Sermon Tone Analysis

Good Morning, Today, we are beginning a new series entitled… “Breakthrough ” From now until Easter Sunday…

The kind of breakthrough that we will be talking about is the kind of that is miraculous in nature…

It what to do when faced with the impossible situation…

What happens when human ingenuity fails?

What happens when our best efforts aren’t good enough?

What happens where the doctors tell us there is no hope?

What happens when you hit a barrier and need a breakthrough?

What is needed is a Miracle!

What is a miracle...

Author and Theologian ..Norman Giesler Defines a Miracle like this...

“In brief, a miracle is a divine intervention into, or an interruption of, the regular course of the world, that produces a purposeful but unusual event that would not (or could not) have occurred otherwise.”

Norman B. Geisler

The natural world is the world of regular, observable and predictable events … a miracle is an unusual, irregular, specific way in which God acts within the world.…

if a miracle occurs, it would not be a violation or contradiction of the ordinary laws of cause and effect, but a new effect produced by the introduction of a supernatural cause.”Source:

Norman B. Geisler, Miracles and Modern Thought (Zondervan, 1982), 13.

As we come into the Easter season… we are reminded that God is a God of miracles…

Easter is about Resurrection about God coming back to life...… Easter is about a divine intervention/ interruption in regular course of the world..

When Jesus died it seemed that like all systems had failed — it seemed like death had won the day… Luke tells us that those who had witnessed Jesus final words and seen Jesus breathe his last breath… were visibly impacted..

look at this...

The crowd witnessed Jesus’ last breath..

He didn’t faint… He did not become unconscious to be revived later… simply Jesus called out to the Father… “Father into your hands I commit my spirit.”

and then Luke says.

“And having said this he breathed his last.”

This is the spectacle that Luke talks about… where the Centurion at the foot of the cross… saw the injustice… said… “Certainly this man was innocent”

Seeing Jesus lifeless body on the cross must have been a stark and unbelievable sight… The hope of Israel… The promised Redeemer… nailed to the cross like a broken reed.. What intense sense of loss… and hopelessness…The Message Bible tells us that the crowd was overcome with grief..

but standing on this side of the Easter Story... …

We know this is not how the Easter Story ends…

It’s Friday and Sunday’s coming… You see death was no match for the Jesus … the Savior the Son of God… years ago a Dr. S.M. Lockridge Preached a powerful sermon entitled, “That’s my King.”

Lockridge tells us that Jesus was

indescribable... incomprehensible.

That Jesus was invincible.

Well, Pharisees couldn’t stand Him, but they found out they couldn’t stop Him.

Pilot couldn’t find any fault in Him.

The witnesses couldn’t get their testimonies to agree.

Herod couldn’t kill Him.

Death couldn’t handle Him and the grave couldn’t hold Him.

That’s my King

You see..

On that first resurrection Sunday when the two Mary’s and Martha took spices to the anoint Jesus body..… They found was not our Lord’s body but an empty tomb....Easter is about Resurrection… it’s about miraculous…

In fact the whole Christian Faith is based upon the miraculous.. you have a virgin Birth, you have the incarnation God becoming man, you have death and resurrection…The Bible that we believe is inspired by God… The gift of Salvation itself is miraculous..

But we still seem to struggle with the nature of miracles today… We all faced with this question...

Does God still do miracles today..

This “Breakthrough ” is a sermon series about God and miracles… On April 17 you can watch this true story of John Smith… in the movie “Breakthrough”

When John was 14 years old, John fell through the ice in the St. Louis area.

He was under the water for 15 minutes.

When they pulled him out, he was dead.

They worked on John for another 45 minutes.

Nothing.

At this point, he had been without oxygen and a pulse for over one hour.

There was nothing else the doctors could do.

They called his mom in to say goodbye.

Joyce walked into the room and made a choice to believe that God could do the miraculous..

I want to show you what happened.

(Show clip #1)

Amazing Story… of a modern day miracle…

One of the challenges when we hear about such miracles is to wondering if God still performs miracles today.

I was reading this great article in Christianity today written by Tim Stafford - The article is entitled - “A new age of miracles,” It about the growing reports of miracles around the world…What do they mean?

(Tim Stafford)

He tells of his friend Larry who is a medical doctor and dedicated Christian who takes the Bible at face value when it describes miracles..

But as a doctor - and typical of many doctors he is skeptical of stories of Miracles…

He sees many sick people, and he knows that things happen to them that are hard to predict and explain.

Some people get worse unexpectedly.

Other people get better.

You can’t always say why.

Larry as a Christian didn’t put much weight on the subjective claims of miracles - but, he also doubted whether the issue was that important… Larry said “Isn’t the resurrection of Jesus a great enough miracle.”

Is that true?

Tim points out that...

Larry represents a tradition in Protestantism that can be traced back to the Reformation.

He believes in God’s power to do miracles but doesn’t see it much in the present.

And he doesn’t see miracles—whether they happen or not—as terribly important (CT56.

v8)

The question is Does God do miracles?

--- Are they necessary today?

T/S We are going to ask a interrogational questions that hopefully will shed some light on the place of miracles.. the first...

1.

What is the Purpose of Miracles?

Here is the thing when we think of miracles we see it as “proof" that God is real and powerful that God can break into the natural world with supernatural power.

But when the Bible speaks of miracles the most typical word is a sign.... Today we use GPS but we still depend on sign --- because signs tell us what is ahead… Have you ever taken a corner a little faster than the sign… the other day— I took a corner that “suggested" 20 miles an hour… pretty sharp and I took it at 25.. well it was a little scary for a second… Signs don’t normally lie… they are giving us information what is up ahead.. Miracles are like signs - they are never an end in themselves..

They do not point to themselves.

They are not proof of anything in themselves.

They exist not to make us think we have arrived, but to lead us somewhere new.... Jesus was a miracle worker but He criticized the Pharisees and Sadducees when they demanded that he prove himself by doing miracles.

“A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign!” he told them

At the same time...Jesus performed many miracles during his ministry… when the religious leaders confronted Him… He spoke of His miracles..

Jesus message was about the Kingdom of God… The point wasn’t signs and wonders.

They were symptoms more than substance.

They pointed forward, not to themselves.

And thus those who focused on the signs, demanding more, were stuck in the present order, missing the point.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians that they had seen in his ministry “the marks of a true apostle, including signs, wonders and miracles” (2 Cor.

12:12).

He wrote to the Romans about “what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done—by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God” (Rom.

15:18–19).

Clearly for Paul, just as for Jesus, gospel work was accompanied by signs and wonders.

When it comes to the miraculous we don’t chase after miracles.. but at the same time… these Signs are important...

Tim…

With all respect, I think my friend Larry was wrong when he said Jesus’ resurrection is the only miracle we need.

It was not enough for Jesus, after all.

The signs of the kingdom that he displayed throughout his life prepared the way for those who saw him raised from the dead.

And if I read the New Testament rightly, it is the same with us.

The signs we see prepare the way for the fullness of the kingdom, when we shall live a resurrected life.

The purpose of Miracles are to point to the Coming Kingdom…

T/s T/S We asking interrogational questions that hopefully will shed some light on the place of miracles.. the first...

If miracles are for today…

2. What are the Barriers to Miracles?