Why miracles by the Hand of Man?

Why miracles by the Hand of Man?

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

Miracles demonstrate the power of God.

Miracles demonstrate the power of God.

John 3:1-2

Why did God allow man to perform miracles?  Have you ever wondered that?

Nicodemus tells us why.  Why would a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, one of the religious elite of the day, pay any attention to a carpenter from backwater Nazareth who was claiming to be the Messiah?  It was because of the miracles done by this Man.

That’s why people paid attention to his apostles and the other early Christians.  Picture this.  You came into Jerusalem for the Passover and just happened to witness the trial and crucifixion of Jesus.  You decide to come back to Jerusalem fifty days later to observe the holiday of Pentecost, and suddenly you see this Galilean roughneck fisherman talking to thousands of people about how “God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36) and how God had raised him from the dead (Acts 2:32).

“Wait a second,” you think.  “That’s the same guy I saw dying on a cross fifty days ago!  This guy can’t be telling the truth!”

An obvious and understandable conclusion, one that obviously would keep you from buying what this guy is selling and becoming a follower of a dead guy who is supposedly resurrected.  Why would anyone believe this man or anyone else who’s preaching the same message?

What if you were standing there listening to him and the other uneducated hicks from Galilee, when you suddenly realized that all the other Jews surrounding you from places all over the world could understand them because they were effortlessly speaking to them in their own languages (Acts 2:4)?  True, it could be possible, however unlikely, for uneducated fisherfolk from Galilee to…maybe…learn one or two different languages over time?  But twenty?  Thirty?  And to be completely fluent in them, switching back and forth from one to the other effortlessly depending on the person to whom they were speaking and the place from where he had come?

Say in the days following you keep running into these guys who keep preaching about a resurrected, crucified carpenter from Nazareth who is the Son of God…and you notice more unexplainable oddities…

How that fisherman was talking to that lame guy on Solomon’s Portico whom you’ve seen begging for food at that same spot for years, and suddenly reaches down and pulls him to his feet…and now the lame guy can walk, and not only walk but leap around, praising God!  (Acts 3:1ff)

How people were carrying obviously sick people out into the streets, as well as those afflicted with unclean spirits, and how this fisherman would just simply walk past them at noon with his shadow passing over them, and suddenly they would be completely better!  (Acts 5:12-16)

Now, if you were a complete cynic whose heart was completely hardened and your mind was already made up that these guys were frauds, then you would write these supposed “miracles” off as frauds.  You might even attribute their ability to perform these signs as evidence that they were followers of Satan (Matt. 12:22-30)!  If you were so far gone that you were attributing the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit to Satan, there would be no hope for you whatsoever that you would believe in Jesus as the Son of God, and so you would never be forgiven (Matt. 12:31-32).

However, these signs and wonders performed by Jesus and his followers would make a big impression on you as to the validity of their message if you had an open and honest heart (Luke 8:15).  That’s a big reason why God allowed Jesus and his followers to perform miracles.  It was, as Nicodemus said, to convince observers that God was with them.

For more scriptural information, read also Mark 16:17-20 and Hebrews 2:1-4.

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THE COST OF SERVICE

THE COST OF SERVICE

In 2 Samuel 24:24 we read that King David refused to offer unto God a sacrifice that cost him nothing. A sacrifice that doesn’t cost anything is no real sacrifice at all! In fact, inherent in the definition of sacrifice is the idea of cost. Yet so many today want to give God that which is no sacrifice to them at all. We give God our leftovers, our hand-me-downs, our undesirables, and we expect God in turn to bless us with new and better things.

Have you counted the cost?

Have you counted the cost?

The author C. S. Lewis once wrote concerning giving that “the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc, is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them.”

Without controversy we know that our lives are to be living sacrifices (Romans 12:1–2). That is each day from the first fruits, the best of our hearts, our words, our thoughts, our labors. Doing all to and for the Lord (Colossians 3:23). What was the cost of Jesus’ service to us and to the Father? “I lay down my life” (John 10:15). How is your giving? Be faithful!

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Turmoil, Anxiety, Comfort, Patience

The Comfort of God

Who has not in their lifetime had those dark and trying periods when hope was almost gone? What congregation has not experienced anxiety as turmoil developed between brethren? Evidently, the church at Rome was dealing with all kinds of problems—there were false teachers seeking to Judaize the Gentiles by demanding that they must be circumcised to enter heaven. There was also strife between brothers where the stronger brothers had little compassion for those who were weaker.

Turmoil? Strong vs. weak? Little compassion? What to do?

Turmoil? Strong vs. weak? Little compassion? What to do?

How did God address such turmoil? When Paul gets to the fifteen chapter of Romans he utters this prayer. “May the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like minded toward one another…that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (15:5-6). How did Paul see that turmoil coming to an end? He turned to God—the One who gives both comfort and patient endurance.

This is where true comfort is found. Paul described God as the God of all comfort, and then said that He “…comforts us in all our troubles (2 Cor. 1:5-6). Pay special attention to that three letter word in this passage. God is not just the One who sometimes comforts us in certain situations—He is the God of all comfort in all our trials.

How does God give us comfort? Look again at Romans chapter fifteen. It is in verse five where God is described as the God of comfort and patience. Look at verse four. “For whatsoever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”

To whom do we turn for comfort? It is to God. To where do we turn? It is the Scriptures the God of comfort has given us. You have experienced this in those dark times when you walked through deep valleys, like the valley of the shadow of death. Your soul found relief at such times, and you sang the song given by David. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me” (Psa. 23:3). You sang the psalm and the words from the God of all comfort lifted your soul.

It is not just in those Old Testament passages where comfort is found. When those in Thessalonica were concerned about those brethren who had died, the God of comfort gave His word to them and then added, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:18).

So the next time clouds arise and darkness prevails, pick up your Bible. Read the comforting words from the God of all comfort. Meditate on what He says to you, and these words of comfort will bring hope in the midst of the deepest despair.

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Do You Smell Good?

Do You Smell Good?

It’s always fun to travel, at least, I enjoy it, and you never know what is going to happen.  As we were driving on Interstate 30 from Texarkana to New Boston late in the evening (it was around 11:30), we hit a skunk!  Of course, it smelled awful after we first hit it, but then the smell gradually faded, but we must have hit him pretty good because the smell lingered on the car through the weekend, and every time we walked behind the car, we could smell skunk. The skunk has a powerful influence. Yuck!

What is the influence of your fragrance?

What is the influence of your fragrance?

This reminds me of something Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 2:14-16. I’m quoting from the English Standard Version: “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.  For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,  to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?”

As Christians, we give off a fragrance, or aroma.  That aroma comes from the triumph of Christ on the cross, but other people can smell it on us who are Christians. To those who are being saved, it is a sweet smell bringing life, but for those who are perishing it is an awful smell like death.  Unlike that old smelly skunk, we want others smelling Christ on us, seeing our good influence, so that they can glorify God by coming to Christ for salvation.  Let’s give due consideration to our influence and let Christ’s goodness abound in our lives.

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Sitting in a Church Pew

Sitting in a Church Pew

There’s a popular saying which goes, “Sitting in a church pew doesn’t make you a Christian any more than sitting in a garage makes you a car.”

If you don't assemble you won't grow. If you don't grow, you won't go.

If you don’t assemble you won’t grow. If you don’t grow, you won’t go.

There’s a lot of truth to that statement, and Jesus Himself would have agreed with it. In a way, Jesus did agree with it when He taught His disciples the Parable of the Tares.

Jesus said that the Kingdom, that is, His church, would be like a sower going out to sow seeds in his field. After the sower sowed good wheat seeds, an enemy came by and sowed tare seeds. The weeds were of a sort that at first looked like the wheat, and so the owner of the field forbade his workers from tearing them up, lest they harm the wheat also. But at the harvest, telling the two apart would easy and the tares could then be tossed in the fire. (cf. Matthew 13:24-30)

In explaining the Parable, Jesus identified Himself as the sower, and the good seed, the wheat, as the sons of the Kingdom, that is, Christians. (cf. Matthew 13:37-38) These good seeds would be gathered up at the harvest and would thereafter shine as the sun in the Kingdom of their father. (Matthew 13:43) That is to say, the righteous in God’s Kingdom on earth will be blessed and will enter into a heavenly reward.

The tares were not so blessed. These were sons of the wicked one (cf. Matthew 13:38) and would be gathered out of the kingdom and thrown in a furnace of fire were there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (cf. Matthew 13:42) Jesus further identifies these lost souls as those that offend and practice lawlessness. (cf. Matthew 13:41)

The point of the parable of the tares was that not all who appear to be, or claim to be, followers of Christ and members of His church were ever and truly sons of God. Some are mere pretenders.

So Jesus would have very much agreed that sitting in a church pew doesn’t make you a good Christian.

Of course, skipping the activities of the church doesn’t make one a good Christian either. God very much wants you to be an active part of the Body of Christ. Thus, the Bible speaks about how the church is to function, effectively working, with every part doing its share, thereby causing growth in the church for the edifying of itself in love. (cf. Ephesians 4:16) It is for this reason that God commands us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the habit of some. (cf. Hebrews 10:25)

As the apostles preached Christ, the early church was marked by their adherence to the doctrine of the apostles, but also by the regular way in which they interacted with one another in love, prayer and fellowship. (cf. Acts 2:42)

We miss the point of the parable of the tares if we think Jesus was trying to say that you don’t need the church. In fact, Jesus was making just the opposite point. The tares were gathered out of the Kingdom to be burned. They were pretending to be part of the church, not disdaining the church altogether. The wheat, which represents the saved, was likewise, already in the Kingdom before the judgment, and continued in the Kingdom after the judgment.

Just as Noah was saved in the ark, so too, men are saved in the Kingdom of God. Thus, when you are saved, you are added to the Kingdom (cf. Acts 2:47; Colossians 1:13) At the last day, it is the Kingdom which Jesus will hand over to God. (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:24) There’s no safety outside the Kingdom. (cf. Revelation 22:15; 21:8)

What we want to be is wheat in the Kingdom. We don’t want to be tares. The tares, as Jesus said, were those who gave lip-service to Him, but didn’t actually do anything He taught them to do. Instead they practiced sin and immorality, hoping that words claiming to believe in Jesus would be enough in the end. But it was Jesus who warned that not everyone who claimed Him as Lord would be saved. We need to also do the things he teaches. (cf. Matthew 7:21, Luke 6:46)

Lip service and self-identification as a Christian is not enough. It has never been enough. What has always been needed is that the followers of Christ bear the actual fruits of obedience. (cf. Matthew 13:23; John 15:8).

by Jonathan McAnulty

 

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