Things That Make Christians Different From The World: Miracles Series

Things That Make Christians Different From The World: Miracles

In this series on things that make Christians different from the world I want to talk about something that I know almost all of us if not all of us have had experience with and this subject is miracles. I may be assuming a little bit here but I would imagine that all of us have had something happen in our lives that would be considered miraculous on some level. And if not personally then at the very least we have witnessed something miraculous in someone elses' lives.

The world at times may also refer to things that happen to people as miraculous not because they believe that God had some supernatural hand in what had happened but rather they use the term to simply try to explain the unexplainable. And while some people in the world will use the term miraculous to describe something unusual that has occurred, most of the time the world will try to explain these God caused occurrences with science or say that was weird, or they may say that it was karma or something ridiculous like that.

In the Christian world though, we as believers, have to not only know and believe that miracles happen but we also have to know and believe that it is God who performs these wonderfully supernatural acts in the lives of those who are His children.

The Bible is full of miracles both in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. There are at least 58 miracles in the Old Testament alone ranging from the miracles that Moses performed before Pharaoh to the parting of the Red Sea and lots more besides. Now Moses didn’t do the miracles in front of Pharaoh by himself he performed them by the power of God almighty.

And in the New Testament we all know that Jesus as well as His disciples performed many miracles too. There were at least 47 miracles performed either by Jesus Himself or by His disciples. Jesus started His earthly ministry by performing the wedding miracle in Cana of Galilee where he turned water into wine. In the Gospel of John chapter 2 verses 6-11 we read this: 6 Now there were six stone water pots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each. 7 Jesus said to them "Fill the water pots with water." So they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, "Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter." So they took it to him. 9 When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom, 10 and said to him, "Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now." 11 This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.

Now it is an unfortunate thing here that when most people read about this miracle they focus on what Jesus did with the water and they blow right by WHY Jesus performed this miracle in the first place. He didn’t change the water into wine to be the hit of the party, to make his mother the hostess with the mostest, He didn’t do it to make a hit with the banquet master or the guests, Jesus performed this miracle for two reasons and two reasons only and those reasons were these: In verse 11 we see the two reasons why Jesus performed this particular miracle: To manifest His glory and to give the disciples good reason to believe in Him.

When we read in the Bible about the miracles that God and Jesus performed we as believers, look at them and say “what an amazing God we serve because He can do the impossible!” While the world in general will read or hear about these very same miracles and say what a bunch of fairy tales and myths these are and those Christians are foolish for believing in them and in the God who performs them. They would rather just say that they never happened or that there has to be some kind of “rational” explanation as to why something miraculous has happened.

A prime example of this doubting spirit has to do with what we, believers, call the Resurrection of Jesus. In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 28 verses 1-10 we read this: After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.