Reasons – Week 4 – How Can a Rational Person Believe Miracles are True?

Series Big Idea: Even when facing big questions that don’t have easy answers, we can find solid reasons to move forward in faith, believing that the message of Christianity is true.

Message Big Idea: A Christ-follower does not need to abandon rational thought to believe in the miracles described in the Bible or that miracles still happen today.

Scripture: X

NOTE: Message is currently around 3030 words and intended to be a 30-minute message including the video and prayer time at the end._____________________

Introduction: Crazy Miracle StoriesIs it rational to believe in miracles?

I, for one, am willing to join the ranks of the rational thinkers of the interwebs in believing that (picture) this is, in fact, the face of Jesus miraculously appearing on a sour cream and onion potato chip.

And to me, the young lady who found (picture) this miraculous face of Jesus on the lid of a marmite jar totally tips the scale in favor of miracles.

1

But this is the one that seals the deal for me. It is absolutely convincing to believe that (picture) this is Jesus and the Virgin Mary in Funyun form. Therefore, it is completely rational that someone bought it on eBay for $609.

I’m kidding about those, of course. But when you think of miracles, what comes to mind?

● Maybe you think of televangelists putting on a crazy show.● Or you might think of that weird superstitious lady you know who seems to encounter “miracles”

ALL THE TIME. ● And yet for some in the room, miracles seem much more personal because you are certain you

have witnessed or experienced one. You believe what happened could only be attributed to divine intervention.

● And others here today – you’ve been praying for a miracle for weeks, maybe even months or years, and you doubt their real because you’re still waiting.

Series Recap During this series, (Series Graphic) REASONS, we’ve tackled some big questions that don’t have easy answers. Yet in spite of their difficulty, we’re not going to shy away from them. We want this to be a safe place where we can honestly dialogue about the challenging aspects of our faith. So today we’re tackling the question: “How Can a Rational Person Believe Miracles are True?”

For our purposes today, we’ll be defining a (Show in dictionary form) Miracle as an extraordinary event involving divine intervention in human affairs. In other words, something that occurs because God himself made it happen, directly and intentionally.

Spectrum of BeliefSo do miracles happen? Answers to that question cover a broad spectrum. (Graphic of spectrum)

● Some say, “They don’t happen.” People in this camp could be called “Naturalists.” Naturalists believe that the laws of science can account for and explain everything that has ever or will ever occur. Naturalists do not believe in an unseen or supernatural realm outside of what can be observed with the physical senses.

● Some say, “They don’t happen anymore.” People in this camp are called “Cessationists.” They believe at one time God intervened in the world in miraculous ways, but that he doesn’t anymore.

2

Incidentally, this is what I was taught in Bible College. The professors went to great lengths to make sure we didn’t buy into the notion that miracles still occurred today. They believed this was something that God did through Jesus and the original apostles, but that once the church was established and the Bible was canonized, miracles were no longer needed.

● There’s a third group of people who’d say, “I’m just not sure.” We’ll call these the “Undecideds.” Some have never fully sought answers to this question. And others might want to believe or hope that miracles occur, but for all sorts of reasons, they’re just not sure enough to say they believe.

● And then, of course, there are the “Believers” who say, “Absolutely!” They believe in miracles outright – both historically and occurring today.

We do know this: wherever you are on the spectrum; the answer to the question of miracles requires faith. It is a matter of belief, not fact. When one says, “God can do miracles,” it’s pretty clearly a statement of faith. But the faith required to say, “There is no such thing as a miracle,” is probably not as obvious.

Tim Keller, in his book The Reason For God, writes,

“If there is a Creator God, there is nothing illogical at all about the possibility of miracles. To be sure that miracles cannot occur you would have to be sure beyond a doubt that God didn’t exist, and believing that God doesn’t exist is exactly that: a belief, an article of faith. The existence of God can be neither demonstrably proven nor disproven.” –Tim Keller

The belief that miracles cannot happen is not a scientific statement; it’s a philosophical statement.

It’s also worth considering that a remarkable number of credible practitioners in the sciences – in astronomy, in astrophysics, in cosmology, in genetics and biology – believe in the God of the Bible and in miracles. They include Francis Collins, who heads up the Human Genome Project, Sir John Polkinghorne, a quantum physicist from Cambridge University, Sir Isaac Newton, Galileo, Albert Einstein, and many, many others. To think that science and miracles are at odds is simply not true.

So no matter where you eventually end on the spectrum of belief, know that your conclusion about miracles will be a faith decision.

A Miracle StorySo can God do miracles? Well let me tell you a story that comes right from our own community. Nate is the StuCo Director at our Yorkville location. His family recently went through something extraordinary. We asked Nate to share his story.

Video: Nate’s Dad’s Miraculous Recovery

Is there a natural explanation for what happened? Perhaps, but it sure sounds unlikely. Was Nate making up the story? Or am I? You could choose to believe so. But to me, this story sounds an awful lot like the work of the Jesus we read about in the Bible.

God Wants to do Miracles TodaySo let’s open the Bible to get a sense of God’s plans and purposes for miracles. Let’s turn to Luke’s gospel, which is a 1st century biography of Jesus. We’ll jump in at chapter 5, starting in verse 17. Let me read you the story:

One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was

3

with Jesus to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven.’

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, ‘Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’

Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, ‘Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Get up and walk”? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.’ So he said to the paralyzed man, ‘I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.’ Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, ‘We have seen remarkable things today.’” –Luke 5:17-26

So by this point in his ministry, word has gotten out that Jesus is an extraordinary teacher, and that he’s performing incredible miracles. So the friends of a paralyzed man decide to put their friend in front of Jesus in hopes that he might help.

I want you to notice that Jesus performs two miracles here: one that can be seen, and one that can’t. The second miracle, the one that can be seen, is Jesus restoring wholeness to the man’s broken body. The guy couldn’t walk, Jesus does his thing, and then he could. But this second miracle also served the purpose of proving that Jesus had in fact just performed another miracle, one that nobody else could see or verify: he’d forgiven the man of his sins. With a word, Jesus erases decades of guilt, shame, and brokenness, and restores the man to a right relationship with God. His authority to heal the man’s body was the same authority by which he forgave the man of his sins.

And here’s a truly remarkable thing: Jesus passed down the authority to perform miracles like this to his disciples. (Onscreen: Matthew 10:5-8) In Matthew 10, Jesus sends out his 12 closest apprentices giving them authority to “heal the sick,” “raise the dead,” and to “drive out evil spirits” in his name. And from there, they go out, and they do it! They do the same incredible things Jesus has been doing!

As he nears the end of his ministry on earth, Jesus tells his followers:

“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” –John 14:12

And after Jesus returns to heaven, that’s exactly what happens! God’s power works through these first Christ-followers, and it wasn’t just the 12 disciples. Throughout the book of Acts, we read stories about those outside of Jesus’ inner circle also performing miracles and healing the sick, like Stephen performing “great wonders” in Acts 6, or Philip healing the paralyzed in Acts 8, or Ananias healing a man of blindness in Acts 9.

But it didn’t stop there! I feel like I’m on an infomercial. “But wait, there’s more!” In the writings of the early church leaders through the first several centuries, we read story after story of people performing miracles in the name of Jesus as a somewhat normative thing. Around AD248, the church father Origen wrote:

4

“Not a few cures are brought about in the name of Jesus, and certain other manifestations of no small significance have taken place.” -Origen

Or this, from around the year AD212, from the church leader Tertullian:

“What is nobler than to tread under foot the gods of the nations, to exorcise evil spirits, to perform cures, to seek divine revelations, and to live to God?” -Tertullian

These are not isolated events that can easily be dismissed, or relegated to the past. The stories of healings in the name of Jesus form a more-or-less unbroken chain all the way up to today, and together they paint a crystal clear picture, not only that God can do miracles, but that He wants to (pause). He wanted to 2,000 years ago, he wanted to 1,700 years ago – and he wants to today.

About 6 months ago, my (Joe Taylor) 4-year-old daughter Mia Jane started having night terrors. She would randomly, in the middle of the night, just start screaming “No! No! No!” and thrashing around in her bed for 15 or 20 minutes at a time. At first we tried talking her out of it, but it quickly became clear that our words had little effect. We were basically powerless. It was terrifying. These night terrors happened every single night, sometimes multiple times a night, for 16 straight nights. On the 16th night, my wife Maria attended a prayer and worship gathering put on by some folks in our small group. She was desperate and exhausted, and as she wept out loud about this horrible thing she was witnessing, the people in the room laid hands on her and prayed for her, and prayed for Mia Jane. That night, the night terrors stopped. And they have not happened since. Not once.

How would you explain that? (pause)

Not only can God do miracles. He wants to.

Miracles and FaithSo let me ask you: Do you believe that?

Because here’s the thing… At least at times in Scripture, there seems to be a connection between faith and miracles. (Onscreen: Luke 5:20) Notice back in our story from Luke 5, what does it say Jesus saw right before he formed the miracles? He saw their faith, and it moved him to action. And it wasn’t even the guy’s own faith, it was the faith of his friends!

Understand, you and I are not the person that the miracle depends on, but it does seem like God wants us actively involved through our faith.

And it doesn’t need to be a ton of faith, either! In Mark 9 we read the story of a man asking for healing for his son from violent seizures. Jesus says “anything is possible for one who believes,” and I love the guy’s response. (Onscreen: Mark 9:24) He says, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief.” And Jesus heals the son! Even a little bit of faith, a “mustard seed” of faith will apparently suffice!

But a lack of faith can lead to a stark absence of the miraculous. (Onscreen: Mark 6:5-6) In Mark 6:5-6 we find this interesting little story of Jesus back in his own hometown, among the people who had changed his diapers and wiped his nose, and who just can’t believe that he is the Messiah. The story literally says that Jesus “could not do any miracles there...he was amazed at their lack of faith.” Could not do any miracles there!

5

There’s a warning in that we must heed: a lack of faith – especially when played out on the larger scale of a community, or a people group, or a society – can and will put a serious damper on the in-breaking miraculous power of God. But amongst individuals, communities and people groups where faith is vibrant and growing, we can expect to see – and do in fact see this all over the world – a huge uptick in the presence of miraculous occurrences. You could just attribute this to rampant superstition and ignorance. There may be some of that in certain times and places, but those who have come to know God personally, know that he loves to do good to and for his children, and that when his Spirit moves among the faithful, crying out to him with love and expectation, he responds, over and over again.

When Miracles Don’t HappenHowever, I want to pause here and acknowledge that all of this is filled with so much mystery. And, I don’t at all mean to suggest there is some sort of 1-to-1 connection between faith and miracles – if you believe, you will see a miracle; if you don’t believe, you won’t see a miracle. Growing up, my best friends’ dad who suffered chronic kidney failure was raked over the coals by those who insisted he just didn’t have enough faith for God to heal him. Bad theology along these lines can do SO MUCH damage. It’s not a formula. God is not a vending machine. He’s not a genie in a bottle. We have to live inside the tension of the possibility of God showing up with miraculous power, and the fact that sometimes he doesn’t. And sometimes we’ll understand why, but often we just won’t.

I don’t doubt that some of us in this room are carrying deep heartache because we didn’t get our miracle.

Maybe the healing didn’t happen.Maybe the job didn’t come through.Maybe the relationship fell apart.

Some of us have given up on expecting God to show up in miraculous ways. You just handle things yourself, you maintain control, you keep “realistic” expectations. The risk of disappointment, of failure and frustration just feels too great. The pain of past disappointments is maybe still too fresh. You’d rather play it safe than risk believing in a fairy tale or looking like a fool. And I get that.

BUT, if we believe that God is good, and as we explored last week, that pain and suffering are NOT his dream for the world – it’ll change everything. There will be situations, an increasing number of situations as we grow in faith and as we pray “your kingdom come, your will be done,” where God will break in, where he will show up; and he will do it in response to the requests of his children.

If we believe that God can do miracles, and that he actually wants to, it’ll change the way we pray. It’ll change our expectations. We won’t be as inclined to hedge as we pray, saying “God, if you want to do this thing, that’d be really cool. But if you don’t, that’s fine, too.” We might also shift from a generic “my thoughts and prayers are with you…” approach to prayer, to one that is more expectant, more active, and more direct in seeking for God to do what only God can do. It’s like the difference between me cold-calling a stranger to ask for money, hoping that it might be a “yes,” but anticipating a “no,” to me calling up my dad, knowing based on a lifetime of history, that he loves to help me. There’s no guarantee of it, but at the end of the day, I’ll know, because he’s proven it over and over, that I can trust him. God is not a stranger that I need to cajole. He is my loving Father, and he is SO good, and so ready to DO good.

We can trust him. Does it mean we need to believe every single person who claims that God did a miracle? No.

Does it mean we can be rational people and still believe in miracles? Absolutely. Because our faith is in an all-loving, all-powerful, miracle working God.

6

Conclusion: PrayerSo I want to conclude today by praying three things over our community. I also want to encourage you to pray for these three things as you go throughout this next week.

1. That God would increase our faith. That he would help our unbelief and help us to trust him in deeper and deeper ways.

2. That God would break through in miraculous ways. Tell him where you need a miracle. Ask him to move. Ask him to bring his miraculous power to your situation.

3. That we would trust him no matter what happens. Believing we have a loving Father who wants the best for us, his children.

Would you join me in asking God for these things? (Pray for these three things.)

CommunionOur entire faith hinges on a miracle – the resurrection of Jesus. From that miracle flows our belief that Jesus is with us today in his Spirit, that we will be raised from the dead like him, and that all of the cosmos will someday be put to rights. Without it, the Bible is just an anthropological text, all we have is the life we see laid out before us, and, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:19, “we are of all people most to be pitied” for wasting our lives on a lie.

But if it happened, and we very much believe that it did – historically, verifiably – we have great reason to put our hope, our expectations, our future, our entire identities, in Jesus. It is this historic miracle that we commemorate and celebrate every week at Communion.

7