Jesus is Still Working Miracles Today (Part 4)

SCRIPTURE

Luke 7:11–23 KJV 1900

11 And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people. 12 Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her. 13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. 14 And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. 15 And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother. 16 And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people. 17 And this rumour of him went forth throughout all Judaea, and throughout all the region round about. 18 And the disciples of John shewed him of all these things. 19 And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another? 20 When the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another? 21 And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight. 22 Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. 23 And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

MESSAGE

We Serve a Miracle-Working God!

What is a miracle?

A miracle is an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs.

A miracle from God begins where man’s ability ends.

A miracle is when God causes something to happen, that couldn’t happen, shouldn’t happen, and wouldn’t happen, unless He made it happen.

The Word of God demonstrates His miracle-working power.

The Bible is God’s special revelation of Himself to us. The Bible reveals to us who God is. And as we come to the Bible, we discover that He is a miracle-working God. From the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation and everywhere in between, we find example after example of God working signs, wonders, and miracles for His people. In the Old Testament, God parted the Red Sea, provided water from a rock, brought down the walls of Jericho, raised a widow’s son from the dead, healed leprosy, caused an ax head to float, delivered three Hebrew men from a fiery furnace, and many other miracles.

And God’s miracle-working power did not stop in the Old Testament. In fact, signs, wonders, and miracles were a major part of Jesus’ ministry while he walked the earth. And Jesus anointed His disciples to work miracles in His name. And throughout the book of Acts, God continued to work miracles through them even after Jesus’ ascension.

I do not believe that the miracle-working power of God somehow stopped after Acts Chapter 28. Hebrews 13:8 tells us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever! God does not change! He performed miracles in the past and Jesus is still working miracles today!

Examples from “Miracles Today” by Craig Keener

Example 1 - The Lame are Healed

Dr. Douglass Norwood was a missionary in the South American country of Suriname. There were very few Christians in that country and most of the people were hostile toward Christianity. One night in 1994, a group of locals gathered at Dr. Norwood’s church to protest him being there. One of the protesters was a man who was in his seventies. He had been paralyzed on his right side virtually all his life. His friends carried him into the meeting on a blanket or rug and plopped him down in from of Norwood.

This man was not happy. “Your religion is garbage!” he shouted. “My religion is garbage too! I’ve prayed to Shiva, and to Vishnu, and to my other gods, and nothing happens. Now you want me to pray to Jesus?”

As he uttered the name Jesus, his paralyzed arm suddenly shot up into the air. He stared at his own arm, shocked. No one had prayed for him, but when he mentioned Jesus, God healed his paralysis. Norwood reports, “At that instant, he jumped up, grabbed my mike, and began screaming, ‘Look what Jesus did for me!’ as he danced around, waving his now-healed arm in the air.” The other visitors were converted almost as quickly as he was and in the years following, many came to Christ in that area.

Example 2 - The Deaf Hear

Maria Johansson began to lose her hearing in 2012 and eventually reached a point where she needed to read lips and so was unable to talk on the phone. Doctors warned that she would lose hearing completely if she did not have a cochlear implant.

On Sunday, August 21, 2016, Johansson and her family went to worship at the Sion Assembly in Flen, Sweden. When people prayed for her, she felt as if a warm blanket had been laid over her. Abruptly and to her astonishment, she noticed that she was hearing the music! The next day, she reports, she could hear the gravel beneath her feet. Her children were astounded when she called them, able to talk on the phone. “That night I heard the cars passing by on the road,” she recounts. “I heard a fly buzzing against the windowpane, and I heard my husband’s snoring. Everything was like sweet music, even the snoring!”

On September 9, she returned to the audiologist. After testing, the surprised doctor concluded, “Now everything with your hearing is within the normal range. Something has happened to your ears that I simply cannot explain. You can call it a miracle!”

Example 3 - The Dead are Raised Back to Life

One January morning in southern Ohio, two-year-old Malachi Reissig was running the around while his mother, Kelly Reissig, was talking with her sister on the phone and making breakfast. Realizing she had not heard her son for a few minutes, Kelly stepped into the living room and, horrified, threw the phone to the floor. Malachi had accidentally hanged himself from a treadmill cord and was already stiff, his eyes fixed.

Malachi’s father, Jim, reached the local hospital just before Malachi was to be airlifted to the children’s hospital in Columbus, Ohio. The physician explained that it appeared that Malachi’s oxygen had been cut off for nearly ten minutes. If he survived at all, he would probably be a vegetable. Glancing at his unmoving child, Jim Reissig broke down, fell to his knees, and began crying out to God. To the astonishment of everyone in the room, color began to return to Malachi’s body and the swelling visibly diminished.

So how did things turn out for Malachi in the long run? You can read the answer to that question in the sports section of the September 19, 2013 edition of the Chillicothe Gazette. The newspaper reported Malachi’s miraculous story because he was now, at age fifteen, a running back for the local football team.

Believing God for a Miracle

Miracles are Part of the Gospel

Isaiah 53:4–5 KJV 1900

4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, And carried our sorrows: Yet we did esteem him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: The chastisement of our peace was upon him; And with his stripes we are healed.

Matthew 8:16–17 NKJV

16 When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, 17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmities And bore our sicknesses.”

Prerequisites to Your Miracle

Failure

The time is going to come when you need a miracle from God.

Jesus met a woman in the city of Nain that needed Divine intervention.

She was a widow, so her husband was dead. Now her only son was dead too.

She had lost everything and she would now be dependent on others for charity to sustain her the rest of her life.

She needed a miracle.

There are going to be times when you need Divine intervention.

You are going to face times when you reach the end of your own ability.

You are going to face times when you hit the wall of your own limitations.

You are going to face times in your life when you need a miracle.

Just remember, failure does not have to be permanent.

We read in the Gospels those who faced failure for:

12 years,

18 years,

38 years.

There is no problem too hard for Jesus to fix!

Jesus is still working miracles today!

Favor

Jesus had compassion on the widow woman.

The Bible doesn’t say that she had great faith. The Bible simply says that Jesus had compassion on her.

He extended to her His Divine favor.

You can’t earn and you don’t deserve Divine favor.

It is according to His grace!

We are saved by His grace.

We are kept by His grace.

We are healed by His grace.

We are restored by His grace.

That’s why I can’t get upset with God and question Him when He answers someone else’s prayer but He doesn’t answer mine.

Because the favor that God gives to that other person, doesn’t take away the favor that God has for me.

God’s favor never subtracts, it only adds.

God still has favor for me.

That’s why we can celebrate with others when God shows favor to others.

Because we know that Jesus is still working miracles today!

Faith

We live in an age of skepticism.

Man wants to explain everything through science and reason.

They want to find a natural explanation for everything that happens.

They attribute unexplainable occurrences to mere luck or fate.

Skepticism is nothing more than doubt and unbelief in the miracle-working power of God.

God often moves in response to faith.

Jesus simply had compassion on the woman in the city of Nain, but He often performed miracles in the Gospels in response to faith.

As He healed, Jesus said things like, “Thy faith hath made thee whole.”

And we know that all it takes is a little bit of faith. Faith as of the size of a mustard see can move an entire mountain!

But sometimes our faith can be weakened by doubt.

That happened to John the Baptist

John had baptized Jesus in the Jordan River.

When John saw Jesus coming toward him that day, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.”

John knew that Jesus was the Messiah, but doubt began to creep in.

John was in prison and possibly facing death, so he sent a couple of his disciples to Jesus to ask, “Are you the One?” In other words, “Are you the Messiah?”

How did Jesus reply? “Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.”

We can all let doubt sneak in.

We believe, we have faith.

But we can allow the doubt to overcome our faith.

We need to be honest with ourselves and God like the father in Mark 9 whose son was bound by an evil spirit. Jesus told the father, “all things are possible to him that believeth.” The father replied, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”

Faith as of a grain of mustard seed can move a mountain, but doubt of any size can keep us from commanding it to move in the name of Jesus.

If doubt has crept in, we need to pray, “Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief.”

Like the disciples, we need to ask Jesus, “Lord, increase my faith.”

Let us be convinced that Jesus is still working miracles today!

CONCLUSION

Do you need a miracle today?

Are you facing something that you can’t fix?

Has medicine gone as far as it can go?

Have you tried every other source of help except Jesus?

Have you reached the end of your abilities and hit the wall of human limitations?

We still serve a miracle-working God!

Jesus is still working miracles today!

There is nothing He cannot do.

God is still in the business of making things happen, that couldn’t happen, shouldn’t happen, and wouldn’t happen, unless He made it happen!

There’s a miracle in the making for you today!

Understand that the failure is part of the process.

The pain, the hurt, the loss, the struggle

There is no miracle without a dilemma.

Understand God’s favor toward you.

Everything from God to us flows through His grace, His unmerited favor toward us.

He loves you and has compassion on you.

He will respond in accordance with His Divine providence.

Understand that all it takes is a little bit of faith.

Get doubt out of the way.

Ask God to increase your faith.

Remember that faith the size of a mustard seed will move the hand of God!

If you need a miracle, Jesus is still working miracles today!