Modern Day Miracles, Do They Happen As You May Think They Should?

“Please join me in my prayer.” Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength, and our redeemer. Amen. (Ps. 19:14).

Introduction:

Although this morning’s gospel reading is very familiar, if we look closely, it is a reading that we are not comfortable with, because the very topic of sending people out into the community, to heal and deliver just does not happen, particularly in the way we maybe feel it should.

History

Let me explain, when we hear about Jesus in the bible, and the miracles he performed, we feel a certain amount of comfort and even excitement, and we take even more comfort in the fact that Jesus taught his disciples how to do the same … that way, they then can pass on this knowledge to their disciples in turn … and in today’s reading, we see his disciples go out for the first time, on their own, (without Jesus), and perform miracles … and it’s a great success. Later on, 72 more disciples are also sent out, and they too, return with an equal amount of great success. … Who these disciples were, I have no idea, however we can gather from that, that Jesus was an excellent teacher and organiser.

Anyway, as time went on, we read that more miracles were done by the disciples right up until the time of Jesus death, when suddenly, they stopped … and it wasn’t until Pentecost, when they received power from the Holy Spirit, that the miracles started up again. …

Later on, we read in the New Testament about the apostle Paul taking up this same mantle … and passing that on to his ‘disciples’: like Timothy and Titus and Silas and Barnabas and other great New Testament disciples who all performed significant miracles … but then … it all goes kind of quiet, and disappears completely. … And so, between then, (biblical times), and now … we do not read of such miracles.

Yes, there have been some notable divine events through the centuries, but nothing close to what we read in the bible … and that is what bothers us about today’s readings, because the implication is … that after studying Christianity for years, you would think that there would come a point … where we should be equipped to perform some kind of miracle … and we don’t … and worse, we certainly don’t read about anyone else performing miracles either.

Does this mean miracles do not happen?

Does this mean miracles do not happen? Does this mean that we are not able to perform miracles, or even pray on behalf of others? ... No way … not in the slightest, because it is all about perspective as I will show you later … but for now, remember that we are all here this morning to worship the living Jesus as our Lord, … (miracles or not), … because we believe in him … our faith is in him, … and through him, I for one firmly believe that miracles do and still happen today. … They may not appear as grand … and they certainly do not happening in the manner described in our bibles, but I have no doubt, (no doubt what so ever), they happen, and are much more common than we realise.

The Catholics, Pentecostals and Charismatics.

Some Christians, particularly within Catholic church, and the Church of God too, (you know the Pentecostals and Charismatics, even ourselves), firmly believe that God continues to perform miracles, particularly healings, and have in the past pointed to the likes of Lourdes and Medjugorje for example, of a places, where miracles have not only happened, but were investigated and verified … and today as we know, both are places of pilgrimages. However, … I must say, that following these miraculous events, neither of these places escaped troubles, or controversy.

Anyway, this then makes us wonder, what would happen if we could perform a significant miracle today, in public for all to see, in this very church, at the front down there, witnessed by us all, recorded on our cameras, a miracle that could be proved scientifically. … I will tell you; … the miracle itself would pale into insignificance … compare to the backlash and trouble it would cause.

The high street.

Let us look at this another way. … Imagine if you will, filling a brown envelope with brand new £50 notes. Now, these new notes are thin and crisp, and you can get a lot of them in one envelop, and I reckon that there are at least £2,500 in this envelop.

Now imagine having a full bag of these envelops, and then going to the top of the high street, and walking down, giving them out to everyone you pass by. … Now, as you walk down the high street, I recon you would need to get as far as Hourstons before the people would actually accept them from you, (you know people being wary as they are), but once you started giving them away, it would become easier, however, you would get very far before things would start kicking off.