The Fulfillment In The Miracle

THE FULFILLMENT OF THE MIRACLE

3/27/22

Purpose: To encourage the church to press on and to believe in your miracles!

Today’s message is titled: The fulfillment of the miracle.

It will be centered around John 5:1-5, but we will look at several other passages. Most of which we will not directly read, but rather I’ll just give an overview of the messages.

We are going to start in John chapter 11:1

Jesus gets word of Lazarus’s illness and after a couple of days pass by, Jesus tells the disciples, “lets go to Judea again.

v.8: The disciples ask Jesus “are you sure you want to do that? After all, it wasn’t very long ago, they tried to stone you.”

I can’t help but wonder if they feared for their own safety as well!

v.22:Martha confronts Jesus and said “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

The story goes on, and of course Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

4 things to examine in this scripture:

1)The teaching in the miracle:

• Many times before Jesus performed a miracle, He capitalized on a teachable moment.

• These teachable moments were oftentimes more important than the miracle itself.

• He tells Martha “I am the resurrection and the life”

2) The danger in relying on the miracle (instead of relying on Jesus)

• According to scripture, by this time, Jesus had performed at least 18 miracles.

• So, Martha was angry that she hadn’t received her miracle.

• Recently I read this and it has really stuck with me, and you may not agree with this and that is okay!

-A miracle is a supernatural intervention of God in a crisis situation.

3) The glory in the miracle

• John 11:4 When he heard this, Jesus said “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

It’s not about the miracle, but the glory in the miracle.

4) The prophecy in the miracle

• “this sickness will not end in death”

A few weeks back, Pastor Jeff brought a sermon “See, I told you so”. It was about this very verse!

Let’s go to chapter John 12:9-11 (read from bible)

As though killing Lazarus was going to erase:

the event of the miracle!

Here we see:

the fear in the miracle.

Let’s look @ one definition of miracle.

“A surprising and welcoming event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws, therefore; considered to be the work of a divine being.”

While the story of Lazarus is recorded only in the gospel of John, the feeding of the five thousand is recorded in all four gospels.

For reference: Matthew 14:13-21

Now Jesus had just heard the news of the beheading of John the baptizer, and He needed some space to be by himself, but because the good news of the miracles had spread widely, a great multitude began to follow Jesus.

Picture this: you just heard the news that the person who baptized you had been beheaded, and this mass of people are closing in all around you. Without a doubt that would have been more than I could handle, but scripture says “He was moved and began healing people”.

That’s my Jesus!

A couple of things I love about this miracle:

First: I sort of envision this in Caption Form:

The disciples: “There are too many, send them away.”

Jesus: “Don’t send them away YOU give them something to eat.”

Disciples: “Only 5 loaves of bread and two fish.”

Jesus: (shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head)

Bring them to me.

Second: He looked up to heaven, gave thanks and broke the bread. He gave it to the disciples and they fed the five thousand men, plus women and children.

This was the:

thanksgiving before, and in, the miracle.

Let’s look @ Mark 9:14-29

This is the story of the possessed boy. After the situation is presented to Jesus, he exclaims “you unbelieving generation. How long must I stay with you?” Jesus knew his time was short, and the disciples and others were being just a little too slow on the upswing.

Then, as though His words fell on deaf ears, the man says “If you can do anything…” Jesus incredulously replies, “If you can? Everything is possible for one who believes”. To which the man replied “I do believe, help my unbelief”.

I recently read something that struck me as quite profound:

>At some point in our life we will be forced to live in the potential of our belief, or the consequences of our doubt<

Our unbelief could render our miracle impossible!

Let’s take a few minutes and look at the man @ the pool as described in John 5:1-5.