Miracles

And tonight, if you look down under the decrees and works of God, we're on Unit 6, or Lesson 6, which is miracles. Okay, so let me give you a little roadmap for where I plan to go. I want to spend about the first 15 minutes talking about miracles kind of in a technical sense, right? This is a theology class, so we want to kind of refine our understanding of what a miracle is. Would you agree with me that the term miracle is sometimes tossed around a little too loosely?

Even by Christians, right? And so I want to talk about that a little bit, looking at the Scriptures. And actually, if you can open your Bibles to John, Chapter 2, that's the first verse that we'll look at. And then after that 15 minutes or so, we're going to walk rapidly through. I say rapidly. I mean, we've got ground to cover, so we're going to march through the six points that we have under miracles. All right, individually, each one of those items. All right, so let's begin this way with an exercise.

Not physical exercise, although I could use that, but mental exercise, all right?

Miracle or no miracle?

Next year, the Florida Gators will win the NCAA National Championship. Miracle or no miracle? Miracle.

All right, I know you're kidding, but in reality, would that be a miracle? No? Okay.

I didn't come with a list of these. These are on the fly. So David Parker.

This Sunday morning, David Parker arrives at church clean-shaven. Miracle or no miracle?

Now, Jack, I see a shake of your head — you're scolding me — but David's been kidding me about my hair. He says I never have a hair out of place. So that was a little personal shot. All right.

Here's one that gets a little tougher. Miracle or no miracle? The birth of a baby.

Okay, we'll talk about that, all right?

Do we always mean the same thing when we use the word miracle? Do people always mean the same thing? No, they don't, right? Some, for example, would say — and I wouldn't condemn them for this or criticize them even — but some would say an answer to prayer is a miracle.

Perhaps someone's prayed about a sickness and they're healed, and there's no medical explanation, and we say, "That is a miracle. God has healed me." Okay, I understand that, and that's a rational statement to say that.

Sometimes someone would argue that any supernatural work is a miracle. When we think of redemption, the saving of a soul, the regeneration of a heart, a conversion experience, right? The illumination of the Holy Spirit so that we understand Scripture in a way we couldn't without the Holy Spirit.

Just as we talk about prayer for one another, and we see God answer prayer, and we sometimes refer to those things as miracles.

The amazing things, things that fascinate us or amaze us, like the birth of a baby, we sometimes refer to as a miracle. Let me ask you this, though.

How many babies do you think were born today in Central Florida?

Susan could probably tell us, give us a good...

Okay. So the birth of a baby is an ordinary occurrence, right? Would you agree the birth of a baby is an ordinary occurrence? That happens despite the fact that it's incredible and amazing, and only God is behind that. But when we look at miracles in the Bible, all right, the miracles in the Bible lie in their extraordinary character.

If something is ordinary, it's not extraordinary. And so we're going to try to refine our understanding of what a miracle is when we're talking about that in the Bible.

In periods of biblical history, there are brief periods of time where there are a flurry of miracles.

When you go to — of course the most notable time — right now, what period in the Bible did you see miracles constantly?

When Jesus — I heard it. When God in the flesh was on earth, right, and His miracles of healing, raising Lazarus from the dead — and so an abundance of miracles through the life and the ministry of Jesus, okay? Beyond that, you go into the Old Testament, and there are a couple of little periods in history, the life of Moses. During the life of Moses, there was a flurry of miracles. And that was 1500–1600 BC, right? David's affirming that. Okay. And then you jump over to another prophet, Elijah, some 400 years later, and there was a flurry of miracles. You remember the miracles during Elijah's time, all right?

Beyond that, miracles in the Old Testament were not the rule, all right? Those were the periods of time when you have the Old Testament. Then you jump all the way to the time of Christ and the apostles. When they went out and preached the gospel, and through these apostles, people were healed, right? And so these were the times in the Bible when you saw these flurries of miracles, but during most periods in the Old Testament, you did not see these miracles. Now, one of the interesting things I learned this week only is that the word miracle in the English language does not have a perfect counterpart in the ancient languages, in Greek and in Hebrew.

It just doesn't have that. There are a lot of words like that when you get to translations. And so if you ever read the word miracle in an English translation, the words in the New Testament in particular that you have are the words signs, wonders, powers, all right?

Power, signs, and wonders. And miracles are manifestations of divine power. That's what a miracle is. It's a manifestation of divine power, and they inspire awe, and they inspire wonder. All right? Now, when the New Testament describes a miracle, the most common description of that is the sign. John the Apostle uses the word sign throughout very frequently. And I asked you to open your Bibles to John if you can open them to John chapter 2.

And in John chapter 2, it's describing a miracle, and it was that first miracle of Jesus when He turned the water into wine.

As one non-theologian once said — who was the guy in the Gaither group, the comedian?

Mark Lowry. Mark said Jesus performed His first miracle just to keep the party going. That is not true, right? But He did perform that first miracle of turning the water into wine. Does someone have John chapter 2, verse 11, handy?

Read it out strong, if you would.

This being the first of His signs — going to hand out in the second verse. This is second. All right. Read it out one more time, even louder.

"This is the first of His signs. Jesus did at Cana of Galilee. He manifested His glory and the disciples believed in Him."

Okay.

"This was the first of His signs." There's that word. In the Greek language, it's sēmeion. Sēmeion — sign. All right? And what happened? It was a sign. It revealed His glory, and the disciples put their faith in Him. All right? And so signs point to something beyond themselves, right? The word sign is S-I-G-N. That's the root word of significance or signify. It signifies something else. And so we have to ask the question, what were the signs of the New Testament designed to signify?

What were the signs or the miracles of the New Testament designed to signify? Some of you can already answer that. Go ahead.

That Jesus is the Son of God. Okay?

He was the Christ. He was the Christ.

Okay? Now, when Jesus performed miracles, that had an immediate beneficial impact on the recipient, right? So if I'm blind and I'm made to see, hallelujah.

When a child is raised from the dead, his grieving parents — hallelujah. He was raised from the dead, right? And so it had an immediate benefit there, of course, to those people, and it showed His love. But more importantly, it was signifying something.

The power of God. Okay? It was signifying something. And what's the significance? Now, you're in John, right? Turn one page over to John chapter 3. Okay? Nicodemus kind of answers what these signs were to signify. John chapter 3, verse 2. You remember the story where Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night? And someone read for us John chapter 3, verse 2. These are the words of Nicodemus to Jesus.

Okay, now from that verse of Scripture, what was the sign for? What did it tell Nicodemus?

It told him that Jesus was from God. All right? It told Nicodemus that Jesus was from God.

"For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." And so that was the purpose of the sign — to show that Jesus was from God. And then in John chapter 14, verse 11, if you just flip over, listen to this Scripture. John 14, verse 11, the Bible says, "Believe me when I say that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me. Or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves." All right? And so Jesus's miracles were to demonstrate and to authenticate that He was indeed the Son of God. And then one other passage I want us to look at is over in Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2, this is kind of in the context of a warning.

Hebrews chapter 2, verses 1 to 4, and I'll go ahead and read that.

It says, "We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard Him." Now listen to verse 4. "God also testified to it by signs, wonders, and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will."

All right? In verse 4 there, what the author of Hebrews is saying is that God is going to confirm the truth of His Word through miracles.

God's confirming the truth of His Word through miracles. This is what was happening when the apostles, of course, were doing miracles. And that is often a truth that's very neglected.

And it has implications.

Today if you turn on your TV — you don't have to turn on your TV, you go to some tent somewhere — and you see some guy up there in a suit and he is professing to do miracles, healings that are nothing like the healings that you see in the New Testament.

Have you ever seen one of those folks raise someone from the dead?

No. Have you ever seen someone who is truly congenitally blind and this huckster out there puts his hands on them and they can see, something that was verifiable? No. No. And we don't want to lend any credence to that kind of thing because what's at stake is the authority of God. He's the author of miracles, the authority of the Holy Spirit, and the authority of Scriptures. See, the same ones who are doing that are claiming they're getting divine revelation.

And the whole purpose of miracles for the apostles was God saying, "This is My spokesman. Listen to him. Listen to this apostle." They were agents of revelation of divine truth. All right. Now, later we're going to get into — I know I waded in there a little too far — but later in ecclesiology we're going to get into this discussion about cessationism and continuationism. I don't know if you've heard those expressions or if I'm even pronouncing them correctly.

Cessationism or continuationism. That has to do with whether or not God still uses human agents to perform miracles. Okay. And we'll get to that.

We've kind of waded in a little bit right here. All right.

All right. So let's now consider — we're almost there, we'll get to our outline here in just a second. Let's consider Moses. Do you remember how God called Moses?

Burning bush. That's exactly right. And what did He call Moses to do?

Say again, Jack.

Well, that's true. He did do that — sandals off. But the calling, the ultimate calling of course, was to deliver "My people," the Israelites, and to stand up to Pharaoh. I mean, that is a tall task for Moses out there standing in the desert. And he staggers at that and he begins to question God, right? And that's over in Exodus chapter 4. And listen to what Moses says here in Exodus chapter 4.

Probably something we would say if we were in the same situation. Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The Lord did not appear to you'?" Then the Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?" And he said, "A staff." The Lord said, "Throw it on the ground." Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. "This," said the Lord, "is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has appeared to you." And then it goes on. He gives him another demonstration where he puts his hand in his coat, takes it out, it's leprous, then he puts it back in and it's clean. All right. And then the Lord said, "If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground." All right. And so God was planning to confirm His word in Moses' time by miracles. Those signs would be the means by which Moses would demonstrate he was God's spokesperson. All right. He was God's spokesperson. Remember, they didn't have the canon of Scripture then.

We have God's Word.

All right. And so this was God's way of demonstrating that Moses was His spokesman. So listen, anyone can claim a miracle, but only God can truly do a miracle. All right. And only a spokesman who's truly appointed by God can perform a miracle as the apostles did. Okay.

Now, are miracles to be expected today? And I'm wrapping up with this. Okay. Are miracles to be expected today? Again, I think it is very fair and important even to distinguish between the supernatural work of God — for example, through redemptive work where He saves — and that kind of miraculous and supernatural work, and the kind of miracles in the technical sense that we just described in the Old Testament and what the apostles did. So yes, we should expect the miraculous work of God in saving souls, converting souls, healing the sick through the prayers of the faithful, as it says to us in James, to pray for our brothers and sisters who are sick. "The prayer of a righteous man avails much." But I think we need to kind of grasp that distinction between God's supernatural work and the miracles in the Bible. Okay. The question is not whether God can perform miracles or whether God did perform miracles, but the question I'm raising is how He's dealing with people today. Okay. All right. Now, some of you are probably mad, but we can talk about that later. What about Satan? Does Satan perform miracles?

Jesus said — I like that — Jesus said he will do lying signs and wonders.

Fake ones. Fake ones. That's exactly right, Sarah. Now, some people say that Pharaoh's magicians — they did miracles. I submit to you that it was sleight of hand, just like David Copperfield does miracles. Our magicians today, like David Copperfield, they don't claim to do the supernatural. They will ultimately acknowledge that they're magicians and it's sleight of hand. And the devil will do lying signs and wonders. He's very sophisticated and he can trick and he can fool human beings who are less sophisticated than him. He is more sophisticated than us, but he cannot do a miracle, I would say, because he's not God. All right. Okay. Now with that, let's get into our — any thoughts on that? Did I say anything that rubbed you the wrong way in terms of miracles? I'm open to that. I might've slipped up a little bit. David, do you have any follow-up? Good. Okay. I've got a question. Yes. David, are you listening? There's a question.

My daughter was pregnant. The doctors told her she needed to abort because Xavier, my grandson, had Down Syndrome.

Well, she said, "That's beside the point. I'm not getting rid of it."

He's perfectly normal. We called it a miracle, but what it was, was what it was supposed to be.

Yeah. The doctors weren't right. Yeah. So we called him a miracle baby for years, but that's because we're basing our opinion on what the doctors say. Yeah. Yeah. And my fear in that little introduction was overstating the case. I am not in the slightest bit indicating that God doesn't heal people today, or that when people pray, God doesn't hear our prayers and act — not at all. It's just this is a theology class. And when we talk about miracles in a technical sense in the Old Testament and the New Testament, those miracles were extraordinary acts of God. Here's the definition that I got from R.C. Sproul. This is the narrow definition that theologians often use. It's actually a synthesis, I think. A miracle is an extraordinary work performed by the immediate power of God in the perceivable world, against nature, that only God can do, such as bringing life to the dead. Okay. And so that's kind of a theologian's definition. But it's funny because even theologians debate these things. There was debate. Augustine had one view of miracles that was different from St. Thomas Aquinas. Augustine said that miracles really were not against nature, but there's a higher level of nature that we don't understand that God operates in. And there's no reason to deny that. Whereas Aquinas says, "No, no, no, these were against nature." And that's like arguing about angels on a pin. You know, I can't go that deep. So David, you can handle that next time you're up.

So let's go ahead now. And if you have your outlines, I want to walk through this outline and we'll have some recurring themes that we've already discussed. All right.

And I'm going to go slow this time so we can get all of these filled in correctly. I was told by someone that I went a little too fast before.

Number one, the word miracle is derived from mirror and thus means to excite wonder.

Remember when the law was given to Moses, the weather that accompanied it?

Miracles are special instances of God's providence whereby God makes everything fulfill His purpose. Miracles as God's special providence are but a more impressive display of God's control over all things. Miracles confirm to us that God is always on His throne and is for us. And so the three blanks there — the first one was wonder, the second one was special, and the third one was throne.

And then the verse that we have — again, you see the nexus here between the miracles and belief — in John 11, verses 45 through 48. "Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary and had seen the things that Jesus did believed in Him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, 'What shall we do? For this man works many signs. If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him. And the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.'" What a staggering thing for them to say.

They knew that everyone would believe Him, but look how focused they are on their place.

You see that?

And then on the flip side, under number one, we have another Scripture from Romans chapter 4, verses 16 through 22. This is Abraham putting his faith in a God who could do anything, because with God nothing's impossible. Listen to what it says. "Abraham, who is the father of us all, in the presence of Him whom he believed — God, who gives life to the dead." Now there's a miracle you won't see a huckster doing, giving life to the dead. "And calls those things which do not exist as though they did. Who, contrary to hope, in hope believed so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, 'So shall your descendants be.' And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead, since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore, 'It was accounted to him for righteousness.'"

What was accounted to him for righteousness?

His faith — that he believed in the promise of God. All right, that he believed in the promise of God. And then the application, and here it is: "Believe in God and all His promises for us." And so the first blank there is, "Believe in God and all His promises for us." You know, some of the promises He's made to us are miracles yet to come. Resurrected bodies. I made a little note here. His return, our glorification. All right? And so believe in God and all His promises for us. Number two. Okay.

Actually, number two kind of gets into the St. Thomas Aquinas versus Augustine, but number two: miracles are natural to God because His works flow from His infinite nature. Miracles seem supernatural to us because we are finite beings. We can't grasp the operations of the wonder-working God. Miracles may be provided for in His ordering of nature by His regular habits or laws of nature. However, God is not confined.

That statement right there is truth. "God is not confined." Right? Just standing alone. However, God is not confined to nature and its laws. God can work by His creative and omnipotent will where regular means would not suffice. There is nothing too hard for God. All right?

All right. Those two methods — by the way, those two theories: Augustine's is called the Harmony Theory, where he claimed that this is not contrary to nature, it's just God in His realm that's above ours. And the one from St. Thomas Aquinas is called the Interpretive View of Miracles. I honestly think it's almost a fight about words, though. They both acknowledge God's amazing miracle work. All right. 1 Samuel 14:6, the verse that's below that: "For nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few."

And then when we flip over, we have verses from Genesis chapter 18, verses 13 and 14. "And the Lord said to Abraham, 'Why did Sarah laugh, saying, "Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?" Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.'"

You remember what that's a reference to, right? Sarah laughing because she was so old and knew that physically speaking it seemed impossible to have a child. And yet that's exactly what God did. All right. The application.

Can someone answer what that first one is? Can you figure it out? Believe — that's a great answer. In the context of this point, it's "serve God." I always try to guess them before they're called out. Do you all do that? Try to kind of guess what they are. "Serve God who can do all that He desires." Serve God who can do all that He desires. That's the one you want to serve, right?

All right.

Number three.

Miracles are often portrayed in Scripture as a response to prayer. God has decreed not only the ends, but also the means by which the ends are achieved. This is so important, this statement. Prayer doesn't change God, but it does change us.

It builds our faith and confidence that it is not the world, but the Lord that is truly God.

And so the three blanks there — prayer, change, and God.

Can someone give just a little statement, a testimony, how praying — it doesn't change God, but it can change you. Has prayer ever changed you?

Have you ever started out praying for something and then your heart was totally changed and you didn't want that anymore?

All right. James 5:16, "Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed." Right there is what we were talking about before. God still heals. God still heals and He hears our prayers. "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."

And then flipping over to the back side, Hebrews chapter 4, verses 14 through 16:

"Seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

All right. The application point, flipping back to the other side.

Someone want to take a stab at that first blank?

Very good. "Pour out our heart to the King of Kings." Pour out your heart to the King of Kings. Why is that an application point? Why should that be an application point based on what we just studied?

Why should we pour out our heart to the King of Kings?

He's worthy. He's worthy?

He cares for us?

He loves us. He loves us?

He's trustworthy?

At that point, it reminds me of — when I say sprinkling, we're not dabbling, we're pouring liberally, giving.

"Pour out your heart to the King of Kings." Pour out your heart to the King of Kings.

Yeah. Revelation says, "I will spit out the lukewarm."

Yeah. The church is Laodicea, I believe.

"I would rather it be hot or cold." Actually, He says, "I would rather it be hot or cold rather than lukewarm." Am I citing that correctly? And that has an interesting background behind it. I don't know if you've ever heard of it, because of the geography of that area. I used to just think it was like, "You know what? God would rather you be sold out to sin than just some tepid Christian." Right? That's actually not what it means.

There was a — I don't remember the name of the river or stream or whatever, but it would come through and it would pick up contaminants such that if they drank it, it would make them absolutely sick. They would get dysentery and vomiting and all of that. And so that's the reference. "I would rather you be hot." You know, hot water was useful. Cold water was refreshing and useful. But the lukewarm, tepid water — they understood it in Laodicea — was that water that made them throw up and retch. That's kind of some background for you in that verse.

We'll have to do more on that verse. That was unsatisfying, I'm sure.

So let's move to number four. We're moving to number four on page one.

Miracles do not simply attest to God's revelation. Miracles are themselves part of God's revelation as they display God's perfect character to all men. Miracles most often appear during times where God reveals Himself in redeeming His people. God reveals Himself in both word and deed. All right? And so the blanks there — the first one is part, the second one is redeeming, the third one is word, and the fourth one is deed.

And the Scriptural reference that we have there is from Revelation chapter 15. "Great and marvelous are Your works." And then David's giving us some bullet points there that give illustration to the fact that great and marvelous are His works. "The miracles of the Old Testament declared that Yahweh is God and there is none beside Him. They spelled judgment for the godless nations and created and preserved a place in Israel for God's continuing revelation." Okay, Bible students. What miracles in the Old Testament declared that Yahweh is God and there's none beside Him?

The burning bush. Okay, burning bush.

What about during Elijah's time? Yeah, what about the fire that came from heaven and burned up the offering — and burned up everything else that was around?

Yep, all right. And then there's the Passover, when God was not killing all the firstborn of the Israelites, but killing the firstborn of the Egyptians. That's right. When the blood was applied, the eldest son was spared of the Israelites.

Passover. All right?

Many examples. Okay, and then what miracles of the Old Testament indicate that they spelled judgment for the godless nations? Can you think of one of those? Sodom and Gomorrah? What came to my mind?

Say again? The flood of Noah. The flood of Noah, perfect. Yeah, the flood of Noah. They were making fun of Noah. Could you imagine? You know, it started raining like it did when we started, and Noah's out there building his ark and they're scoffing at him, and judgment came. All right? So the miracles spelled judgment for the godless nations, created and preserved a place in Israel for God's continuing revelation. A second bullet point there. The miracles of the New Testament expressed that Christ uniquely is the full revelation of God, the only mediator between God and man. Can you think of a miracle in Jesus' day that demonstrated He was uniquely the full revelation of God?

When Jesus died on the cross. Oh, when He died on the cross and when He rose from the grave, right? When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Bingo! That's just exactly what I was thinking. And wasn't that the last miracle He did before He went to the cross? I think when He raised Lazarus from the dead? What about the soldiers? Yeah. Now, what did that signify? We said that signs signify. What did raising Lazarus from the dead signify? It relieved the grief of his family and Lazarus is now living again. But what did it signify about the Lord and who He is?

The power over death. The power over death. And you know, he said — most of you have heard this — the old country preacher said that when the Lord Jesus said, "Lazarus, come forth," if He had not said him by name, all the graves in Jerusalem would have come forth. He named him by name. Lazarus, come forth. You've probably heard that preached before. All right. But yeah, it demonstrated that He had power over death.

And then the next bullet point there: the miracles of the apostles are the works of the exalted Christ reigning through His church to display His eternal glory to all. All right.

And it's worth noting, who are the apostles? Now, if you were to drive around Central Florida, you'd probably see some church signs and Apostle James will be preaching on Sunday. I'm not going to take shots at them too much. But if we're going to talk about apostles in the technical sense, who are apostles? Can someone help us with that?

What qualified you to be an apostle?

Appointed by Christ.

Seeing the risen Christ. I tell you what, these kids are on it.

You all go to their house and listen to them.

Yeah, that's exactly right. That is — if you were in a college course and they said, "What qualified someone as an apostle in the New Testament?" — you all just hit all three of them. They had to see the risen Christ, called by Him. And you said, what was the last one?

Called and appointed. Yeah, appointed by Christ. Those are the apostles. Now, doesn't it make sense that these are the ones who were then commissioned to go out and proclaim the gospel, that God would give them the gift of miracles so people would say, "Those guys are worth listening to. They've been authenticated by God." And so He was authenticating their credentials. All right. So the miracles of the apostles are the works of the exalted Christ. And then the application: marvel at the God who works wonders, marvel at the God who works wonders. Number five.

Miracles are still possible because God exists and governs the universe. God hasn't changed. All right.

And then: conversion is a miraculous work of God. Likewise, God can and does heal the sick through prayer. And so the three fill-in-the-blanks are possible, conversion, and prayer.

And despite what I said earlier, I completely subscribe to the statement that conversion is a miraculous work of God. It is a miraculous work of God.

I would only distinguish it in the sense that we talked about earlier, in terms of the miracles of the Old Testament and what their purpose was, and also the apostolic signs. Now, the next paragraph is kind of what I waded in to a little bit earlier today. That sentence says this: the apostolic sign gifts such as prophecy, languages — and when it says languages, it's talking about speaking in tongues — right.

The apostolic sign gifts such as prophecy, languages, and healings ceased with the apostles. We will study this in ecclesiology. All right. So come back to ecclesiology.

And that was where I was referencing earlier between cessationists and continuationists. There are some people today who would say, "No, that statement's not true. God is still doing miracles through His preachers like He did through the New Testament apostles, and speaking in tongues and that type of thing." But here's the interesting thing we talked about before. If you look at the so-called miracles that are being posited today, they bear no resemblance to the New Testament miracles.

If you consider the speaking in tongues that's taking place today, I think most reputable Bible scholars with respect to Pentecost believe that the tongue that was being spoken, although unknown to the speaker, was a known tongue. The miracle was they were speaking in languages they did not know. It'd be like if I started to speak in Portuguese, even though I don't know it, and Mike's hearing the word of God in his own language. Okay. And so I would submit to you that what those who are advocating continuation are doing — it's not really continuation, it's invention. It's something wholly different and new. When I say wholly, that's W-H-O-L-L-Y, not holy.

All right. But stay tuned. All right. John chapter 5, verse 17: "But Jesus answered them, 'My Father has been working until now and I have been working.'" All right. God continues to be at work.

And then we flip it over to number five. John chapter 14, verses 10 through 14.

"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also, and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it."

Now, that verse probably sparked some questions for which David Parker will have some answers.

Anyone have any thoughts on that verse?

What does it mean when it says, "He who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also, and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father"? So this is Jesus speaking, telling those who are hearing Him, "Greater works than these he will do." How do we interpret that?

Could anyone here go out and raise someone from the cemetery? That would be an example of a greater work, maybe. I don't think it means greater works in quality — I understand the interpretation of that. It meant greater, it meant more. More? So quantitatively? No one can be greater than Jesus. No, certainly not. No one can do greater works than He did, of course. All right, anyone else help us here? David.

The Holy Spirit — Christ said, "For your benefit, He's going to be sending to you another Paraclete, another Helper in the Holy Spirit." He came of course with Pentecost. Now every Christian who has placed their faith in Jesus Christ is filled with the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit empowers us to be bold, to be witnesses. And so since the time of Christ, we've had millions of conversions to Christianity. And that's greater in number than what they saw in the first century, right? God empowers the church to be the presence of Christ here, through the church. And so in that sense, we do greater works. And it's only through His Spirit, which He sent to dwell with us. Jesus' entire ministry was in a small little geographical region, wasn't it? And He sent out the apostles throughout the whole known world — back to the Apostle Paul, you know, all through the Roman Empire, spreading the word.

Jesus voluntarily limited Himself to time and space in the incarnation as He was here. So that verse could deserve treatment for one whole Wednesday night. There's a lot in there to discuss, but we're going to move on. All right. So application — did we get application? Application. This is a great application. Number one, preach the word.

What pastoral epistle do you see that in? Preach the word.

Okay. You even had the citation. One more time on the citation.

Did you all hear her? 2 Timothy 4:2. 2 Timothy 4:2. Hang on a minute.

Okay.

What did Ronald Reagan say?

Very good, Rebecca.

This is a smart congregation.

Preach the word. And then he says, "In season, out of season," right? When it's popular, when it's unpopular. And it's getting less and less popular, isn't it? That's incredible. Thank you for that citation. All right. Preach the word is the first blank, and then pray and watch God work. Preach the word, pray and watch God work. All right.

And obviously that's talking about the work of the gospel there, right? Preach the word, pray and watch God work.

Number six — have I missed any blanks, or are we good? We're good. Number six: the sure way to identify a miracle — I love this one — is through Scripture, right? Not through your coworker.

The sure way to identify a miracle is through Scripture. Scripture identifies and interprets God's mighty acts. Scripture also reminds us that not all unique events are miracles and that some might even be lying wonders of demonic origin.

The Bible teaches us to discern what is from God.

And so the blanks there are Scripture, acts, and discern. "The Bible teaches us to discern what is from God." I think I referenced earlier there's a verse in the Gospel of Mark where Jesus warns about lying signs and wonders, and He says that they will even deceive the elect.

And so here we have the call for discernment, all right, the call for discernment. Our flesh can find very appealing things that are novel, right? Things that are new, things that fascinate us, and yet they may not be things that are true. And so — discernment. Should we ask ourselves, Christians, has the Gospel or the Scriptures changed?

No. What's changed?

I think — I know one preacher said this.

He said, "If it's new, it ain't true." If it's new, it ain't true. That's a good little thing to take away with you. If it's new, it ain't true. All right, 1 John 4:1, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world."

And then flipping over, our last verse under section 6, 1 John 4:2 and 3. "By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world." I believe in that particular letter, 1 John is dealing with Gnosticism. He's dealing with the teaching that denied the humanity of Christ.

And so what he's telling us, though, more broadly is this: you have to get Jesus right. If you don't get Jesus right, everything else is going to be wrong. All right, so our Christology is so very, very important. And we're going to be studying Christology next. All right, if you get Jesus wrong, everything's wrong. That's why Mormons — even though they're committed to their task, and they look all tidy and wear their little white shirts, and they seem like such good, nice people — they get Jesus wrong. And because they get Jesus wrong, they've got everything else wrong.

All right. And then the application, when we go back to the first page —

Let's see if we can guess these. "Know God's word in order to recognize His" — and there's some alliteration in there. It starts with a W.

"Know God's word..." I heard it. Works. Works. All right. I'll tell you, Abigail.

Abigail's on top of this. All right.