Evangelizing the Western Mindset - Part 11 — Winkie Pratney

We looked in our last session at one of the many prophecies of Scripture, the one concerning Tyre and Sidon, and a question was asked, how many verses in the Bible deal with prophecy? This is a Bible that has been marked according to the four major themes of the Scriptures.

And the guy who did this, the same one who marked the personal work as New Testament, says there are four great themes and over 70 subjects in the Scriptures. Out of a total of 31 ,302 verses in the Bible, 7 ,670 verses, nearly one verse in four, concern the theme of salvation.

It includes over 1 ,900 verses on the necessity of holy living, 2 ,500 verses on the punishment here and now of the wicked, 413 verses on the future punishment of the wicked, 575 verses show God's love for the sinner, and 182 verses which show God is no respecter of persons, but who saves all, willing to meet the conditions of salvation.

Two other major themes, temporal blessings, the blessings of God, here and now, not some future things we're talking about, of which there are 2 ,412 verses in the Old Testament, and 1 ,091 in the New Testament, include verses on promises or examples of food or clothing provided, 88 verses recording promises, and 760 verses recording examples of health and healing for the body, which is one verse in 36, have something to do with blessing here and now, on the subject of health and healing.

One verse in nine in the Bible concerns blessings here and now. The next one, the theme of the Holy Spirit, who is mentioned over 400 times in the Bible under 41 different names and titles. One verse in 26 concerns the work of the Holy Spirit, and the simple reason why he's given so much attention is he is the one who mediates Christ to us.

He is the one who actually does the active work in people's lives. Christ as a man visited here for only 33 odd years, and the Holy Spirit carries out His work. The fourth one, and the one that we mentioned, there are 3 ,856 verses in prophecy on the Bible, in the Old Testament alone, and 1 ,499 verses in the New Testament.

One verse in six in the Scriptures has a more or less important bearing on prophetic subjects. Now that is an exceptionally high percentage, and not like any other religious book in the world, anywhere.

A great chunk, and I mentioned earlier that every prophecy of Jesus' first coming and the events surrounding it, there are seven of a second coming. So we are actually living in the time in which we will see the greatest fulfillment of prophecy.

Yes? I just lost the place. Yeah, the theme of the Holy Spirit, there are 511 verses, or one verse in 45 in the Old Testament, and 664 verses, or one verse in 12 in the New Testament. One verse in 26 in the Bible concerns the work of the Holy Spirit.

Okay, now I want to give you the statistics on the Tyre and Sidon prophecy, and just show you the chances of this happening by accident. We mentioned briefly the chances of all the 300 plus prophecies of Jesus coinciding in one person was an astronomical number.

We'll just show you methodology in this other one. I'm taking this from the book Science Speaks. I have here a picture of what is left of the city of Tyre and Sidon. Let me look at that afterwards. This passage is found in Ezekiel 26, verses 3 -5, 7, 12, 14, and 16.

It was written in about 590 B .C. Prophecy, therefore, saith the Lord God, I am against thee, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causes its waves to come up. Very interesting prophecy.

And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre, break down her towers, I will scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be the place for the spreading of nets. Thus saith the Lord God, I will bring upon Tyrus and Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, shall lay thy stones and thy timbers and thy dust in the midst of thy water, and make thee like the top of a rock.

It shall be a place to spread nets on. You shall build no more. The princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, lay away their robes, put on their broided garments. They shall clothe themselves with trembling.

Now, the seven things were to be fulfilled. First, Nebuchadnezzar should take the city of Tyre. Two, other nations are to participate in the fulfillment of this prophecy. Three, the city is to be made flat like the top of a rock.

Four, it is to become a place for spreading of nets. Five, its stones and timbers are to be laid in the sea. Six, other cities are to fear greatly at the fall of Tyre. Seven, the old city of Tyre shall never be rebuilt.

Those are the prophecies in order. Tyre was a city on the northern coast of Palestine inhabited by the Phoenicians, a strong maritime people greatly feared by their enemies. The king of Tyre was the one who supplied timbers for Solomon in the building of the temple.

In 586 B .C., Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, laid siege to the city of Tyre. The siege lasted 13 years. And when Nebuchadnezzar took the city in 573 B .C., he found the Phoenicians had moved everything of value to an island about one half mile off the coast.

Though the city was taken, Nebuchadnezzar didn't profit anything and the Phoenicians were not conquered. That's the first part of this thing. Nebuchadnezzar could not pursue them to their island position, so he returned to Babylon.

Thus the first item of prophecy was fulfilled. Nebuchadnezzar shall take the city of Tyre. For 241 years, the mainland city of Tyre remained very much as Nebuchadnezzar had left it. Later, Alexander the Great started his great conquest.

His field of campaign lay to the east, but he feared that the fleet of Tyre might be used against his homeland, so he moved south to take the city of Tyre. In 332 B .C., Alexander reached Tyre, but was unable to take the city at once, and what we mentioned last time.

He captured other coastal cities, took over their fleets, but with his combined fleets he was still unable to take Tyre. Alexander finally built a causeway from the mainland to the island. In building the causeway, he used all the building materials of old Tyre, and that was not enough.

He scraped up all of the soil in and around the old city, and with it completed the causeway. After seven months, by a combined attack of land forces marching in over the causeway and the fleets of conquered cities, he took Tyre.

Thus items 2, 3, and 5 of the prophecy were fulfilled. Two other nations that had participated in the fulfillment, all the boats from the other cities that he took. Three, the city was to be made flat like the top of a rock, and five, its stones and timbers were to be laid in the sea.

Other neighboring cities were so frightened by the conquest of Tyre that they opened their gates to Alexander without opposition and fulfilled another item. Six, other cities were to fear greatly the fall of Tyre.

Today visitors at the old city of Tyre find it as a very popular place for fishermen. They are spreading their nets on the spot. Thus prediction four has been completely fulfilled. It was to become a place for spreading of nets.

The great freshwater springs of Rassalane are at the site of the mainline city of Tyre and no doubt supplied the city with an abundance of fresh water. These springs are still there and still flow, but their water runs into the sea.

The flow of these springs was measured by an engineer and found to be about 10 million gallons daily. It is still an excellent site for a city and would have free water enough for a large modern city, yet it has never been rebuilt.

Thus item seven of the prophecy has stood true for more than 2 ,500 years. The old city of Tyre shall never be rebuilt. They built another Tyre, but not there. They built it as far away as possible. This prophecy by Ezekiel has been fulfilled to the last item.

Let us try to evaluate the evidence of inspiration as supplied by the fulfillment of this single prophecy. And this is one out of a bunch. History shows that while many of the cities in the vicinity of Tyre were often captured and recaptured by various forces, Tyre usually withstood these attacks and remained a free city.

Tyre and Babylon represented two very different military powers, Tyre on naval and Babylon on land force. Each had left the other strictly alone. My groups of college students were asked to imagine that Ezekiel was writing from his own human knowledge and give an estimate of the following.

Ezekiel had one chance in how many of knowing or being able to predict that Nebuchadnezzar would take the city of Tyre. Since Nebuchadnezzar was conquering many cities and since Tyre was being besieged four years after the prophecy was made, it must have been a reasonable thing to predict.

Nebuchadnezzar might have tried to take Tyre and failed. He might have succeeded or he might have never tried. An estimate of one in three was chosen. Three possibilities. What chance did Ezekiel have, too, of knowing that Nebuchadnezzar would, in conquering of Tyre, not completely fulfill the prophecy of destruction, but other nations would later come in and help?

The indications at the time of Ezekiel certainly were that when Nebuchadnezzar took a city, he was capable of completing the destruction himself, so the estimate was placed at one in five. What chance did Ezekiel have of knowing that Tyre would be made flat like the top of a rock after it was conquered?

How many cities have been made flat like the top of a rock after being conquered? The site of nearly all ancient cities are marked by mounds of accumulated debris. I do not know of any other city where the ruins have been so completely cleared away, so the estimate of one in five hundred was chosen.

What chance did Ezekiel have of knowing that after the city had been completely cleared away, it would become a popular place for fishermen? There is really no basis on which to make such an estimate.

However, the site was taken merely as a little stretch of coast, and considering all sections of coast that size, an estimate of one in ten was chosen. What chance did Ezekiel have of knowing that when Tyre was made flat, its building material and its dust would be laid in the sea?

Since the site was to be cleared, the debris had to be disposed of, but it would have been far more likely to have been used as material in constructing the buildings of nearby cities. The estimate was given one in ten.

What chance was there of other cities opening their gates to the conqueror of Tyre without resistance? Estimate one in five. What is the chance that Tyre, after being made flat, should never be rebuilt?

Nearly all old cities which had great natural advantages were at some time rebuilt. Tyre is an excellent location, has an abundant supply of fresh water, so valuable is this land. The estimate chosen for this part of the prophecy was one in twenty.

Putting them all together, the chance of Ezekiel writing this prophecy from his own knowledge and having it all come true is one in three, by five, by five hundred, by ten, by ten, by five, by twenty.

This is one in seventy-five million. This can be abbreviated as seven point five times ten to the seven. If Ezekiel had looked at Tyre in his day and had made these seven predictions in human wisdom, these estimates meant there is one chance in seventy-five million of their all coming true.

But they all came true in their minutest detail, and there are others like this. Samaria, and Samaria made a heap as a field and the planting of vineyards, and Gaza, and Ashkelon, and Jericho, and the Golden Gate, that's another heavy one.

In Ezekiel 44, 1 to 3, written again, 574 B .C., the gate that will be shut and no man will open it till the Lord returns. When this prophecy was written, the gate road from the Kidron Valley entered through this gate called the Golden Gate.

This gate was in use at the time of Christ and is thought to be the gate through which He made His triumphal entry. In A .D. 1543, when the walls of Jerusalem were restored by Sultan Suleiman, the road to the Golden Gate was no longer in use.

The Sultan, seeing no more use for the gate, ordered it closed. Instead of building the wall straight across the place where the gate had been, he restored the gate with its arches and ornaments and then walled up the gate's openings himself.

Caesar Wilhelm planned to take Jerusalem and have the Golden Gate opened for His triumphant entry into the city. Apparently the Caesar thought he could tamper with prophecy and forcibly violate it. It looks as if this gate were just waiting for the return of Christ when it could be reopened and constitute His main entrance to the city.

The gate is beside the site of the temple. But Caesar never made it to Jerusalem. Poor chap. What is the probability this gate should continue to exist at the present time and it should be closed? Estimate, one in a thousand.

So, prophecy after prophecy after prophecy done like this, in detail, detail, detail. Now we come, however, to the great focus of the Scriptures. Not these things, interesting as they may be, but the whole of the Bible has one single theme and that is the author of the Scriptures.

Last night in a discussion with some unsaved people, a guy said to me, you know, who needs a book? I mean, what use is a book? It's just a, you know, why do you need a book? And I said to him, well, it's not really a lot of use unless you know the author of it.

You see, if I want to get around London, there's two ways. Jim can give me a map. And it's nice to have a map. But what's even better if he says, look, I'll take you. See, I'd rather have a guide than just a map.

A map and a guide really makes it. We're talking not here about the map alone, which is great, but the person who wrote it. It's great to have the author himself show you around. Now, we're going to look briefly then at the life of the prime focus of the Scripture.

I want to pull these through in seven areas. I'll give them to you really fast. I love the humor of God in Luke 3, 1 to 2. It gives a whole list of heavy-duty leaders in their time. You know, it talks about so-and-so was the head of this and so-and-so was the head of that.

And this guy was the religious leader and he was the political leader. And this one was this and this was that. And then it says at the end, the word of the Lord came to John the Baptist. I love it. Not always do the leaders of the world know what's really going on in the world.

It came to John the Baptist who was head of nobody and nothing. When we look at Christ, He is absolutely unique among all who have ever lived. His birth is unique. Nobody was ever born like Jesus. He is unprecedented and unparalleled in history.

He is the first and only baby without a human father. Scripture says, Isaiah 7, 17, A virgin shall conceive and be with child, and you shall call His name Immanuel, which means God is with us. Jeremiah 31, 22, key verse, The Lord has created a new thing in the earth.

A woman shall produce a man. Now, it's not birth a man, but produce a man. Nothing wonderful about a woman having a baby. I mean, that's marvelous, but it happens all the time. But this thing, there's a special word.

Cause to come about or make a man is a birth that is unique, that is not a normal, ordinary birth. And then we have in Isaiah 9, 6, Unto us a child is born, that's a humanity. Unto us a son is given, divinity.

And the government shall be on his shoulder. His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, Father of Eternity, The Prince of Peace. The genealogy of Jesus, the genealogies given that we mentioned in our last thing very briefly in Matthew and Luke, bear study because they have both been puzzling and rewarding when you get digging into them.

In Genesis 3, 15, we have an interesting phrase. The seed of woman, not the seed of man. The seed of man is understandable, but the seed of woman, it's a very unusual kind of phrase to use. Biology refers to the seed of man.

In Matthew's careful account, he lists 39 begats. Begat, begat, begat, he begat, he begat, begat. And then he conspicuously stops to note, Joseph, this is Matthew 1, 16, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called the Christ.

The begat stop, and it shifts, and a different phrase is used, of whom was born. Now what's interesting is that Mary, Mary is his mother, but Joseph is not his father. They did in New Zealand, we don't have any religious broadcasting, so to speak, in television or in radio, and similar, I suppose, to Britain in many ways, but we have to get our Christian stuff on secular channels.

One friend of mine put together a thing called Radio Jerusalem. It was run about Christmas time, and it was done like War of the Worlds. It was done like the Orson Welles radio program. And they figured out what the weather would be like, they got the weather right down, prophecy of course, and they just had a regular rock format station that was interrupted by news bulletins.

And it was Christmas time, as he was talking about. He said, oh, the weather's fine here in Radio Jerusalem, and then they, you know, music was playing, and then they say, we interrupt this bulletin, a light has been seen, and this evening it seems to be moving.

I've tracked it, and it doesn't seem to be a plane or a helicopter, it seems to be some kind of astral body, and it's moving. And they do this thing all the way until it finally builds up. This light has stopped over a city, and it's shining down, and all the teams of reporters are trying to find out what's so heavy about this city, and finally they interview this guy, and it's Joseph.

And they say, we understand, sir, that you have a son that is being born, and there's a rumor going around that this one is going to be the real king of the universe. And Joseph talks very briefly, and then right at the end, that's the way it closes.

By the way, he says, he's not my son. And that's the way it finishes. But when we see, there's an interesting scripture, and it's found in Jeremiah 22, and verse 24 to 30. In this passage, there's a curse given on the descendants of Canaia.

And I've got him there, Canaia. Canaia's descendants, none of them, none of Canaia's descendants could sit on David's throne, or fulfill that covenant. And that Canaia is the Josias of Matthew 1 .11. So this Matthew's genealogy is an account of Joseph's genealogy.

It is an account of that. You see, when you go back into the thing, if Joseph had really been Jesus' true father, then Jesus could not have been the fulfillment of prophecy. He would have been a descendant from a man who was not allowed to sit on David's throne.

See that? He could not have been the promised Messiah. And it's in Matthew that that's put. This Josias is that Canaia. So, if Joseph had really been Jesus' father, no way. Now, in Mary's account, an account of Mary's genealogy, and she's his real mother, though Joseph isn't his real father, in Luke 1 .30 -33, we have Mary's line traced back, and when you hit that, you have this phrase.

Earlier, the Lord God shall give him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. Mary is in David's line. She is a direct descendant from David. So through Mary, his true mother, he has the royal right, biological right, to rule as the promised king of Israel.

It's a cool thing, even in the weird little things, that stuff is stuck in there. And only two groups of people, and one ignorant, and two unbelieving, ever called him the son of Joseph. Luke points out Jesus was, as it was supposed, Joseph's son.

And that phrase is an interesting phrase. It is a legal phrase that refers to custom or legal standing, as was supposed. It's a legal phrase. And that means he would be called a true son and accepted as such in legal standing if one of two things were true.

If number one, the stepson was named by the father, in other words, if the father who had adopted this child named him, then he, in legal custom, would be called his son and be accepted as such. Or secondly, if he adopted his stepfather's trade, he would also be recognized as a legal son.

And the angel told Joseph, you will call his name Jesus, and he became a carpenter. And in both legal ways, was a true legal son of Joseph, but not a biological son. So the whole, the dovetailing of this thing is incredible.

Joseph's father in Matthew is Jacob, the Heli in Luke 3 .23 is Mary's dad, Joseph's father-in-law, not Joseph's dad. Genetic law states in every individual we find all the characteristics of the two progenitors, from Mary, true humanity, all the way back to Adam, from God, his father, true deity, all the way back to eternity.

So nobody was ever born like Jesus. Secondly, his wisdom. Nobody ever spoke like Jesus. Peter Abelard, I think the purpose and cause of the Incarnation was that God might illuminate the world by his wisdom and excite it to the love of himself.

Pascal, a great French thinker, Jesus Christ said great things simply, as though he had not thought them great, yet so clearly we see easily what he thought of them. This clearness joined to simplicity is wonderful.

The best thing I ever learned about preaching and writing was in an English class, and a guy said to me, there are three stages of great thinking in writing. The first is when you have great thoughts, big thoughts and big words.

The second, no, the first thought is when you have little thoughts and little words. The second is when you have big thoughts and big words, but you never really make it in writing and speaking. Until you have big ideas and little words.

And Jesus' statements are so off the cuff. They're never sort of calculated. They're just statements like that, and they're simple and they're mind-blowing, and it just goes like that. Sometimes people go, boy, that was profound.

By that they mean, I don't know what in the world he was talking about. But that's not like Jesus. He knows very well what he's talking about. And here is Philip Schaft, this Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed and Napoleon.

Without science and learning, he shed more light on things human and divine than all the philosophers and scholars combined. Without the eloquence of schools, he spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet.

Without writing, a single line, the only time Jesus ever wrote was in the dirt, and we don't even know what it was. It might be telephone numbers of the people with the rocks. He set more pens in motion and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussion, learned volumes, works of art and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.

Have you ever watched choruses and hymns being sung? Have you ever thought how many hymns and choruses have been written? It's just mind-boggling. I go back 21 years of being a Christian and think how many hymns and choruses I know.

Have you ever tried to write them down? If you talk about songs of praise, you'd have encyclopedias of praise. That's just the ones you know. Here is a statement from Scripture. People were astonished at his doctrine.

This is the impact of Jesus' words. For he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. When the disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed. They were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with power.

The common people heard him gladly in it. Never man spoke like this man. Remember they said, arrest him, bring him back here. Temple police sent him out. They all went out to collect him. They came back later without him.

They said, where is he? He said, I've never heard anybody speak like that. They said, that wasn't a question, where is he? They blew him away just talking. The Sermon on the Mount, the parables, the Lord's Prayer, the Great Commandments, the Prodigal Son, the Lost Sheep, the Good Samaritan, the Pharisee and the Publican, any of these would do honor to any book in the world.

The power and simplicity of the highest genius were that equal arrival. Did early Christians of taste and education compose these and ascribe them to a mythical Christ? They could not do it. And from where came this wisdom, if Jesus was some peasant carpenter?

He said, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall never pass away. He just said it like that. The words I speak to you, they are spirit and life. If any man will do his will, he shall know the doctrine, whether it be of God.

Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His own glory and in the Father's and of the holy angels, and so on. Now, the influence then of Christ's thought on world history is just an astonishing thing.

And Dale said, It is apparent His influence on the thought of the human race has been immense. It has guided and governed the highest form of intellectual energy for more than a thousand years after the meeting of the Council of Nicaea early in the fourth century, it is hardly possible to mention the name of a single man of great speculative power in Europe, North Africa or Western Asia who was not a Christian theologian also.

Great poets, great painters, great orators and great architects did homage to the supremacy of Christ. It was confessed that He stood alone and in Him man had found God. Now, purity. Not just wise, but pure.

Nobody ever lived like Jesus. Catherine Booth said, Imagine the holiest and best who ever tried their worth putting forth such assumptions and how they would sound. Imagine Moses who talked with God in the burning bush, or Isaiah, or Daniel, or John the Beloved.

Suppose they had stood up and said, I am from above, you are from beneath. I am not of this world. If you believe not that I am here, you shall die in your sins. I mean, it's laughable just to think of them saying it.

But He said it, He just said it, boom, like that. Nobody ever lived like Him. Again, last night we were talking, one of the questions was, You tell me a Christian of status, or was it status or rank or something, Don?

I think a guy was asking, Do you know any Christians who are high up in the ranks of money? I think he was talking about. I was thinking Christians of status. What is a Christian of status? And I was trying to think, does he want a Billy Graham?

Does he want a Pope or something? You pick the most holy religious person. Can you imagine Mother Teresa saying, I am not of this world. If you believe not that I am she, you shall die in your sins. I mean, have I been so long with you?

And yet you have not known me. He that has seen me hath seen the Father. His character supported these assumptions, Catherine Booth said. For over 1800 years, the best of the human race has accepted them without being shocked by them.

If he be not divine, how come that the greatest of human intellects, the sincerest of human souls, the most aroused and quickened of human consciences have ventured thereupon this divine word and seen nothing contradictory between his claims and the actual character he sustained in the world?

And I love the thing Harry Rimmer does. Harry Rimmer says this, Jesus was born a Jew. He lived a Jewish life under Jewish laws in a Jewish land. Yet to the end of his days he offered no sacrifice for sin.

No other person who lived in the circle of Moses' law could ever say he offered no sacrifice for sin. He admonished his disciples, when you pray say forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. But he never prayed for forgiveness.

He owed no debt, spiritual, moral or physical. He taught the necessity of regeneration. The Twelve, his mother Mary, all the loyal band of men and women who followed him needed redemption except himself.

Perfection, the single word that describes him. There is no other word which would suit a descriptive statement of the humanity of Christ. We use the word perfect with all its common connotations in accordance with your understanding of that term.

Perfection is so rare that no man as perfect as is accepted today is axiomatic, but Jesus was. As a matter of fact, was it Ingersoll, that great skeptic who despite his attack on Christ and everything else refused to say that he was God, he said I'm forced to confess that Jesus is perfect.

And the simplest little jump of logic is that he was perfect and didn't lie. So he was who he said. And here is Wilbur Smith's 15 million minutes of life on this earth in the midst of a wicked and corrupt generation.

Every thought, every deed, every purpose, every work, privately and publicly, from the time he opened his baby eyes till he died on the cross, were all approved of God. Never once did our Lord have to confess any sin, for he had no sin.

You can't find anybody like that. It may not impress somebody in an Eastern thought form that Jesus rose from the dead. But it sure impresses them that they live like that. The holiest of men have not even come on a scratch like that.

His friends said he was without sin. He committed no sin, Peter said. Neither was guile found in his lips. 1 Peter 2 .22. John said, and you know he has manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin.

1 John 3 .5. Pilate, his enemy, said it. Pilate said, I find no fault in this man. What evil has he done? Luke 22 .4 .22. I am innocent of the blood of this just person. Matthew 27 .24. The thief dying beside him on the cross said this man has done nothing wrong.

Luke 23 .47. The chief priests and the council sought for witnessing of Jesus to put him to death, and they found none. Mark 14 .55. And Jesus himself said of his father, I always do the things that are pleasing to him.

John 8 .29. And then to the leaders who challenged him he said this,. John 8 .46 Which of you convinces me of sin? And what a statement. Search and look through the great religions and religious leaders of the world.

None of them could say this. None of them would have dared. But Jesus did. Absolutely holy, perfect, and sinless life. He could forgive sins because he himself never sinned. God in the flesh. Now we come to power.

This is a tremendous state from George MacDonald. The miracles of Jesus were as far as normal works wrought small and swift that we might see them. Remember that thing I gave you in our last session about God's control over time and prophecy is a simple thing for him?

Now think in terms of God's control over time in the miraculous. It is no miracle for water to turn into wine. Grapes do it every year. It just takes them a year. But for water to turn into wine instantly means an acceleration of time.

Something that's spread out here that just goes phew. You can, if a person gets his ear cut off, you can stick it back up there with sticky tape and put a couple of stitches in and eventually, given the fact that it doesn't get infected, it may grow even back on.

It may take six months or so. But to have an ear that's just been hacked off and pick it up and just stick it on and there it is. It's fine again. It's a time compression thing. I think Jesus, when he walked the earth, drawing on his father's power, could do things.

And I love that his father's normal works were small and swift that we might know them. Forty-nine miracles surround the life of Jesus, major miracles, from his birth to his ascension. Seven show his power over demons.

Many the healing of sickness including palsy, fever, deafness, blindness, hemorrhage and leprosy. All the big ones, the big C's of their day. He even raised three people from the dead. A widow's son in Luke 7, 11 -16, Jairus' daughter Mark 5, 22 -24 and Lazarus who had been dead four days, John 11.

Then he did it himself. He wrote miracles of deliverance and judgment. He supplied food and drink by means of miracle. The miracles surrounded him his whole life. At his birth, his baptism, transfiguration, prayer, death, resurrection and ascension.

The scripture says, Many of the people believed on him and said, When Christ comes, will he do more miracles than those which this man has done? And he did this without show, without ostentation and without fanfare.

Now how would we do it today? We'd get close up. This is how we'd do it if we were Jesus. This is called Malcolm Magrish, the fourth temptation. We'd go, Okay, now I want you to see this. This is called the working of miracles.

Let's get a close up on these eyes here. Now you'll notice as I lay my hands on, let's get a real close up of these. We want to see these scarred corneas here. Okay, now watch as I, this is something you guys are going to have to learn.

You know, that's why we would do it. Up close. Okay, now, this one here is called the word of knowledge. See that? Here's the way Jesus does it. It's just, it's almost offhand. You know, Master, who did sin?

This man or his parents? That he was born blind. Waiting for Jesus to say, Oh, it was his parents. Fine, fine, thank you. You know, we had a theological problem with that. Jesus goes, Neither this man's sin nor his parents, but that the works of God might be manifest.

I must work the works of him that sent me. While it is day, the night cometh, no man can work. Boom! And he gives him new eyes, and on he goes. Just like that. It's offhand. It's not, it's no big deal.

It's just God. You know, it's just. All the miracles of Jesus are a mirror of his character, full of love and mercy, upholding his Father's glory and meeting his creation's need. They are as far removed from the apocryphal tricks of magicians and are called adepts as lighters from darkness.

Remember John the Baptist, the one we started this apologetic series with? Are you he that should come, or do we look for another? Go, said Jesus, and show John the things you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

Even the enemies of Jesus could not deny that he did miracles. When they examined the man that Jesus had healed of being born blind, there was a division among them. This man is not of God, one said, because he doesn't keep the Sabbath day.

Others said, how can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? It really bothered people. What do you say of him that opened your eyes? they asked the blind man. Is this your son who was born blind? they questioned his parents.