Miracles, Healings, and Hinn

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, "...but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.".

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

We're here to take your calls as well. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Why This Show Is Intentionally Biblical and Controversial

Welcome to No Compromise Radio. This is Mike Abendroth. NoCompromiseRadio .com, if you'd like to go to our website. Today is Friday, and Friday as we call Mystery Friday. Mystery Friday, that basically gives me a license to talk about whatever I'd like to talk about, and so today is no different.

This is our first Friday, actually, Mystery Friday, and what we're going to do today is look at, what does the Bible teach about miracles? It'll be kind of a teaching session. We won't take calls today.

What does the Bible say about miracles? But before we do that, I want to make sure you understand a little bit about the show. The show is basically, the title is more negatively phrased, I understand that, No Compromise, and we're not out to try to attack every person, institution, book, or anything else, but here's what we are saying.

Paul in Galatians chapter 2 verse 5 said, we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you. Paul was negative, as it were, because he had a reason for it.

He was positively defending the gospel. If you're married, you would defend your wife, wouldn't you? And if you're a Christian, you ought to defend the gospel. The writer of Jude, Jude said that we ought to contend, what?

Contend earnestly for the faith. And so the radio ministry, No Compromise Radio, has Galatians 2 .5 for the theme. We stand up for the truth. You've got to be known for what you're for, in other words, and for what you're against.

By definition, that's truth. Truth says it's for this and it's against that. And so we want to make sure you understand where we're coming from. I hope to first be biblical and then provocative. We have a slogan for this show, always biblical, always provocative, always in that order.

And that's really what we're after. I love to teach the Bible. I would teach the Bible to anyone, anywhere, but I also want to teach it in such a way that makes it interesting. I don't think it should be boring.

And so this is radio, and I will be happy to admit that I'm trying to have people listen. Because as you listen, then you'll learn the Word of God. And so I want to make sure it's biblical before interesting or provocative or controversial.

But I do want it to be interesting, because I think eternal life is interesting. I think the gospel is interesting. I think Christ Jesus, He's interesting. I think when I read Exodus, as I was reading this morning, it is a very interesting gospel.

And you have Shipra and Puah, who are not going to kill the boys as they're born. They will let them live, and they are blessed by God. And you hear Moses, and he wants to go over to talk to whatever's in this burning bush, whoever's in that burning bush.

And you read these accounts, and it's very interesting. So with that said, it's No Compromise Ministry, No Compromise Radio Ministry. I'm the pastor of Bethlehem Bible Church. We have services at 1015 on Sunday morning.

We'd love to have you come to the church. It's just north of Worcester. You can go to the church website, www .bbcchurch .org. So today we're going to talk about miracles. Mystery Friday today, what about miracles?

What the Bible Means by Miracles

We use that word so loosely today. Miracle on 34th Street. There's the man who was Valentine Davies. It was a fantasy for him. And it's kind of this fictional myth thing. We talk about miracles when we discuss Hercules, or when I was a kid, one of my favorites, Sinbad the Sailor.

And these miracles are really fantasies. They never take place. They're fictional. For those of you that like the Dallas Cowboys, remember Roger Staubach, the quarterback? Two touchdowns in less than two minutes, they win the 1972 NFC Championship over the 49ers.

And what was it called? The Miracle Victory. How about the 1980 semifinal Olympic hockey game, United States versus Russia? The Miracle Victory. The Miracle Venetary Kick. People like to use the word miracle for something that is just remarkable.

It may be something that's unpredictable or coincidental, but it is not having to do with a divine providential act. They like to talk about miracles, quoting Walt Whitman. To me, every hour of the light and dark is a miracle.

Every cubic inch of space is a miracle. Blah, blah, blah. That's not it. Sadly, people today, like on TBN, talk about miracles too, but they're not using biblical terminology. Or maybe they are using biblical terminology, but not with biblical definition.

There was a show on recently, and the man says, expect a miracle today. Expect a miracle today. That person is not saying, expect a divine providential supernatural act in your life. But they're saying, you know, here's something good that might happen to you today.

Oral Roberts said present day miracles are something, quote, that we can't explain, but that makes a profound change for the better in our lives. Is that what a miracle is? I do believe in miracles, and I want you, the biblical listener, to believe in miracles as well.

But I don't want you to have everything kind of watered down. Lots of times we'll say the word miracle, but we forget that the Bible talks about miracles in a specific way. This universe has an order.

It has gravity. It has physical forces. But these things are underneath the dominating hand of God. Listen to this definition of a miracle by Thiessen. A unique and extraordinary event, awakening wonder wrought by divine power, accomplishing some practical and benevolent work, and authenticating a messenger and his message as from God.

Not bad. Let's try Holman Bible Dictionary. Events which unmistakably involve an immediate and powerful action of God. That's good so far. Designed to reveal his character, our purposes. Excellent. Words used in the scripture to describe the miraculous include sign, wonder, work, mighty work, portent, power.

These point out the inspired author's sense of God's persuasive activity in nature, history, and people. That's a much better definition. That's a lot different than Tom Brady's Hail Mary touchdown pass.

It's a miracle. Let me give you one last definition from Easton Bible Dictionary. An event in the external world brought about by the immediate agency or the simple volition or the will of God. And here's something important, audience.

Operating without the use of means capable of being discerned by the senses. In other words, it's over man, it's above man. You can't figure this out with your tactile senses. With your sensory perceptions, you can't understand it.

Miracles in Scripture Are Spectacular

Let me, in the time we have left, talk about miracles and I wanna give you some helpful thoughts about miracles. Number one, miracles in the Bible were always spectacular. They were spectacular. I'm going to give you a list and you start matching this list up against the other people on TV and radio for that matter, who talk about miracles in just such a dumbed down way.

We want to use this word and I'd like to keep it used specifically for the Bible's definition of miracles. The first thing I'd like to tell you about the Bible, miracles, would be that they were spectacular.

Consider the healing of the man born blind in John 9. John 9, 5, while I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Verse 6, when he had said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and applied the clay to his eyes.

And so Jesus has talked about who he was and now he's applying this wet clay to the eyes. And he said to him, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is translated scent. And so he went away and washed and came back seen.

Can you imagine the blindness back in those days? All the flies and the encrusted eyes with infection. They said there was often a disease called trachoma, which was a painful infection of the eye. Leprosy could cause blindness.

You could have people who have disorders of the eye and sometimes they would say, you know what, we need to lance the boil near the eye. We need to extract with some kind of weird old instrument, inverted eyelashes, and then they'd have some kind of mistake.

There could be some kind of infection as the baby would come out of the birth canal. And so lots of people were blind. And here Jesus heals a blind man. This healing was spectacular. This is not leg lengthening.

This is not bad back. This is not somehow you come with the wheelchair and you walk across the stage and get slain in the spirit and then you have to have the wheelchair the next day. These are people who were blind and now they see.

Verse 32 of John 9, since the beginning of time, it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. They were spectacular. How about the man's amputated ear that Jesus replaced?

Ever see that on TBN? Mark 14, 45, after coming, he immediately went to him saying, rabbi and kissed him. What's going on here in this context? This is the treacherous Judas kissing his master. It's a very intense word for kiss.

He kissed him. It's a fervent kiss. It's a prolonged kiss. Thayer translates it to kiss much, kiss again and again, and to kiss tenderly. Here we have the Judas kiss, intensively kissing his master. And so then what happens in verse 46?

And they laid hands on him and seized him. But a certain one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ears. So Jesus is kissed by Judas. The soldiers grabbed Jesus.

And now there's a certain slave of the high priest. And we know it is Simon Peter who had a sword, John 18. And he aims for the throat. He aims for the head. And this man, I'm sure, ducked. And what got cut off?

Cut his ear off. Got his ear cut off. Can you imagine that? Luke 22, it says, stop, according to Christ's words, no more of this. And he touched his ear and healed him. Can you imagine that blood, vascular tissue?

Here's the ear down on the ground. And imagine, you can almost feel your heartbeat in your ear if you got your ear cut off. There's blood pouring through the person's fingers. And then Jesus puts the ear back on.

He heals the ear. He touched his ear and healed him. I think if you look down, you probably saw his old ear laying there, all bloody. Here, Jesus gives him a new ear. Hebert, the commentator, said, since Mark elsewhere does not use the diminutive form for ear, it's here used.

It may be intended to indicate that only the lobe of his ear was cut off. This would help explain Luke's statement that Jesus healed his ear. Who knows what actually happened, but this was spectacular.

Show me a Bible miracle, and I'll show you something that was spectacular. Number two, Bible miracles are not just spectacular. They are undeniable. I'll say it this way. What you need to do is if there's a real miracle, it's not just for the Christians down in Haiti.

It's not just some kind of DCU Center healing deal. You call up the New York Times. You call up Slate. You call up some big BBC radio, internet news organization in London, and you tell them, we are going to show you a miracle, and you can't deny it.

You might say it's not from God. You might say it's something else, but you can't deny it. And that's what was going on when it comes to Bible miracles. Let's not cheapen the word miracle by saying it's something that it's not.

Acts 4 .15, and when they had ordered them to go aside out of the council, they began to confer with one another, saying, what shall we do with these men? For the fact that a noteworthy miracle has taken place through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.

We cannot deny it. Do you know the people that watched Jesus do miracles didn't say, well, no, he didn't do them. They knew he did the miracles. Well, they might have attributed those miracles to demons, but they knew Jesus did those miracles.

And so show me someone who says that they're a modern-day faith healer, but they only do it in front of Christians. I remember I met a man once at Gold's Gym, and I said, my back is killing me, L4, L5, L5, S1.

He said, well, I could heal your back. I said, great. He said, well, we have to go away to the special healing crusade. I said, you mean you can't heal my back right now? If you're a healer, you should be able to heal my back in a spectacular fashion, and it should be undeniable to anyone else.

And so he said, no, I have to do this other special thing. And I thought, I'm not going anywhere with you. You're just going to give me some mumbo jumbo. If you show me someone who has a biblical healing, back in these days, people would know, believers and unbelievers.

Remember, Nicodemus came running to Jesus. Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, and no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. You were able to do signs. Number three, how do we find real miracles?

Miracles Serve the Gospel, Not Themselves

One, they're spectacular. Two, they're undeniable. Three, these miracles, though of some impact, were never the emphasis of the apostles' ministry. In other words, they were not ends in themselves. So many people today say, well, we're into healing ministry, and that's what we do.

We don't really preach the Bible. We don't really listen, excuse me, we don't really teach from the scriptures. You turn on Benny Hinn's show on TBN or whatever he's on now, and it's not Bible teaching.

It is healing. The opposite to that is found in the Bible, and the Bible would say this, that there's not an end in and of themselves. They were a means to the end, and the end was the proclamation of eternal life.

I could ask it this way. If you have your back healed, but die in your sins, you're still going to hell forever. Isn't there something more important than physical healing in this life? The answer is, of course there is.

Miracles and signs and healings were springboards for the preaching of the gospel, forgiveness found in Christ Jesus alone. If you look at Mark 1, or just listen, and he healed, Jesus healed many who were ill with various diseases, cast out many demons, and he was not permitting the demons to speak because they knew who he was.

And in the morning, early, while it was still dark, he arose and went out and departed to a lonely place, and was praying there. And Simon's and his companions hunted for Jesus. Can you imagine you've got Jesus staying with you?

He's healing all kinds of people. You wake up in the morning, there's all kinds of other people there, and you can't find Jesus, and they are hunting him. They are tracking him down. They are anxious, I'm sure.

There's a little bit of hostility here in the air when it comes to the original language. And verse 37 of Mark 1 says, and when they found him, they said to him, everyone is looking for you. Hands on hip, hands on hips, exasperatedly saying, everyone's looking for you.

Crowds, we are. And Jesus said to them, I mean, you better sit down. If you're driving, you better pull over, and if you're listening, you better sit down. And Jesus said to them, let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, in order that I may preach there also, for that is why I came.

Can you imagine? The purpose for Christ is not primarily to heal people, although that was a wonderful act of compassion that the Messiah would heal people. But he said the purpose is to preach the kingdom of the gospel.

Luke 4 says the same thing. I must preach the kingdom of the gospel to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose. Main purpose for miracles is a launching pad for the gospel. It's not in and of themselves.

The commission for Christ was to preach the gospel on his way to Calvary. Dick Lucas said it this way. How to ruin your ministry in three simple steps. Get the power to heal all sickness, step one. Get a large crowd of sick people, step two.

Step three, turn away and tell them you're going on a preaching trip. That's exactly what happened. Jesus is not going to be bullied into some kind of career as a wonder worker. He is on the way to Calvary.

And on the way to Calvary, he is there exactly as Isaiah would prophesy to give the message of the kingdom, to preach the gospel of good news. Forgiveness found in the work of another Christ, Jesus, the son of God, the son of man.

No one on earth, if they want to be biblical, should have a healing ministry. It should be a ministry of the word of God because it's given a springboard by people healing. Now we'll talk another time, do I think there are biblical healings today?

I think God heals through prayer. I think God heals through medicine. Not saying God doesn't heal, but this kind of healing, if you say I've got this big healing ministry, then I don't believe you anyway because you never should have a healing ministry.

You should have a ministry that is proclaiming the word of God, proclaiming the spiritual forgiveness of sins. Not temporal, your leg is going to be lengthened a little bit. And then you should say, that's biblical.

No healing ministry allowed. Next time DCU Center has some healing ministry people, don't go, don't waste your time. It wouldn't be a biblical miracle and biblical healings anyway. Miracles in the Bible were one, spectacular, two, undeniable, three, not the ends.

They were a means to the end, the gospel. And number four, healings were not selectively done. People that had the gift of healing, the apostles or Jesus could heal anyone and everyone. It wasn't just certain people who could have the healing.

Listen to Acts 5 verse 14. And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number to such an extent that they even carry the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets so that when Peter came by, at least a shadow might fall on any one of them.

And also the people from the cities of the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed. Did you get that?

Verse 16 of Acts 5, and they were all being healed. Acts 28, and after this happened, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases were coming to him and getting cured only if they had a lot of money, only if they were selected by the Benny Hinn bouncer outside to be pulled in so it could be a profitable Peter Popov kind of healing.

I went to a Benny Hinn, I was gonna say concert sometime. It's basically a concert. He comes out to How Great Thou Art in his white Catherine Kuhlman outfit. But we couldn't get in. Why couldn't we get in?

Because we didn't have the, kind of the right healing credentials. We didn't have the leg lengthening deals or the bad backs. I guess I could have told him about my bad back. But the Bible miracles, the Bible healings were not selectively done.

That's why if you have a healing ministry, well, it's not biblical because it should be a gospel ministry. But if you do have a healing ministry, we have a hospital here in Worcester. We have St. Vincent's.

We have UMass University. You could go to Brigham and Women's. You could go to Beth Deaconess. I don't know what are all these names of the hospitals in Boston. But if you could heal, you mean to tell me you're not gonna go to the hospital and go room by room by room?

You're a fraud. If you've got the gift of healing and you don't go to the hospital, you're a fraud. And you're an uncompassionate fraud as well. You can't do things that are spectacular. You can't do things that are undeniable.

You can't do things with a springboard for the gospel. You can't heal people and have the gift of healing if you don't get rid of a wing of a hospital. And frankly, why don't you start in Children's Hospital?

I worked in Children's Hospital in Los Angeles before. And I know being in Children's Hospital in Boston is very sad when anyone gets sick. But to go see some of the cancer-wracked patients at Children's Hospital in Boston is very sad.

It is very, without the joy of the Lord as our strength, it'd be very difficult. But how much more painful would it be to somehow smugly sit there and say, I've got the gift of healing, and never venture into a child's hospital?

Friend, that's a fraud. Anybody says they've got a healing ministry and they're not in the hospital, clearing out wings of people, both believer and unbeliever, with spectacular, undeniable miracles, who are they?

Miracles in Scripture Were Infrequent and Authenticated Revelation

And lastly, Bibles in the miracle were, Bibles in the miracles? Miracles in the Bible were infrequent. You know, there was huge time periods between miracles. People say they're miracles all the time.

There were only three points in history where there was a lot of miracles, the time of Moses and Joshua, the time of Elijah and Elisha, and the time of Jesus and the apostles. Put them all together, it was about 100 years of biblical time.

Why was that happening? Because these things were authenticating the law, authenticating the prophets, and authenticating Jesus, the Son, and the apostles. So, I like miracles. I believe in miracles. I believe in healings.

I especially believe the ones in the Bible. And I believe that if God would like to do a miracle today, he can. And if he'd like to heal today, he can. But he does these kind of miracles and healings, not the other kind.

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God bless you. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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