If you're joining us for the first time or maybe the first time in a long time. Today is actually the second part of a four part series entitled Miracles Then and Now, Miracles Then. Now. And if you're not a particularly religious person or from a different faith tradition, or you used to be a person of faith, but you kind of drifted away and you're like, well, I'm not.
This is a series for me because I don't really believe in miracles. If you're if you're skeptical about miracles, you should be. You have good reason to be skeptical of miracles, because a miracle is not just a miracles, not just something that's unusual. A hole in one, you know, that's unusual, but that's not a miracle. He actually remembers your birthday.
Okay. It feels like a miracle, but it's not really a miracle. That's just unusual. Miracles are hard to believe in because they're not just things that are unusual.
Miracles are actually impossible. So if you're skeptical, you should be. You haven't checked your brain, at the door. And I say that they're impossible because a miracle by definition. And this is my little short definition. I made up. If you weren't if you were here last week, you'll remember this. A miracle is actually a temporary suspension or reversal of the laws of nature.
That's what a miracle is. Are the laws of nature govern our universe, and our universe is all we know. The laws of nature are what makes science possible. It's what makes the world somewhat predictable. It's why we know how to respond to certain things. Because certain things happens all, all the time. We're kind of locked in to the laws of nature.
So to reject the notion of a miracle is completely understandable and completely rational and completely logical. So there's nothing wrong with you if you're skeptical about miracles. But in spite of all what I just said from the very beginning of Christianity and Christianity, by the way, began with Christ twice. Christianity from the very beginning of Christianity. Christians have believed that miracles are in fact possible, and the reason we believe miracles are possible is because we believe in a God as represented to, by, and presented to us by Jesus.
We believe in a God that created the universe and created the laws of nature. And because he created the laws of nature, he is outside of the laws of nature and reserves the right to interrupt his own rules and his own laws as he and when he sees fit. So if you missed part one, that's what part one was all about.
And if you missed part one, you really need to go back and watch or listen to it, because it really is the foundation of where we're going from now. So at the end of last week, we ended with this. We asked the question, how many miracles do you have to believe in in order to be a Jesus follower?
And I made the case. last week that miracles are, in fact, possible in the two miracles that you pretty much have to grapple with if you're going to become a Jesus followers. Number one, the miracle of the universe, which is the foundation for why we believe in God to begin with, that there was nothing and then there was something, and something can come from nothing.
Nothing ever could unless something created itself, which means it preceded itself. If something precedes itself and creates itself, that's a miracle. Okay, so you're kind of stuck with that one. The second miracle, we said that eventually you kind of have to grapple with and follow Jesus is the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus, because this is the foundation of our faith.
Now If you're a Christian or Jesus follower or even a somewhat religious person, you probably don't have a problem with either of those. That's not why you're interested in this series. I mean, that's not what you want to hear. You don't have a problem with either of those.
Your question is, I've read your mind, and my question is it's the same question. That's how I know what your question is. Your question. And my question is this how do I get me one? Okay, I just okay, I believe they're possible. I just want to get one. So Andy, I'm you're talking about miracles. Tell me how to get me one.
What's the formula? What's the code? Is there like a pin number? Is there a password?
We're attracted to the formulas. Not because we want something for God is because this should be honest. We want something from God. And let's be honest, sometimes we want something from God for someone else.
But when you follow Jesus through the Gospels, and the reason I say that phrase to you all the time is if you want to know what God is like, you follow Jesus through the Gospels because he came to reveal God before Jesus. It's just shadows. Jesus shows up and the shadow does goes away. Because the shadow caster has appeared.
The kings on planet earth. So follow Jesus through the Gospels or or and follow the apostles through the book of acts. The apostles are the people that came along after Jesus and spread the gospel. Follow Jesus in the Gospels. Follow the apostles in the book of acts. And one thing is absolutely clear there's no formula, there's no password, there's no Pin number, there's no if I do, God must do and there's no measure of faith that forces God to do your bidding or to do my bidding.
At the end of the day, it's so clear from the New Testament in particular, and the Old Testament. But the New Testament in particular, that miracles. All right. God's discretion to further God's purposes, that miracles are at God's discretion to further God's purposes. And from a human perspective. And that's a that's the that's the qualifier from a human perspective.
So I don't want to be misunderstood from a human perspective. As you read the New Testament and the Old Testament, God is gloriously, infuriatingly inconsistent. That God is gloriously it's like, wow. Infuriatingly, it's like, inconsistent. But the men and women who experienced his inconsistency firsthand close up the front row seat. They remain faithful anyway, because their faith was not anchored to God's willingness to intervene on their personal behalf and their faith wasn't anchored to God's willingness to intervene on the on behalf of the people they cared about and loved.
Their faith was anchored to the reality. Ready for this? Their faith was anchored to the reality that God had already done something on their behalf and on behalf of the world, because he sent His Son into this world to explain what God is like to pay for our sin and to break down the wall, the barrier between us and our father and heaven and God.
Jesus came and invited us to relate to God not as a, you know, intangible sovereign, but as a heavenly father. Now, one New Testament narrative, I think, illustrates this perfectly.
It's confusing, it's chaotic. There's so much going on and at the end of it, I think it perfectly illustrates this tension that we live in because it is a tension. Here's what happened following the resurrection of Jesus, Jesus closest apostles and disciples.
The disciples are kind of the outer ring, the apostles, the inner ring. They go into the streets of Jerusalem, where all these events took place, and they begin to proclaim, God has done something for the world, and God has done something in the world. He sent his Messiah. They draw a crowd, and they're so direct. I mean, they're so direct.
In the book of acts, they say to the crowd, you crucified the Messiah, and God raised him, and we've seen him. Now repent. You got you killed him. God raised him. We've seen him admit you were wrong. And people realize that Jesus has risen from the dead because the eyewitnesses of the resurrection and the church is born right there in Jerusalem.
And immediately there's resistance from the same religious leaders and the government that had Jesus crucified to begin with. They think they're done with this Nazarene cult. Next thing you know, it is back. And they're celebrating the resurrection of this king, this false king Jesus. So one of the spokes people, early on in this movement was a man named Stephen. Have you heard of Stephen? And Stephen was a powerful communicator, and he so infuriated the religious leaders. They take him.
They don't take him to Pilate to get permission to execute him. They just drag him outside the city gates. And they stoned Stephen to death. And Rome turns a blind eye. And it is open season on the Jesus followers. No miracle for Stephen, this powerful communicator worse it. His death actually triggered a local persecution. In fact, Luke and the Book of Acts Luke wrote the Book of Acts says that on that very day that a local persecution broke out against the church, which.
And here's kind of the twist and turn of the story of Christianity, which is your story if you're a Christian, which that persecution, as it turned out, actually furthered the purposes of God, you're here's what happened. Here's what Luke tells us. He says now, those who had been scattered by the persecution. So if you're a Christian and people know you're a Jesus follower, you had to leave town.
So they're fleeing for their lives. Don't miss this. But they're not fleeing from their faith. They take their faith with them. This amazing. Those are then scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed, when he was stoned, they traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. Antioch, like 350 miles away from Jude, from Jerusalem. So this is like they didn't just, like, go right outside the edge of town.
They fled Antioch, spreading the word about Jesus, but only to Jews, because the initial Christian movement, Jesus movement was it was all Jews. So they went to these cities, they went to these regions, and they found the Jewish population there. And they said, we're here. The Jewish people took him and his family. His family, they're all sons and daughters of Abraham.
They're like, okay, God has done something in the world. God has sent the Messiah. And some of these Jewish people believe. But the next verse, listen to the next verse, some of them, however, Luke tells us, some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, they went to Antioch, and they began to speak to the non-Jewish people, the Greek community also telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus.
and the Lord's hand was with these. The Lord's hand was on these men.
And a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. So you have something great, the resurrection. You have something bad, the persecution, you have something bad. The stoning of Stephen. You have something bad. The persecution that spreads everybody out as a result of being spread out. People in all these different regions hear about Jesus and put their faith in Jesus, and a great number of non-Jewish people turn to the Lord Jesus in faith, which means now, thanks to the persecution and the stoning of Stephen which launched the persecution, the wall between Jews and Greeks has been breached with the message of Jesus gloriously, frustratingly inconsistent.
But this is your story. This is my story. This is how God works. Which means when you face this kind of inconsistency personally, it's okay. You're not the first. We won't be the last. Anyway, back to story. Meanwhile, Back in Judea, okay is about this time story starts taking on a little bit different angle. It was about this time that King Herod Agrippa.
I have to tell you who he is real quick. King Herod Agrippa I added, this is not in the text. He is the grandson of the famous Herod the Great. Herod the Great builder rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem. If you go to Jerusalem today, you see that Temple Mount Herod built and rebuilt, that jamesand King Herod Agrippa is the last Jewish king of Judea, but he doesn't know that at the time.
Okay, so here's the final king. So that's who King Herod a grip is. And he was somewhat Jewish because there's a mixed heritage. But anyway, he was considered a Jew Jewish king. It was about this time the king Herod Agrippa, arrested some who belonged to the church, the ekklesia, the movement of Jesus intending to persecute them. So you've got the religious leaders persecuting the Christians.
And now the government gets involved. And King Herod Agrippa had James, the brother of John. arrested and put to death with the sword, one of the original four the guys that Jesus called. And this sent shockwaves to the Christian community at that time.
No miracle for James, his brother John. Do you know what happens to him? He is the only one of Jesus original 12 apart from Judas that actually wasn't old. Judas wasn't a martyr. He was the only one that wasn't a martyr. And John, James brother, lived to be a very, very old man. God's wondrous, confusing, infuriating inconsistency. When King Herod, when King Herod saw that this beheading or having James put to death, he was probably beheaded with the sword.
When King Herod saw that this met with approval among the leaders, because there's conflict, there's internal conflict between the religious temple leaders and King Herod, even though they're Jewish, they're he's saying, oh, wow, I just this is this felt like a favor to the people I'm having conflict with. He decides, well, hey, let's just do some more. He just took down one of the original 12.
James, the brother of John, one of Jesus, you know, first four followers. And he's thinking, well, if the leaders thought that was a big deal, let's go for a really big deal. Let's go for the big prize. Let's go for the big fish He proceeded to seize Peter also. Now, at this point in the life of the church, Peter is the leader.
Peter the leader. Okay, Peter's a leader. So if we get rid of Peter, I mean, we got rid of their leader, Jesus. But this movement wouldn't die. So surely if we take Peter out, this thing is going to go away once and for all. This troublesome cult will finally die. Now, here's what happened. So he decides, let's get Peter. He sends his men, they find Peter somewhere in the city. They arrest Peter. After arresting Peter. Herod Agrippa, King Herod Agrippa put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by this is amazing and so much detail. Luke was all about the detail because this is history. This is a once upon a time in a land far, far away.
Right? He, he handed him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers, which meant 24 seven. There were four soldiers guarding Peter because he was a big fish, he was a big catch. This was a big deal. Herod intended to bring Peter out for public trial, which means public execution. That's what that really means. Public trial and public execution after Passover.
So Passover arrives, or Passover as a happening at this time. And it's like the city is full of people from all over the regions. I don't want to cause any more trouble than there already is during Passover. So I'm going to wait for Passover. I'm going to bring Peter out, and then Peter is going to suffer the same fate as James.
He's going to be probably be beheaded and maybe publicly. And now you got the government involved. We don't need to go to to Pilate. We just are going to handle this ourselves. But the church, but the church, but the Jesus followers. But the church was gathered together in a home, we find out later, gathered together in a home, earnestly praying to God for him, because Peter needs a miracle and days go by.
Finally, Passover ends and they're waiting at any day. Herod could decide today's the day. So the night before, the night before, Herod decides to bring Peter out and execute him. The night before, Herod was to bring Peter out for trial and for execution. Peter was sleeping. That's a miracle, okay? Peter was sleeping between two soldiers. Get this. This is what a high value prisoner he was bound with two chains and two sentries to guard at the entrance.
So at all times, Peter is chained. wrist to wrist with two different of Herod's guards. That's how Herod concerned. Herod was that somebody was going to try to break him out and free him, because he was such a high value prisoner and suddenly, suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell.
But the light didn't bring. Wake Peter up. So the angel angels. That's interesting detail. And Luke knows this because Peter tells him the story. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up quick. He says, get up! And the chains fell off a Peter's wrists. Now when Peter tells this story, here's what Peter says happened. Peter says, I thought I was dreaming.
and next thing I know, I am standing outside the prison, in the street, in the middle of the night, all by myself.
and he heads to the only place I know.
I guess he knew to go. He had. He knew where the Christians were gather, praying, because there was a woman who had a large home and she welcome the church was meeting there. Part of the church was meeting there. And so she goes there. And she has a son, by the way, named John Mark. And in this home where she hosted the Christians, the text tells us that many people were gathered.
They were praying, remember a minute ago said the church began praying. Peter needs a miracle. Peter needs a miracle.This is where they were praying. And then this story takes an interesting twist. So Peter gets to his home, middle of the night, all by himself, middle of the street, and he knocks on the door. Peter knocked at the outer entrance and a servant named Rhoda.
So interesting that Luke gives us this name of a servant. He this name Rhoda came to answer the door. He is knocking on the door in the middle of the night. This is not a good sign. Everybody lights out. Candles out, right? Oil lamps out. You know they found us. They found us. Imagine how afraid they were. And so Peter's knocking.
Nobody's come in the door because he's like. And Peter starts yelling, hey, hey, it's Peter when she heard. It's so funny when she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed. She ran back without opening the door and exclaimed to the whole group, Peter is at the door now. This is how humans that mean. The authors of scripture are so honest.
Okay, they've been praying for a miracle. It happens and how do they respond to Rhoda? It's amazing you're out of your mind. They told her. It can't be Peter. Peter is in Herod's prison cell. We're praying that he gets released. We know we're is. You're crazy. You're. It can't possibly be. Peter. Okay. They finally let Peter in. This is the point.
This is why I want to belabor this point. These are men and women. These are men and women who had seen the resurrected Christ. They have been eyeball to eyeball with resurrected, you know, post crucifixion Jesus. But even for them, miracles were not a daily occurrence. Miracles were not predictable. They prayed and they asked, but no one knew the will and the purposes of God.
They were just like us. Only they've seen more than us. They had more reasons to expect God to perform a miracle than we do. They experienced inconsistency and This is where their story intersects with your story and your story my story, their their experience with God see me from our perspective.
Inconsistency. It was so personal and it was so painful. They had lost a friend and a brother to Herod. They had lost a friend and a brother in Christ, Stephen, to the religious leaders. And yet they were so astonished when they saw Peter standing there. The text says this exactly what I just said. They were astonished. God answered their prayer and they were astonished.
Meanwhile, the music changes. More ominous music and the morning there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what it could become of Peter, because they're walking around with chain on their wrist and nobody's on the other end of the chain.
Do you got some explaining to do right after Herod? Because of course, Herod came. Hey, hey, today's the day I want to bring Peter out there. Like we don't know where Peter is. After Herod had done a thorough search and had a thorough search made for him and couldn't find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed.
Here's the aftermath. Less than a year later, maybe 4 or 5 months later, we're not exactly sure. But less than a year later, King Herod Agrippa dies
But see, I read the story and then maybe you think like I do. I'm like, okay, God, if you're going to take him out, why did you take him out earlier? Just a year earlier? I mean, here he you know, he's going to die. And I don't know if God gave him.
I mean, who knows? They live horrible, horrible lives and a horrible stuff and who knows what they drink, right? But the point is, he dies. He dies within a year of having probably a year of having James executed. And who else arrested and tortured? We don't even know. So that's what happens to him. Meanwhile, John Mark, the young man whose mom hosted the prayer meeting, John Mark, goes on to travel with the apostles and writes the gospel of Mark.
And the gospel of Mark is Peter's story of the life and his experiences with Jesus and John, the brother James. James was beheaded. You know, John lives. John goes on to write the Gospel of John that we have in our Bibles. that these men who experienced this extraordinary, painful personal inconsistency maintain their faith to the point that they continue to risk their lives so that we so many years later, would have the privilege of the gospel, the message of Jesus that was for the whole world.
Peter, Peter, again he reemerges. He travels. He encourages Christians all over the place. He writes two letters that show up in our New Testament first Peter and second Peter. Then eventually he's arrested either in Rome or arrested and taken to Rome. We're not sure. And this time he didn't get a miracle. This time he's crucified. Some traditions say that Peter was crucified upside down.
Some traditions say he was crucified upside down because he said, I'm not worthy to die as my Savior. So they said, we'll fix that. We'll crucify you upside down. And these men and women would assure us that miracles are possible, but they're not predictable and they're not probable. And most importantly, they are not necessary for our faith or our faithfulness.
They. This is the group that had a ringside seat to this reality that miracles are at God's discretion to accomplish God's purposes. Now listen to this. And they were okay with that. That miracles are at God's discretion to accomplish God's purposes, and they were okay with that. But let me tell you what else they would tell you. They would look at you and they would look at me, and maybe they would look at somebody today, or somebody watching or listening who really needs to hear this.
And they would say, look, look, look, in spite of that. Bring it on. You are free to ask God for anything. You are free to plead with God. Like the Apostle Paul pleaded with God, the apostle Paul was commissioned to be an ambassador for Jesus all over the Greek world, all around the Mediterranean rim, and he had some kind of physical ailments that got in the way of him doing the very thing God called him to do.
And he's like, God, you've called me to do this, and yet I've got this physical problem. We don't know exactly what it is that's getting in the way of me accomplishing your will in the world. Please heal me. You. I mean, Paul, the Apostle Paul, perform miracles. Please give me a miracle. God said no. Paul would say, but you know what?
You bring it any way and you plead with God if that's what you need to do. Peter told us he he wrote this. He said, cast all of your cares on your heavenly father, confident, absolutely confident that he cares for you. It doesn't matter what we think the outcome is going to be, we honor God when we ask God to do what only God can do.
And that tension and that exchange, that part of the process is faith building. When we engage in it. There's one more thing I think they would tell us. I'm putting words in their mouth a little bit. They would look at us and say, and don't forget, you don't have to bargain with God. There's no formula, there's no passcode, there's no posture, there's no magic.
You don't have to bargain with God because God is your heavenly father. You just ask. And in the very end of his earthly ministry, Jesus told us how to and model for us, how to ask. He goes to the Garden of Gethsemane. He's a few minutes, maybe an hour away from being arrested. You remember this scene? He's praying alone.
And he knows what's coming, and he's human enough to dread it, as he should. And he says, this is so great. This is for us. This is for somebody specific today. He says, father, father, if you are willing, take this cup, take this plan, take what is about to happen, take what is about to unfold away from me.
If God, if there's any other way to accomplish your will, if there's any other way to accomplish your purpose, give me an option yet, father, not my will. Thy will be done. Is this a cop out? Is this a way around? The inevitable? Is this is well, there's not really God, but you Christians kind of have a workaround in case God doesn't do what you know you want God to do, where you think God knows that's not a cop out.
This is the way it's been done from the beginning. This is the way it's been from the beginning. This is what our Savior modeled for us. And Jesus was arrested and beaten, flogged, mocked and crucified. And it was horrible. And it advanced the purposes of God.
Because miracles, Old Testament, New Testament, top to bottom throughout the story of Christendom. Are at God's discretion to accomplish God's purposes. And that's okay, because he's God, he's God the Father. And through Christ, he has demonstrated once and for all on a hill outside of Jerusalem that he loves you, and he does, in fact care for you. And you can cast your cares on him with confidence that he hears, knows, and cares for you.
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