Miracles

Pastor Melinda Song
Sunday, 21 July 2019

The term miracle has lost much of its luster nowadays due to its common use in our daily speech: “It’s a miracle …I made it to work on time …my phone didn’t break when I dropped it …I passed my exam.”

We have made miracles so commonplace that makes them no big deal at all. But a miracle is a big deal because the biblical model and definition for a miracle are those acts that only God can perform; usually superseding natural laws making them supernatural acts of God.

I have been reading “A Case for Miracles” by Lee Strobel and in the book, the late Richard L. Purtill, professor emeritus of philosophy at Western Washington University defines a miracle as “an event (1) brought about by the power of God that is (2) a temporary (3) exception (4) to the ordinary course of nature (5) for the purpose of showing that God has acted in history.”

To illustrate his definition, Purtill recounted how he had been prescribed nitroglycerine tablets for a heart condition. The pharmacist said something that stuck in his mind: if two pills taken in succession don’t relieve the pain, take a third but immediately call an ambulance.

Not long afterward, he awoke with chest pain. He took one pill and later another, but neither had an effect. He took a third. His wife offered to drive him to the hospital, but he asked her to call 911. She did, the paramedics arrived promptly, and his life was saved.

After he recovered, he had a flat tire on a car trip and his heart stopped while he was changing the tire. He fell unconscious, his head on the freeway. Two passing motorists stopped; both of them just happened to know CPR. One called the paramedics. Purtill’s heart was restarted, and his life was spared once more.

Although he said he’s grateful to God for the outcome, Purtill stressed that “there was nothing in the events to suggest any non-natural causes. The pharmacist’s remarks, the training of the people who helped me, the medical technology are all things that seem to need no non-natural explanation.” Consequently, he doesn’t consider his preservation to be miraculous. On the other hand, he does believe as a Christian that “God was, as usual, hiding divine action in plain sight amid the ordinary course of events.”

My preferred definition of a miracle is “a divine intervention, that is, when God steps in and changes the outcome of a situation.”Basically, it’s a miracle when there is no other explanation other than God for how something turned out. To me, miraculous healing, people being in the right place at the right time, circumstances that protected someone from harm’s way are all examples of divine Intervention or miracles.

Christianity is a religion of miracles. Take the miraculous out of our faith and all that is left is a set of ethical instructions that has no power to change the heart. Christianity becomes just another religion. Without the miracles, we have no good news to share with the world.

The Bible is book of miracles from first to last. Take the miracles away and suddenly the Bible is no longer the Word of God. It’s just another book. Without the miracles, there is no Christianity and all Bible-believing Christians ought to believe in miracles, such as Creation and the incarnation of Christ. If not, you are not worshipping the God of the Bible.

There are two main reasons that some Christians do not believe in miracles: an inadequate view of God or and inadequate view of the Bible. There is nothing illogical about miracles if a holy, loving Creator God exists and His word is Truth.

Before going further here are some observations about miracles

1. When talking about miracles, we need to address two extremes: Everything is a miracle, or nothing is a miracle. We either throw around the term too loosely or dismiss it totally, declaring everything coincidences, anomalies (e.g., departure from the regular arrangement, general rule, or usual method; abnormality, such as a person with two heads), mistakes, frauds or the placebo effect.
2. We are also not talking about miracles as only happening back then, and not now. Cessationists are Christians who believe that miracles have ceased after the apostles have died and the New Testament canon was established. They don’t expect anything miraculous to happen today.

Jesus performed many miracles but there are seven events in the Gospel of John that are commonly referred to as the 7 Signs of John:  Water into wine, Healing of a nobleman’s son, Healing of a man at the Pool of Bethesda, Feeding the 5,000, Walking on the water in the midst of a storm, Healing a blind man, and Raising Lazarus from the dead. These miracles of Jesus confirm who He is, what He said about Himself, and what others said about Him.

Today, we are going to look into Jesus’ first miracle of his earthly ministry.

John 2:1-11 (NIV)
2 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, ² and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³ When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
⁴ “Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.”
⁵ His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
⁶ Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
⁷ Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
⁸ Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, ⁹ and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside ¹⁰ and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
¹¹ This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.

I love weddings! One of my great joys as a pastor is conducting pre-marital counselling classes and wedding ceremonies.

Nowadays, the bride is the star at weddings. Very little attention is given to the groom but when the bride starts to come in, everything stops, everyone stands, everyone turns, and we all watch the bride.

However, the star in ancient Jewish weddings was the groom. The wedding was his and his family’s opportunity to show off their ability to be hospitable, to host people. Hospitality is a very important virtue in ancient Jewish culture.

The groom will hire a master of the banquet, or wedding coordinator, to oversee and to make sure they have enough food and wine for everyone.

The last wedding ceremony I conducted took about 25 minutes. Together with the worship and the message it all took about 1-½ hours. But in ancient Jewish culture, weddings would last all week. It is the biggest kind of party that there was in the New Testament era.

So Jesus and his mother and his disciples showed up at this wedding, and there he performs this miracle but note that he didn’t perform this miracle in order to show off. By the end of it, no one at the wedding knows what has happened except Jesus, his disciples, his mother and the servants.

PREPARING FOR A MIRACLE

A. Miracles and God / Jesus go hand in hand

Whitney Houston made popular the song “When You Believe” from the movie Prince of Egypt song and part of the lyrics goes like this: “There can be miracles, when you believe”. But a miracle goes beyond just believing. God is involved and it is a God-incident.

A miracle is something done by the power of the One who made the heavens and the earth out of nothing. The very Word that was wothj Gpd and was God at creation has now been made flesh andis sitting at this wedding.

If we want to experience a miracle, God must be there. Jesus was invited to the wedding at Cana. If Jesus had not been invited to that wedding the miracle would not have taken place. We must invite Jesus into every area of our lives. Let us cultivate the presence of God by praise, worship, prayer and giving Him honour. He is worthy.

B Miracles and faith go hand in hand

Matthew 13:57-58 (NIV)
But Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor.”
⁵⁸And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith. [unbelief, NKJV]

Miracles start withfaith—the faith that believes that God can do all things. Unbelief is a miracle-killer.

Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

 Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Mary believed that Jesus could do something about the need at this wedding party, so she made a request of the Lord. Likewise, we ought to believe and make our requests known to him.

Do we have the faith…not in faith but in a miracle-working God? Prayer is an act of faith. Fasting is a step of faith, not to arm twist God but to seek his face and his will.

Mary is insistent to tell the others to do whatever He says. “Do whatever he tells you.” It is an active faith. It is not a faith that sits idly by, but instead a faith that is activated.

Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV)
⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

C. Miracles and obedience go hand in hand.

Because it is an active faith, obedience is involved. It was obedience to the instructions of Jesus that enabled them to experience the miracle. We must be careful to obey the instructions that the Lord gives to us. We must live according to the word of God.

Jesus used common things to bring about this miracle. The Lord used the water here and he used five loaves and two fishes that was available to feed the five thousand. The Lord can use whatever we have to perform miracles. God can use the little you have and multiply it for his purposes. God can use YOU!

Jesus also used ordinary people to bring about the miracle. Why is this? Our involvement validates the miracle. Somebody might have been able to say, “Well, they must have found some more wine” but the servants who knew would have refuted that.

When we need a miracle, it is important to ask some questions….

1. Have we done all that we could do?
2. Have we done all that we have been counseled to do?
3. Have we removed all impediments to our prayer?
4. Are we praying with the glory of God in view?

D. Miracles and God’s glory go hand in hand

The miracle is not about us, but about God. The miracle revealed the glory of God (Jn 2:11).

John 2:11 (NIV)
¹¹ This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.

So far, these first disciples followed him because John the Baptist said, “There goes the Messiah,” and they believed that witness so they’re following him. But when they saw this they put their faith in him.It was a confirmation of who Jesus is and their expectations of Jesus changed.

Whenever Jesus did miracles – people glorified God. Matthew 15:30-31 says, And large crowds came to Him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them. So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.

Miracles glorify God – not man. When Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, He said in John 11:4, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

Jesus glorified God when He raised Lazarus from the dead. After that, the Bible says that Lazarus appeared at some meetings with Jesus. But there are no recorded words of Lazarus. Why? Because all he had to do was show up and people glorified God because Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

And to this day – whenever God heals or reveals His supernatural power, people give Him glory!

Too often we only expect very mundane, mediocre, bare minimum things from our spiritual lives. We don’t expect God to show up in powerful ways, but in every case in these miracles, Jesus went beyond the expectations of people.

We are not talking about miracles on demand where they’re just everywhere, and you can come, order and get your miracle. The worst thing that can happen as a result of this message is that you will assume that whatever the perceived needed miracle in your life is will be granted.

At the same time, if you have been born again, and believe that he is the Jesus you read about in scripture, then there ought to be a heightened sense of expectancy in my life that I believe he will show up and do things that are not ordinary. He’ll do things that are extraordinary. He’ll do things that are beyond, bigger than what I could do on my own.

CAUTION! We are not to seek after signs. In fact, Jesus said, “An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign.” (Matthew 12:39; 16:4) Jesus was trying to get the crowds to seek Him and not His miracles. On the other hand, Jesus also said that “these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ¹⁸they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”  (Mk 16:17-18)

Because of the tense used with the Greek word believe”, this verse would be better translated, “These signs shall follow them that are constantly believing.…” if a Christian isn’t believing for these signs to be manifested or expecting them to follow him, they probably won’t. Remember the people in Jesus’ home town?

People who regularly experience the miraculous are those who regularly expect to see it. The number of signs and wonders that follow you will be determined by how intensely you are constantly believing for them to be in manifestation. As noted above, everything in the Kingdom of God is activated by faith.

So when you share the Gospel, expect things to happen! We’re not going to be looking for these grandiose kind of break-the-very-laws-of-nature-and-blow-us-all-away-with-this occurrence, and yet I also know that there should definitely be an expectancy that God can do great things.

1. When you pray for the sick, expect them to be healed.
2. When you confront someone who is demonized, expect that person to be set free.
3. When you are in a situation that requires the miraculous, expect the miraculous to occur.
4. When you need protection, expect God’s hand of protection to be upon you.

Remember, these signs always FOLLOW wherever the Gospel is preached and believers are believing for them to occur. This was Jesus’ promise!

Today I want to encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to rekindle the flame in your heart to see the supernatural signature of God on your life, your church, or your ministry. God wants to show up when you share the Gospel. He wants to authenticate and guarantee that the message you preach or share is truly Heaven-sent. But for the miraculous to occur, He needs you to be constantly releasing your faith — for it is your faith that activates the supernatural!

God is sovereign. We don’t get to demand things of him. That’s true. But he also looks for me to have the kind of faith that says he can if he will. He can if he will.

Prayer is the mechanism by which we invite heaven to get involved. There is a way to almost guarantee that I’m not going to see anything miraculous happen in that moment, and that is to not believe and to not ask for it and not talk to God about it at all.

Adrian Rogers wrote the book “Believe in Miracles, But Trust in Jesus.”We should do likewise.

E Miracles and God’s purposes go hand in hand.

John 2:11 (NIV)¹¹ This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.

The ultimate purpose of the miracle is to inspire the disciples and cause them to develop a strong faith in the Lord. Every miracle that the Lord performs is an inspiration for us to have a greater and deeper faith in Him.

The word commonly used for miracles in the New Testament is also translated “sign.” A miracle is a sign that God uses to point to Himself; the same way we follow signs to get to a place or destination.

Acts 2:22 (NIV)
“Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited [endorsed, sanctioned, authorized, approved] by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.

The ultimate purpose of miracles was to prove that the message was true and that those delivering the message were authorized by God to do so.

Every time we encounter another miracle of Jesus in the New Testament, every time we read more about his divinity and his sovereignty and how in charge he is and how good he is, our faith rises.

You can trust him, and he is worthy of that trust. You can believe in him, and he is worthy of that belief. Jesus ultimately presents his miracles so that we know who he is, so that we come face-to-face with the God who can be celebrated, with the Jesus who is good. He radically changes our perspective and our understanding, and he invites us into a relationship of dependence upon him. The greatest miracle any person can receive is the miracle of salvation that turns your water into wine.

It doesn’t matter how long you have been a Christian or how advanced you are or what you’ve seen in terms of the miraculous intervention of God in your life: We can all have our viewpoint of him elevated and expanded to see that our God is a miracle-working God.

In Malachi 3:6 God said For I am the Lord, I do not change.

God never changes. Two of those things that never change are found in Psalm 77:13-14, Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God? You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.

Hebrews 13:8says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Whatever He did in Bible days, He does now.

Habakkuk 3:2 (NIV)
Lord, I have heard of your fame;
I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord.
Renew them in our day, [In the midst of the years revive it, ESV]
in our time make them known
in wrath remember mercy.

If He saved then, He saves now.
If He healed then, He heals now.
If He delivered then, He delivers now.
If He baptized in the Holy Spirit then, He baptizes in the Holy Spirit now.
If He did signs and wonders then, He does signs and wonders now.

So – let’s be a contemporary Pentecostal church movement established in the ancient truths of the Word of God and the supernatural power of God!

So, keep Believing. Never give up.

Trust in the Lord with full confidence, remembering this truth: Miracles aren’t about us. Miracles are about God.