The Incomparable Christ: Talk #2: 'the Miracles Of Jesus.' Series

SERMON OUTLINE:

Question #1: what is a miracle?

Answer #1: Something caused by God.

Question #2: Is there any evidence for the miracles of Jesus?

Answer #2: eyewitness testimony.

Question #3: What type of miracles did Jesus perform?

Answer #3: Jesus performed four types of miracles

Question #4: What miracles did John record in his gospel?

Answer #4: Seven specific miracles.

Question #5: What can these signs mean to me?

Answer #5: Recorded so that you might believe!

SERMON BODY:

Ill:

• On April 12, 1961, Vostok 1 lifted Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space.

• Making him the first human being to travel there.

• And the first person to complete a full orbit of the Earth.

• Yuri Gagarin was the son of a carpenter,

• But his venture into space made him a worldwide celebrity.

• Upon landing, he was quoted by Communist Party leaders as saying,

• “I looked and looked but I didn’t see God.”

• Of course, he would have seen God had he simply stepped out of his space suit!

• But in 2006, in an interview with Colonel Valentin Petrov, a long-time friend of Gagarin,

• Set the record straight.

• According to Petrov, who was a decorated military official in the Russian Air Force,

• The statement about “not seeing God” wasn’t spoken by Gagarin, at all.

• The words were actually attributed to him by Premier Nikita Khrushchev,

• At a meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Moscow.

• TRANSITION:

• Sadly, Yuri Gagarin has been misquoted for many years,

• Premier Nikita Khrushchev said, “I did not see God!”

• John in his gospel says, “No excuses, see Jesus, see God!”

• It is that simple, Jesus is God manifest in flesh, God in a body!

Ill:

• Before telescopes were invented,

• Ancient astrologers would have large pools of water (like a large paddling pool).

• This meant that at night they could look down into the pool,

• And the water (like a giant mirror) reflected all that was above them.

• TRANSITION: John writes his gospel,

• So that no-one need get a strained neck look up into the heavens after God.

• Instead, all we have to do is look down at Jesus,

• And he will reflect and show us what God the Father is like.

• This morning we are looking at the miracles of Jesus.

• And that leads to an obvious question.

Question #1: What is a miracle?

Answer #1:

• A miracle is an extraordinary event that goes against nature,

• It cannot be explained by science,

• And Christians believe it is something caused by God.

• Basically, if you can rightfully explain it then it is not a miracle.

Question #2: Is there any evidence for the miracles of Jesus?

Answer #2:

Let me reply with a question, What evidence would you expect there to be?

• e.g., The oldest unopened bottle of wine ever found,

• Was discovered in a Roman tomb that is over 1650 years old.

• But would you really expect a jug of wine to have been preserved from a wedding,

• In Canna in Galilee from 2,000 years ago?

• e.g., Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead,

• But would you really expect him to be around today,

• Signing autographs and making himself available for selfies?

• TRANSITION:

• The best evidence for the miracles of Jesus,

• Is the same evidence we use for most of our historical information.

Ill:

• It was the most impressive and luxurious ship of its time,

• She was the biggest, too, measuring 28 metres wide, 53 metres tall and 269 metres long,

• That’s about the length of three football fields!

• But on her maiden voyage (first big journey),

• Taking people from Southampton, England, to New York, USA.

• This iconic ship came to a very tragic end and sunk at 2:20 a.m. on April 15th, 1912.

• The Titanic sinks in the Atlantic Ocean.

The question I can ask you, is how do you know that happened, because you were not there?

• And I don’t want to spoil things for you but that is not a photo of the Titanic.

• That is a photo of RMS Olympic.

• (RMS stands for Royal Mail Ship).

• TRANSITION: I could have coned you this morning,

• But sooner or later I would have been found out,

• And someone would have realised that was the wrong ship in the photo.

• Truth like cream rises to the top and eventually a lie or forgery will be found out!

Now better than a photo is an eyewitness!

• But we have a problem,

• Out of 2,207 aboard, only 712 people survived the sinking of the Titanic.