On The Verge Of A Miracle

Now, let’s talk a little about …

2. THE MIRACLES OF GOD

The Bible writes about many miracles that Jesus performed. I am sure that we have all heard about some of them, but most of us have never heard about all of them, and many of us don’t know about most of them. So I want to take a few minutes and give an overview of some of the miracles we find in Scripture. And I am taking them at random, not in any specific or chronological order.

In LUKE 8:22-25 it tells us

‘One day Jesus said to His disciples, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, He fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.

The disciples went and woke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm.

Where is your faith?” He asked his disciples. In fear and amazement, they asked one another “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him.’

These men followed Jesus and were being personally tutored in faith by the living Son of God, yet they doubted. I think that when Jesus said, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake,” that would have been a guarantee they would have all gotten there, so they should not have doubted. But they did.

And what did Jesus do? He got up and He performed a miracle. He made the storm go away. In verse 25, Jesus asks them where their faith was. I have heard many a preacher claim Jesus chastised them, but I have a different view. I think Jesus knew how scared they were and that he asked that question in such a loving way it made them think about where their faith really was.

Right after that passage, it tells of another situation where Jesus performed several miracles.

LUKE 8:26-33

‘They sailed to the region of the Gerasenses, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, He was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs.

When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at His feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” For Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.

Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him, and they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.

A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them and he gave them permission. When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.’

Here is what I see in this passage.

First of all, contrary to what the world around us says, being demon-possessed is a very real occurrence. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that demons have stopped possessing people, and if it occurred in the day of Jesus, it still occurs in the 21st century.