Sermon Notes

6. How were Jesus’ Miracles Signs of His Kingdom?

Worldview – lens you interpret life/experience/reality through

1. Bible = our worldview/lens (opens w/creation miracle) 
2. 1 reality 2 realms – seen/physical; unseen/spiritual
3. 2 realms were together until sin separated them 
4. One day 2 realms will reunite 
5. Today – on occasion 2 realms temporarily reunite & “miracles” happen 

·         Bible =127 miracles

A miracle is an event where a spiritual being supersedes the laws of nature.

• Can be godly or ungodly, real or counterfeit 

THIN PLACES

·         “Thin Places” – ancient Celtic XN’s 

-Divine ladder Heaven to earth angels descended in days Jacob, a cloud by day

and a pillar of fire by night Moses, tabernacle, & temple that housed presence. 

-God told Moses Ex 3:5 “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

=Memorialize w/altars & stacking stones of remembrance 

Jesus Body – God & Man – IMMANUEL 

WHY DO SOME PEOPLE NOT BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?

Atheistic Naturalism – there is no unseen realm, and no God or angels or demons to do anything extraordinary. The world runs on natural laws that cannot be broken. 

Deistic Naturalism – God made the world, left it forever, and runs it by natural laws that cannot be broken. 

• Scientific method – test & retest in controlled environment 
• Thomas Jefferson in White House “The Philosophy of Jesus Christ” 990 verses survived, 0 miracles 

Biblical Supernaturalism – from beginning to end, the Bible records historical miracles where a divine being from the unseen realm temporarily supersedes the laws of nature. These miracles are reported by eyewitnesses, including the medical doctor Luke.

Reject? = Offensive. I’ve seen miracles. God healed me 

JESUS’ 33 REPORTED MIRACLES

WHAT KINDS OF MIRACLES DID JESUS PERFORM?

1. Ruling over nature
2. Restoring health
3. Removing demons 
4. Raising the dead

THE BIBLE REPORTS ONLY SOME OF JESUS MANY MIRACLES

After Jesus healed a woman and a girl, Mark 5:43 says, “…he strictly charged them that no one should know this…” 

After healing a deaf man, Mark 7:36 says, “Jesus charged them to tell no one.”

After healing a blind man, Jesus told him in Mark 8:26 to avoid crowds who would see him healed, saying, “Do not even enter the village.” 

John 21:25 “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose

that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”

UNBELIEVERS CONFIRM JESUS’ MIRACLES

The religious leader Nicodemus said of Jesus’ miracles, in John 3:2, “Rabbi, we know that you area teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 

Even the demons cowered in the presence of Jesus’ power. Matthew 8:28-29 says that after Jesus calmed a storm by the power of His word, “…two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that

no one could pass that way. And behold, they cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?’”

Matthew 12:22-24 Then one possessed with a demon was brought to Him, blind and mute, and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. All the people were amazed and said, “Is He not the Son of David?”

But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “This Man does not cast out demons, except by Beelzebub the ruler of the demons.”

The ancient Jewish Talmud charged that Jesus “practiced magic.” Celsus, a strong opponent of Christianity, later repeated that claim. The noted ancient Jewish historian Josephus also reported that Jesus was “a doer of wonderful works.”

JESUS SAID HIS MIRACLES CONFIRM HIS DIVINE AUTHORITY

John 5:36 – …For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me…

John 10:25 – Jesus answered them, “…The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me…”

John 10:32 – Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father…”

John 10:36-38 – …do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, “You are blaspheming,” because I said, “I am the Son of God”? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.

THE PURPOSES OF MIRACLES

M – Majesty. God shows up to reveal His divine attributes and demonstrate sovereign power. (Example: Sparing Daniel and his friends from death sentences in a fiery furnace and lions’ den.)

I – Increase Faith. God shows up in power to reinvigorate the waning faith of His people. (Example: For instance, the disciples transformed from cowards to courageous upon witnessing Jesus’ Resurrection.)

R – Revelation. God speaks a message. (Example: Writing the 10 Commandments on stone, the hand writing on the wall in Daniel, and Jesus speaking to Moses through the burning bush.)

A – Anger. God crushes demonic false gods and other enemies, showing His sovereign power. (Example: Destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, destroying the nation of Egypt and their false gods, or bringing down fire for Elijah.)

C – Care. God provides for the needs of His people. (Example: Feeding His people in the wilderness during the Exodus or Jesus multiplying the little boy’s lunch.)

L – Liberation. God spares His people from devastation. (Example: Parting the Red Sea or removing demonic forces for people to live in full freedom.)

E – Evangelism. God shows up in power to prove He is the One True God, which results in people believing in Him. (Example: When some Egyptians left their nation with God’s people after He supernaturally delivered them, or miracles followed by salvations throughout the book of Acts.)

HOW ARE MIRACLES ALSO SIGNS?

John 2:1–11 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there...When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”...Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first...But you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory.

Miracles are “signs” pointing to King Jesus & Kingdom of God. 

Family Dog Kaya 

Healing; Casting out demons; feeding hungry, healing sick, raising dead, nature healed 

= 1. Rest (7 of 33 miracles on Sabbath). 2. Parties. Holidays & Parties

EVERY CHRISTIAN HAS EXPERIENCED A MIRACLE

Ephesians 2:1-5 says that a non-Christian is…”dead in the trespasses and sins… following the prince of the power of the air…by nature children of wrath…But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved…”

The church Father Augustine (A.D. 354-430) believed,…the greatest miracle was the renovation of the heart, the healing of human desire from its corruption so that God is loved above all and one’s neighbor as oneself. While not denying “physical miracles,” Augustine wrote in Expositions of the Psalms that these ‘miracles of the soul’ were the premier evidence of God’s ongoing creative work in the world.