Introdution to Miracles: Signs and Wonders

What Constitutes a Miracle?

Defining

A miracle is a sensible fact produced by the special intervention of God for a religious end, transcending the normal order of things usually termed the Law of Nature. - The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church

A Miracle is an occurrence, act, or performance beyond human or natural ability that cannot be explained or understood, thus; a wonder - Ron Owen

Augustine: Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.

discuss this quote

Miracles may be categorized in these four indicators:

celestial events (e.g., Josh 10:9–15);

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

control of nature (e.g., Exod 14:21–22);

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

Distinguishing

Most of the situations we call miracles today are not miracles, but actually providence.

Reviewing the events of the first few years of the Revolutionary War, George Washington wrote in 1778: “The hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all of this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations.”

You are in financial need, and just at the right time an unexpected check comes in the mail.

You wake up for no seaming reason, and go to the kitchen to find the stove on about to catch on fire...

This is not unnatural occurrence, this is providential care. A Miracle is a blind man given sight...

What is the Purpose of Miracles?

The turning of water into blood was the first of the public miracles that Moses did in Egypt (Exodus 7:20), and the water into wine was the first of the public miracles that Jesus did in the world (John 2:11).

Exodus 4:1–9 1 Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’ ” 2 So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A rod.” 3 And He said, “Cast it on the ground.” So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), 5 “that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” 6 Furthermore the Lord said to him, “Now put your hand in your bosom.” And he put his hand in his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow. 7 And He said, “Put your hand in your bosom again.” So he put his hand in his bosom again, and drew it out of his bosom, and behold, it was restored like his other flesh. 8 “Then it will be, if they do not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, that they may believe the message of the latter sign. 9 And it shall be, if they do not believe even these two signs, or listen to your voice, that you shall take water from the river and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take from the river will become blood on the dry land.”

Exodus 4:17 “17 And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.””

Exodus 4:28 “28 So Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which He had commanded him.”

Exodus 4:30 “30 And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses. Then he did the signs in the sight of the people.”

Exodus 7:3 “3 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.”

Miracles are signs and wonders to authenticate the prophet and prophetic message of God

Miracles are not normative

Guidepost: “Miracles don't just come from ancient stories and myths--everyday miracles are all around us, if we only have our eyes open to see them.” This is a misguided post.

The televangelists and the so called “apostles” tell you that your miracle is just waiting for you, you just have to believe… and send in your “seed” gift to their ministry.

There were only three time period of miracles

At the time of Moses

At the time of the prophets

At the time of Jesus and the apostles

We see these were to authenticate Prophets, Apostles, and Jesus.

John 10:24-25 “24 Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, “How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me.”

How could you distinguish a man claiming to speak for God?

How could you trust that what they wrote was The Word of God?

Miracles do not produce faith, or help the gospel

John MacArthur: Miracles have never produced wholesale belief; they can’t. They are intended to point to the truth, and it is the truth which produces faith as the Spirit energizes it.

Luke 16 27-31 “27 “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, 28 for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ 29 Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ””

Can, and Do, Miracles happen today?

In 1986, The family of Ella Peppard, who was 85 years old, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma says she died after she broke her hip at a Benny Hinn faith-healing service and the family has settled a $5 million lawsuit against the television evangelist. Peppard's family says she was injured when Hinn knocked another parishioner into her during the service and that she died 15 days later of blocked arteries produced by the fracture she sustained in the fall. The suit says Hinn was striking people on the forehead, claiming they were "slain of the spirit," and that one of the people he struck toppled into Peppard. Lawyer Carl Hughes of Oklahoma City said the church failed to call an ambulance or provide medical assistance. Any such assistance would have been "contrary" to the faith healing service, Hughes said. Hughes said, Peppard eventually was taken to a local hospital, where surgeons implanted a prosthesis in her left hip. She was later transferred to a second hospital where she died Oct. 3.

Why didn’t Ben heal her on the spot?

Headline: Vatican confirms Colorado boy was healed by nun from beyond the grave. The Roman Catholic Church has a rigid, formalized vetting process when evaluating miracles, which are defined as divine events that have no natural or scientific explanation. Investigating a single miracle could take years. After a 14-year process, the Vatican released its verdict on a young boy’s sudden recovery from a debilitating gastrointestinal condition: It was a miracle. Doctors tried everything: antibiotics, diets, and tests. But it seemed nothing could stop 4-year-old Luke Burgie from literally wasting away in 1998. The eight to 10 violent bouts of diarrhea he experienced every day for six months forced him to drop out of preschool. After doctors began to suspect cancer, the boy’s mother, a devout Catholic, began looking outside of medicine for a cure. She asked nuns to pray for Luke. Sister Margaret Mary Preister and Sister Evangeline Spenner knew what to do. They asked the founder of their order, Mother Theresia Bonzel, a German nun who lived 100 years ago, to intervene. The nuns prayed a novena, a nine-day vigil, asking Bonzel to heal Luke. As soon as their novena was complete, Luke woke up and his stomach no longer hurt him. The illness never returned. “I knew immediately that it was a miracle,” mother Jan Burgie said.

It is senseless to think praying to a dead nun can help anything. What answers do you get from praying to a dead nun? None!

Also, how could a religion that teaches a false gospel, and practices pagan rituals do miracles of the God they deny!

Oral Roberts claimed to have raised dozens from the dead. No proof of one of them. Actually, there is not proof of any so called miracles any of these false prophets have ever said they performed!

Do miracles happen today?

Yes, the greatest miracle that can be performed happens every day, the salvation of a lost soul. It is a bonafide, actual miracle with metamorphic change.

How about physical, astronomical, etc.?

They can, God can do what He wants to, but there are no more miracle workers, because; there are no more prophecies to be given, no more scripture to be written.

Conclusion

This is a wide and voluminous subject, but we will tackle it like eating an elephant.

We will not examine every miracle of the bible but we will look at series of signs and wonders laid out for us:

Moses and the 10 plagues

Elijah and Elisha Miracles

The 7 Signs of the Gospel of John

Some of the more prominent miracles

Future miracle promised that have not happened