Obedience Not Miracles

Old Testament Expectation of Miracles for the Messiah

Ken

The miraculous is to be expected whenever God must make a statement to arrest the attention of His intended audience, which serves His purpose, when ordinary means would not be sufficient. This must be so, since He alone determines when the ordinary must be replaced by the extraordinary. Even our day to day obedience, though ordinary, He has promised to inspire and confirm through His New Covenant giving of the Holy Spirit. “And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws” (Ezekiel 36:27 NIV). But, if the Spirit of God can so captivate His children, “If you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, Go, throw yourself into the sea, and it will be done” (Matthew 21:21). O faith, be inspired to this, and more! 

OT: Messiah would perform miracles, but references to vengeance refer to Christ’s cleansing of the Temple at His First Coming (John 2), as well as pointing to His Second Coming. 

“4 say to those with fearful hearts, Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, He will come with vengeance; with divine retribution He will come to save you. 5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert” (Isaiah 35:4-6 NIV).  

NT: Jesus performed miracles, as proof of His messiahship, even to John the Baptist. 

“2 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples 3 to ask Him, Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else? 4 Jesus replied, Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 6 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of Me.” (Matthew 11:2-6). 

OT: Messiah would perform miracles with His First Coming, but also vengeance at His Second Coming.

“1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn” (Isaiah 61:1-2). 

NT: Jesus worked miracles in His First Coming; but notice, He stopped short of mentioning vengeance to His hearers at Nazareth, since that would be for His Second Coming.

“18 The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). 

Significance of Christ’s Miracles 

“37 Do not believe Me unless I do the works of My Father. 38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father” (John 10:37-38). 

“After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world” (John 6:14). 

“Still, many in the crowd believed in Him. They said, When the Messiah comes, will He perform more signs than this man?” (John 7:31). 

Though Christ had ample reason to perform miracles, He did not perform His first miracle until He created wine from water at Cana of Galilee (John 2). This indicated His divine authority and messiahship. Miracles serve the purpose of arresting our attention to gain God the opportunity of hearing His Word and establishing or reestablishing His relationship to us. 

May we seek Him for more than His miracles!

“23 Now while He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs He was performing and believed in His name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust Himself to them, for He knew all people. 25 He did not need any testimony about mankind, for He knew what was in each person” (John 2:23-25). 

Synopsis of John 2

Ken

In our survey of the Gospel of John, I was asked to speak on John, chapter 2.  

But first, let us pray. 

Father, anoint me that I may reveal the truth as it is in Jesus (Ephesians 4:21). Cause us to be satisfied with nothing less than a faith in Jesus requiring total commitment to You. In Jesus’ name, amen. 

In our survey of John 2, Jesus was just beginning His earthly ministry, when He and His disciples were invited to attend a wedding. 

Evidently, the addition of the extra guests caused a shortage of wine. 

He consented to his mother’s request to remedy the situation by creating wine from mere water (about 180 gallons of the Good Stuff). 

This was His very first miracle (John 2:11), which was an indicator of both His divinity and His messiahship to His disciples. 

The OT predicted the Messiah would work miracles, even as Jesus did. 

“4 Say to those with fearful hearts, Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, He will come with vengeance; with divine retribution He will come to save you. 5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert” (Isaiah 35:4-6 NIV). 

If we were alive at that time, would we be as spiritually attentive and receptive to understand the part of Isaiah’s prophecy speaking of healing referred to Messiah’s First Coming, and the part speaking of vengeance pointed to His cleansing of the Temple, as well as Messiah’s Second Coming? Would we have identified Jesus as the Messiah? And, that the Messiah was Yahweh? (Compare Jesus’ rejection at Nazareth, Luke 4:18; Isaiah 61:1-2). 

Reflecting back on the birth of Jesus, there was a devout Jew by the name of Simeon, “waiting for the consolation of Israel” (Luke 2:25), who was ready for the Messiah; as well as a devout, prophetess Anna, who “worshipped night and day fasting and praying” (2:36), who recognized Jesus as the Messiah. They both were ready. 

But again, are we ready for the Lord’s soon return and appearing as Simeon and Anna were?

In John 2, Jesus then proceeded on to Jerusalem, where He cleansed the Temple, in keeping with the Psalmist: “For zeal for Your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult You fall on me” (Psalm 69:9 NIV). 

Then again, wouldn’t the cleansing of the Temple agree with the portion of Isaiah’s prophecy that cryptically referred to “your God will come, He will come with vengeance; with divine retribution He will come to save you” (Isaiah 35:4)? No doubt Messiah has plenty left to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy at His Second Coming! 

Before we rightly condemn the Jews of Christ’s day, would we have had enough spirituality to have known better about His messiahship? And, His divinity? 

Finally, the most profound portion of John 2 is in verses 23 and 24, the last part of the chapter. 

“23 Now while He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs He was performing and believed [Greek, pisteuō] in His name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust [Greek, pisteuō] Himself to them, for He knew all people” (John 2:23-24 NIV). 

Let us pause the narrative for one moment and consider this, that many people believed on the name of Jesus. This believing was the Greek word pisteuō. But also, notice very carefully, “Jesus would not entrust [Greek, pisteuō] Himself to them” (2:24). Entrust was also from the Greek word pisteuō. Both “believed in His name” and “would not entrust Himself to them” are translated from the same Greek word, pisteuō.

Why was that?  

Because “He knew all people” (2:24), He knew their faith was insincere and insufficient for Him to entrust Himself to them, to commit to them, and to believe in them. This provides us with the realization that our faith is not enough for Jesus to commit Himself to us, unless we have genuinely committed ourselves to Him. 

Pisteuō is used about 250 times in the NT. Pisteuō is translated as believe 240 times. Pisteuō is translated as commit eight times, in the KJV. 

John 3:16 is properly translated, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes [Greek, pisteuō, COMMITS] in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 NIV). 

Commit, as in commitment, is more of a long term investment for those who have counted the cost. 

Commitment is what God is waiting for from the Church; and, all this time, the Church was under the impression that declaring ourselves as having trusted in Jesus as our Savior was mission accomplished, the end purpose of evangelical faith. 

“To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples” (John 8:32 NIV). Small wonder Christ spoke to His disciples as those who believed on Him, and He emphasized those remaining, continuing, and enduring with Him are really His disciples. This is True Commitment! 

“By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain” (1Corinthians 15:2). This is a daunting statement about commitment until we recall the purpose for the giving of the Holy Spirit is to inspire and confirm us in obedience. “And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws” (Ezekiel 36:27). We have the power of the Almighty to succeed, so much more than the fear of failure the devil taunts us with in our dark moments. 

“Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son” (2John 1:8-9). Wouldn’t it be a strange thing, if the faith or commitment of a small child or the mustard seed faith of the youngest disciple was not sufficient for our Heavenly Father to overcome the enemy and the world for the benefit of His Little Ones? Of such are the Kingdom of God! 

Let us pray. 

Father, may we reform our understanding of faith from only an intellectual concept to a commitment of our all in all to Jesus for ever and ever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen and amen. 

Natural, Supernatural, Miraculous

Ken

The difference is emphasis. Natural law is normal, which is expected. Supernatural is beyond normal. Miraculous is also beyond normal with an emphasis upon unexpected. Natural law is supported by the scientific method of reproducibility, which both secular and sacred admit. Supernatural is beyond the scope of science, at least until the discovery of consistent, reproducible natural law explanations. Miraculous is beyond the scope of physics with an emphasis upon unexpected. Creation can only be miraculous, since a supernatural Creator speaks the world into existence. “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Hebrews 11:3 KJV). Natural laws are the rules to which nature must comply; however, supernatural interaction with the natural world can modify outcomes, when applied. Miracles are directed from the supernatural often unexpectedly with unexpected outcomes. Humanity irrespective of religious or philosophical persuasion is subject to natural law. Supernatural beings both of the Creator and against the Creator may interact with the natural world, but subject to the Creator and conforming to the necessities of their being. Miracles also may interact with the natural realm, but especially are subject to the will of the Creator. “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:11p-12). 

Heart Opened By God

Ken

God opens hearts. “And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul” (Acts 16:14 KJV). We may not know the intricacies of your particular situation, but God opening a human heart — including our own — is able to transform any situation. We need to give God the opportunity to do what He is capable of doing. When our hearts are in a good place, He can teach us. “Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:45). We may prefer a more dramatic miracle, but a heart opened to the LORD can accomplish all that is needed. We were made to walk with God and obey Him. Father, may Your Spirit fill us and reveal to us Jesus that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Do all of this in Jesus’ name. Amen.