Miraculous Reasons to Follow Jesus
Acts 10:34-43
Sermon by Rick Crandall
McClendon Baptist Church - July 7, 2002
*Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell told about one of the most frightening times in his life. He was returning from a combat mission and couldn’t find his aircraft carrier. It was night and the carrier lights were off due to the combat conditions. Lovell’s navigation equipment was of no use because they were under total radio silence.
*Jim desperately turned on his map light to see if he could calculate his position, but suddenly an electrical short caused all of the lights to go out. It was then that he saw it in the darkness. There was an eerie glow in the water -- And Jim knew that it was the glow of tiny sea plankton caused by the wake of a passing ship. All he had to do was follow the glow like a highway to the ship. (1)
*I don’t believe that was an accident. God caused that electrical short at just the right time for Jim Lovell to see the light in the water. But God has given us a much greater Light to follow -- Jesus Christ! We can see His light in these verses of Scripture. And the more we see it, the more we want to follow Him.
1. Follow Jesus first, because He is the God of moral miracles.
*Vs. 38 reminds us of His moral miracles, because it says that Jesus “went around doing good. . .” In fact, He was perfect! The Son of God became a man, and lived the only perfect life the world will ever see.
*Sometimes this can be a source of pessimism for us. We look at Jesus and see perfection. Then we look at ourselves and see problems. Sometimes the harder we try, the worse we seem to do. Chuck Swindoll wrote a book about this called “Three Steps Forward and Two Steps Back.”
*Ashley Brilliant once said that “coping with difficult people can be tough -- Especially if the difficult person is yourself.” (2)
*Sometimes we are the difficult people. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy, and it only seems worse when we compare ourselves to Someone who is perfect. Imagine having to grow up in the same home as Jesus. I can hear His little brothers or sisters saying, “That goody-two-shoes never does anything wrong!”
*Jesus’ perfection can be a source of pessimism, but it should be a source of possibility and persuasion. Because He was perfect, the Lord was able to take the punishment for our sins and rise again from the dead. Now we have the possibility of a brand new life through Jesus. He can work moral miracles in our lives. When you receive Jesus as Savior and Lord, you are spiritually born again, and His Holy Spirit comes to live in your heart to help you live this new life.
*Peter experienced the Lord’s moral miracles in his own life, and Peter needed those miracles, because he knew all about failure and discouragement. Peter had denied Jesus three times before the Lord’s crucifixion. Then after Jesus rose from the dead, He met Peter on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and Peter sat down to a fish breakfast cooked by God!
*After they ate, the Lord asked Peter three times, “Do you love me?” Why did Jesus do that? -- Not to discourage Peter, but to bring the problem to the surface and deal with it, to give Peter a new sense of direction, to persuade him of the possibilities.
*See -- the God who was able to live a perfect life, is able to help us live more and more in obedience to Him! Jesus can...
-Take lust out and put love in.
-Make a prostitute pure.
-Make an alcoholic sober.
-Give courage to a coward.
-Give wisdom to a fool.
-Make a crooked man straight.
-Wash away hatred, anger, envy and pride.
*With God, all things are possible!
*Did you see the story in the Baptist Message about the two seminary students in New Orleans, who stopped at a local grocery store? It happened years ago, and one of the students was Don Wilton.
*In the store they noticed a scruffy looking couple with a baby dressed only in a diaper. God’s Spirit moved the students in a special way, and they decided to open their wallets and give the family all the money they had.
*Don rolled up more than $200 in bills, then he sneaked up behind the barefoot man, stuck the roll in the man’s back and told him not to turn around.
*With a gentle voice, Don spoke to the frightened man and said, “My friend, you don’t know who I am. But I want you to know that there is another man and I here tonight who love the Lord Jesus Christ. He has done something for us that we cannot do for ourselves. Because of Him, we just want to give to you something from the two of us.”
*The man tearfully received the money and Wilton thought he would never see him again. But years later, Dr. Wilton was teaching at the seminary. One of the new students recognized his distinctive South African voice. It was the man from the store. He told Dr. Wilton that they were desperate that night -- So desperate that they had driven from their home in Alabama to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge in New Orleans.
*They planned to take their baby with them, but they decided to feed her first, so she at least would die with a full stomach. That’s why they stopped at the store. But they were so encouraged by the kind words of the man who would not let them see his face, they changed their minds. That act of kindness had set the man on a path to salvation and call to ministry. (3)
*The Lord Jesus was working moral miracles in their lives, and He wants to do the same for us!
2. Follow Jesus, because He is the God of moral miracles, and because He is the God of medical miracles.
*We also see this in vs. 38, as Peter said that “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”
*Jesus Christ worked countless medical miracles when He walked on this Earth. Wouldn’t you like to have been there when the lepers were healed, Bartimaeus received his sight, that paralyzed man was let down through the roof by his friends, and Lazarus was raised from the dead?
*Jesus worked medical miracles yesterday, and He can do the same thing today! Sometimes we have the privilege of seeing Him do it. When I worked for the Air Force in the late 70’s, one of my best friends was a Captain named Bill.
*We got a call from Bill out of the blue, in the Fall of 1993. He had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. And he wanted to ask us to raise their two children if anything also happened to his wife Chrissy.
*Bill went to Cleveland for a desperate last-ditch attempt to save his life. The surgery involved taking his face off to get to the tumor. They did one last CAT scan before starting the surgery. Bill was lying on the bed in pre-op when the doctor came in and said, “I am in shock and disbelief -- And I can’t justify the surgery.
*Bill asked, “Why?”
-And the doctor said, “The tumor’s gone! We’ve been looking at the CAT scan for an hour, and we can’t find it.”
*Of course, God doesn’t always work that way. Most of the time He uses the natural healing process, and the fine medical resources He has given to us. And even when God doesn’t heal instantaneously, He is still at work! Even if He doesn’t heal me, He is the God who does wonders!
3. Follow Jesus, because He is the God of medical miracles, and because He is the God of merciful miracles.
*Vs. 39-43 remind us of God’s great mercy. There Peter said:
39. And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree.
40. Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly,
41. not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.
42. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead.
43. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.’’
*Medical miracles are not enough We could get healed 500 times, but at the end of 70, 80 or 90 years, we are still going to leave this world. So, how are you going to stand before Judge Jesus in vs. 42? Only by accepting the forgiveness He offers in vs. 43! And Jesus can offer that forgiveness because in vs. 39, He died on a tree -- that the Cross, and He was nailed there to pay the price for our sins. But He did not stay in the grave! God the Father raised Him up the 3rd day, so He can work His miracle of mercy in our lives.
*William Barclay thought of the Lord’s mercy shown to the thief on the cross who said, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom”
*And Jesus said, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
*Thinking about this, Barclay remembered a poem that compared the thief to a man who was killed as he was thrown from his galloping horse:
-“Between the stirrup and the ground,
-Mercy I asked -- mercy I found.” (4)
*That’s abundant, available mercy God has for you right now in Jesus Christ! So follow Jesus -- Because He is the merciful, miraculous God.
1. A SLICE OF BREAD ~ “Leading You Home” by Glen Mettler. Source: Weekend Encounter, by Dick Innes, Copyright 2000, actsweb.org/subscribe.htm via witandwisdom.org Shared by: Glen Mettler gmettler@integrityonline12.com (Found in Dynamic Preaching sermon “THE GUIDING LIGHT” by King Duncan - Isaiah 60:1-6; Matthew 2:1-12)
2. Quotation by Ashley Brilliant - original source unknown
3. Baptist Message - June 27, 2002
4. (William Barclay, The Daily Studies Bible Series, Luke Volume, Westminster Press, 1975, page 287. (Found in “TWO CONVERSATIONS WITH JESUS” - Luke 23:32-43 - Series: “The Last Seven Words of the Cross” by Eric Ritz - www.sermons.com)
