What Are Miracles For?

Intro: What are miracles for?

Have you ever prayed for a miracle, and it didn’t happen?

If God can do miracles, but doesn’t always, what are miracles for in the Bible?

Answer 1: God fixing things

Jesus heals blind, deaf, lame; raises the dead. Miracles right wrongs!

But, what does it mean when He doesn’t do miracles? He doesn’t care? You don’t have enough faith?

Bible doesn’t promise miracles (“carry your cross!”)

If miracles are just for fixing things, amount to band-aids (Taylor Swift: “band-aids don’t fix bullet holes” - sin, death)

All the people Jesus did miracles for died. Couple in Cana, too.

Jesus’ first miracle shows His mission is not just fixing things:

John 2:3–4 (ESV)

3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”

What are miracles for?

Answer 2: Demonstrate His power

Walk on water, drive out demons, water into wine. Miracles show that Jesus is God!

But why doesn’t He do them all the time? Doesn’t He want everyone to know He’s God?

If miracles prove God’s strength, would lack of miracles prove God’s weakness?

If miracles are only for showing God’s power, raw power doesn’t tell us what kind of God we’re dealing with. Danger!

Jesus’ first miracle shows He wasn’t just demonstrating He’s God:

John 2:9–10 (ESV)

9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”

So, what are miracles for?

Answer 3: Reveal our God & His mission

John 2:11 ESV

11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

In John, God’s full glory is manifested at hour of Jesus’ crucifixion. Miracles reveal the transformative power of the cross.

In OT, lack of wine = creation in desperation/death; presence of wine = creation in prime/abundance

Bridegroom responsible for providing wine at wedding

Jesus, True Bridegroom, transforms simple water into best of wine to show us what Jesus accomplishes on the cross.

Isaiah 62:4 ESV

4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married.

Isaiah 25:6–8 ESV

6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. 7 And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. 8 He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

Just as Jesus brings wine out of simple water, Jesus’s cross brings life & abundance out death & sin

How beautiful is it that just as Jesus turns water into wine, it’s through wine that Jesus gives us His blood.

Miracle was done “that YOU may believe” (it was for you)!

John 20:30–31 ESV

30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Christian life isn’t about chasing miracles, but seeing the cross as something that transforms everything.

Jesus transforms us, like He did water into wine, to care for creation, gives us spiritual gifts! (Not Lutheran Church of X-Men)

Spiritual gifts are vocations; caring for creation as something Jesus died to redeem: parent, garbage man, dentist.

Spiritual gifts are about sharing Christ crucified with neighbors in different ways

In Bible, miracles fix things, show power; but most of all, show us God’s glory & mission to transform all of creation by cross

As Christians, we consider all things under the lordship of Jesus who transforms all things by His cross.