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Sermon Notes: notes.cornerstonesj.org
Signs and Wonders
Our visitor here, welcome to Cornerstone. My name is Michael and If you are able to on a smartphone go to Contact dot
Cornerstone SJ org that is just our contact form that you can fill out 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 gonna start off with a song this morning as the kids make their way in and get set up We're gonna give this time to the
Lord. So if you would stand They'll never be shame
This poor man cried And the Lord heard me
And saved me from My enemies
The Son of God Surrounds his saints
He'll deliver them He'll deliver them
Magnified With me
Come it's all Just a together
Glorify the Lord with me
Come it's all His name forever
Oh Taste and see that the
Lord is good. Oh All you say
They'll give you everything Give you everything
Oh Let us bless the Lord Let us bless the
Lord Every day and night Ever -ending praise
They are voices rise Let us bless the
Lord Every day Every day and night Ever -ending praise
They are voices rise Magnify the
Lord with me Come it's all
His name With me
Let's sing that chorus again magnify Come it's all
His name together glorify the
Lord with me. Come exalt
His name forever. You may be seated.
Eric, will you run back and get the kids? He's come to make my heart brand -new.
He's come to make my heart brand -new. Giving my heart to Jesus.
Giving my heart, heart, heart.
Giving my heart, heart, heart. Giving my heart, heart, heart. Giving my heart, giving my heart to Jesus.
Me and Mrs. Appleton are blessed every week to, they really encourage us, beginning of each week is the best way to start our week, singing with these guys.
And they work really hard, so thank you for it. Mike in here actually wrote some of the lyrics.
He said, Jesus loves me every day. Thank you guys, maybe one more round of applause.
Thank you for this encouragement.
Thank you for these kids. Thank you for Mrs. Appleton and her willingness to teach and the joy that's come with it.
Thank you that we get to sing joyfully to you, and we always thank you for Jesus dying on the cross for our sin, and then you raising up from the dead to give us eternal life and the hope of eternal life.
So we thank you that we can thank you in your son's name. Amen. Thanks, guys.
Good morning,
Cornerstone! Beautiful fall leaves outside, but we are thinking about Christmas, because it is
Operation Christmas Child kickoff Sunday! I love it. 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.
Three, two, one! And 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 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. The Pastor Graham 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 a 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. 7 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 will 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 a 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.
I encourage you towards that. Jeff's Pastorgram 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.
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 Pastorgram, 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 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. 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 and 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 wonders 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 of 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 to whom received the healing, tell nobody.
This becomes known as the messianic secret, and it's not that 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
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 2
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 2
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 1 .21 -25 as eyewitnesses of the life, death, 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, pished it into the ocean.
He said, pish, 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 1 Corinthians 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 an 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. 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.
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 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? 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 numbers were added just after the
Reformation. So after this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
See that? When he says what they don't want to hear, they're no longer welcoming.
John 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 of 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' 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.
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' 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 this 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 this 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 18, verses 15 to 20,
Moses tells us that there is coming a greater prophet. Moses was a prophet, but a greater prophet is coming.
And Moses says, you must listen to every single word he speaks.
And then Moses ends up at the end of Deuteronomy, chapter 34, there's a record that there hasn't been one like Moses who performed miracles like what the
Egyptians experienced coming out of Egypt. There hasn't been a prophet like Moses who did these wonderful things.
And even Joshua is not that person because he was there at the time. There's none like Moses.
And the point is to leave you on the edge of your seat. The Pentateuch leaves you waiting for a coming prophet.
And how will you know him? He'll do miracles like Moses. Moses brought them through the
Red Sea. There must be a coming prophet who's greater than Moses, who can bring them not out of slavery in Egypt, but slavery to sin, into the freedom of the promised land.
And so along comes Jesus. These miracles that he performs are testifying he is the promised prophet that Moses spoke about in Deuteronomy 18.
The apostles will relate this in Acts, chapter 4. Very important. You know him because he's doing miracles.
Nobody does miracles like this. He walks on water. He turns water to wine.
He raises the dead. He opens the eyes of the blind. The world has never seen the likes of him.
But what does that mean? According to Deuteronomy 18, 15 to 20, when you see it, when he comes, you better listen to every word he speaks.
That's the point of verse 50. It's so important, church. That's why I'm all worked up about it. It says the man believed the word that Jesus spoke.
He did that without a miracle. Hadn't happened yet. He did that based on the authority of Jesus' word.
He took Jesus at his word. And that is the key. To keep the word in its prominent place.
To ask for miracles. And those things will come to the church. Notice in verse 51 to 53 how this all unfolds.
As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. Is that an instantaneous healing?
Or is that gradual? It's gradual. It says, 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. So in a moment, you know when your fever breaks, you're laying hot in the bed, and all of a sudden you just start sweating, your fever breaks, and then you start to get better?
This happened at the exact moment when Jesus said, your son will live. They put the pieces together.
Let me ask you a question though. If you're a skeptic, maybe you're a skeptic here this morning.
Is that enough to convince you? There wasn't anybody that saw the whole thing.
There in Capernaum, a promise was made. Far away, wherever this son was sick, he started to get better.
A skeptic will say, that's no sign at all. People get better all the time. And who's to say the exact moment?
There's no proof in this. And yet the Bible records it as a sign to us.
The word being trustworthy. This morning
I woke up with a little tear in my vocal cord. Because last night,
Jen and I were going for a walk, and I was talking too much evidently. And all of a sudden I just felt this little pull.
And all last night when I would try to talk, every few minutes, I'd feel this little hiccup, this little catch in my throat.
And I'd just kind of stop for a second, and it would take me a minute to drink water and get my throat back. So I was going to bed.
I knew I was preaching on signs and wonders last night. And I said,
Lord, as I prayed, in your providence, I'm either going to be able to preach or not.
You'll heal it by the morning, and let me preach, or you won't.
And some doctor would probably say, yeah, grade one strains of the vocal cord can heal within 12 hours.
And they'll deny that a miracle happened. But I want to tell you that I live my life like this every day, where I see signs everywhere.
On that walk, when I saw a tree with the fall leaves and the blue painting behind it, that sign told me, wow, there's a
God. It pointed me to God. And when I pray, it's not always that immediate, boom, healing.
The cancer is gone. But we've been praying for people with cancer for week after week, year after year, and they live, even though the doctors would say they should have been long gone.
How many gradual healings have we seen? And the world might be skeptical of this and say, doesn't prove anything.
Fine, not to you, but to us who have encountered the living Christ, who know
Christ, and when we pray, we keep seeing Him answer our prayers again and again. How many times have you prayed for your sick child?
And they're better. God still heals. Do you know that? I remember one time my daughter having an earache.
It was very painful. She was little. And I remember going into her room and I just sang gently,
Jesus is taking the pain away. And she had been howling in pain, and then she drifted off into sleep.
In the morning, we took her to the doctor, and he couldn't find an evidence of there being any infection or earache in any way, shape, or form.
And he was mystified by that. I believe he healed it.
I believe he still does. When I look at the miracles that are happening today, I don't think that they're of the same quantity and quality as we read about in the
Acts of the Apostles. I haven't seen blind eyes open, although my grandfather on the mission field said he saw that.
That's many decades removed. And it's hard to know.
I think it did happen. But I want to tell you something. God still answers prayer.
And I don't want us to become a church that stops believing that. I think that cessationism goes too far.
I think it goes too far. A cessationist will say that the spiritual gifts have all stopped.
When the canon was complete, it was no longer needed. But when you read 1 Corinthians 13, when the partial is overtaken by the complete, and you're no longer in need for prophecies and tongues and healings and even knowledge, listen, that passage in 1
Corinthians 13 clearly refers to the eschaton, the coming age, when Christ comes and we no longer look through a glass darkly.
It doesn't refer to the completion of the canon. There's nothing in the Bible that says that it's ceased.
Okay? But there's much in the writings of the epistles that teach us to eagerly desire these things and to pray for these things.
And when I read James 5 as an elder, here's what's gonna control me. If there's somebody sick with cancer or another illness, call the elders of the church, and the elders are to take oil and anoint the person and pray in faith for their healing.
I'm gonna be controlled by that imperative in the text, not the systematic doctrinal theology of someone who says it can't happen.
And if my sovereign God heals them, praise be to God. And if they only just get better over time, praise be to God.
And if God in His sovereignty chooses not to heal in that way, maybe even taking them home, praise be to God, to live is
Christ, to die is gain. That, I think, is the biblical perspective. To say that these things have all ceased is to go beyond what is written.
Now, there's also error in chasing after these things as if they're an end in themselves.
So lastly, you see the final conclusion of the matter, verses 53 and 54. This miracle inspires faith because what does it say?
He himself believed in all his household.
This was now the second sign that Jesus did when He had come from Judea to Galilee.
So that's the conclusion of the matter. Big picture here in application and closing. These signs point to Jesus.
There is no one like Jesus in the history of the world. Even Moses was only a forerunner to Jesus.
Ironically, other prophets were asked about this, so -called prophets. Muhammad was asked by his followers, why don't you do miracles like Jesus did?
And so in the Quran, Surah 54, verses 1 and 2, it says he pointed to the moon and he said, see the moon?
I once split that and brought it back together. And they said, oh, that's very good.
He esteems himself and he tells of what he has done. And then he gives them the five prayers per day.
But you know how that came about? This is important. This is important for your apologetic knowledge. He says that there was a certain animal that came with the angel.
And he about mounted that beast, but it bucked. So the angel said, you don't know how holy this person is who's about to get on to you.
And so the animal, who was a speaking animal, began to sweat profusely, being nervous.
And then finally, Muhammad climbed on this animal and it flew him to Jerusalem.
And then he flew up into heaven and he talked to Adam and to Jesus and to all the prophets.
And then he went and talked to God. And God said, you need to pray to me 50 times per day.
So he left the throne room and talked to Moses and Moses said, no, go back and try to barter that down. That's a little bit too much.
So he went into the throne room and bartered with Allah and Allah said, okay, five times a day and sent him back.
And then Muhammad brings this so -called teaching from God, telling his own fantastical experience.
And that is how you get one of the five pillars of Islam, the five prayers daily. But it is all the fantastical, incredible, meaning not credible, testimony of one man about how great he is and his own experiences that he's had with God.
It is qualitatively different from what we have in the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, eyewitnesses of actual miracles.
And let me just ask you this, if miracles testify, if you saw a miracle today, follow this, wouldn't it be a memory tomorrow?
And a week from now, it would be a fading memory. A month from now, it would be fadier still.
And before long, is that a word? Before long, it's just some distant memory. So signs, if you keep chasing them, could never confirm anything.
But what we have in the Bible is an eyewitness testimony written down in the word.
Recorded on pages. Eyewitnesses who recorded and set that in stone and it goes back to the very time of their event.
And that becomes evidence. There is reason to believe that Jesus is the
Christ. And one of those things is signs and wonders. There's never been anyone like him. Eyewitnesses from that time period saw and wrote down the miracles that he performed.
So the application then, of course, is for anyone here who hasn't yet believed in Jesus.
Put your faith in him on account of the miracles, but more than that, on account of the word.
God's holy word. And church, let's ask God to stretch out his hand to heal and to perform signs and wonders according to his sovereign will.
Let's pray. So Father, we want to do that right now. Lord, I know that there are people in this congregation who have cancer.
And when I read about what you did for the official's son, I pray that you would do it again,
Lord. God, I pray that you would heal the sick.
God, you alone can do it. Glorify the name of Jesus through healing those who are ill.
God, we ask that of you. We don't demand it. We pray that you would.
And let these things testify that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. Thank you for what you're doing in our midst.
We see the signs everywhere. We see it in the land that you've provided for us. We see it in the faces of these children who stood in the congregation from the mouths of infants, from babes.
You have ordained praise. We see it in the providence of our lives, as even before I stepped up here to preach,
I was having trouble swallowing. And yet when I stood in the pulpit,
Lord, you gave me words to say. I see it. God, I pray that you would open eyes to see what matters most, not the sign, but the giver, the savior of the world.
In whose name we pray, Jesus Christ, amen. Christ the true and better Adam Son of God and Son of man
Who when tempted in the garden Never yielded, never sinned
He who makes the many righteous Brings us back to life again
Dying, He reversed the curse Then rising, crushed the serpent's head
Christ the true and better Isaac Humble son of sacrifice
Who would climb the fearful mountain There to offer up His life
Laid with faith upon the altar Father's joy and only
Son There salvation was provided Oh, what full and boundless love
Amen, amen From beginning to end
Christ the story, He's the glory Hallelujah, amen
Christ the true and better Moses Called to lead a people home
Standing bold to earthly powers God's great glory to be known
With His arms stretched wide to heaven
See the waters part in two See the valleys torn forever
Cleansed with blood we pass now through Amen, amen
From beginning to end
Christ the true and better David Lonely shepherd, mighty king
He the champion in the battle Where, O death, is now thy sting
In our place He bled and conquered Crown Him Lord of majesty
He shall be the throne forever We shall air
His people be Amen, amen
From beginning to end Christ the story,
He's the glory Hallelujah, amen
Christ the story, He's the glory