”

The Grand Miracle — Salvation

“One is very often asked at present whether we could not have a Christianity stripped, or, as people who ask it say, “freed” from its miraculous elements, a Christianity with the miraculous elements suppressed. Now, it seems to me that precisely the one religion in the world, or, at least, the only one I know, with which you could not do that is Christianity.” — C.S. Lewis

*the Gospel

Application:

Meditate on the miracle of the Gospel.

Do you believe that Christianity is miraculous? Or is your “version” of Christianity tame and neutralized?

Do you believe that God can and does perform miracles? Do you believe that God is all-powerful?

Do you recognize God working miracles in your life?