Untitled Sermon (23)

Why Does God do Miracles?

Because he is good

Psl 34:8 “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!”

Poem by Phillip Pascal

THE GOODNESS OF GOD..

His goodness is an ocean that has no shore.

A Mountain that has no summit.

A Road that has no end.

Not meager, but much.

Not skimpy but sufficient.

Not little, but limitless·

Not barely, but bountiful·

Not feeble, but full.

Because God is generous

James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

The end of the prodigal son “The father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.

When the son admits to squandering the father is generous all over again, not because of who the son was; but because of who the Father was!!!

Because he loves us

1 John 4:6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

John Ortberg states it this way, “God doesn’t just love you because he has to, he loves you because he wants to. God delights in you. Of course, that doesn’t mean God delights in everything you do. Your own mother doesn’t do that, if she’s at all healthy. But the fact that you exist-you, your own self- is very good in God’s eyes. God likes to love you”

To point to Jesus

Miracles were God’s way of showing people who Jesus was.

Matt 12:38-40 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

If Jesus did no miracles, there would be no Resurrection

When we pray for miracles we should keep these things in mind.

The empty tomb is the greatest miracle

Meaning no disrespect to the religious convictions of others, I still can’t help wondering how we can explain away what to me is the greatest miracle of all and which is recorded in history. No one denies there was such a man, that he lived and that he was put to death by crucifixion. Where...is the miracle I spoke of? Well consider this and let your imagination translate the story into our own time -- possibly to your own home town. A young man whose father is a carpenter grows up working in his father’s shop. One day he puts down his tools and walks out of his father’s shop. He starts preaching on street corners and in the nearby countryside, walking from place to place, preaching all the while, even though he is not an ordained minister. He does this for three years. Then he is arrested, tried and convicted. There is no court of appeal, so he is executed at age 33 along with two common thieves. Those in charge of his execution roll dice to see who gets his clothing -- the only possessions he has. His family cannot afford a burial place for him so he is interred in a borrowed tomb. End of story? No, this uneducated, propertyless young man who...left no written word has, for 2000 years, had a greater effect on the world than all the rulers, kings, emperors; all the conquerors, generals and admirals, all the scholars, scientists and philosophers who have ever lived -- all of them put together. How do we explain that?...unless he really was who he said he was." (Ronald Reagan)