Miracles and the Glory of God

Introduction

This morning, we are going to continue our discussion on miracles in preparation for Easter. Like many people who grew up here in the Bay Area, I was very skeptical about the supernatural even after I became a Christian. I suspended my disbelief in regards to what I read in the Bible but I also made this arbitrary decision that these miracles in history were not enough reason to believe that we should expect God to perform those same miracles today. Then a friend of mine, Pastor Sung, went on a mission trip to China and testified first hand that he had witnessed a miraculous healing right in front of his eyes. A young man had been paralyzed by a car accident and unable to move his legs and much to Sung’s surprise, the missionaries that he was working with told him to pray for his legs. As Sung tells the story, he had absolutely no faith that God would heal this young man but because he was afraid of the missionaries, he did exactly what they told him to do. Lay your hands on the man’s legs and in faith, command his legs to be healed in Jesus’ name. (I’ve met Esther and John before and they are scary and it doesn’t matter if you believe, you do what they tell you to do). So Sung prayed and to his utter surprise, this young man began to move his legs and my friend began to freak out because this was actually working. In a short time, meaning minutes, the young man was taking his first steps and his father who was very much against Christianity saw this miracle and began to weep for joy. The missionaries then led the father and his son to faith in Christ.

After Sung shared his testimony, I had decision to make. In my eyes, my friend has always been a stable and reasonable person and I couldn’t see any reason why he would lie about such an event. I would have to fabricate my own theories and question the character of my friend in order to discount the miracle. And this is something that many people end up doing. CS Lewis describes our modern bias toward miracles in this manner:

And this is something that many people end up doing. CS Lewis describes our modern bias toward miracles in this manner:

Collective hallucination, hypnotism of unconsenting spectators, widespread instantaneous conspiracy in lying by persons not otherwise known to be liars or not likely to gain by the lie - all these are known to be very improbable events: so improbable that, except for the special purpose of excluding a miracle, they are never suggested. But they are preferred to the admission of a miracle.

I found myself exactly in this dilemma that Lewis describes. I would either have to believe in the improbability of my good friend telling the biggest lie of his life for no reason or the improbability of this miracle. Mind you both were improbable but the evidence seemed stacked toward the miracle. I saw that my friend’s faith had been changed and this would eventually lead him going back to China as a long term missionary. To this very day, I pinpoint his testimony as the beginning of my personal belief that God still performs miracles today. But I soon realized that belief in miracles brought in a slew of theological questions such as, “Why does God heal some and not others?” My prayer is that we will begin to answer some of those questions so that we can have a stronger faith in the God of miracles.

Now the question is “How did we get from Palm Sunday with all of the expectations and joy to Good Friday, where Jesus would be tried and crucified as a common criminal?” To say the least, it is a dramatic turn of events. To answer this question, we need to look at the miracle that sets into motion this entire series of events. According to , it was the raising of Lazarus from the dead that ultimately created this tense environment within the religious and social fabric of Jerusalem.

John 12:17–19 ESV

17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. 18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”

John 12:17–20 ESV

17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. 18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.” 20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks.

These verses explain very clearly why the crowds gathered and gave Jesus such a hero’s welcome. The news that Jesus had raised a dead man to life in dramatic fashion had reverberated across the city and there were enough credible witnesses to this miracle, so much so that it caused Jesus’ popularity to go viral. But in the eyes of the Pharisees as well as other political and religious leaders, this explosive growth in terms of influence and fame was causing an unavoidable problem that they could no longer ignore. A memory that would have been fresh in their minds was Jesus going through the Temple courts and throwing out all the vendors and rebuking the leaders that they had turned his Father’s house into a marketplace filled with thieves. Jesus was increasingly seen threat but now that it seemed like the entire world was going over to him, he looked like a very dangerous revolutionary that would bring imminent political disaster to the nation. However, as we look closely at the resurrection of Lazarus, we will see that Jesus had no intention of a political revolution but the miracle was simply a sign of future events.

John 12:

John 12:17–19 ESV

17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. 18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”

Body:

As we prepare for Easter Sunday, we want to look at this miracle, which is considered to be the seventh and final sign in the Gospel of John pointing us to the ultimate purpose of Jesus’ life.

John 11

John 11:1–16 ESV

1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” 11 After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

John 11:

John 11:28–37 ESV

28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”

I would like us to look at three points from the passages that we just read:

1.  Miracles are meant to bring God glory

2.  Miracles do not always parallel Jesus' love

3.  Jesus weeps over our misconceptions of God

This passage begins with the news of a man by the name of Lazarus being very sick, possibly to the point of death. Unlike many of the other miracles in the gospels, this isn’t a random person from the crowd but someone that Jesus has had a prior relationship with. We know more about Jesus’ interactions with his sisters, Martha and Mary, that he had been a guest in their home, that he had spent time eating with them, and teaching them the word of God. Lazarus is not mentioned specifically in those stories but we are told here that Jesus loved him too. So given this friendship that Jesus had with this family, it doesn’t seem to make any sense that Jesus would wait a full two days before deciding to go up in order see how Lazarus was doing. Given the distance between where Jesus was in relation to Jerusalem, this would have required an extra two days of walking and delaying these two extra days could easily be interpreted as Jesus being callous, irresponsible, and downright unloving. Imagine if one of your friends treated you this way, it would be very hurtful. And the only excuse that Jesus gives for this delay is the Sunday school answer, “This is for the glory of God.”

When I first became a Christian, I had a very difficult time with this oft repeated statement made famous by the Protestant Reformation, for the glory of God alone, or soli Deo gloria. It made God seem very self-centered, an ego maniac, that was only out to promote himself even when it meant hurting people. It appears that the apostle John must have known that this would be problematic for his readers so he made sure to emphasize that Jesus genuinely loved this family. I’m sure that many of us can relate to what this family had to go through. Clearly the sisters believed that Jesus loved their brother and that he could heal him just as he had done for many others. This is why they sent him the message, “He whom you love is sick.” The message within the message is come quickly so that you can heal him. Countless Christians have prayed the very same prayer, only to see their loved ones suffer without a miracle.

If you have a Christian background like mine (pentecostal/charismatic), you hear about the many miracles that God has performed but you rarely if ever hear about the miracles that didn’t happen. So it is a bit shocking to the system when you come to a situation that seems to be begging for God’s supernatural intervention but nothing happens. I remember going on a mission trip to Mongolia and ministering to a village of people living in the city dumpsters. It was one of the most heartbreaking things that I had seen up to that point in life and a family brought us their son that was confined to a wheel chair and I was so sure that God would heal him. I felt like I had faith and clearly there was a need but as much as we prayed, nothing happened. I had not developed a clear theology of miracles as a young pastor and I could not wrap my mind around why God would not heal in this particular situation. Why didn’t Jesus show up this time?

As hard as it may be to accept in the midst of our suffering and disappointment, miracles are not primarily an operation of man’s need. Although they may meet our earthly needs, they are ultimately dependent on whether or not God will be most glorified through them. And again, when I say that I’m sure that many of us are thinking “Ah ha, that proves God’s selfishness” but I want you to hear me out to the conclusion of this message.

By its very definition, if miracles occurred every time someone needed one, we would cease to marvel at the supernatural because it would be the norm. In a sense, we would have a pseudo utopia and would have no need to look forward to eternal life in the new heaven and new earth. In addition, people would have no other choice but to believe in God. There would no longer be a need for faith because the evidence for God would be overwhelming. And you might be asking, “Isn’t that what God wants, for everyone to believe in Him?” Shockingly, the answer is no! What God desires is for everyone to love Him with all their heart, their soul, and their mind. Miracles generally lead to belief but they do not always need to love. The account of the the ten lepers in is a clear example of this. Jesus heals 10 lepers but only one returns to thank Him and to give praise to God. Remember from last week that faith in miracles is the most fickle and unstable of our beliefs.

But having no miracles and here we need to broaden out the definition of miracles to include revelations and visions from God, which includes the writing of Scripture because of its inherent prophetic nature. If we didn’t have any of this, there could be no basis for our belief. We would have every right to simply be naturalists without any belief in the supernatural and God would not be able to find fault with us.

So we are left with the only conclusion that we can make, which is God gives us just the right amount of miracles that will engender both belief and more importantly our love for God. If you are a fan of John Piper, I know that it’s been ingrained in you to believe that God is most gloried when we are most satisfied in Him. I might clarify that statement by adding that God is most glorified when we are most in love with Him. Why do you think God created a world where people universally agree that love is the single most important virtue? The Beatles, known to be die hard atheist, sang “All we need is love.” And the rally cry of the LGBTQ community is love wins. Democrats and Republicans would all agree that love is a worthy goal for society. How can people with such divergent worldviews come to the same conclusion about love? Could it be that God ordered the world so that what you love the most is what you glorify the most both for good or for evil? That which you love the most will be the most praiseworthy thing in your life.

Love and glory are two sides of the same coin. Some miracles increase that love, some actually decrease it and only God is privy to that knowledge. That leaves us with this important conclusion: Miracles do not parallel Jesus’ love for us. In other words, there is not a one to one correlation. People who receive a miracle are not more loved by God than others, although we may feel tempted to feel that way. And conversely, those who receive miracles don’t always end up loving God more for it. So understanding the weight of God’s glory is pivotal in developing a practical theology of miracles. If my healing leads to his glory, so be it. But on the other hand, if my suffering leads to his glory than I can endure. Whatever may come, may He be glorified on earth as He is in heaven. This attitude allows us to continue to pray for miracles. In my observation, there are two things that dissuade us from praying for miracles - First, we don’t want to be disappointed, we don’t want to look stupid if God doesn’t show up. The second is we don’t want to give people false hope, even when the miracle might be their only hope. But in both instances, we place our needs and our glory before the glory of God. We need to learn how to step out of the way and allow God to be God because He knows best what is ultimately for His glory.

In general, I tend to be a skeptic because this is what growing up in the Bay Area produces. So even when I became a Christian, I had a hard time believing in all of these stories about modern day miracles. I suspended my disbelief in regards to what I read in the Bible and made this arbitrary decision that these things happened in the past but there isn’t any reason to believe that we should expect God to perform these same miracles today. Then my friend, Pastor Sung Chung, went on a mission trip to China and testified first hand that he had witnessed a miraculous healing right in front of his eyes. This young man had been paralyzed by a car accident and unable to move his legs and much to P. Sung’s surprise, the missionaries that he was working with told him to pray for his legs. As Sung tells the story, he had absolutely no faith that God would heal this young man but because he was afraid of the missionaries, he did exactly what they told him to do. Lay your hands on the man’s legs and in faith, command his legs to be healed in Jesus’ name. (I’ve met Esther and John before and they are scary and it doesn’t matter if you believe, you do what they tell you to do). So Sung prayed and to his utter surprise, this young man began to move his legs and my friend began to freak out because this was actually working. In a short time, meaning minutes, the man was taking his first steps and his father who was very much against Christianity saw this miracle and began to weep for joy. The missionaries then led the father and his son to faith in Christ.

But the question remains, how can I trust in a God who seeks His glory over my temporary well-being, who withholds his miracles depending on what is good for His glory?

In my eyes, my friend had always been a stable and reasonable person and I couldn’t see any reason why he would lie about such an event. I would have to fabricate my own theories and question the character of my friend in order to discount the miracle.

Commenta

Bible scholars give a numbers of reasons why they think Jesus wept. Leon Morris gives what I believe is the most compelling reason. Jesus couldn’t have been weeping because Lazarus was dead and He knew that he was about to raise Him. He could of have been weeping because of the sorrow that death had caused but there is more here than grief caused by empathy. We read in verse 33 that Jesus was deeply moved and troubled. The translation from the Greek is that Jesus was literally shaking with indignation. Not the usual response at at a funeral.

And this is something that many people end up doing. CS Lewis describes our modern bias toward miracles in this manner:

Jesus was about to raise Lazarus and we cannot interpret his perturbation as an act of mourning for the deceased. It must refer to his deep concern and indignation at the attitude of the mourners. They so completely misunderstood the nature of death and that of the Person of the Son. Even Mary, who from what we know of her elsewhere might have been expected to have understanding, had her thoughts firmly fixed on earth. The words will also probably mean that to work this miracle cost Jesus something.

Collective hallucination, hypnotism of unconsenting spectators, widespread instantaneous conspiracy in lying by persons not otherwise known to be liars or not likely to gain by the lie - all these are known to be very improbable events: so improbable that, except for the special purpose of excluding a miracle, they are never suggested. But they are preferred to the admission of a miracle.

joy to Good Friday, where Jesus would be tried and crucified as a common criminal?” To say the least, it is a dramatic turn of events. To answer this question, we need to look at the miracle that sets into motion this entire series of events. According to , it was the raising of Lazarus from the dead that ultimately created this tense environment within the religious and social fabric of Jerusalem.

Leon Morris, The Gospel according to John, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 494–495.

What did this cost Jesus?

I found myself exactly in this dilemma that Lewis describes. I would either have to believe in the improbability of my good friend telling the biggest lie of his life for no reason or the improbability of this miracle. Mind you both were improbable but I could also see a visible difference in terms of my friend’s faith and he began to develop this unwavering commitment to serving God, which would eventually lead to him going back to China as a long term missionary. To this very day, I pinpoint his testimony as the beginning of my personal belief that God still performs miracles today. But I also realized that belief in miracles brought in a slew of theological questions beginning with, “Why does God heal some and not others?” To some degree, it is much easier to accept the notion that God treats everyone exactly the same and no one gets a miracle. That would be far more acceptable to our sense of fairness and equity but I would also warn you of the hidden motives of the heart that can lead to this type of thinking. I suspect that some people in the more skeptical camp would

As you may know, today is Palm Sunday which commemorates Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem one week before his death and resurrection. The crowds welcomed him to the city with open arms, they laid down palm leaves, and shouted out Hosanna in expectation of a great salvation. But in a few short days, Palm Sunday would quickly turn to Good Friday, where Jesus would be tried and crucified as a common criminal. Why did the events of this week take such a dramatic turn for the worse? To answer this question, we need to look at the miracle that sets into motion this entire series of events. According to , it was the raising of Lazarus from the dead that ultimately created this tense environment within the religious and social fabric of Jerusalem.

John 12:17–19 ESV

17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. 18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”

These verses explain very clearly why the crowds gathered and gave Jesus such a hero’s welcome. The news that Jesus had raised a dead man to life in dramatic fashion had reverberated across the city and there were enough credible witnesses to this miracle, so much so that it caused Jesus’ popularity to go viral. But in the eyes of the Pharisees as well as other political and religious leaders, this explosive growth in terms of influence and fame was causing an unavoidable problem that they could no longer ignore. A memory that would have been fresh in their minds was Jesus going through the Temple courts and throwing out all the vendors and rebuking the leaders that they had turned his Father’s house into a marketplace filled with thieves. Jesus was looking more and more like a dangerous revolutionary that would bring upheaval in the religious order and imminent political disaster to the nation.

By waiting two days, allowing Lazarus to die, and causing untold grief to his sisters, only to raise his friend from the dead was not a matter of indifference or or lack of love or even an undeniable show of power, Jesus was simply creating the perfect storm that would lead to his own death on the cross. He allowed his friends to suffer so that the world could experience the greatest miracle of them all, the forgiveness of sin and the hope of the resurrection from the dead. You see the timing of the miraculous is what is most important. On the way to the cross, there was ample opportunity for Jesus to perform the spectacular. In the Garden of Gethsemane, surrounded by Roman soldiers, we can think of Jesus as being hopelessly outnumbered but when Peter draws his sword to make the last stand with His Lord and Savior, Jesus quietly tells him to put the sword away and reminds Peter:

Matthew 26:53–54 ESV

53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”

Jesus denied himself the very miracle that could have saved him so that His Father would receive the greater glory born out of love. And if you ask me how I have come to trust in the glory of God from those early days of doubt. My simple answer to you is the cross. God chose to reveal His glory through the nail scarred hands of His Son because He is most glorified when I am most in love with Him. And if that is the way God defines His glory, then both you and I can trust Him as we wait together for the greatest miracle.

You can trust in the glory of God because when He is glorified, all those who trust in Him win and in the end, we are all glorified with Him.

Conclusion

The commentators give us many reasons for why Jesus wept

You can trust in the glory of God because when He is glorified, all those who trust in Him win and in the end, we are all glorified with Him.

As we prepare for Easter Sunday, we want to look at this miracle, which is considered to be the seventh and final sign in the Gospel of John pointing us to the ultimate purpose of Jesus’ life.