It was a miracle! No one could have survived all that except by a miracle! We hear that and similar expressions quite frequently, don't we? What is a miracle? God has a purpose in miracles. Surely He does. Let us see what it is.
My friend, it is good to have you with us again today-- to study the Bible for the Lord's Way of life and salvation. These programs are made possible by some of your friends who are members of churches of Christ because we believe the Lord's way to live this life and to prepare for the next one is the best way that we have ever known. And it is revealed only in the Bible. We are honored and we are blessed by your presence with us today.
No one can read the Bible without being aware of the great numbers of miracles in both the Old Testament and the New. In the Old Testament there are the familiar ones, of course you remember-- the Red Sea Crossing, Joshua's Long Day and Jonah's rescue in the fish's belly and many others. And in the New Testament there are many miracles of Jesus and His apostles. It is amazing, though, that many-- even some who professed Christians-- yes, even some of the clergy, attempt to explain them away as mere natural occurrences. At the other extreme are those who say that we Christians should be experiencing miraculous powers in our lives today, and if we are not, our faith is faulty. The great multitudes are left somewhere hanging in between wanting to believe those miracles in the Bible but, in the absence of such phenomena as in our lives today, they have a problem with the miraculous claims of contemporary Christianity.
Our program today is titled, The Purpose of Miracles in the New Testament. If you would like a free printed copy or a free audio cassette tape of it, please address your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. If you use e-mail, our address is searchtv@aol.com. Or you may access it on our web site (www.searchtv.org). Our toll-free telephone number for your use is 1-800-321-8633. Now if you didn't get all of that, stay ready and we will announce that again later in the program. Ken Helterbrand, who does a super job directing our congregational worship in song, will lead us in a hymn now, and then I will be back.
We are reading the first six verses of the 11th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. “Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities. And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, Are you the coming One, or do we look for another?” Jesus answered and said to them, Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended in Me, because of Me.” Now let us go to God in prayer. Holy Father, we are thankful for this passage of scripture and for the inspiration that we gain from it and we pray Your blessings upon us as we study the meaning of it as it relates to other passages in the miracles of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ as they bear upon His deity and upon the things that we believe. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Our Scripture text says that after Jesus had sent out the twelve on what we call the limited commission, He went out to preach and teach in the cities of Galilee. John the Baptist, His forerunner, had rebuked Herod for his adulterous lifestyle and had by this time been in prison for about a year at a place about fifteen miles southeast of the northern extremity of the Dead Sea which would have been about seventy miles from where Jesus was preaching up in Galilee. But John heard of Jesus' ministry and sent two of his disciples to enquire, "Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?" John knew very well that Jesus was the Messiah and had at one time pointed Him out to his disciples as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." That is in John 1:29.
Why John sent his disciples with that question is a matter of conjecture, I suppose. Some think it was because he was despondent and discouraged and had grown doubtful of what once was so certain a faith with him. And some Bible students think that he made the enquiry for the benefit of his disciples-- to reassure them. Others think that he was still convinced that Jesus was the expected One alright, but he was becoming impatient with Jesus and was anxious for Him to make His identity known and, he used this way of sort of prodding Jesus along.
But, for whatever purpose John had in asking, Jesus made a very clear and positive response. He said to them, "Go and tell John the things which you see and hear: the blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them." Please notice the use that Jesus made of His miracles. They were His credentials to His deity. This would be enough for John. Immediately on hearing those words John would remember the Messianic prophecies of Isaiah 35, verses 5 and 6, chapter 61, verse 1 and others and he would recognize Jesus was fulfilling them. Furthermore, no false Messiah or imposter had ever done miracles like these before. Therefore, Jesus must have been the Expected Messiah.
The apostles also used the miracles to attest to the deity of Jesus. John wrote, "Truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that believing you may have life in His name" (John 20, verses 30 and 31). And on the Pentecost Day the apostle Peter preached, "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know...”(Acts chapter 2, verse 22). So, the purpose of Jesus' miracles is well established. They were to attest to His or to verify His deity.
When He had completed His earthly ministry and was about to return to the Father, Jesus promised His apostles miraculous powers, too. He told them these signs would follow the ones of them who believed: "In My Name," He said, "they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." And the Scripture says, "So then after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they (the apostles) went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs." That is Mark 16, verses 14 through 20. Please notice now God's use of the apostles' miracles was to confirm or to certify or verify their message.
When the day of Pentecost was come, they spoke with the new tongues-- or languages which they had not studied or learned. Right soon after that, Peter and John healed a lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, a man who had been lame from the day of his birth, more than forty years earlier. It was known abroad that he was lame. Everybody knew about it (Acts chapter 3). A little later over at Joppa, Peter raised Dorcas from the dead (Acts 9, verses 36 through 43). She was dead, and known by the whole community to be dead. Peter spoke to her, "Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter she sat up." The apostle Paul was bitten by a deadly viper. He shook it off into the fire and it didn't hurt him. That is recorded in Acts chapter 28, verses 1 to7). It wasn't a "snake handling" show now. It was a genuine incident. So, they did go forth, and they preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them, confirming the word they preached with signs following. There is no doubt about it; these were genuine miracles confirming the word of God preached by the apostles.
From all this now, we have learned that those miracles are an essential part of Christianity. God used them to testify to, to prove or to establish the deity of Christ, and to confirm or to verify the revelation of the New Testament scriptures. To the person who believes the Bible to be the word of God, as I do, there is no doubt about it, my friend; Jesus possessed miraculous powers, and so did His apostles, and some others in the early church on whom the apostles had laid their hands. But, what of miracles in the 20th Century church? Do men today possess those same miraculous powers as did Christ and the apostles? Some people say. Yes! Oh, they have seen them and they have experienced them, while others say no way, man! Absolutely not.
Well it must be obvious to all who have seriously studied this question that part of the misunderstanding is simply a matter of definition of a miracle. When some people say they have personally witnessed or experienced miracles, I get the distinct feeling that they are not talking about what I am thinking is a miracle or what we have just read in the Scriptures as miracles. The Bible uses three words to describe miracles of Jesus and His apostles. It says that God proved the deity of Christ by (1) "miracles" (King James Version), or mighty works (the American Standard Version), "wonders" and number (3) "signs." Not every "mighty work" of God is a miracle, but a miracle is a mighty work of God. Those mighty works God did by Jesus in the presence of the Jews were also "wonders" because they excited wonder in those who witnessed them. However, it would be a gross error to say that every work of God that excites wonder is a miracle. For example, one morning while I was preparing this message, as I drove to my office, I wondered at the amazingly beautiful sunrise! We have some beautiful sunrises and sunsets in Oklahoma. This one was simply a wonder-filled work of God, but it wasn't a miracle, despite the fact that this is what some people, had they seen it, what I did, would exclaim that they experienced a miracle on their way to work today.
By mighty miracles and wonders, by those mighty works and wonders that God also signified the deity of His Son, therefore they are also called signs. But again, it would be a gross error to assume that in every work of God, He is speaking to us or conveying a special message to us. We can say that a miracle is a mighty work of God (other than the ordinary processes) which produces wonder and awe, and signifies something from God.
So, the question is: (But, wait a minute. Before we get to the question, let us do something else. Let us resolve right now that we will not give a "snap answer" to what we are about to ask. It would be so easy to say "yes" or "no," right off the tops of our heads, out of our prejudices, without ever thinking about the question really. But, we don't want to do that now, do we? So, let us think before we answer. Ok? Then, the question is: Do we really and truly have such miracles as those done by Christ, and the ones done by His apostles being done today? Now, think about it: Do men today, by the power of God and in the name of Jesus Christ do anything that even slightly compares with Jesus changing water into wine in John 2? Or feeding 5,000 people on five loaves and two small fish (John chapter 6)? Do we? If it were being done, oh, you would see it on television just as people see others distributing food and medical supplies in foreign lands today. Why! Why, they couldn't keep it a secret. But, in despite of all that widespread hunger and famine and all our efforts to feed the hungry and the starving all over the world, men today just simply are not doing those things. Do men today successfully command the wind to stop blowing, or calm the storms on the seas, or walk on the water? Oh, if ever it were done, our very efficient news media would herald that around the world in less than a minute and it would make every newspaper in America in the next issue.
Of all the people who are said to have received miraculous healing of blindness today, where is there a living person of whom it was known abroad that he was born blind, and has grown to adulthood as the man Jesus healed in John 9, who has been made to see in our generation like that? Well, Jesus raised Jairus' daughter from the dead in Mark the fifth chapter; and the widow's son in the village of Nain who was being carried in the coffin to his burial site (Luke 7). And there was Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead in John 11, who had been dead four days, whose body had begun to decay; and Jesus spoke the word that raised him to life again. The apostle Peter also raised Dorcas from the dead in Joppa according to Acts 10. The whole town knew and could bear witness that she really was dead. But you don't need me to tell you that this kind of miracle just simply is not happening, do you now? You already know that. Of course you do! Or maybe it is being done and no one's hearing about it; maybe it is being kept secret, do you suppose? No!
But, why do you suppose God isn't doing miracles in the church as He once did? Is it because our faith is faulty or weak nowadays? Does it mean that God is less powerful now than He was once? No! No, my friend, a miracle is not a demonstration of a greater power of God or a greater demonstration of God's power than that seen in His ordinary or continually repeated processes which we often call "the laws of nature." It is a demonstration of another kind of power.
We make a mistake when we assume there is more of the will of God in a miracle than in any other of His work. Yes, God remains the almighty, all-wise, all-seeing, all-knowing, all-loving, all-caring and personal Power He has always been. But, God is not a man. He doesn't do things capriciously or whimsically just to be exciting or sensational. God acts with purpose. His miracles through Christ, and the apostles and others as seen in the Scriptures were part of the plan which He had before the world began. God is still the Sovereign Ruler of the universe and as such He has total liberty and power not to do miracles, just as much as He has the liberty to do them. We need to seek His will and submit to His way. Let us pray. Father, we thank You now for the miracles that are recorded for us in the New Testament so that we might believe in Jesus Christ as Your Son, and the miracles that You did through the apostles to confirm the sacred Word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
There have always been people who have tried to imitate or counterfeit the genuine miracles of God. Even in New Testament days Philip found a man doing so in Samaria. His name was Simon. He was a fake who said that he was the great power of God, and he was able to deceive a great many people into thinking that he really was all that (Acts chapter 8, verses 8 to12). Paul found some others over in Ephesus, among them the seven sons of Sceva, who were doing the same thing in Acts chapter 19, verses 11 to 14. So, it isn't too surprising to find people nowadays who go about fraudulently claiming to possess miraculous powers in the name of Jesus. They appear to be healing, but in sharp contrast to Peter and John healing the lame man at the beautiful gate, Peter raising Dorcas from the dead, and Paul resurrecting Eutychus to life in Acts 20, these people must content themselves with "healing" internal, undetectable, invisible maladies and headaches and back pains and dizziness and such like. They know they are unable to do anything for the paraplegic or the quadriplegic or the spina bifida child. Therefore, instead of showing God to be the almighty and all-loving God that He is, He comes across as a mere band-aid or an aspirin tablet, effective only with minor aches and pains. It is too bad. That is one of the great tragedies of such claims to miraculous powers today. And the great concern I have about it is that, it destroys the credibility of Christ's religion. It is a disappointment, and sometimes an insurmountable one, for people who really and honestly believed they could be miraculously healed in a healing crusade that is even more so. Some turn away from God for life.
Well, we are so very glad that you joined us today for our prayer, for our ministry and our study, and we sincerely pray that you have been blessed by our study. Audio cassette tapes and printed transcripts of this program are available free. Simply address your requests and letters and cards to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Our e-mail address is searchtv@aol.com. Please ask for the program titled, The Purpose of Miracles in the New Testament. If you prefer, you may use our toll-free telephone number and call in your request. The number is 1-800-321-8633. Be with us again next week, will you? God bless, we love you. |