Have you ever heard a miracle? Not heard of a miracle, but heard a miracle? This morning you’re going to. We’re going to play for you a portion of a Sunday school class at First Baptist Church in Brenham, Texas, on January 17, 1993.
The teacher of this class in Reverend Duane Miller. Duane had prematurely retired from pastoring three years earlier because of a virus which penetrated the myelin sheath around the nerves in his vocal cords, reducing his speech to a raspy whisper, He’d been to the best doctors in the world and not only had he been told that there was no hope to restore his voice, but that eventually even the hoarse whisper would be lost.
On Friday January 15th Duane had gotten word that he’d lost the side job he’d been doing consisting of legal transcription because the lawyers feared that if he were ever called to testify, his wheezy voice would hurt their case. That same day he received letters from two publishers saying they loved his manuscript but that since he was unknown, they couldn’t promote his book without him going on a speaking tour, unfortunately, both publishers said, they didn’t see how he could have any future as a Christian author.
On that day Duane said that he told the Lord he was ready to go home, there was nothing left for him on earth. It was in that mental state that Duane went to teach his Sunday school class on Psalm 103. Because he was such a popular teacher--over 200 were in the class that morning--they taped each of his lessons for those who had to miss them. Here’s part of the tape from that Sunday.
(Find the audio file at the bottom of the web page: http://www.soulblaze.com/training.htm)
Does God still perform Miracles? Duane Miller and 200 Sunday School students would answer a resounding, YES!
The question I’d like to ask this morning is Why? You say well that’s not the right question, we want to know how--or better yet, how can I get my name on the list of upcoming miracles. The reason I want to ask why does God perform miracles is because I think the the question of "why" logically precedes "how." Our sermon series is titled "Patterns for Prayer." And today’s message is titled "Prayers that raise the dead.’ I’d like to suggest that the pattern for miraculous prayers begins with the question of "why does God perform miracles?" Because when we understand what part miracles play in God’s plan then we can understand what miracles to ask for, then we can understand how miracles might be a part of God’s plan in our lives.
I’d like to further suggest (as you knew I would) that miracles probably serve the same purposes in God’s plan today that they did in the time of the early church. This morning we’re looking at what from a human perspective is perhaps the most miraculous of the Miracles in the book of Acts. In today’s story we see literally, a prayer that raised the dead. As we look at this story I’d like to try to understand why God performed this miracle so that we can understand better how to pray for the miraculous.
The first reason I see for the miraculous is...
To Build our Faith
v. 38 Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, "Please come at once!"
In the preceding verses we learn about another miracle that has happened in Lydda in which a paralyzed man had been healed. The church in Joppa heard about that miracle and believed that God could work a miracle for Tabitha too. Miracles build our faith and for reasons I don’t completely understand, God honors faith--often with other miracles. I think that it’s possible that that is part of the reason you’ll often hear about more than one miracle at a particular time and place, miracles stir faith and God responds miraculously to faith.
At the end of the recording we heard a moment ago Duane Miller talks about this question of "why." He says that he believes God does everything for a reason and that he believes the primary reason that God performed a miracle for him was so that it might build the faith of others.
Seeing miracles, hearing miracles, hearing genuine stories of miracles, reinvigorates our faith in a miracle working God. And building faith is a good thing.
The next reason that I think God does miraculous things is...
To Show His Compassion
v. 39 Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.
This is nothing if not a heart touching story. This has all the makings of a chick-flick on Lifetime. Here were a people genuinely grieved at the loss of someone they loved--someone who herself was a compassionate person.
God is a God of love, a God of Compassion. Over and over again in the Gospels, the Bible tells us that Jesus reached out miraculously to people because of His compassion. He healed the blind, cleansed the leper, fed the ten thousand because they were hungry and he had compassion.
In 1953 in Grimes Iowa, Violet Cross was getting sicker by the day. Finally her eldest son Frank insisted she go to the doctor. Eventually they ended up at the large teaching hospital in Iowa City. The diagnosis was devastating. Though Violet had never smoked she was dying of Lung cancer. One lung was already gone the other was rapidly being devoured by the malignancy. The doctors sent her home offering no real hope, six months of pain would ultimately lead to her death.
That Sunday violet went down to kneel at the altar at the tiny church pastored by her son-in-law, Clarence Lautt. There in Grimes Gospel Center she begged God for one thing. Her two youngest daughters, Kay and Linda were still in high school. "Please God," she prayed, "Let me see my girls finish high school."
Her husband Eddie bought her the engagement ring that he hadn’t had the money to buy 30 years earlier, expecting that to be one of his final acts of love toward her. But Violet started feeling better. Kay graduated from high school, and her mom was back on the farm doing chores again. Linda graduated from high-school. Both girls married. Grandchildren were born. In fact 18 grandchildren were there to help celebrate Violet and Eddie’s 50th wedding anniversary.
In 1976 Violet came to live at my house after my grandfather Eddie passed away. When I was 12 years old, 28 years after the doctors had given her 6 months to live, Grandma Cross’s two healthy lungs breathed their last.
Sometimes God performs miracles simply because he loves us and he has compassion on His children.
There’s one last reason that God performs miracles in answer to our prayers...
To Save the Lost
v. 42 This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.
Throughout the Gospels we see Jesus using a ministry of Miracles as advertisement for the message of salvation. The Apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth that he had come to them with a "demonstration of the Spirit’s power (1 Cor. 2:4)."
Miracles are a wonderful thing but Miracles are secondary to the message. The message about the greatest miracle of all, that the ultimate healing is the eternal life that Jesus offers us through faith in Him. The message that Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins and that if we trust in what He did to save us that we can be set free from both sin’s penalty and sin’s bondage.
At their best miracles draw a crowd to hear the message or serve to demonstrate the authority of the message.
In his book Sit, Walk, Stand, Watchman Nee describes a preaching mission to an island off the South China coast. There were seven in the ministering group, including a sixteen-year-old new convert whom he calls Brother Wu. The island was fairly large, containing about 6,000 homes. Preaching seemed quite fruitless on the island, and Nee discovered it was because of the dedication of the people there to an idol they called Ta-wang. They were convinced of his power because on the day of his festival and parade each year the weather was always near perfect.
"When is the procession this year?" young Wu asked a group that had gathered to hear them preach.
"It is fixed for January 11th at 8 in the morning," was the reply.
"Then," said the new convert, "I promise you that it will certainly rain on the 11th."
At that there was an outburst of cries from the crowd: "That is enough! We don’t want to hear any more preaching. If there is rain on the 11th, then your God is God!"
Upon being informed about this confrontation Watchman Nee called the group to prayer. On the morning of the 11th, there was not a cloud in the sky, but during grace for breakfast, sprinkles began to fall and these were followed by heavy rain.
Worshipers of the idol Ta-wang carried it outdoors, hoping this would stop the rain, but the rain increased and the carriers of the idol stumbled and fell, dropping the idol and fracturing its jaw and left arm.
A number of young people turned to Christ as a result of the rain coming in answer to prayer, but the elders of the village made divination and said that the wrong day had been chosen. The proper day of the procession, they said, should have been the 14th.
When Nee and his friends heard this, they again went to prayer, asking for rain on the 14th and for clear days for preaching until then. That afternoon the sky cleared and on the good days that followed there were thirty converts. Of the crucial test day, Nee says: "The 14th broke, another perfect day, and we had good meetings. As the evening approached we met again at the appointed hour. We quietly brought the matter to the Lord’s remembrance. Not a minute late, His answer came with torrential rain and floods as before. The power of the idol over the islanders was broken; the enemy was defeated. Believing prayer had brought a great victory. Many conversions followed."
Miracles reinforce the message of Good news.
Sometimes Christians think that the supernatural will scare off those who are seeking the truth. I think the opposite is true. It is a supernatural truth that the world is seeking. They are looking not for a rational argument-- though a reasonable explanation of the Good News is necessary for salvation, but they want to see that truth backed up by a God who is there. A God whose presence they can sense, and better yet, whose actions they can see.
I Believe as Duane Miller confessed he believed on that fateful day in 1993 that God did not stop doing Miracles in the Book of Acts. The God of the Bible has not changed, he still works miracles and He works them for the same reasons he always has: To increase our faith, to show His compassion and to Draw the Lost to faith in Christ.
