Tag: miraculous signs

A MIRACLE FOR ONCE AND ALWAYS

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Jesus, Matthew, Podcast, Religion, Sermon2 Comments

Leprosy-9

Jesus’ miracles also show us spiritual truth; they tell us something about Jesus, and point the way toward eternal life. He offers the same miracle to us in our souls. He is not dismayed by your sin and your failings. He knows your ugliness, but it won’t stop him. He knows your sin.The holiness of Jesus is so powerful, and his sacrifice on the cross so profound, that when we invite him in, it doesn’t make him dirty – it makes us clean.

 

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Download Matthew Part 25

Matthew #25 . 8:1-4

When He came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him. Right away a man with a serious skin disease came up and knelt before Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Reaching out His hand He touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean.” Immediately his disease was healed. Then Jesus told him, “See that you don’t tell anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses prescribed, as a testimony to them.” (Matt 8:1-4, HCSB)

Let’s do this a little differently this week. I want you to imagine yourself into the story. Play along with me. Sometimes really getting into the sights, sounds and feelings of the bible can be very helpful. Sometimes we need to disconnect the analytical thinking for a little while in order to get at a heart-and-soul truth.

So, imagine you are a Jew living in ancient Roman Palestine. When you were twenty years old, just a year or two after you got married, you noticed some spots on your skin. They didn’t hurt, but they looked ugly and scaly and white on your olive-tinged deeply tan skin. Your spouse was very concerned (make it husband or wife, depending on your gender). You both suspected what it might be, but you both knew what it would mean if it was what you thought it was, so you waited. However, the white patches grew, and you had a little toddler and there was no way you wanted to put your child at risk. So you and your family went to the priest. The priest looked at you carefully, and then said, sternly, “You have leprosy. You are a leper. Unclean!”

You couldn’t even hug your spouse or your child goodbye. Immediately, you were banished from contact with any healthy person. That was twenty years ago now. You’ve only seen your spouse at a distance since that time. You little baby has grown into lovely woman who was married five years ago. You could not be at the wedding. You haven’t even met her husband. You don’t even know your own grandchildren.

Most of the time, you live in a kind of rough camp with other lepers. Though you can be around them, you generally avoid contact with each other, because one of you might make the other one worse. You can’t work in the fields, or raise animals because no one wants food touched by a leper. The same goes for any kind of craftsmanship. You can’t even be a common laborer, because you would be too close to healthy people. This means you are dependent upon your relatives and kind strangers. They place food and water and other necessary goods for you and the other lepers at a place several hundred yards from the camp. Sometimes people go out and beg by the roadside. They get contempt and insults about as often as they get food or some other necessary item. Money is useless, since merchants would refuse to touch coins that had been handled by a leper.

When you leave the camp, whenever you come within earshot of another person, you need to scream “Unclean! Unclean!” to warn them that a leper is near. It feels like you are swearing at yourself. Children run away when they hear it. Others back off. Sometimes adolescent boys throw stones at you, like you’re a rabid dog or something. Everyone reacts with revulsion at the sight of you. Leprosy has no cure, and it is your fate to live like this for the rest of your life.

One beautiful spring day, some rumors come into the camp about a Rabbi, Jesus, who seems to have miraculous powers. You go out into the countryside looking for him, and then you see a big group of people going up a steep, tall hill. You follow at a distance, and circle away from the people until you are behind the man, away from his followers, but you can hear him speak. What he says makes a deep impact upon you. This is no ordinary man. Desperation rises within you and combines with a tiny seed of faith.

When he leaves, you run ahead, and with your heart in your throat, you kneel on the ground and call out to him. Many lepers do this while they beg, but you call out something different. You don’t ask for food. Instead, you say “Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean.”

The sun is warm and the breeze is fresh on your diseased skin. A moment passes and seems like forever while Jesus pauses and looks at you. He doesn’t turn his face away like everyone else. There is no revulsion or disgust or contempt in his eyes. It’s something else, something your remember from long ago. It looks almost like…love; compassion. He starts walking towards you. You tremble. No healthy person has knowingly approached you for two decades.

What is he doing? He is reaching out his hand. Is he insane? You can’t help shrinking back a little. No one touches you. No one is supposed to touch you. What is he thinking? He might catch the disease himself. Even if he doesn’t, he’s going to make himself unclean, and he’ll have to go through a huge rigmarole before he can eat or associate with other people. But his hand grasps your shoulder. There are tears in his eyes.

“I do want to,” he says. “Be clean.”

He steps back a minute with a little half-smile on his face, like he’s waiting for something. You stare at him a minute, and then he jerks his head a little, as if he’s saying “take a look.” You slowly look down at your arms. They are clean and brown, with no leprosy on them anywhere you can see. You pull up your sleeves. Also clean. You turn back to Jesus, and then he is here, lifting you to your feet, hugging you, and both of you are crying and laughing at the same time. Behind Jesus, hanging back several yards, some of his followers are staring at him.

“Now go on,” he says. “Go to the priest, according to the Torah, so that you can be officially and properly welcomed back into your community. And do me a favor – don’t tell anyone that I did this.”

Now come back to yourself, but not quite all the way. Picture this – we all have a kind of leprosy called sin. It eats away at us in various ways. It separates us from God and from each other. It might help you to name a specific sin or weakness to yourself, to admit some of the things that you fail at pretty often. Picture how that sin keeps you from really being close to others. Imagine that damage it does to your soul, like the damage leprosy does to your body. Acknowledge how because of this, you are actually distant from God in some ways. You’ve tried to get rid of it, but there’s really no cure.

Now picture Jesus. If it helps, form a picture of him physically walking by. He’s the only hope of a cure. Call out to him. You know he can take care of this. Ask him directly to take care of it. Pause, as he turns to look at you. He is not disgusted or revolted. He does not turn away in contempt or fear. He sees who you are, what you are, and he keeps coming toward you. He reaches out his hand, and lays it on your head.

And now, hear his words. “I do want to make you clean. Be clean!”

And now look at your sin-riddled soul. See what Jesus sees – YOU ARE CLEAN!

Feel him lift you up, feel him hugging you, laughing in delight at you. Know his love for you. He says, “Now go and check with the Bible, and see for yourself that what I have done here is real and true. (“You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.” – John 15:3. Also 1 John 1:7-9, Titus 3:4-7, and many, many more!)

“Also, tell some other followers of mine about this,” he says, “so that they can help you continue in faith, and you can help them, and you all can be in close community together.”

Brothers and sisters, this is real. Jesus truly and really healed the leper. But his miracle was about so much more than that. John calls Jesus’ miracles “signs.” They are true miracles that actually happened, but their purpose was greater than simply the healing of a body that eventually died. His miracles also show us spiritual truth; they tell us something about Jesus, and point the way toward eternal life; that is one reason he did so many miracles. I believe the leper was healed of leprosy. But I also believe that this text in the bible is an invitation to us. Jesus offers the same miracle to us in our souls. He is not dismayed by your sin and your failings. He knows your ugliness, but it won’t stop him. He knows your sin. But the holiness of Jesus is so powerful, and his sacrifice on the cross so profound, that when we invite him in, it doesn’t make him dirty – it makes us clean.

Jesus looks at our condition the same way he looked at the leper. He has the power to make us clean. He is willing to make us clean. Do you want him to do it? If so, be like the leper, and ask him to. Picture Jesus physically reaching out and touching you, lifting you to your feet and embracing you. In Him, you are clean. Receive that in your soul, right now.

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DO MIRACLES HAPPEN TODAY?

On By Pastor TomIn Bible Teaching, Christianity, House Church, Podcast, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

miracleheartwaterdrop

To listen to the audio only of the sermon, click the play button:

To download the audio only, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Experiencing Life Together Part 6

EXPERIENCING LIFE TOGETHER #6.

AWE & WONDERS

Acts 2:43 “Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.”

We have examined the four things that the first Church was devoted to. I hope you’ll agree that any church and even any Christian ought to be growing in devotion to the Word, Fellowship, Intimacy with Jesus (characterized by the Lord’s Supper) and Prayer. These things are essential to what it means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. They are therefore also central to the community life of those who know Jesus. The first Church was also characterized by living for a single purpose. This too is part of the core of Christian discipleship. In addition to these, however, there are a few other things that characterized that very first Christian church. These other things are also meant to be characteristic of all Christians and all churches. The first of these that the text mentions is a sense of awe, which is accompanied by “wonders and miraculous signs.”

The word translated as “awe” in the NIV Bible is actually the Greek word “phobos” from which we get the English “phobia.” In other words, the word means fear. I think that we in modern American culture are afraid (no pun intended!) to use this word in connection with our experience of God. It sounds like the dark ages somehow – “they were filled with fear.” However, it is a Biblical word, and it is used many times to describe people’s relationship with God. A God we fear is not an altogether comfortable God. He is not the kind of God we can control. Now I don’t believe that this whole concept of “fear of God” is meant to be negative. Perhaps the best rendering of the concept I ever heard comes through the children’s books written by C.S. Lewis: The Chronicles of Narnia. In these stories there is a character called Aslan, the Son of the Great Emperor-over-the-Sea. Aslan was intended by Lewis to be a picture of what Jesus is like. And one more thing – Aslan is a lion. In the stories, people who haven’t met Aslan want to know what he’s like. Upon hearing that he is lion, one character asks about him:

“Then, isn’t he safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

I think that Lewis has really captured what the fear of God is about. God is out of our control. He is powerful, and, dare I say, even a little wild, like a lion. He isn’t quite safe because of his great power and his complete otherness. But he is good. This was the kind of “fear” that everyone was filled with in Acts 2:43 – the fear of God who is not quite safe, but is good. We Americans are not usually comfortable with this (which is sort of the point). We like to think that we can respect anyone who is worthy of it, but that we fear no one. But when we try to reduce the fear of God to mere “respect” we have lost part of the true Biblical understanding of who God is. Now the “fear of God” is not the same as being afraid of Him. We do not need to fear that He won’t love us or forgive us. But at some level the thought of what God can really do – how completely at His mercy we are – ought to give us a kind of thrilled fear. He is God and we are truly nothing in comparison.

The first Christian church was characterized by this sort of “fear.” I think it probably influenced how they worshipped and prayed in very positive ways – they did not take God for granted. I think this sense of “fear” also made the miracle of their salvation even more wonderful and incredible to them. The fruit of their fear was altogether positive. Their fear of God only led to a greater wonder that He would consider them worth loving and dying for. Personally, I think it heightened their joy at knowing Jesus as well as their thankfulness to him.

Accompanying this very positive fear, were wonders and miraculous signs. I have no doubt that these manifestations of supernatural things helped them to continue in this positive sort of “fear-of-God.”

Perhaps three main questions can help us to dive more deeply into the question of wonders and miracles: What were the signs and wonders? And, Do signs and wonders still happen today? And, Are we meant to experience them as well?

First, what were they? There is no doubt among any serious scholars that the text is referring to God’s supernatural working. The specific things that He did supernaturally remain somewhat vague in this passage; but we can infer what they were from other passages, with a high probability of being correct. In Acts, we see two primary supernatural manifestations of Gods power: healings and exorcisms. You can bet that these two things were part of what is being referred to in Acts 2:43. In fact, in the passage immediately following this one, the apostle Peter was used by God to heal a crippled man (Acts 3:1-10. For an example of exorcism, see Acts 16;16-18). But Acts also records other things. The great outpouring of the Holy Spirit was accompanied by the miraculous sign of tongues – people from all over the world heard the apostles speaking in their own languages when they preached (Acts 2:5-12). In Acts chapter 12 Peter was miraculously freed from prison. The Holy Spirit gave a word of prophecy to the congregation at Antioch in Acts 13. Paul was bitten by a poisonous snake but suffered no ill effects (Acts 28:3-5). The rest of New Testament also records other sorts of miracles, signs and supernatural workings apart from healings and the driving out of evil spirits. The important thing is not really what the specific events entailed – instead the point is that God intervened in ways that were clearly supernatural. Another significant point is the choice of the words “miraculous signs.” The effect of these things was to strengthen the faith of the believers, and to help in bringing unbelievers to faith. Even today, the fastest growing churches worldwide are those where God is doing supernatural things. The first Church clearly viewed the miracles and wonders as portents of God’s presence. The supernatural events gave them opportunities to preach (Acts 3) and often helped convince unbelievers (Acts 8:9-13).

Now, do these things still happen today? I must be fair and tell you that there are people who genuinely know and love Jesus, who believe that God no longer does miracles like these. For theological support, they point out that in this passage, it only mentions the apostles as those who did the miracles, and since the apostles are now with the Lord, there are no more miracles. They claim that these supernatural actions were merely intended to help the very first church establish itself. Now that the church worldwide is no longer in danger of not being established, miracles aren’t needed. I believe that these people are sincerely misled. There are plenty of other New Testament passages (including some in Acts) that demonstrate that supernatural things are done by God through people other than the apostles. In 1 Corinthians chapters 12-14, Paul clearly expects non-apostolic, ordinary Corinthian house-church members to exhibit miraculous gifts of various sorts. In John, Jesus said this:

“I assure you: The one who believes in Me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. (John 14:12-14, HCSB)

Jesus expected that the kinds of things he did, would also be done by his Holy Spirit-empowered disciples. The truth is, the church needs to be re-established in every generation. The Christian message is no more secure now than it was in the time of the apostles – the gospel needs to be communicated again and again to each generation, or it will be lost. There are plenty of local churches that are closing their doors, precisely because they have not done this. We are certainly not in any less need than the first Christians for supernatural power to assist us in our efforts to introduce people to Jesus.

In addition, the evidence demands that we take seriously the premise that God still works supernaturally. As G.K. Chesterton points out,

There is a choking cataract of human testimony in favour of the supernatural.

The fact is… the believers in miracles accept them (rightly or wrongly) because they have evidence for them. The disbelievers in miracles deny them (rightly or wrongly) because they have a doctrine against them. The open, obvious thing is to believe an old apple-woman when she bears testimony to a miracle, just as you would believe an old apple-woman when she bears testimony to a murder.

Recent studies have even confirmed that hospital patients recover more quickly, with fewer complications and have an better overall chance of recovery, when they are prayed for. The studies included people who were being prayed for, but were not aware of that fact. They included people who do not believe in the power of prayer. It is indeed accurate to say that God’s supernatural power is alive and still active in our world.

I think part of the difficulty that many people have with miracles is that they seem so unreliable. Let’s be honest. Sometimes, it seems like the perfect situation for God to do a miracle, and yet, he does not. Other times, he may do something that even seems almost unnecessary. I mean, Jesus didn’t have to feed the five thousand. They might have gone hungry that day, but no one was going to starve to death. They would have made it home and found something to eat the next day at the latest. Also, He certainly didn’t have to walk on water. So we hear about miracles that happen for others, and think, “I need a miracle even more than that.” And yet, we don’t get one.

This problem of miracles being unreliable is hangover from our scientific world view. We think if anything is real, we should be able to reliably duplicate the results. But if you think about it, this lack of “reliability” is exactly what makes a miracle miraculous. It can’t be duplicated, because it is an instance of God’s intervention – it isn’t “normal.” In addition, we can’t duplicate it, because we cannot control God, who is the main variable in the experiment.

I suffer from chronic kidney stones. They are extraordinarily painful, and usually, they do not pass for many days. One time, I developed a kidney stone just as I was about to start speaking at a retreat. The people there prayed for me, and within seconds, the pain disappeared. The kidney stone was gone, as quickly as that. I’ve never personally experienced anything like it, before or since. I feel like I sound foolish, sharing this. But it really happened. About six months later, I developed another stone. This time it was a Sunday morning, right before I was about to preach. It was basically the same situation as before. The same group of people prayed for me, and nothing happened. I went home and spent three days of misery until that stone passed. There is no doubt that God healed me from the one stone. There is no doubt that he did not deliver me from the next one. To this day I don’t know why. What I do know, is that God does do miracles, and also that we cannot control when and where he does them.

So, what is our part in all this? Does God want us to be involved in these kinds of things? If you feel a little thrill of fear at that thought, then you’re on the right track! The answer is of course, YES! God wants to do incredible things through us. Of course sometimes we want to “move in the supernatural” all the time and never “come back to earth” – that is not God’s plan either. God uses the supernatural for three main purposes: to set people free (either from sickness, emotional pain or demonization); to strengthen the faith of believers; and to help unbelievers come to faith. He doesn’t work supernaturally simply to give us another cool experience. He wants his children to grow to the point where we walk by faith and not by sight. So the first part of allowing God to work miracles is to release control to Him. Many of us who have had some supernatural experience try to control Him by attempting to arrange things so he’ll come do it again. But we can’t make Him do a miracle. At the same time, we should not try to prevent his working because we are afraid. Primarily what he wants from us in the arena of miracles is an openness, a willingness to be used (or not used), and a sense of fear and awe, that at any time He can come and do whatever He wants.

If we are willing for God to work in ways that might inspire holy fear, what is our part in making that happen? We need to ask him to act, invite him to work. Do we want him to set people free, to strengthen and encourage our faith, and to bring unbelievers to faith? Well, then ask him for a miracle. Ask him to physically heal someone. Ask him to deliver your friend from addiction to drugs or alcohol. Ask him to encourage someone who is struggling. Ask him to find a job for someone who has lost his. The result is up to God, not to us. He is not a machine that we can manipulate. Sometimes he WILL do a miracle. Sometimes he won’t. But, for whatever reason, God has chosen work through us as we are open and as we ask. he best way I know of to PREVENT miracles, is to not ask God for them. So go ahead and ask.

If you are in a house-church, I want to remind you that you are in the perfect context for God to do awe-inspiring things. It was a house church that prayed for the release of Peter when he was imprisoned by Herod. Even so, they did not believe at first the miraculous release that occurred. It was in a house church where a young boy fell out of a high window and died, and Paul prayed and he was made alive again. Prophecies, and the Lord speaking, came often in those first New Testament house-churches. I personally know a man who was instantly delivered from addiction to cigarettes when his house-church prayed for him. I was there when it happened, and frankly, I didn’t believe it at first, but the man hasn’t had a smoke since that night, fourteen years ago.

I encourage you to be open to these types of things that the Lord does. If the thought brings a little thrill of fear, then you are probably on the right track.