Signs and Wonders (John 4:43-54 Jeff Kliewer)

Our visitor here, welcome to Cornerstone. My name is Michael and if you are able to, on a smartphone, go to contact .cornerstonesj .org. That is just our contact form that you can fill out. It lets us know that you're here.

We really appreciate you visiting us. And there's more information on our website if you want to go there. But we're going to start off with a song this morning as the kids make their way in and get set up.

We're going to give this time to the Lord. So if you would stand up.

We are thinking about Christmas because it is Operation Christmas Child kickoff Sunday. I love it. And I'm Kristen. We're your team leaders Kristen and this is Cornelia. As you can see, the box came in her size this year.

And if you're familiar with Operation Christmas Child, we have a short video to show you to either introduce the ministry, which we'll talk more about, or get us excited all over again.

When those lids come off those boxes, you've never seen such pure joy.

This is amazing. As you can see the children's faces. They are excited as they open up the gifts for the first time.

What makes the gifts more than just gifts is the message that comes with the gift.

This is the opportunity for a child to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The mission of Operation Christmas Child never changes. Children are coming to Jesus and children are taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Millions of children around the world are being impacted by these simple shoebox gifts. One box can touch not just a child, but the whole family. So we need to keep packing those boxes and pray for the children that God will use this in a very special way.

So thank you for being a part.

Of it. God bless you. How amazing is that? The amazing journey of a simple shoebox gift begins with each of us. We have, Cornelia and I have, you'll notice a few boxes to the right if you did when you came in this morning.

The shoeboxes are ready to go. Those are there for you. We're asking you if you feel led to do so. Take one or five. There is a label inside. That label is very important. It's a sticker. It identifies either whether you're making the box with a boy or girl in mind, the age category.

Stick it on the front. Rubber band it as you fill it. Somehow, Operation Christmas Child ships these to the ends of the earth for $10 a box. So if you could please include $10 with each of the boxes that you put together.

Remember, there are instructions on the back of that label for suggestions to fill the boxes, but in short, no liquids, no candy, no war-related items. And if you would, please rubber band them with your $10 donation inside.

There is also an option to build a shoebox online. We have this information out on the table. If you don't have time and want to just do it from the comfort of your home, Cornelia showed me how easy it is.

It's really crazy easy. So the Pastogram is going to include a link that will really identify us as part of Cornerstone Church. Guys, this church last year, we did over 400 boxes. And I think we can do more.

So I would encourage you to do so. Ask us any questions. We'll be back there every week now through November 20th. So we're excited for.

You to get involved. Grab a box, and we'll see you in the back. I want to thank you ladies for.

Bringing this to us and heading this ministry up. It's a great opportunity for us to touch the lives of children around the world. Your boxes include not just toys, but they include scripture that allow the children to know and to grow closer to God.

Kristen said 400. Let's do better than that. I'm making the challenge. Let's do better than five, okay? We can do this as a church. Now here's the thing also. You bring these boxes, you have neighbors.

And this can be an awesome way to talk to a neighbor, introduce the idea of the box and the reason for the box. It can be a great opening door for you to share the gospel with them. But you'll be amazed how many of your neighbors that may not even go to a church are going to be willing to contribute and to be part of this ministry.

So I encourage you to that way. My wife and I go every year to the dollar store to buy stuff and I find it really encouraging how often the salespeople know exactly what we're doing because they understand these boxes and they're going to be so willing to help.

And then there's another opportunity to share the love of Christ. So encouraging on that. Let's open this morning in Psalm 28, I'm sorry, 22 verse 28. For the kingdom is the Lord's and he rules over the nations.

It is kind of cool on the Sunday that we're highlighting these boxes that will go around the world. This whole world is God's. He does not limit himself to one country or to another and we get to be part of this.

But here's the thing, for the kingdom is the Lord's. And so anything that we do, whether it's these boxes, whether it's our worship, whatever it is, it's all for God's glory because he is the creator and author.

All the kingdom is the Lord's. He rules over all the nations. I have a few announcements. First of all, I want to encourage you tomorrow evening is our congregational meeting. We do some important stuff during this meeting.

If you're a member, please come seven o 'clock tomorrow. If you're not a member, please come. It's a great opportunity. I am starting to get some membership applications from people from the starting point class.

If you took the class and you can fill them out, get them in, we will work with those process. And if you're interested in our church and haven't been to a starting point class, we'll probably be looking at one at the beginning of the year to do that again.

So we encourage you towards that. Also men, if you have not yet signed up for the men's retreat, it's November 11, 12, 13. It's Pocono Mountain Bible Camp. It's up near Wilkes-Barre. If you've never been to it, it's called the Builder's Summit.

There'll be a handful of pastors who know the scripture and who understand from the scripture what it means for a man to be a man. This is an powerful message for us to hear in this day and age, especially.

It's also a great time to fellowship with other guys. And sometimes guys being guys in that area, it's a great, great way for you to grow in your faith. Encourage you towards that. Jeff's Pastor Graham will have links to that.

So we encourage you to that. Just a little tease ahead. We do every Wednesday have a Bible study where Jeff and I teach. Right now we're doing Ephesians, a great, amazing book. We're going to take a small break in the beginning of November.

We do this occasionally when there's a topic that deserves some special time. And so Pastor Jeff is going to give a multi-week session on the topic of the Trinity. If you are available during the week at noon on Wednesdays, you're always invited to it.

But boy, this will be an amazing time. These are also then recorded. They're available for you to watch online at your opportunity. I want to encourage you tonight, our prayer meeting. Then during the week we have the women's precepts, the women's study, the men's apologetics, and all the small groups, the youth group.

If you are interested in helping Tim with all these little ones, you would really like help, right? Okay. So we do encourage you to be part of those ministries. I also want to encourage you in this past Thursday's Pastor Graham, Jeff included a reference to a letter that Pastor John MacArthur wrote to Gavin Newsom.

I encourage you to read that down and read it. He had some powerful messages from the scripture to say. Now let's go to prayer. Father, we do profess that you are the sovereign king over all. We thank you, Lord, for your ability, for your sovereignty, for your omnipotence, your omniscience, how you care for all of creation.

Lord, we know that man being a sinner is in desperate need, and so your love even provides through your son, and then the grace that our hearts might be softened so that we could respond. It's all from you, Lord, and this world is your kingdom, and you are sovereign over all of it.

So Lord, now we ask for the boldness to speak your truth. We pray, Lord, that we would be prepared, that we would take time to be prepared to study your word, to read your word, to be in prayer, to know those words that we could speak when the opportunity shows up, and that we would be willing and bold to speak when that opportunity is there.

Father, that we would stand firm against the cultural pressures of this world, because yours is the truth. And Father, we pray that as we share that we're focused on God, we're focused on bringing others to God to give you the glory.

Lord, we do realize there are many in our congregation who are in need physically, and stress, and things going on. We continue to lift them up. We see healing hand in many in our congregation, and we praise you for those miracles that you still perform.

And then we pray, Lord, for our family, our friends, our neighbors, and for that miracle of salvation to occur. Be with our pastor as he brings us your word, as we see more of the truth made manifest through your miracles.

The power, the power of what you do, but it's your word. So speak through our pastor with your word. Open our hearts, prepare our hearts. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Signs and Wonders as Signs Pointing to the Word

Okay, after praying, the next thing to do is to pray. Let's pray. So Father, we do recognize that we need to pray because apart from you, we can do nothing. You are the vine, we are the branches. So we recognize that all the power comes from you, that we are desperately dependent on you.

And we look to you, Lord. I pray that as I preach today, you would keep my voice strong and give me your word to say. And I pray for all of us who hear that our hearts would be made open. Lord, we pray also that you would stretch out your hand to heal and to do signs and wonders in whatever it is that you desire to do in your sovereign will, for the sake of the name that is above every name, Jesus.

In your name we pray, amen. I don't generally like signs and wonder stories told by the person who performed them. So the person who goes to China and comes back and says, I performed all of these miracles and all of these people were healed.

I would prefer to hear from the blind man who says, I don't know much, but I once was blind, now I see. Or the crippled man who says, I once was crippled and here I am, you explain it. The trouble is the one who touts their healing gift and the spiritual works that they have done are often tainted by wrong memories.

Or perhaps wrong motives that would seek to exalt the healer and the one through whom the gift was given, if in fact something supernatural happened in the first place. I had a bad experience with a faith healer when I was in Florida.

I was a youth pastor from 2000 to 2003 in St. Petersburg and I was working at this Presbyterian church and one of the ladies in our church was part a ministry called the Dream Fund. It was kind of like Make-A-Wish where there were children, young teenagers often, who were dying of cancer and this ministry would allow them to go and have a final adventure, some wonderful experience, like maybe going to Disney World or perhaps going to California or to an Eagles game or something like that.

But I, at that time, met a man who claimed to be a faith healer. He was teaching at a Calvary Chapel and nothing against Calvary Chapel, love Calvary Chapel, but I would go to this Calvary Chapel on Wednesday nights and I noticed over the course of months that time and again he told story after story of people who were healed when he would lay hands upon them.

And I was wanting to learn more and more about the spiritual gifts and I was studying 1 Corinthians 12 to 14 and I was very much taken in by this man's testimonies. But after a few months of this I realized that I could invite him to go with me to the hospital where regularly I would visit these kids from the Dream Fund.

And so I would invite him on a Wednesday night and each time that I would invite him he would say that he was busy. Time after time I invited him until finally I realized that he was not going to go with me to the children's hospital where the children were dying of cancer.

He had stories to tell of things that he had seen or done or wanted to relate but he refused to go with me to pray over these ones who were actually in that situation. Sadly that is a story repeated time and again.

In Acts chapter 5 Gamaliel claimed to be somebody. No he made the claim that Thudias claimed to be somebody and yet his movement turned out to come to nothing. In Acts chapter 8 Simon was saying that he himself was somebody great.

He was touting his miracle powers and what wonderful things he could accomplish. And yet when he encountered the genuine he repented and ultimately for a time tried to buy that gift but his greatness proved to be nothing.

Contrasting with that you never find Jesus touting himself but rather the opposite is often the case where Jesus will actually downplay his miracles and say to the one through to whom receive the healing tell nobody.

This becomes known as the messianic secret and it's not that these this evidence wouldn't come out in due time but Jesus was not touting his miracles. Rather other people would do it. In fact when they were told not to tell anybody what did they go and do?

They told the whole town they couldn't help themselves but say and here's the principle that I'd like to establish. Signs are not an end in themselves a sign always points to something more prominent.

Signs and wonders are not themselves the point but rather they point to the word of God. In Acts 16 20 the apostles went out and preached everywhere while the the lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

Signs and wonders are not to be sought as an end of themselves but rather they point to the word of God. Now there was a time where signs validated men and that was during the apostolic age according to 2nd Corinthians 12 12.

The signs of a true apostle are the working of miracles. The apostles were validated as apostles because they were able to work miracles according to 2nd Corinthians 12 12. But here's the rub the very definition of an apostle limits that to that first generation of eyewitnesses.

Apostles are defined in Acts chapter 1 verses 21 to 25 as eyewitnesses of the life, death, and burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So once that generation of apostles died there are no more apostles today.

So if you drive by a church on the corner on main street the church of the apostolic such and such with apostle so and so presiding keep on driving because there are no modern day apostles. Signs and wonders when pursued as an end to themselves get people into a pickle because they have to keep one-upping themselves to keep their followers following.

One of the prominent faith healers in our country is named Kenneth Copeland and when COVID -19 appeared on the scene before it was spreading all throughout the country there was only a few cases he went on television the threat was there and he stood up and he bound COVID -19 shouting COVID -19 you go back to the pit of hell I bind you says Kenneth Copeland.

Well within weeks COVID -19 had swept over the nation. His binding authority was shown to be a fraud. Another went on TV and saw a coming hurricane and stood on TBN and quote-unquote pieced it into the ocean.

He said piece you go into the ocean away from the United States of America however the hurricane would not obey and it did just what God had sovereignly allowed for it to do it came through and wreaked havoc.

Sadly Bill Johnson from Bethel church has overseen a church which has become too crazy about signs and wonders and they had a little boy die in the congregation and the church then continued to pray and to seek God for the raising of the dead but they refused to trust the sovereign will of God at some point they kept demanding kept praying for days and weeks until finally they relented and submitted to the sovereignty of God in that situation.

Now it's difficult to judge maybe there's something good about praying for the resurrection of the dead but there came a point when Bethel church became demanding of a miracle commanding God to do what he sovereignly withholds the right to do or not to do.

You see miracles cannot be demanded the word faith movement says that you can name a miracle and claim it in faith name and claim. The trouble is that is not the teaching of scripture in first Corinthians chapter 12 verses 9 and 10 the gifts of healing and the gifts of miracle are presented in the plural.

Now hear me what that means is that there is no one who is given the gift singular of healing who can heal anybody he wants to by having enough faith or mustering enough faith to claim that as inheritance as part of the atonement as if this healing being inherent to the atonement is something that can now be demanded there is no such thing as a modern-day apostle and even the apostles were subject to the will of God in healing.

That is not to say that the miracles and the miraculous gifts signs and wonders have ceased God is still sovereignly free to perform signs and wonders and it would go beyond the scripture to say that all signs and wonders have ceased.

So let's address this subject from the text of scripture in John chapter 4 verses 43 to 54. Here we have the second sign that Jesus performs let's read it first and then we'll comment and unpack some very important principles regarding signs and wonders because there's a ditch on one side where we stop praying and hoping and believing for miracles and asking God to do things which are extraordinary but there's another ditch where we become demanding and commanding of a sovereign God who reserves to himself the freedom to do as he pleases.

Notice Jesus being asked for a miracle John 4 43 and following after the two days he departed for Galilee for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his hometown. So when he came to Galilee the Galileans welcomed him having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast for they too had gone to the feast.

So he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had made the water wine and at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son for he was at the point of death.

So Jesus said to him unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe. The official said to him sir come down before my child dies. Jesus said to him go your son will live. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.

As he was going down his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better and they said to him yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.

The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him your son will live and he himself believed and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

The Galileans Want Signs but Not Jesus

Big picture what's happening in this story. This is a sign that Jesus is the Christ the son of the living God. Now hear me in the story signs and wonders are not presented as a bad thing rather this is yet another piece of evidence that Jesus is the Christ the son of the living God.

We have the testimony of John the Baptist, John the Apostle, Nicodemus hears the testimony from Jesus's own mouth. We have the testimony of the Samaritan woman. These are testimonies that Jesus is the Christ.

But earlier in John chapter two we also have the work of Jesus. When he changed water to wine at Capernaum he demonstrated his power and authority and confirmed the words that he spoke. So we have both the words and the works of Jesus.

The works the miracles that he performs are good and they are signs that Jesus is the Christ. Big picture that's what this is about. It's a testimony but let's dive in a little more carefully into the details of the text to derive some principles about signs and wonders right.

So let's look at verse 43 to 45. Commentators are all over the map as to what these verses mean. Take a look at it. The surprising part is that the parenthetical says that prophets are not welcomed in their hometown but the very next verse says, verse 45, so when he came to Galilee the Galileans welcomed him.

Why does John insert the thought that prophets are not welcomed in their hometown? Jesus being from Galilee where Nazareth was a small town in Galilee returns there and he's welcomed. What is John doing with that parenthetical statement?

Well there's at least three positions. One is that Nazareth, the town, is not included in Galilee in this sentence. Does that make sense? Jesus actually had to pass by his small hometown of Nazareth to get to the larger country of Galilee where Capernaum is.

That is a formidable opinion especially because as you look at the synoptics both Mark and Luke talk about how the town of Nazareth rejected the Messiah. In fact they took him to the edge of the cliff and they were about to throw him over but he disappeared through their midst.

Remember that? In both cases Mark and Luke use this quote and say a prophet has no honor in his hometown. So it could be that John never mentions Nazareth but he's referring to that. That's why he doesn't go to Nazareth he goes to Capernaum.

But again John does not mention Nazareth. He could have said he didn't go to Nazareth because of that. The second view has to do with Jesus as king belonging in his hometown of Jerusalem. Remember he was born in Bethlehem and his kingdom will be set up in Jerusalem and some say when you look at verse 43 after the two days he departed for Galilee for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his hometown.

In other words he needed to leave Jerusalem to go back up to the hinterlands way up north because in his hometown Jerusalem the capital of the king there's no welcome for him there. And that would make sense of the text as well.

Let me commend yet a third view and that is the welcome that we see in verse 45 in his hometown. Galilee was his hometown was only superficial. And the point that John is going to make is that all they want is to see miracles.

They don't believe in him. Notice in verse 45. So when he came to Galilee the Galileans quote unquote welcomed him. Right? They were ostensibly for him. They're welcoming him. Having what? Here's the point that John makes.

Having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast. In other words there were Galileans that saw what he does. He cleared the temple. They were excited about that.

The messiah clears the temple. They want him to come and rule as king. But notice what happens with his teaching when they hear what the prophet says. Here's John's point I think. A prophet has no welcome in his hometown.

It'll look like they accept him because they like his miracles. Everybody loves a good miracle. But they don't want his teaching. Turn with me to John 6 66. These very Galileans will see the feeding of the 5 ,000.

They'll love the fact that he feeds them and he does miracles like multiplying bread and wine. But when he says what they don't want to hear. When he prophesies about his own body and blood. You must eat my body and drink my blood.

What does it say in John 6 66? I don't want to do any numerology there but there's a 666 going on here. Which I think that's coincidental. I don't think that's because the the the numbers were added just after the reformation.

So after this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. You see that? When he says what they don't want to hear. They're no longer welcoming. John chapter 7 verse 7. The world cannot hate you but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.

Church, when we speak like Jesus we will be persecuted like Jesus. He who desires to do the will of God will be persecuted. It wasn't Jesus's miracles that offended. It was his teaching on sin and righteousness and judgment.

Jesus ultimately will see these Galileans swarm to Jerusalem and it's mostly the Galileans who conduct the triumphal entry. He rides in on a donkey and they're cheering for him. But when they see their Messiah humiliated, they reject him.

He claims that he is the truth to Pontius Pilate. And then Pilate presents Jesus to these same Galileans and they choose Barabbas over him. And then in John chapter 19 they shout crucify, crucify. And in the upper room after Jesus rises from the dead, the number of genuine believers has been reduced to but 120 believers.

I think John has a theme that he's developing through his book and that is a prophet has no welcome. Church, we can make Operation Christmas Child boxes and we should do that. We can send them to the ends of the earth and we can care for widows and we can care for orphans and we do these things as a church.

We're currently helping to found an orphanage in Malawi right now. Hamilton Bandit will be back here in a few weeks to tell about it. It's going amazingly. When we do that, everybody in our neighborhood will cheer for what we're doing.

They will help you make boxes because hey, who's against good works? But when you testify with Jesus that their deeds are evil and you call them to repent and believe in Jesus alone as the only way of salvation, you will not be loved, you will not be welcomed, you will be hated on account of his name.

When we went last week to dedicate property to the Lord, that morning we discovered that someone had come to our property and implanted nails in the concrete to pop the tires of all this congregation.

But by God's providential sign, one of our members walked along that path that morning and tripped, hurt himself a little, but by God's grace he's fine. But discovered all of these nails, and there were multiple of them it turns out, and we were able to pull them so that we would go on and dedicate this land to the Lord.

Why would people in this very area oppose the progress of this church? It's not because of Operation Christmas Child, that's a good thing, and they would agree. It's because we say that the works of this world and of the devil and of the flesh are evil.

And we call men and women to repent and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we say unless you repent, you will die in your sin. And when you preach prophetically the word of God, it is the word, not the works, that offend.

When we say what Jesus says, the world will treat us as our Messiah was treated. And how was our Messiah treated? He was strung up on a tree to be humiliated and mocked and to die a death that he did not deserve.

And if they treated our Lord that way, how ought we expect to be treated? But I want to tell you about another sign spoken of in Philippians 1, 29 and 30. When we suffer for the sake of the name, as we conduct ourselves according to the gospel and walk in a way that's worthy of the gospel, Paul tells us this, when you have no fear of them, listen, when you are steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, when you have no fear of the enemy or of the world, this is a sign to them, that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved, and that by God.

That's what Paul says in Philippians 1. And the good news is any who flee the wrath of God to take refuge in Christ will find him to be a perfect savior. They can come and join the kingdom of God and find safety in the refuge in the rock.

But as we hide in him, we are safe and we have nothing to fear in the world. This is a sign. The point of the passage here in the early three verses is that a prophet has no honor in his hometown, and that is because he speaks for God.

What did they do to all of the prophets from Jeremiah thrown into a pit, to Isaiah sawn in two, to Daniel in a lion's den? All of the prophets were rejected until finally God sent his own son. And they crucified him.

Anyone who desires to do the will of God will be persecuted. A prophet will not have honor. Do not think that going forth preaching the word will bring you the applause of men, even in this supposedly Christian country.

Expect the opposite. You will not be honored for the word of God. And yet no one can deny objectively that it's Christians who do the most good, who give the most to charity, who found all of these organizations and send boxes to the ends of the earth, as well as doctors, and help the poor more than any other people group in the history of the world.

No one can deny that. It is the word that we speak. So notice Jesus picks up on that. We'll move on to verse 46. John makes note that they had already seen a miracle. Verse 46. This is the very city where Jesus had made the water wine.

And that tells me that a sign itself will never satisfy. The one who keeps wanting sign after sign after sign will find themselves chasing after signs rather than the giver. They want the gifts rather than the giver.

In verse 47, as you continue on, these signs actually are good. And they point to Messiah. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him. That's good. The sign is drawing him to the Savior.

And he asked him to come down and heal his son. And that church is good when you ask of your father who delights to give good gifts to his children. If he would give bread, if you, a father, would give bread to your son and not a stone, if you would give fish and not a serpent, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

They come asking and that's humble and that's good. He went and asked to come down and heal his son. For this son was at the point of death. Verse 48. Look though at Jesus's answer. The key to understanding it is actually a little twist in the Greek.

Maybe your Bible footnotes it. And that is that the word you is in the plural. He says in verse 48, so Jesus said to him, unless you, you might think he's only talking to the official, right? Whose son is sick.

But the Bible should make a note in yours or if not, you can just believe me. The Greek is plural. He says, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. In other words, Jesus, he's talking to the man, but he looks out and addresses all of the Galileans and he rebukes them mildly because they like what he did in Jerusalem.

They like that he turns water into wine. They want to see more of this kind of thing. They want signs, but he turns and he mildly rebukes them saying, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.

Believe what? That's the point of the sign. The sign is to tell us that Jesus is the Christ. They are to believe in him and to put their faith in him. They want what he can do for them, but he is the issue.

Does it make sense? And that's why he mildly rebukes them. And then in verse 49, you see a very interesting exchange. The official said to him, sir, come down before my child dies. Can you understand that?

Dad's in the room. Can you understand that desperation? Jesus isn't quite answering the way he wants to hear. And so he gets demanding and he commands Jesus, sir, come down before my child dies. And what's so interesting in the text is that Jesus, and in the Greek, it jumps out even more.

Jesus answers him with the complete negation of what he said. The exact opposite. The man said, come, Jesus says, go. The man is saying, my son dies. In the Greek, he says, your son lives. Come, he dies.

Go, he lives. What's the significance of that? The point is signs and wonders, miracles and healings cannot be demanded. Jesus cannot be cajoled or manipulated. He cannot be controlled. You come humbly and you ask.

You don't demand. And Jesus's answer may not be what you expected. Often it will be yes. And in fact, the amazing thing of what unfolds now is that he does in fact heal his son. The healing still happens.

But there's a lesson in this. Jesus will not be controlled. The word faith movement gets us wrong. And so many Christians seek to make demands of God because we want things to unfold like we do. But Jesus will not be commanded.

And then the most beautiful verse, in fact, I almost named the sermon, the man believed the word. That's my favorite part of this whole section. The man believed the word. I ended up calling it signs and wonders because that might get a few more clicks on YouTube than the man believed the word.

And it's because the topic is signs and wonders. But I want you to hear this. The man believed the word. That's the point. Do you see it? Had he seen the miracle? No, he took what was more important, the word of God.

How do I know that Jesus is the Christ? Because all of the prophets of the Old Testament foretold the details of Messiah's life, death, burial, resurrection. And all of those things came true in his life, death, burial, and resurrection by eyewitness account.

And it is recorded in the infallible word of God. And that's the point. You have to take God at his word. Now, what do the miracles do? In Deuteronomy chapter 18, verses 15 to 20, Moses tells us that there is coming a greater prophet.